Some people have too much money.
I wouldn’t mind that so much if the really, really wealthy folks paid a
really, really bigger share of their income and assets in the form of federal
and state taxes, to support our commonwealth and the common good.
The New York Times reported on Feb. 3 that two economists put another
spotlight on the galloping growth of wealth inequality in the U.S.
They say that in 2012, the top 5 percent of earners were responsible
for 38 percent of domestic consumption, up from 28 percent in 1995. That’s
huge—the small group with the biggest paychecks spent almost 8 times more than the
average Joe or Jill who punches a clock somewhere.
Prof. Steven Fazzari, of Washington University in St. Louis, and Barry
Cynamon, of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, make a bigger point: the
nationwide economic recovery since the 2008 financial meltdown has been stoked
almost entirely by the top 5%, whose spending has increased nearly 17% while
the other 95% of the workforce has boosted its overall spending by only 1%.
You know why that’s true: incomes for the really, really wealthy have
risen dramatically, while the average Joe’s paycheck has stayed about the same.
Some people have too much money, some people don’t.
Fazzari and Cynamon say this growing inequality is destroying the
American middle class.
Where do you stand?
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