Income Distribution Inequality
Increases Under Both Republicans and Democrats
August 19, 2001
One of the central goals of
the Republocrat party is to increase the share of the nation's income and
wealth held by the rich, at the expense of the middle class and poor.
And that goal is being achieved.
The government's own data show that the
increasing inequality of income distribution that everyone noticed in the
80's under Reagan/Bush Sr. continued during the Clinton years.
Indeed, it may even have accelerated then. Democrat or Republican, it
doesn't matter. They both govern in the interests of those at the very
top rung of wealth and income.
Look at this income
distribution chart...
...and this text excerpt:
[T]he share of the national income
after taxes that the top one percent of the population received nearly
doubled between 1979 and 1997. The CBO data indicate that by 1997, the
2.6 million Americans with the highest incomes — the top one percent
— had as much after-tax income as close to 100 million Americans with
the lowest incomes. Similarly, the 20 percent of Americans with the
highest incomes received as much as the other 80 percent of the
population. [chart and excerpt from Inequality.org]
Such findings are always
criticized by right-wing pundits, who seek to deny what is apparent to
anyone with eyes, ears and an increasingly empty wallet compared to the
rich. A detailed analysis,
however, shows that these findings of a continuing increase in income
distribution inequality are valid.
The stealing of our nation by
the wealthiest few should be the number one economic story every night on
the news. Yet how often have you heard about this ever?!
Such lack of coverage is not
surprising, of course, given who owns the mass media. |
