Five Facts About America's Pathological Wealth Distribution
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/12/03
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1. We're close to being the most unequal country in the world.
Among countries with at least a quarter-million adults, only Russia, Ukraine, and Lebanon are more unequal, according to the most recent figures from Credit Suisse Research.
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2. Wealth accumulation has been rigged for the rich.
The richest quintile of Americans owns 93% of non-home wealth. For Americans with incomes over $10 million, nearly half of their income comes from capital gains and dividends, on most of which they pay only a 15% tax. From 2002 to 2007, two-thirds of all income went to the richest 1%. Then, in the first year after the recession, a startling 93% of all new income went to the richest 1%.
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3. As tax rates have gone down, income for the rich has gone up.
A Business Insider chart depicts the remarkable - yet reasonable - negative correlation between tax rates and the wealth of the super-rich. Over the past hundred years, every time tax rates have been decreased, the income percentage of the richest .01% has increased, and vice versa. Other sources confirm that changes in the tax rate have little to do with economic growth, and that the top tax rate can - and should - be much higher, up to 83%.
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4. "We should all cheer for the stock market" is a big scam.
The mainstream media would have us believe that the whole country depends on a rising stock market. But the lowest-earning three-fifths of Americans -- 60% of the population -- own just .2% (one-fifth of one percent) of all wealth outside the home.