|
|||||||||||||||
Join Music Reviews and Features Lester Bangs in "Almost Famous" History of Warner Brothers Music Food & Dining |
BY
RICHARD PACHTER Originally published on Monday, January 26, 2004 in The Miami Herald. IN-DEPTH REPORTING Johnston writes: ''In 1977, the richest 1 percent of Americans had as much to spend after taxes as the bottom 49 million. Just 22 years later, in 1999, the richest 1 percent -- about 2.7 million people -- had as much as the bottom 100 million Americans. Few figures derived from the official government data on incomes present more starkly the growing chasm between the rising incomes at the top and the falling incomes at the bottom. Those in the top 1 percent saw their average income, adjusted for inflation to 1999 dollars and after income taxes were paid, more than double from $234,700 in 1977 to $515,600 in 1999. Meanwhile, the 55 million Americans in the poorest fifth of the population lived in households whose average income fell from $10,000 in 1977 to $8,800 in 1999. ''Across the political spectrum, economists found the same basic trend: the rich really are getting richer and the poor really are getting poorer. Between 1973 and 2001, those whose income ranked them above 80 percent of Americans but below the richest 5 percent -- those on the 80th up to the 95th rungs -- saw their share of national income rise almost imperceptibly. The Bureau of the Census calculated that in 2001 they earned 27.7 percent of all income, up from 27 percent in 1973. The top 5 percent did much better. Their share of the national income grew by more than a third, from 16.6 percent to 22.4 percent. There is the suggestion of a pattern here, of those at the top of the ladder having so much added income that it is reinforcing their position, holding the middle class in place and squeezing those at the bottom, whose incomes were falling.'' SHIFTING BURDEN
©2004 Words on Words, All rights reserved. |