As we wait patiently for Last in Line's review of the new Michael Moore film, Capitalism: A Love Story (that's right, folks...a conservative reviewing the film...only at Notes do we actually embrace bipartisanship:)), take a look at this glowing bit of news on the state of our plutonomy.
The wealthiest 10 percent of Americans — those making more than $138,000 each year — earned 11.4 times the roughly $12,000 made by those living near or below the poverty line in 2008, according to newly released census figures. That ratio was an increase from 11.2 in 2007 and the previous high of 11.22 in 2003.
Remember, though, any talk of having a slightly higher tax rate means you are A FUCKING SOCIALIST!! I WANT MY PIE!!! GIMME MY PIE!!! (Ok, that last bit was Glenn Beck, not me).
Household income declined across all groups, but at sharper percentage levels for middle-income and poor Americans. Median income fell last year from $52,163 to $50,303, wiping out a decade's worth of gains to hit the lowest level since 1997. Poverty jumped sharply to 13.2 percent, an 11-year high.
Wait....huh? I thought all poor people drove Cadillacs with money stolen by the government from rich people. WTF?
Income at the top 5 percent of households — those making $180,000 or more — was 3.58 times the median income, the highest since 2006.
Well, that's because those at the median won't pull themselves up by their bootstraps. Lazy assholes...
Pharr, Texas, and Flint, Mich., each had more than a third of its residents on food stamps, at 38.5 percent and 35.4 percent, respectively.
Bootstraps!
Between 2007 and 2008, income at the 50th percentile (median) and the 10th percentile fell by 3.6 percent and 3.7 percent, respectively, compared with a 2.1 percent decline at the 90th percentile. Between 1999 and 2008, income at the 50th and 10th percentiles decreased 4.3 percent and 9 percent, respectively, while income at the 90th percentile was statistically unchanged.
And we wonder why some areas of our country are starting to look like the Third World. Ah, well. It's all the gubmint's fault.
If we could just let the market be free, then all of these problems would be solved. People would work harder (or die if they didn't), health care costs would be lower, our country would return to the greatness that our founding fathers believed in, farts would no longer smell, and Jesus Christ could finally expand his derivative operations on Wall Street.
1 comment:
I don't have the link handy, but a couple of social scientists did a study about who is concerned with income inequality. The most concerned demographic? Upper middle class liberals. Way more concerned then the supposedly oppressed proletariat. Must be that false conciousness stuff at work.
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