Weekend Open Thread: What’s Wrong With This Picture?

By
Greg Diamond
– May 3, 2014Posted in: "The OC", Fresh Juice

What’s wrong with this picture from this story on income inequality in the United States?

Income inequality -- growth from 1975-2007

How much of newly generated income from 1975-2007 has gone to which economic strata in our society?

Here’s their accompanying video, to help you spot it:

(If it doesn’t show up, just go to the top link to find it.)

Here’s what you don’t see: All of that darker blue, and by far most of that lighter blue, does not go into jiggering the rules to give the richest an even higher proportion of new income that will be generated in the future.  But the people in the orange parts of that bar — they’re not living off of that money.  That money is really too much for them to spend — how many vacations and luxury cars can a normal person enjoy?  But a lot of that money goes into lobbyists, and to buying politicians, who will further pervert the system.  So you’re just seeing one portion of a continually worsening feedback loop.

You want to know to whom you might want to listen about things like this?  Senator Elizabeth Warren.  Here’s a GREAT interview of her, where she talks about both her own new book and the new work of economist Thomas Piketty, who had the good luck to publish a damning book on the failed promises of supply side economics right at the moment where more and more people are suddenly willing to hear it.

This is your Weekend Open Thread.  Talk about that, or anything else you’d like, within reasonable bounds of discretion and decency.

 

About Greg Diamond

Somewhat verbose attorney, semi-disabled and semi-retired, residing in northwest Brea. Occasionally ran for office against jerks who otherwise would have gonr unopposed. Got 45% of the vote against Bob Huff for State Senate in 2012; Josh Newman then won the seat in 2016. In 2014 became the first attorney to challenge OCDA Tony Rackauckas since 2002; Todd Spitzer then won that seat in 2018. Every time he's run against some rotten incumbent, the *next* person to challenge them wins! He's OK with that. Corrupt party hacks hate him. He's OK with that too. He does advise some local campaigns informally and (so far) without compensation. (If that last bit changes, he will declare the interest.) His daughter is a professional campaign treasurer. He doesn't usually know whom she and her firm represent. Whether they do so never influences his endorsements or coverage. (He does have his own strong opinions.) But when he does check campaign finance forms, he is often happily surprised to learn that good candidates he respects often DO hire her firm. (Maybe bad ones are scared off by his relationship with her, but they needn't be.)