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Extreme policies lead to extreme outcomes.
Income inequality reached its highest level in more than half a century last year, as a record-long economic expansion continued to disproportionately benefit some of the wealthiest Americans.
A key measure of wealth distribution jumped to 0.485 in 2018, the Census Bureau said Thursday, its highest reading since the so-called Gini index was started in 1967. The gauge, which uses a scale between 0 and 1, stood at 0.482 a year earlier.
Work alone won't solve poverty—unless wages and earnings pick up substantially. It still takes government aid for families with children and others who do not earn enough, despite working 40 plus hours a week.
The most troubling thing about the new report, says William M. Rodgers III, a professor of public policy and chief economist at the Heldrich Center at Rutgers University, is that it "clearly illustrates the inability of the current economic expansion, the longest on record, to lessen inequality."
According to some research, US income inequality might be higher than it was during the Roman Empire, and pre-tax income inequality is as high as it was in the Roaring Twenties.
Income inequality is blamed on cheap labor in China, unfair exchange rates, and jobs outsourcing. Corporations are often blamed for putting profits ahead of workers. But they must to remain competitive. U.S. companies must compete with lower-priced Chinese and Indian companies who pay their workers much less. As a result, many companies have outsourced their high-tech and manufacturing jobs overseas. The United States has lost 20 percent of its factory jobs since 2000. These were traditionally higher-paying union jobs.
Service jobs have increased, but these are much lower paid.
If current policies touted as "decreasing globalism" in the US economy are trying to reduce income inequality, they're failing.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by fustakrakich on Sunday September 29 2019, @04:49AM (43 children)
Not only is there plenty of cheese, the cage door is wide open. In fact, the cage isn't really there. Fat rats have no power than isn't given to them.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2, Disagree) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday September 29 2019, @04:53AM (20 children)
It's simpler than that even. It's two kids with plates piled high with cookies. No matter how many cookies they have between them, if one of them has one less cookie, there will be blood. Envy, plain and simple.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by fustakrakich on Sunday September 29 2019, @04:59AM (3 children)
Sounds like useful minions for the fat rats...
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday September 29 2019, @05:06AM (2 children)
Oh go hate on the guy down the street with a nicer lawn than you. Envy is envy and there's no shade of lipstick you can put on that pig to make it anything but a pig.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 1, Disagree) by fustakrakich on Sunday September 29 2019, @05:21AM (1 child)
What hate? There you go again...
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 29 2019, @03:36PM
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Sunday September 29 2019, @05:08AM (1 child)
I mostly see this happen between siblings of roughly the same age. Isn't it great we're one big happy fa--MOM!!!! One of Jennifer's cookies is BIGGER than MINE!
(Score: 4, Insightful) by driverless on Sunday September 29 2019, @09:07AM
Don't worry honey, when you're a bit older you can go and find yourself a sugar daddy and he'll buy you the biggest cookies he can afford.
Although I've never heard them called that before. Plenty of other euphemisms, but not that "cookies".
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Gaaark on Sunday September 29 2019, @01:06PM (9 children)
No, its more complex than that: its two kids with plates of cookies, but one kid stole cookies off the other kids plate while the other kid wasn't looking and was too trusting.
The kid with the most cookies THEN used his extra cookies to bribe mom so he could steal MORE of the other kids cookies and keep doing it because mom protected him.
He even got mom to cook extra cookies and bend the rules so the kid with the extra cookies got more just by existing, while the 'poorer' kid had to clean the whole house (the 'richer' kids room too), AND the garage, AND the car, AND....
THAT'S the system as it exists today: I have nothing against capitalism; my problem is with so-called capitalists gaming the system to CONSIDERABLY work in their favor.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 3, Disagree) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday September 29 2019, @03:51PM (8 children)
No, it's not. The people bitching about income inequality don't give a fuck if those with more actually cheated to get more or earned every dime they have. They assume everyone who has more either cheated or otherwise does not deserve it.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by julian on Sunday September 29 2019, @03:56PM (3 children)
No one "earned" a billion dollars. No one. They stole it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 29 2019, @05:07PM (1 child)
Good job proving TMB's point.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 29 2019, @05:58PM
Congrats on failing common sense.
(Score: 3, Informative) by JoeMerchant on Monday September 30 2019, @06:28PM
That's what's wrong... they didn't actually steal it (most times), they "earned" it fair and square, within the rules.
The problem with the rules is that they present some people with much easier and likely opportunities for success than others, like 100:1 and worse ratios.
Sure, anyone can win a megamillions lottery, but some kids are born to situations where they "earn" their own megamillions - completely legally and within the rules, but using lottery level advantages that they were born to.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 5, Touché) by dry on Monday September 30 2019, @04:23AM (1 child)
It's people working 40+ hours a week and not be able to afford basic stuff like a home or food without government aid. Companies like Walmart actually teach their employees how to apply for food stamps rather then pay them a living wage.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday September 30 2019, @03:27PM
What kind of home? What kind of food? Last I checked US minimum wage was pretty high. Should be able to afford that on minimum wage.
I don't hear the "Thank you, Walmart!" Have you no shame?
It's silly how people create these sorts of policies and then refuse to own the consequences of them. Here is particularly dispicable since the consequences are good even if we choose as you do to interpret Walmart's behavior in the worst possible light. Subsidizing Walmart to employ poor people? Gotta stop that!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 30 2019, @04:29PM
It's amazing how you know what millions of people are *thinking* without ever having spoken to, heard from or even waved your hands mysteriously near them.
That's quite a talent you have. Do you do birthday parties?
What's more, perhaps you should wave your hands around some other people and realize that they think that if you're poor (and it doesn't matter how you got that way -- born into poverty, bankrupted by medical bills, etc.) that you deserve to be poor because you are insufficiently _______ (fill in the blank).
Both sets of people are wrong in the aggregate. *if* we had an environment that provided equal *opportunity* for all, one might be slightly less ridiculously wrong for making such arguments, but that's not happening anytime soon, is it?
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday September 30 2019, @06:25PM
Define "cheat." In a system where the rules clearly state "it takes money to make money" - that's a significantly sloped playing field.
Sure, I met a .com kid millionaire, fair and square "earned" $10M by the time he was 22. Oh, cough, yeah, dad staked him over $100K seed money to start playing stocks with when he was 17, but - he absolutely "earned" that $10M himself, even paid dad back.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by ilPapa on Sunday September 29 2019, @02:22PM
Maybe it's time to stop using the behavior of toddlers as a standard for how adults should be expected to act.
You are still welcome on my lawn.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 29 2019, @02:36PM (2 children)
Ooph, TMB for the idiocy once again.
Gotta love the simple everyman logic, have you considered running for prez?
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday September 29 2019, @03:52PM (1 child)
Learn to troll.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 29 2019, @08:38PM
That wasn't trolling you moron, just straight up pointing out the deficiencies in your character. AKA "insults"
Cry some more, I love them lib tears!
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Azuma Hazuki on Sunday September 29 2019, @06:53AM (21 children)
Yeah? Try breaking into a corporate headquarters sometime, wiseass. You talk a lot but I see you doing jack and shit to change this situation.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 3, Informative) by c0lo on Sunday September 29 2019, @06:59AM
As all the transactions and money are tracked electronically, it will make no difference.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Sunday September 29 2019, @07:38AM (14 children)
Your situation is your own doing. If you don't like it, you have to change it your own self. Much better than blaming others. Don't you think?
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Gaaark on Sunday September 29 2019, @01:14PM (13 children)
No: very much blaming the 'rich' gaming the system with 'lobbying' money to make it that the rich get richer just by existing, while the poor get poorer because they can't buy politicians.
I'd love to see Elizabeth Warren get in and put the system back on a more fair playing level, but you won't see that because the rich won't let it...they've paid off too many people.
Jeffrey Epstein saw that up close in his 'suicide'.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Sunday September 29 2019, @04:38PM (11 children)
Poor people elect politicians. They can't occupy the seat any other way. The vote has more power than the rich man's dollar. Without the vote, the dollar buys nothing.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 5, Informative) by Gaaark on Sunday September 29 2019, @07:02PM (10 children)
But if everyone put out to vote on is corrupted by the rich, who is there to vote for but a corrupted person?
Its not like everyone has money to run for election.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Sunday September 29 2019, @07:12PM (9 children)
We have a petition process for putting anybody we want on the ballot. Just needs lots of voters to participate. Unfortunately they would rather sit and let mass media spoon feed them. Easier to complain apparently.
To tell the truth, congress should be like jury duty, in and out, nobody gets hurt. It can't be worse than what we are doing now.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 29 2019, @11:24PM (3 children)
You sure? Wanna bet?
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Monday September 30 2019, @12:05AM (2 children)
Sure! Bet ya a dollar! Let's do it!
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 30 2019, @08:22AM (1 child)
Naw, not gonna get outta bed for one dolla.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Monday September 30 2019, @03:48PM
Why? You would only lose a dollar...
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday September 30 2019, @06:59PM (4 children)
Congress _should_ be like jury duty, except - you'd need a couple of years experience to actually do a decent job, maybe 6-12 months OJT, followed by 1-2 years of active service to make the OJT worthwhile. Kinda hard on the day-job that lost you, but it would be a rare hit, maybe 1/100,000 lifetime chance.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Monday September 30 2019, @07:22PM (3 children)
I would recommend basic combat training at Parris Island. The ones that don't wash out can handle the job. And we won't have to look at such greasy slobs on the TV.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday September 30 2019, @07:44PM (2 children)
Even more than that: there should be a cross-section of ages represented in Congress. If we're going to have a draft, make sure that the demographics of Congress more-or-less align with the demographics of the country, from age 18 through 80.
Requirements for basic education, lack of senility, at least average command of the English language, and we're done, pick the Congress by draft, maybe throw in the option for 2 re-elections - if the constituents like what the draftee is doing, they can stay for up to 6 years, otherwise a new one is picked at random. Same for the 6 year senate terms, previous congress critters can run for the senate, but they always run against a draft option on the ballot - should the voters know who the draftee will be? I don't think so.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Monday September 30 2019, @08:18PM (1 child)
previous congress critters can run for the senate
Absolutely not... any desire for the job, and they are immediately disqualified. They have to understand, they do the gig, and then it's back to the farm. All guts, no glory. Enjoying the benefits of a well run society will be their reward.
if the constituents like what the draftee is doing, they can stay for up to 6 years
It would have to be a real consensus, not a mere majority, 85% in favor at least. I prefer the fast turnaround. It'll cut down on the slackers.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday September 30 2019, @10:24PM
I think there's some benefit in the carrot of re-election, steering a representative to do what the people want not just what the rep thinks is best, and that should be balanced with some lame duckishness.
Also, I'd expect a lot of draftee congress critters to step down and not seek re-election, just because they're done with living in Washington D.C.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday September 30 2019, @06:35PM
Politicians are relatively cheap, it would appear that U.S. Senator Marco Rubio "got bought" for just a couple hundred thousand dollars, when a lobbyist bought his house from him for 2007 prices in 2009 (or something along those lines) and shortly after that Marco's vote changed in the lobbyist's favor. If a special interest group like Taco Bell employees got together, they could easily afford to buy the politicians.
The problem is: you have to have much more money than it costs to buy a politician to make the purchase of the politician pay off for you. That $200K Rubio purchase swung a multi-million dollar land investment into millions more value than it had before Rubio's vote change.
When the Taco Bell employees attempt to start buying politicians to get something like basic health insurance or somesuch, what they will find is that the opposing interest groups out-bid them - to a point where they may as well just buy private insurance instead, which they'll never afford - Game Over.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday September 29 2019, @11:50AM (4 children)
What would be the point of that exercise?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 29 2019, @09:07PM (3 children)
To drag out the khallow, kicking and screaming, and find the records of how much they pay him to be an obvious apologist for them on SN. That's the point.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Sunday September 29 2019, @11:26PM (2 children)
And after that?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Monday September 30 2019, @12:54AM (1 child)
A barbecue!
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 30 2019, @03:30AM
I feel we can safely skip the "finding records" preliminaries and jump straight to the BBQ. I'm sorta thirsty