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 15th March 07 - Jennie Daley, The Ithica Journal
One Cornell University professor’s research shows that each American has a 50 percent chance of living in poverty for at least a year. Tom Hirschl, a professor in the Department of Sociology, did a statistical analysis in 2001 of people 25 to 75 years old and found there was an equal chance that anyone could experience a year in poverty or a year of affluence over the course of their lives. "America is a dream and a nightmare at the same time," Hirschl said. Whether we require services or help pay for them, all of us are affected. The Ithaca Journal will explore the impact of poverty in Tompkins County throughout 2007. A special report will be published on Saturday in The Ithaca Journal and online at www.ithacajournal.com. |
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 13th March 07 - Senator Bernie Sanders, In These TimesIn early February, President Bush told a group of Wall Street executives that “income inequality is real; it’s been rising for more than 25 years. … And the question is whether we respond to the income inequality we see with policies that help lift people up, or tear others down.” It’s ironic that this president raised the issue of income inequality because his own trickle-down economic policies have contributed to the growing gap between the very rich and everyone else, a situation worse today than at any time since the ’20s. Despite Bush’s professed concern, the budget he recently submitted to Congress will exacerbate the enormous gap between the rich and the poor, squeeze the middle class, reward war profiteers and hurt those most in need. The president’s budget cuts the number of children receiving childcare assistance by 300,000 and terminates food stamps for 280,000 families. At a time when veterans urgently need access to healthcare, the president’s budget imposes a new enrollment fee for Veterans Administration healthcare as high as $750. And the list goes on and on. |
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7th March 07 - World Bank “More than 80 percent of the indigenous people in Latin America live in extreme poverty according to a new report published Wednesday by the World Bank which proposes more social programs, among other things, in order to help this marginalized group.
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 28th Feb 07, Paul Buchheit, CounterPunch We all believe that a growing economy is a good thing. Corporate successes make America strong, and international monetary policies have been designed to promote economic growth around the world. But something is wrong. The income gap is growing faster in the United States than in any other developed nation. Between 1990 and 2000 in the U.S. worker pay and inflation remained approximately equal, while corporate profits rose 93% and CEO pay rose 571%. Meanwhile, the portion of federal revenue derived from corporate income tax has decreased from 33% in the 1950s to 11.9% in 2005, reaching a low of 7.4% in 2003. Hundreds of companies have avoided taxes by relocating to tax havens such as Bermuda and the Cayman Islands. Eighty-two of our largest corporations paid no tax in at least one of the first three years of the Bush administration. |
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27th Jan 07 - William L. Watts, Market Watch DAVOS, Switzerland - A squeeze on middle-class workers across the world's developed economies is stoking fears of an anti-globalization backlash as the world's corporate and political elite gathered Wednesday for the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in the Swiss Alps.
While the world economy has been maintaining steady growth for the past several years, data shows that the gap between the wealthiest workers and everyone else has continued to grow, as those at the top take a bigger piece of the pie. In the United States, median wages have stagnated despite sharp gains in productivity.
"Political discourse about this problem is way too low," warned Yale University economics professor Robert J. Shiller at a panel discussion Wednesday afternoon. "We need in every major country a serious debate about how to keep this problem from getting worse." |
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 23rd Jan 07 - Lawrence Mishel, Jared Bernstein & research assistance by James Lin, Economic Policy Institute
Newly released data from two separate sources reveal just how skewed the distribution of economic growth has been over the current recovery. Data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis through the third quarter of 2006 show that a historically high share of corporate income is going into profits and interest (i.e., capital income) rather than employee compensation. And a newly released Congressional Budget Office (CBO) analysis of household incomes shows that a greater share of this capital income goes to the richest households than at any time since the CBO began tracking such trends. In other words, our economy is producing more capital income and that type of income is more likely to go to those at the very top of the income scale. Together, these dynamics are contributing to a uniquely skewed recovery. |
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 22nd Jan 07 - Declan, Crawl Across the Ocean
I see that the Economist had a recent cover story entitled: "Rich Man, Poor Man: The Winners and Losers from globalisation." And it does seem that The Economist is worried about inequality. More specifically, the Economist seems to be concerned that, given fast-growing inequality, given millions of middle-class workers making no progress, given millions and millions more stuck in poverty while a few at the top make massive gains there is a very real risk that there could be a backlash which attempts to limit the exorbitant pay of CEO's.
To that end, the Economist has a full article, "Executives have enjoyed an astonishing pay bonanza. Edward Carr explains why most of them deserved it," with reasoning so weak it is laughable, including the assertion that only CEO's paid hundreds of millions will go through with downsizing, merely paying millions leaves companies unable to attract someone willing to make cutbacks.
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