1 out of every 34 Americans who earned wages in 08 earned absolutely nothing in 09

[ourbluenation]

The stunning figure was released earlier this month by the Social Security Administration, but apparently went unreported until it appeared today on Tax.com in a column by Pulitzer Prize-winning tax reporter David Cay Johnston.

It's not just every 34th earner whose financial situation has been upended by the financial crisis. Average wages, median wages, and total wages have all declined -- except at the very top, where they leaped dramatically, increasing five-fold.

Johnston writes that while the number of Americans earning more than $50 million fell from 131 in 2008 to 74 in 2009, those that remained at the top increased their income from an average of $91.2 million in 2008 to almost $519 million.

The wealth is astounding, says Johnston. "That's nearly $10 million in weekly pay!... These 74 people made as much as the 19 million lowest-paid people in America, who constitute one in every eight workers."

Johston sees the depressing figures as a result of government tax policies maintained by politicians with an eye on re-election, not good government:

It is the latest, and in this case quite dramatic, evidence that our economic policies in Washington are undermining the nation as a whole.We have created a tax system that changes continually as politicians manipulate it to extract campaign donations. We have enabled ''free trade'' that is nothing of the sort, but rather tax-subsidized mechanisms that encourage American manufacturers to close their domestic factories, fire workers, and then use cheap labor in China for products they send right back to the United States. This has created enormous downward pressure on wages, and not just for factory workers.


Combined with government policies that have reduced the share of private-sector workers in unions by more than two-thirds -- while our competitors in Canada, Europe, and Japan continue to have highly unionized workforces -- the net effect has been disastrous for the vast majority of American workers. And of course, less money earned from labor translates into less money to finance the United States of America.

Johnston's assertions appear to be supported by a recent Senate vote.

In September, Senate Republicans along with a handful of Democrats, partnered to defeat the Creating American Jobs and Ending Offshoring Act, a bill that would have raised taxes on companies that send jobs abroad and benefited companies that bring jobs back to American soil.

The notion that it's good business for American corporations to send jobs overseas has been championed by U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the nation's biggest and most powerful business lobby.

The tabulations, staggering as they may be, are only half of half of picture.

Behind the official 9.6 percent unemployment (which is probably somewhere closer to 22 percent), are the stories of millions of individuals who are struggling to get by or are coming to terms with a future of lower wages and a life with less.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/10/25/income_inequality_statistics_tax_code__n_773392.html

[ourbluenation]

1. and you can thank Chimpy and the repugs for most of this train wreck. n/t

[RKP5637]

2. And if the R's gain majorities again they will finish off whatever is left of the

democracy we once had. Why so many Americans can't see all of this is far beyond me anymore.

[Thav]

4. Propaganda is a very powerful tool

A person is generally smart, however when you get people together, it's easy to play off of the emotions of the crowd and whip them into a frenzy over anything. Get the sheep all lathered up over something to get them to take their eyes off the important pieces. That's what the conservatives in control wanted, and they got it. Enough people now believe the story they're being told, that a mountain of evidence to the contrary wouldn't move their position. Now that the majority of the populace are watching the dog and pony show, those behind it are plundering our riches. When they're called out on it, they'll feed a story on how it was all for our own good. After all, the rich are wise and noble because they are rich.

[RKP5637]

5. Great summary! Thanks! n/t

[onenote]

3. as I asked in another thread: what portion of the workforce retires every year?

I agree with much of the article, particularly its discussion of the growing income disparity in the country. But the claim that one out of 34 Americans that were wage earners in 2008 earned no wages in 2009 seems very dramatic until you consider that: (1) unemployment shot up dramatically from the beginning of 2008 to the beginning of 2009, so you'd expect some number of people who had paying jobs in 2008 not to have wages in 2009; (ii) one out of 34 is less than 3 percent; and (iii) some number of people move from wageearning to non wage earning status every year because they retire. Obviously, retirement numbers in a recessionary/high unemployment period are tricky since some "retierees" are really the victims of lay offs. But it would have been helpful in terms of the 1 in 34 claim to know how many people who earned wages in 2008 but not in 2009 were at or over the retirement age. And it would be helpful to have a link to the Social Security Administration report on which the article is based.

[ourbluenation]

6. nothing I can find make that distinction re: how many of those were retiring anyways.

But I can tell you that two of my associates went into forced retirement, as they call it, when they were laid off last year.