The after-tax income of the top 1 percent of Americans rose 228 percent from the late 1970s through 2005. The story for working families over that same stretch was one of constant struggle to just stay even. As the Pew Charitable Trusts reported last year: “The earnings of men in their 30s have remained surprisingly flat over the past four decades.”
Disaster was held at bay by the entrance of wives and mothers into the workplace, and by the embrace of colossal amounts of debt for everything from home mortgages, cars, clothing and vacations to food, college tuition and medical expenses.
Now middle-class and working families are up against the wall.
Disaster was held at bay by the entrance of wives and mothers into the workplace, and by the embrace of colossal amounts of debt for everything from home mortgages, cars, clothing and vacations to food, college tuition and medical expenses.
Now middle-class and working families are up against the wall.
–
Op-Ed Columnist - A Fool’s Paradise - NYTimes.com
We can’t keep thinking that giving all the breaks and money to the rich is the best way to run our economy. It is fundamentally stupid. When growth for the bottom 99% of the country stagnates for decades, growth eventually has to stagnate at the top. I don’t care how quickly money sloshes around at the top. When people at the bottom don’t keep up with the pace of growth or inflation, it really doesn’t matter how much growth happens at the utmost tippy top. You’re putting a financial leviathan on top of a toothpick. It will break.
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