“… [T]he economists Thomas Piketty and Emmanuel Saez… found that from 1950 through 1980, the share of all income in America going to everyone but the rich increased from 64 percent to 65 percent. Because the nation’s economy was growing handsomely, the average income for 9 out of 10 Americans was growing, too – from $17,719 to $30,941. That’s a 75 percent increase in income in constant 2008 dollars.

But then it stopped. Since 1980 the economy has also continued to grow handsomely, but only a fraction at the top have benefited. The line flattens for the bottom 90% of Americans. Average income went from that $30,941 in 1980 to $31,244 in 2008. Think about that: the average income of Americans increased just $303 dollars in 28 years.

That’s wage repression.”

Bill Moyers: “Welcome to the Plutocracy!” via JoeWo

That’s just one more reason not to extend tax cuts to the top 1%, as Robert Reich explains:

“The top 1 percent now gets almost a quarter of the nation’s total income — a larger share than at any time since the 1920s. The top 1 percent have also received about 40 percent of the benefits of the Bush tax cuts.”

This Reaganomics, trickle-down, guiding hand of the free market fantasy has worked out beautifully for the rich. This is income redistribution on a grand scale, from the bottom up. The problem is that it will  never be enough.  They’ll never be rich enough.

But since we’ve been told there’s really no poor, it all works out fine.

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