Economic Inequality Affects Us All - A Short Animated Video Explains Economic Inequality
The recent past has seen greater economic inequality in America than at any time since the Great Depression. In the three decades after World War II American incomes grew quickly and equally, but starting in the late 1970s things began to change.
Today, 1% of Americans are taking home nearly 20 percent of the country's total income, and own more than 40% of America's wealth. And it didn't happen by accident.
It's the result of policy decisions on taxes, education, trade, labor, macroeconomics, and financial regulation -- all of which shifted economic power away from low and moderate-income American families.
Economic inequality is real, it's personal, it's expensive. And it was created. Since the 1960s, tax rates on very high incomes have been slashed dramatically, starving public investments in schools and roads and everything else needed to build our economy, and providing ever-greater incentives to rig the economy's rules to send more money to the top.
The laws we've created to govern globalization have protected corporate interests, but done nothing for American workers. Instead, we've allowed worker's rights to be systematically dismantled, both here and abroad.
Policymakers also began using high unemployment -- which hurts everybody, but especially low and middle-wage workers -- to protect the wealthy from any hint of inflation.
American taxpayers pay for risky bets made by the financial sector and corporate interests are protected from making these risky bets --- a protection not given America's homeowners.
All of this created the worst economic crisis since the 1930s -- and we did it by allowing those with the most economic power to set the rules of our economy.
It's continuing today. By the end of 2012, American workers' share of the economic pie was the lowest in more than half a century while the share going to corporate profits was the highest on record. This isn't sustainable.
A prosperous economy is not possible without a large and growing middle-class. None of this happened by accident. We allowed it to happen. But it can be fixed. So let¹s fix it..
This short video makes it easy to understand a complicated issue and watching it will help you gain insight into the causes of economic inequality.
'Policymakers' sounds really nice, but they're actually 'threatmakers.'
Politicians point policemens' guns wherever their wealthy friends ask, destroying competitors and building monopolies.
https://steemit.com/anarchism/@mattclarke/my-enemy-s-enemy
Geez, true, but it sounds so ugly when you put it that way.
It's absolutely revolting, but diagnosis comes before treatment.
It's misleading to say economic inequality is a problem by itself. For example, what difference would it make if 1% of the population controlled 90% of the wealth if everyone was wealthy enough to live in comfort? Economic inequality is not really the problem and it is unrealistic to think there could be a prosperous society in which everyone was economically equal. However the is an issue with the wealthy having to much power through corporate welfare and corporatism in general.
I think free market capitalism is the best economic system possible. The problem is that most people seem to think that is what the U.S. has so it gets the blame for everything bad that happens in the economy. But we really don't have anything close to truly free markets.
We have the farthest thing from a free market imaginable. Laws are keeping that from truly happening. The only real examples I've seen of a free market are at local farmers markets.
That, to me, seems like an impossibility. Without a middle-class earning more that 10% combined there would not be able to buy things to live in comfort.
But isn't 10% as arbitrary as 1%? It really depends on how wealthy the nation is as a whole. But the point is that regardless of what percent is needed, equality is not necessary or desireable.
As far as free markets ,there are tons of small examples but as long as the federal Reserve controls interest rates and corporate welfare exists we won't have anything close to an overall free market.
How could a nation have any wealth at all, let alone as a whole, if 1% of the population controlled 90% of the wealth? There wouldn't be any "wealth" left to go around and whatever crumbs left to the rest of the nation would not make them live in comfort. Think about it.
Imagine if you and I and 98 other people were playing Monopoly and I started with 90% of the property and money in the game. You and the other 98 people playing split the rest of the money and property. How comfortable would you be playing that game?
Again, it depends on how much wealth a nation has. I don't know how the numbers work out for the U.S. today but in theory, 1% of all the wealth could be plenty for 90% of the population to live comfortably on. The difference between monopoly and reality is that in Monopoly there is a fixed amount of wealth that can never grow. In reality, overall wealth can grow indefinitely. The 90% can grow their share without taking any wealth from the 10%. Of course, that requires the right economic conditions.
I appreciate your comments but let's just say we disagree on that point.
I am certainly for "down with crony-capitalism". Crony-capitalism is what we have had in the U.S. for a good portion of my life.
Steem on,
Mike
Pretty much that's what we have inherited
This post has been ranked within the top 25 most undervalued posts in the second half of Dec 30. We estimate that this post is undervalued by $16.93 as compared to a scenario in which every voter had an equal say.
See the full rankings and details in The Daily Tribune: Dec 30 - Part II. You can also read about some of our methodology, data analysis and technical details in our initial post.
If you are the author and would prefer not to receive these comments, simply reply "Stop" to this comment.