I missed this the other day, but Kristoff is not backing down from his column a couple weeks ago:
Earlier this month, I offended a number of readers with a column suggesting that if you want to see rapacious income inequality, you no longer need to visit a banana republic. You can just look around.
My point was that the wealthiest plutocrats now actually control a greater share of the pie in the United States than in historically unstable countries like Nicaragua, Venezuela and Guyana. But readers protested that this was glib and unfair, and after reviewing the evidence I regretfully confess that they have a point.
That’s right: I may have wronged the banana republics.
You see, some Latin Americans were indignant at what they saw as an invidious and hurtful comparison. The truth is that Latin America has matured and become more equal in recent decades, even as the distribution in the United States has become steadily more unequal.
The best data series I could find is for Argentina. In the 1940s, the top 1 percent there controlled more than 20 percent of incomes. That was roughly double the share at that time in the United States.
Since then, we’ve reversed places. The share controlled by the top 1 percent in Argentina has fallen to a bit more than 15 percent. Meanwhile, inequality in the United States has soared to levels comparable to those in Argentina six decades ago — with 1 percent controlling 24 percent of American income in 2007.
A good read.
eric
You know who defends South American countries…that’s right…..
El Tiburon
But for the social safety net we have in place; from social security to unemployment, etc., we would be in a really, really big world of hurt.
For many Americans, like myself, I don’t really see the real poverty-stricken part of America. Everyone I know seems to be doing ok – no friends or acquaintances going homeless or destitute.
It seems as though everyone has learned to cope with declining wages and a lessening quality of life. Which is kind of a shame. Many of us are none too willing to rock the boat I guess.
TheMightyTrowel
@eric: Oh I know! I know! pick me! pick me!
Answer:
very well travelled people who don’t have their heads up their arses.Communists.Trinity
@TheMightyTrowel: lol
satby
The constant drumbeat of social division has created a country of people who forgot that by banding together they can demand and force change. Now most people who hold onto jobs are too afraid they’ll lose them to join movements to improve conditions or expect fairness. And the lottery mentality that says anyone could become rich has people voting against their own interests thinking that someday they too will benefit from no estate tax.
Mission accomplished, Fox Noise!
danimal
@El Tiburon: Try working in the welfare agency and you’ll see the true devastation that threatens our national security and prosperity.
The safety net isn’t near as safe as it needs to be. And the GOP will attempt to direct their fiscal responsibility right on the backs of the poor. I guarantee it.
Joseph Nobles
This comment actually would work better in the new post, so I’m moving it.
singfoom
Bbbbbbbbbbuuuuuut…..That’s class warfare! How dare he? We middle class people must stand up to this bully and defend the ultra-rich from this attack!
(For idiots)
How about that, if we have more equality, we’re better off as a nation. Well, the incoming House of Representatives will make sure the status quo doesn’t improve.
We wouldn’t want non-rich people actually getting a break or having the playing field leveled at all. Because that’s class warfare, and that means that the scions of the ultra-rich might have a couple % less of the total wealth in the country…..
And you know what that means? They’ll take their Galtian asses somewhere else that encourages wage inequality…
morzer
I believe Nick Kristof has only one F in his honorable surname.
Just sayin’.
LGRooney
So, when will the South Americans establish their development programs for the US? Canada does a pretty good job at these sorts of things. EBRD is too technocratic and slow, however.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@El Tiburon:
Our social safety net is doing the job it was designed to do starting with the progressive reforms in TR’s era: keeping immiseration down to a tolerable level such that the Reds and Blacks can’t get a grip on the populace.
In retrospect I wonder if FDR’s New Deal would ever have amounted to anything more than that (a safety value on the socioeconomic pressure cooker) if WW2 hadn’t come along and created first the mother of all govt stimulus programs, and second the requirement that we impose high top marginal tax rates over the next 2 decades to pay off the debt incurred during the war.
El Tiburon
@danimal:
Of course. But imagine NO social security.
And then this:
CBO: Unemployment Benefits Prevented Record Poverty Rate In 2009
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/17/cbo-unemployment-benefits_n_784941.html
WyldPirate
@El Tiburon:
That’s about to change in a big way, IMO.
the stimulus cash from the US govt. has shot its wad. there won’t be anymore “bailout” of these states in their next fiscal year.
If we keep treading water with the economy, things are about to get worse.
SectarianSofa
Humph. What would Gergen say? Until he weighs in on this, I’ll have to presume the facts are biased.
The Republic of Stupidity
Perhaps it’s time to repost these numbers…
• The top 400 U.S. individual taxpayers got 1.59% of the nation’s household income in 2007 — 3X the p% they got in the 1990s.
• The top 400 paid 2.05% of all individual income taxes in 2007.
• Only 220 of the top 400 were in the top marginal tax bracket.
• Average tax rate of the 400 = 16.6% — the lowest since the IRS began tracking the 400 in 1992.
• Minimum annual income to make the top 400 = $138.8 million.
• Top 400 reported $137.9 billion in income; they paid $22.9 billion in federal income taxes.
• 81.3% of income was from capital gains, dividends or interest. Salaries and wages? Just 6.5%.
• The top 400 list changes from year to year: 1992-2007, it contained 3,472 different taxpayers (out of a maximum 6400).
Here are a couple of other good illustrations of the situation, while we’re at it…
href=”http://www.visualizingeconomics.com/2008/03/30/top-400-taxpayers-income-and-taxes-paid-1992-2005/”>Top 400 Taxpayers: Income and Taxes Paid 1992-2005
400 people ‘earned’ $137.9 BILLION in 2007?
ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY SEVEN BILLION… nearly 1/6th of the country’s military budget for a full year…
An average $345MM a year? ($138BB/400)
Up nearly FIVE-HUNDRED-FREAKIN’-PERCENT over the last 15 years?
And they’re paying tax at 16.6%?
Let’s face it… these guys aren’t just fighting to keep their taxes from going up, they’re trying to make sure they continue to pay a LOWER RATE than the rest of us… it’s fine w/ them if we all keep subsidizing their existence…
Mark S.
@WyldPirate:
I think this is going to be huge. The states are going to start slashing jobs and services and things are going to start getting a lot more painful.
Whatever you want to say about the stimulus, the aid part to the states was the main reason we didn’t go full depression the last two years. Things are going to change.
The Republic of Stupidity
@Mark S.:
Then I guess the ‘states’ rights’ crowd s/b happy, right?
They’ll all get to deal w/ this mess on their own…
ruemara
@El Tiburon:
Or, those who are falling through the cracks are being very quiet about it. It’s hard to be social when everyone else seems to be ok and it’s just you.
El Tiburon
@ruemara:
If the Tea Party disrupts a congressional townhall meeting, why that’s patriotism and gumption and the corporate media profiles you 20 ways to Sunday
If a poor black or brown or white does the same, that’s 30 days in the pokey. And the only write-up is the police report.
Just Some Fuckhead
@El Tiburon: Good for you. I’m looking at the end of my startup in 10-12 weeks at the current burn rate. There is a high probability my wife’s 120 year old business goes under in March. We’ve discussed preemptively selling the house but neither of us has tested the local job market yet.
It’s bad out there and it will continue to get worse.
Linda Featheringill
@El Tiburon:
People may not be as prosperous as you think they are. Pride may force them to hold their heads up.
Talk with your local food distribution center. Or your local church if it has a food pantry. Or volunteer for one day [probably 2-3 hours at a stint]. Or talk to the folks at one of the statewide food collection services.
Look at the people who guy clothes at GoodWill. And get their furniture there, too.
There are a lot of folks in the land who have a fragile hold on the ability to meet their basic needs.
Linda Featheringill
@Just Some Fuckhead:
[#20]
Even successful job hunters often require 90 days to secure a job. Remember that.
As for selling the house, to whom? and for how much? It wouldn’t hurt to talk to a reputable real estate agent, though. He/She will have a better idea what the present market is.
batgirl
@El Tiburon: I work in a public library and see it everyday.
There was a woman with a young son who came in everyday to use the Internet to fill out employment applications. Then one day she came to my desk and requested help locating emergency housing. I gave her a list and haven’t seen her since. Everyday I hope that she found someplace.
Today, I helped a man who is currently homeless fill out a job application online. He used to make $18.00/hour. When the job ap asked for his minimum salary requirements, he put minimum wage. On top of that, the circulation staff at the front desk have put a stop on his library card because he no longer lives at the address on file.
I could go on and on but I’m on the public desk now and I don’t want to start crying. I see a lot of heartache here.
One more story: a homeless man who is a regular at the library got kicked out by the police the other day after a run in with another regular patron who regularly watches FOX and spouts right-wing bs. He told the homeless man that he didn’t belong in the library, that he should get a job (the homeless man is (obviously) mentally ill), and that he was a parasite, and so on. But when the police came, who do you think they escorted out of the building?
El Tiburon
@Linda Featheringill:
True. Goes back to my original point that many Americans, for many reasons, simply don’t see it, therefore it doesn’t really exist.
The wife and I do okay, but we absolutely need both incomes, or it would be a struggle.
I think the conversation should be RAISING social security benefits – not slashing.
Greg
If you would like a personal true story, there’s me, and my friend Kim, and my friend David and countless others. We all worked together and all made very nice salaries. Now I am living off food stamps and money borrowed from my elderly parents. I have sent out 400 applications in the last 8 months and have had 2 interviews. Kim has moved back in with her parents with her 4 year old son and is on the welfare to work program, which means that she has to take 3 buses everyday to a work center so that they can monitor that she applies for 4 jobs everyday. Her benefit? A whopping $450 a month. And David is an RN who got laid off and can now find no work because most hospitals in his area are in hiring freeze mode. The catch is that we are all in our late 40’s/early 50’s. So, obviously, we are useless. If I sound bitter it’s because I am bitter. And I am sick of people saying that we are out of work because we are lazy.
JWL
Klein reached for another cocktail weenie, and eyed the chair his hostess had left empty in honor of the late Robert Novak.
jake the snake
The bourgeoisie traditionally side with the aristocracy,
In the US, everyone but the working poor and below thinks
they are bourgeoisie. And those who are not think they will be.
CalD