income gains in the USA

[bearpaw9]

NPRs morning edition did a candy-themed example of where income gains in the US have gone in the past umpty something years. Starting with unequal piles, the poorest people have gained 2 pieces of candy corn. The middle class, 18 pieces of candy corn. The very richest people, 500 pieces. (This was impressive, even as an audio effect.) I'm not sure when that big hoard of candy corn is actually going to cause job creation for the poorest Americans, especially when it can make even more money creating jobs in low wage regions. :::::: grumble :::::::

I'm replacing the phrase "job creators" (um, sure?) with "trickle down creators".

Comments

[linaelyn]

(just using the icon 'cuz I haz a political icon)

I think the wealthiest *are* contributing to job creation -- just not here in the United States. The investment magazine articles that my dad sends me are about diversifying into investment overseas. The message he's getting as the richest of the rich, with a lot to spend on his investments, is to send that money to build factories and call centers and power plants in Bangalore and Wu Shan Province and Warsaw and Sao Paulo.

I believe there truly has been some "trickle down" from the U.S. rich, just not in the U.S., in the past 25 years. It's generally raising the standard of living of the formerly nonexistent middle class in some parts of the world. Other parts of the world still suffer from abysmal conditions for the vast bulk of their populace. The middle class and the poor in the U.S. are worse-off than they were before.

That's just how I see it.

[bearpaw9]

Yeah, I don't think everyone in the US (even me) need multiple cars and a large house and big slabs of meat everyday. I'm cool (mostly) with the standard of living here drifting down a bit, while it rises in the Third World. (Good luck getting me to share my candy corn, though.)