The GOP Plot to Screw the Economy and the Middle Class

Bob Cesca comments on The GOP Plot to Screw the Economy and the Middle Class.

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Americans actually live in Russia, although they think they live in Sweden. And they would like to live on a kibbutz.

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In "The Lottery Mentality," a 2011 editorial in The New York Times , Chrystia Freeland explains that "Americans are mistaken about income inequality because of national self-confidence and the lottery effect." http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2011/03/21/rising-wealth-inequality-should-we-care/the-lottery-mentality Americans actually live in Russia, although they think they live in Sweden. And they would like to live on a kibbutz. This isn’t the set-up for some sort of politically incorrect Catskills stand-up joke circa 1960. It is the takeaway from a remarkable study by Michael Norton and Dan Ariely on how Americans think about income inequality. The right likes to argue that income inequality as an issue doesn’t win elections because Americans don’t begrudge the rich so much as they want to join them. The Norton and Ariely study suggests otherwise. Given a choice, the authors find, Americans would prefer to live in a society more equal than even highly egalitar...
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In her December 1, 2014 article, Laura Tyson, the form chair of the U.S. President's Council of Economic Advisers, explains "The Rising Costs of U.S. Income Inequality." BERKELEY, Calif. - During the last several decades, income inequality in the United States has increased significantly -- and the trend shows no sign of reversing. The last time inequality was as high as it is now was just before the Great Depression. Such a high level of inequality is not only incompatible with widely held norms of social justice and equality of opportunity; it poses a serious threat to America's economy and democracy. Underlying the country's soaring inequality is income stagnation for the majority of Americans. With an expanding share of the gains from economic growth flowing to a tiny fraction of high-income U.S. households, average family income for the bottom 90 percent has been flat since 1980. According to a recent report by the Council of Economic Advisers, if the share o...
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In June 2013, President Obama acknowledged that inequality is on the rise "even though the economy is growing." That growth hasn't helped many people who lost mid-wage jobs during the recession. Half of the U.S. population is now considered poor or low-income, and income has been redistributed from the middle class to the very rich faster under Obama than under George W. Bush. Income inequality in the U.S. is much worse than it is in other industrialized countries, where it is also an alarming problem, according to a new report from the International Labour Organization. The gap is only getting wider as the median wage continues to fall. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/12/inequality-us-_n_3421381.html
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