Our Banana Republic

[dtotire]

Our Banana Republic
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
Published: November 6, 2010


In my reporting, I regularly travel to banana republics notorious for their inequality. In some of these plutocracies, the richest 1 percent of the population gobbles up 20 percent of the national pie.
But guess what? You no longer need to travel to distant and dangerous countries to observe such rapacious inequality. We now have it right here at home — and in the aftermath of Tuesday’s election, it may get worse.

The richest 1 percent of Americans now take home almost 24 percent of income, up from almost 9 percent in 1976. As Timothy Noah of Slate noted in an excellent series on inequality, the United States now arguably has a more unequal distribution of wealth than traditional banana republics like Nicaragua, Venezuela and Guyana.

C.E.O.’s of the largest American companies earned an average of 42 times as much as the average worker in 1980, but 531 times as much in 2001. Perhaps the most astounding statistic is this: From 1980 to 2005, more than four-fifths of the total increase in American incomes went to the richest 1 percent.

That’s the backdrop for one of the first big postelection fights in Washington — how far to extend the Bush tax cuts to the most affluent 2 percent of Americans. Both parties agree on extending tax cuts on the first $250,000 of incomes, even for billionaires. Republicans would also cut taxes above that.


more:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/07/opinion/07kristof.html?ref=opinion

[Selatius]

1. It's sometimes difficult to look in the mirror at what our country has become.

We should all be ashamed about letting our country fall this far.

[Number_Six]

3. Not really...

Try reading either Howard Zinn or Edward Gibbon. Then, try not to cry.

[MedicalAdmin]

2. It's all smoke and mirrors

Serious lax reform would include capital gains.

But yah-I too have worked and lived in 3 rd wold countries and the uber rich have too. And the rich here want what the rich there have, complete immunity from the law. Want to rape a peasant, steal a house, kill a senator by downing his plane? These things never used to happen here, but they do now.

It's going to get worse unless enough Americans stand up
And realize that some of the rich ate sociopathic dogs and like rabid dogs the only humane solution for them
And society is to put them down.

This can happen either through rational regulation and taxation or through more extreme and permanent means.

[briteleaf]

4. America, the secret plutocracy

America is still scratching it's head and looking at the open gate of the empty corral. The ultra wealthy and their corporate heads have bought control of congress with secret campaign donations. Guess what? They don't just donate to the GOP. They often extend their influence by supporting members of both parties. Even foreign countries are now buying influence with their secret donations. America is a country of the corporation, by the corporation and for the corporation. The only way the people can recapture their government is campaign finance reform. Good luck getting those career politicians voting to end their own campaign election donation pipeline. Until enough of it's voters become educated about this secret plutocracy, nothing will change. It's the new, "golden rule" of our plutocracy: "He who has the gold rules".

[bulloney]

5. I'll bring up the increasing concentration of wealth to my RW friends,

and they act like they don't know the implications. Some of them will argue that the richest 1% got there because of their hard work and shrewd business skills. And we're not part of that 1% because we're not smart enough or have not worked hard enough.

I'd be willing to bet that the vast majority in that 1% are "old money" families. In other words, they had the good fortune of coming out of the right birth canal, rather than getting where they're at because of hard work or their business skills. And now they use that wealth to manipulate public policy for their benefit, often at the detriment of society at large. Examples: Bush, Walton, Koch.