America's Inequality Nightmare

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/americas-inequality-nightmare

A recent NY Times op-ed asked the question: why aren’t voters angrier with what may be the greatest economic crisis of our time: income inequality?

Income inequality is now a problem in just about every developed nation, but America remains an outlier. In the U.S., the top 20 percent earn a whopping 16.7 times what the bottom 20 percent earn, and that gap is ever widening, given 95% of all income gains since 2009 have gone to the richest 1 percent.

John Steinbeck explained that the reason so many of this country’s working- and middle-class vote against their own economic interests is that “Americans are temporarily embarrassed millionaires in waiting.” Researchers at the University of Hannover in Germany have now released data that somewhat supports Steinbeck’s quip. The study measured actual income inequality and upward mobility versus perceived income inequality and upward mobility in a number of countries. The results are conclusive: U.S. voters don’t demand income redistribution, from the rich to the lower economic classes, because they don’t grasp how severe inequality actually is.

In the U.S., a child born in the top 20 percent economically has a 2-in-3 chance of staying at or near the top, whereas a child born in the bottom 20 percent has a less than 1-in-20 shot at making it to the top, making the U.S. one of the least upwardly mobile nations in the developed world. Our levels of income inequality rank near countries like Jamaica and Argentina, rather than like countries like Canada and Germany, but American voters, in large, believe America is just doing fine.

[KitSileya]

1. Will this lead to a French revolution, is the question.

That is the only question I ask myself as I read more and more articles saying the same thing as this one. Will this end in open, armed rebellion?


I don't have an answer, but considering I have 30-40 years left to live, perhaps I will live to see the answer.

[merrily]

2. I don't know.

Think about the degree of surveillance. Think about the degree to which federal, state and local government is equipped to put down an armed rebellion.

Think how exhausted people are, just trying to make ends meet. Think about the pro-establishment media and the propaganda machine in general. Think about how weak unions are in this country now, even though they are often the ones organizing protests and demonstrations abroad.

And, if there is an armed rebellion, it probably won't be the left that is armed.

[Dustlawyer]

9. +1!!! The other big reason is campaign contributions

assure that the politicians remain Representatives to the wealthy, and pass laws favorable to them and work to keep us down. They do NOT REPRESENT THE 99%!!!

[Laelth]

3. k&r for the truth, however depressing it may be. n/t

-Laelth

[RKP5637]

4. A fair number of Americans are in denial, living in propagandized denial. They are

unreachable. I've had friends fallen from good incomes that still don't get it ... saying they should have worked harder and in a few years they will have great wealth. They just don't get how the cards are stacked against them ... they also think if the stock market goes up, that means everyone is doing just great. It's weird and stupid. They fall hook, line and sinker for propaganda, be it R, D or I about how great financially America is for everyone.

[CrispyQ]

5. I've posted this a couple of times on FB, but no one ever watches it.

[winter is coming]

7. I've seen that before. It's great. Thanks for posting it again. n/t

[marmar]

6. K&R

[Skidmore]

8. During the 1990s, there was a full-throated media campaign to raise the expectations

of the middle class of this nation. "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" and all kinds of other programming, combined with the NAFTA initiative, schooled Americans in the notion that everyone could be a white collar worker and live like the wealthy. The banking and finance industries jumped on board to provide a flood of capital so that people who could not have afforded this lifestyle or qualified for financing previously suddenly were able to experience instantaneous gratification of their aspirations and postpone payment until later. Well we know what happend to that skyscraper of cards--it collapsed in a thundering heap on many.

Unfortunately, there are people out there who have not understood what happened to them and still have those aspirations. They still believe that they can have it all and the media still sells the glamorous consumerism in its ads and programming. Robin Leach is now a Kardashian. Everyone can have it all if they could just get someone to sponsor them while they live out their wealth fantasies in reality show. If that fails, there is always gambling available since so many states have legalized it and actually run games themselves.

See, you can still have it all as long as you can reach it--there, just beyond your grasp.

[reformist2]

10. Americans aren't yet ready to admit they want wholesale redistribution. But they will, eventually.