Both the 99% and the 1% had income gains under Obama.

[jtuck004]

Last edited Thu Apr 12, 2012, 06:26 PM - Edit history (1)

My previous headline "Can we just put this aside? We are ALL doing better than we were under Bush " was a poor choice of words and wrong. Thank you for pointing that out.

My bad.


'Course, the 1% continue to do a little better


Courtesy of Naked Capitalism, based on updated data from the IRS (explained in the updated paper here by Emmanuel Saez, Berkeley - or as I like to think of it, Alan West's worst nightmare. THOSE people actually want to INVEST in America! How can the wealthy maintain if the Federal government changes its spending\taxing priorities?

The original paper, INCOME INEQUALITY IN THE UNITED STATES, 1913–1998 can be found here.

[MrSlayer]

1. Maybe on a macro level.

On a personal level I'm certainly not. It is residual effect from the Bush years for sure, the construction industry was wrecked by his policies, but I worked through the Bush years steadily. Since President Obama took office 39 months ago I've only worked in 14 of those and am currently on my 8th consecutive month out of work and am looking at perhaps another full year out. I've had to tap my retirement money twice because unemployment is not enough to live on for extended periods and have paid big penalties for doing so. My future is in serious jeopardy.

I am not under any illusions that things would have been better under McCain or that they would get better under Romney but don't tell me I'm doing better than I was four years ago because I'm doing far worse.

[gkhouston]

2. When Bush was in office, we had a household income and health insurance.

Note that I don't blame Obama for my family's current situation, but a simplistic "we're all better off" doesn't go over well with the long-term unemployed.

[Pathwalker]

4. Amen. We're in the same boat.

[mactime]

3. I must be reading this wrong

but according to that chart my income was growing at 6.8% under Bush and is currently growing at .2%. How is .2%growth better than 6.8%? And the top 1% is currently 'capturing' 93% of total growth

[jtuck004]

9. Yes, at the beginning, but when it went negative for the last two years it

wiped out the gains.

If you go to the papers linked there is a graph in the update.

[Angry Dragon]

5. check your numbers

[zoechen]

6. They must have forgotten to ask me. /nt

[Bake]

7. Sorry, but I'm not.

I hope that's about to change, though ...

Bake

[jtuck004]

8. And that's the conversation we should have been having since 2009,

because this is the death of all of us. Even health insurance won't help if we can't afford to pay for it.

[Marrah_G]

10. wtf... maybe you are

But my life has been in a steady financial decline since Bush and that roll downwards has not fucking magically stopped because of Obama. In fact I might not have a job in a couple weeks thanks to the IRS and the 1 %.

There is a serious and disgusting divide between the haves and the have nots and it is only getting worse. Sorry to sound snappy but I may well be living in my car this time next month.

[MadHound]

11. All? I don't think so

I know I'm not. I graduated college right into a work force that was reeling from massive unemployment(still is). I have yet to find a job that fully utilizes the degrees I received, and thus my wages are a third less than what they were under Bush, not even factoring in inflation.

Making a blanket statement such as ALL is always a foolish thing to say.

[Occulus]

12. As a postal employee, I LAUGH at your assertion.

What a line of absolute bull.