The mainstream media today ran a study by the moderate Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and the Economic Policy Institute, a leftist anti-globalization organization. The study reported the growing disparity between rich and poor… “in the last 20 years!” But the article was titled, “Income gap between rich, poor is growing.” as if this may be some new development since the Bush McHitleristic kingdom took the reigns and started listening to your private phone calls:
The Economic Policy Institute found the incomes of the poorest 20 percent of families nationally grew by an average of $2,660. Meanwhile, the incomes of the richest fifth of families grew by $45,100, the study by the Washington-based groups said.
The figures are based on comparing the average growth from 1980-82 to 2001-03, after adjusting for inflation.
Trudi Renwick, an economist with the union-backed Fiscal Policy Institute in New York, said wages at the bottom and middle of the scale have grown only minimally over the last two decades while the wages of the best compensated employees have grown significantly. She said globalization, the decline of manufacturing jobs, the expansion of low-wage service jobs, immigration and the weakening of unions have hurt those on the lower end of the economic scale.
In New York, the top 20 percent of wage earners had average incomes 8.1 times larger than the poorest 20 percent in the early 2000s. That’s up from 5.6 times as much from the early 1980s. New York’s growth in income inequality was the second largest in the nation.
Matthew Maguire, a spokesman for the Business Council of New York State, said the amount earned by the state’s wealthiest residents is “something that everybody who cares about New York should be pleased about.”
What the report along with the mainstream media refuse to pay much attention to:
Over the past 12 months, real disposable personal incomes were up 1.5 percent. Since 2001, real after-tax income per person has risen 7 percent. Household net worth is at $51.1 trillion – an all-time high.
And, this:
Wage growth for lower-tiered workers grew 3.1% in 2005.
This:
2,646,000 = total net jobs created.
2,019,000 = total net jobs created on payrolls of established cos.5.4 = opening unemployment rate.
4.9 = closing unemployment rate.
And, much more here.
