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Sherman A1

(38,958 posts)
Mon Sep 14, 2020, 03:46 PM Sep 2020

'We were shocked': RAND study uncovers massive income shift to the top 1% [View all]


The median worker should be making as much as $102,000 annually—if some $2.5 trillion wasn’t being “reverse distributed” every year away from the working class.

Just how far has the working class been left behind by the winner-take-all economy? A new analysis by the RAND Corporation examines what rising inequality has cost Americans in lost income—and the results are stunning.

A full-time worker whose taxable income is at the median—with half the population making more and half making less—now pulls in about $50,000 a year. Yet had the fruits of the nation’s economic output been shared over the past 45 years as broadly as they were from the end of World War II until the early 1970s, that worker would instead be making $92,000 to $102,000. (The exact figures vary slightly depending on how inflation is calculated.)

The findings, which land amid a global pandemic, help to illuminate the paradoxes of an economy in which so-called essential workers are struggling to make ends meet while the rich keep getting richer.

“We were shocked by the numbers,” says Nick Hanauer, a venture capitalist who came up with the idea for the research along with David Rolf, founder of Local 775 of the Service Employees International Union and president of the Fair Work Center in Seattle. “It explains almost everything. It explains why people are so pissed off. It explains why they are so economically precarious.”

https://www.fastcompany.com/90550015/we-were-shocked-rand-study-uncovers-massive-income-shift-to-the-top-1?
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K&r Demovictory9 Sep 2020 #1
Right, those commie bastards at RAND.... Guy Whitey Corngood Sep 2020 #2
RAND has been used and abused for decades. Sometimes they are right about something. erronis Sep 2020 #29
Shocked? Really? Solly Mack Sep 2020 #3
Any other conclusion would have been shocking. lagomorph777 Sep 2020 #12
No shit. Solly Mack Sep 2020 #13
Yep! Rebl2 Sep 2020 #24
40 years of Reaganomics'll do that. Kid Berwyn Sep 2020 #4
Reaganomics put it on steroids. But it started in the early seventies with Blue_true Sep 2020 #18
Precisely Sherman A1 Sep 2020 #32
Reaganomics gave Corporate America a huge tax break. Kid Berwyn Sep 2020 #34
I put it at Kennedy's tax cut Warpy Sep 2020 #36
That tax plan also set in motion the system where high executives Blue_true Sep 2020 #38
Exactly. It was also at the cost of stiffing small shareholders on what should have been dividends. Warpy Sep 2020 #39
Most of us with a Wellstone ruled Sep 2020 #5
Granted you're correct Sherman A1 Sep 2020 #33
K&R smirkymonkey Sep 2020 #6
We need to start taxing wealth, high incomes, stock sales while eliminating many cuts and loopholes LonePirate Sep 2020 #7
A 2 cent tax, per each $1K trade on Wall Street would help irisblue Sep 2020 #48
Tax Wealth Not Work DanieRains Sep 2020 #8
It Is The Same Billionaires Who Pay For All The Ads We See On TeeVee DanieRains Sep 2020 #9
I was shocked. Shocked I tells ya. LakeArenal Sep 2020 #10
Shocked? With Rs in charge since Reagan? catrose Sep 2020 #11
They are also shocked edhopper Sep 2020 #14
Yep! "Trickle down economics" is doing exactly what it is designed to do... Wounded Bear Sep 2020 #15
We all know that nothing trickles and it doesn't go down FakeNoose Sep 2020 #16
Trickle down equals piss on 'em economics. japple Sep 2020 #28
K&r miyazaki Sep 2020 #17
Shocked?! Yavin4 Sep 2020 #19
It's never called "redistribution" when wealth is redistributed UPWARD JHB Sep 2020 #20
Susan Collins is likely concerned NRaleighLiberal Sep 2020 #21
The only shocking thing about this is that anyone was shocked. n/t TygrBright Sep 2020 #22
Highly recommend. BeckyDem Sep 2020 #23
"I'm shocked. Shocked, I tell you... zentrum Sep 2020 #25
Seriously? Shocked? We've been living it. Middle class on life support and we're on the edge. Evolve Dammit Sep 2020 #26
Today's Minimum Wage Would Be $24 if worker pay had kept pace with productivity gains since 1968 iluvtennis Sep 2020 #27
2.5 Trillion! "Reverse distributed" OMG !!! liberalla Sep 2020 #30
Only someone truly clueless or asleep for the last four decades could be shocked pecosbob Sep 2020 #31
Trickle up poverty Dr. T Sep 2020 #35
Where is the MSM on this? Boomerproud Sep 2020 #37
When I first graduated from college in 1984, my supervisor said that incomes double every 15 years. aggiesal Sep 2020 #40
and somehow these clueless bozos were SHOCKED. paulkienitz Sep 2020 #41
Are any television media TheDemsshouldhireme Sep 2020 #42
I haven't seen it reported anywhere Sherman A1 Sep 2020 #43
Thanks for stealing my family's future johnnyfins Sep 2020 #44
Dear Tea Partiers, Trumpers, all Republicans: Your wealth has officially been redistributed. Beartracks Sep 2020 #45
Unionism was supposed to prevent this. Aussie105 Sep 2020 #46
Precisely Sherman A1 Sep 2020 #47
Link: "the blame lies..." Grins Sep 2020 #49
Elizabeth Warren is always Sherman A1 Sep 2020 #50
Imagine if workers actually HAD that income?! That money would be pouring into the economy Roland99 Sep 2020 #51
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