the Only War Bush is winning is the class war

[Mkultra]

New government statistics show the gap between America's richest and poorest is at its widest in at least 25 years. The richest one percent of the country earned over 21 percent of all income in 2005.

[Goatse]

Interesting. Source?

[cyu]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071012/us_nm/irs_income_dc_4

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The richest one percent of Americans earned a postwar record of 21.2 percent of all income in 2005, up from 19 percent a year earlier, reflecting a widening income disparity among different classes in the nation, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing new Internal Revenue Service data.

The data showed that the fortunes of the bottom 50 percent of Americans are worsening, with that group earning 12.8 percent of all income in 2005, down from 13.4 percent the year before, the paper said.

It said that while the IRS data goes back only to 1986, academic research suggests that the last time wealthy Americans had such a high percentage of the national income pie was in the 1920s.

The article cited an interview with President Bush, who attributed income inequality to "skills gaps" among various classes. It said the IRS didn't identify the source of rising income for the affluent, but said a boom on Wall Street has likely played a part.

[Die Neue Zeit]

^^^ The stats are misleading, and mainly because they're based on the mainstream definition of "class" (income-based).

[RNK]

Similar stats just came out for Canada -- the gap between rich and poor is at its largest in some 30 or so years. It also showed that the poorest 50% of the population has been working more and earning less, while the richest 10% has been working less and earning more.

[Comrade Rage]

If anything the stats are somewhat subdued. For instance the city I live in has a 21% poverty rate. What they don't say is that the poverty rate is horribly out-of-date, so what probably should be 25%-30% is 21%. This is the conjob capitalists play when they want to 'look' good to clueless people-often other capitalists.

Another interesting statistic is the rates of increase of wages. What those reveal is that the rates of the working class are not keeping up with inflation. That means we're actually getting pay cuts each year.

[Mkultra]

Originally posted by COMRADE [email protected] 20, 2007 09:25 pm
If anything the stats are somewhat subdued. For instance the city I live in has a 21% poverty rate. What they don't say is that the poverty rate is horribly out-of-date, so what probably should be 25%-30% is 21%. This is the conjob capitalists play when they want to 'look' good to clueless people-often other capitalists.

Another interesting statistic is the rates of increase of wages. What those reveal is that the rates of the working class are not keeping up with inflation. That means we're actually getting pay cuts each year.
true