And in other news, rich keep getting richer. Middle Class stays the same.

Link

In 1988, the income of an average American taxpayer was $33,400, adjusted for inflation. Fast forward 20 years, and not much had changed: The average income was still just $33,000 in 2008, according to IRS data.

Meanwhile, the richest 1% of Americans -- those making $380,000 or more -- have seen their incomes grow 33% over the last 20 years, leaving average Americans in the dust.

Thats a damn shame.

The rich are supposed to keep getting richer. I don't like how that somehow seen as a problem. The middle and lower class issues are problems.

The rich are supposed to keep getting richer. I don't like how that somehow seen as a problem. The middle and lower class issues are problems.

Pirate700

[QUOTE="Pirate700"]

The rich are supposed to keep getting richer. I don't like how that somehow seen as a problem. The middle and lower class issues are problems.

DroidPhysX

How is this a surprise? When you are rich, your wealth builds on itself. Your money makes money. The rich should continue to get rich.

That's kind of why they are called rich...because they are rich. I'd be worried if the middle class people were now rich and all the rich people were poor, and all the poor people were middle class. Same complaints, different complainers.FragStains

[QUOTE="FragStains"]That's kind of why they are called rich...because they are rich. I'd be worried if the middle class people were now rich and all the rich people were poor, and all the poor people were middle class. Same complaints, different complainers.Pirate700

[QUOTE="FragStains"]That's kind of why they are called rich...because they are rich. I'd be worried if the middle class people were now rich and all the rich people were poor, and all the poor people were middle class. Same complaints, different complainers.Pirate700

[QUOTE="Pirate700"]

[QUOTE="FragStains"]That's kind of why they are called rich...because they are rich. I'd be worried if the middle class people were now rich and all the rich people were poor, and all the poor people were middle class. Same complaints, different complainers.DroidPhysX

[QUOTE="Pirate700"]

The rich are supposed to keep getting richer. I don't like how that somehow seen as a problem. The middle and lower class issues are problems.

DroidPhysX

So people who work hard for themselves and make a lot of money don't deserve what they have worked for?

But poor and middle class families who didn't work for it do derserve that money?

[QUOTE="DroidPhysX"]

[QUOTE="Pirate700"]

The rich are supposed to keep getting richer. I don't like how that somehow seen as a problem. The middle and lower class issues are problems.

Buttons1990

So people who work hard for themselves and make a lot of money don't deserve what they have worked for?

But poor and middle class families who didn't work for it do derserve that money?

[QUOTE="DroidPhysX"]

[QUOTE="Pirate700"]

The rich are supposed to keep getting richer. I don't like how that somehow seen as a problem. The middle and lower class issues are problems.

So people who work hard for themselves and make a lot of money don't deserve what they have worked for?

But poor and middle class families who didn't work for it do derserve that money?

ITT: People who don't know how wealth is supposed to work complaining about rich people getting richer.

Seriously. It's MUCH easier to make a profit of 10million when you have 100million, than 100k if you only have 100k.

[QUOTE="Buttons1990"]

[QUOTE="DroidPhysX"] The gap between rich and poor is growing. I dont think thats a winning formula.

DroidPhysX

So people who work hard for themselves and make a lot of money don't deserve what they have worked for?

But poor and middle class families who didn't work for it do derserve that money?

[QUOTE="Buttons1990"]

[QUOTE="DroidPhysX"] The gap between rich and poor is growing. I dont think thats a winning formula.

DroidPhysX

So people who work hard for themselves and make a lot of money don't deserve what they have worked for?

But poor and middle class families who didn't work for it do derserve that money?

The rich should be used to cure the deficit. Obama should come up with a new tax bracket that requires people who make over $200,000.00 per year to be hit with a 75% non-refundable tax.

[QUOTE="DroidPhysX"]

[QUOTE="Buttons1990"]

So people who work hard for themselves and make a lot of money don't deserve what they have worked for?

But poor and middle class families who didn't work for it do derserve that money?

Pirate700

[QUOTE="Buttons1990"]

[QUOTE="DroidPhysX"] The gap between rich and poor is growing. I dont think thats a winning formula.

DroidPhysX

So people who work hard for themselves and make a lot of money don't deserve what they have worked for?

But poor and middle class families who didn't work for it do derserve that money?

So you think their parents should give away their money to people who not only didn't earn it, AREN'T EVEN RELATED, instead of giving it to their own kids?

Edit: I sound hostile cause I'm tired. I'm not attacking you.

The rich should be used to cure the deficit. Obama should come up with a new tax bracket that requires people who make over $200,000.00 per year to be hit with a 75% non-refundable tax.

BluRayHiDef

[QUOTE="BluRayHiDef"]

The rich should be used to cure the deficit. Obama should come up with a new tax bracket that requires people who make over $200,000.00 per year to be hit with a 75% non-refundable tax.

Pirate700

Edit: I should stop posting. My sarcasm detector is broken.

Edit2: I'm not sure it's a joke.

[QUOTE="BluRayHiDef"]

The rich should be used to cure the deficit. Obama should come up with a new tax bracket that requires people who make over $200,000.00 per year to be hit with a 75% non-refundable tax.

Pirate700

This is not news. I would be more surprised if the rich people were not increasing their net worth. As for the poor people, its hard to do anything with nothing. Not like you can have lucrative investments or equity when 99 cents of every dollar you earn goes towards paying bills so you can keep living somewhere that isnt under a bridge.

[QUOTE="DroidPhysX"]

[QUOTE="Pirate700"]

The rich are supposed to keep getting richer. I don't like how that somehow seen as a problem. The middle and lower class issues are problems.

So people who work hard for themselves and make a lot of money don't deserve what they have worked for?

But poor and middle class families who didn't work for it do derserve that money?

[QUOTE="Pirate700"]

[QUOTE="BluRayHiDef"]

The rich should be used to cure the deficit. Obama should come up with a new tax bracket that requires people who make over $200,000.00 per year to be hit with a 75% non-refundable tax.

DroidPhysX

[QUOTE="DroidPhysX"]

[QUOTE="Pirate700"]PLEASE tell me this is a joke.

Pirate700

It appears despite Obama's best effort to ruin the American dream by trying to force socialism upon us, he has failed. Now I assume all that extra wealth in the upper class will trickle down in terms of job creation, of course.

[QUOTE="DroidPhysX"] The gap between rich and poor is growing. I dont think thats a winning formula.

So people who work hard for themselves and make a lot of money don't deserve what they have worked for?

But poor and middle class families who didn't work for it do derserve that money?

[QUOTE="Buttons1990"]

[QUOTE="DroidPhysX"] The gap between rich and poor is growing. I dont think thats a winning formula.

harashawn

So people who work hard for themselves and make a lot of money don't deserve what they have worked for?

But poor and middle class families who didn't work for it do derserve that money?

Actually that's where you're wrong. Paris Hilton EARNED 7million. Who's to blame? Not she. The people who pay her are.

[QUOTE="BluRayHiDef"]

The rich should be used to cure the deficit. Obama should come up with a new tax bracket that requires people who make over $200,000.00 per year to be hit with a 75% non-refundable tax.

Pirate700

We need that money. Also, we should stop the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, immediately. Welfare should also be cut, and the people who have been on welfare should be placed into specially assigned neighborhoods, where there are no tax-supported public services like police-enforcement or firemen-services. These people should be forced to take government assigned public-service jobs themselves, and hit with a 75% tax rate which would go toward paying back the money they used when they were on welfare, and toward the deficit. Prisons should be shut down, since they're a waste of money. All of the prisoners should just be gassed and done with. Neighborhoods which are in school districts which have low acadmic averages should stop receiving tax-money for their public shools. We need that money, too.

EDIT:

Social Security should be done away with too. You didn't save enough money to support your retirement? That's too bad, keep working until you drop.

[QUOTE="Pirate700"]

[QUOTE="BluRayHiDef"]

The rich should be used to cure the deficit. Obama should come up with a new tax bracket that requires people who make over $200,000.00 per year to be hit with a 75% non-refundable tax.

BluRayHiDef

We need that money. Also, we should stop the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, immediately. Welfare should also be cut, and the people who have been on welfare should be placed into speically assigned neighborhoods, where there are no tax-supported public services like police-enforcement or firemen-services. These people should be forced to take government assigned public-service jobs themselves, and hit with a 75% tax rate which would go toward paying back the money they used when they were on welfare, and toward the deficit. Prisons should be shut down, since they're a waste of money. All of the prisoners should just be gassed and done with. Neighborhoods which are in school districts which have low acadmic averages should stop receiving tax-money for their public shools. We need that money, too.

Haha good one...

:|

All of the prisoners should just be gassed and done with.

BluRayHiDef

Lol.. This is something I actually almost agree with. Serial murderers, rapists, and pedophiles should be.

This is where we are right now... I'll give a personal example:

My grandpa was a CPA. He was very high up at Texaco. Like management level. He did all of the hiring and firing in the accounting department. He only had 1 guy ahead of him. The most he EVER made was $80,000, and that was right before he retired. And he retired in 1994.

Now, my dad is also a CPA, although not nearly as high as my grandpa was. He currently makes $110,000 a year, gets bonuses every year (he got a $20,000 bonus this year... that is the most he's ever gotten), he gets stock options, etc.

So, my dad also works at an oil and gas company, is at a lower position than my grandpa was, and makes about $40,000 more per year than my grandpa did only about 15 years ago, and he's still has about 8 to 10 years left until retirement.

This is where we are right now... I'll give a personal example:

My grandpa was a CPA. He was very high up at Texaco. Like management level. He did all of the hiring and firing in the accounting department. He only had 1 guy ahead of him. The most he EVER made was $80,000, and that was right before he retired. And he retired in 1994.

Now, my dad is also a CPA, although not nearly as high as my grandpa was. He currently makes $110,000 a year, gets bonuses every year (he got a $20,000 bonus this year... that is the most he's ever gotten), he gets stock options, etc.

So, my dad also works at an oil and gas company, is at a lower position than my grandpa was, and makes about $40,000 more per year than my grandpa did only about 15 years ago.

BMD004

15 years ago, 80k could do more than 100k now. Not by much, but that's like saying bankers a few decades ago earned 1/10 that of a banker does now.

[QUOTE="BMD004"]

This is where we are right now... I'll give a personal example:

My grandpa was a CPA. He was very high up at Texaco. Like management level. He did all of the hiring and firing in the accounting department. He only had 1 guy ahead of him. The most he EVER made was $80,000, and that was right before he retired. And he retired in 1994.

Now, my dad is also a CPA, although not nearly as high as my grandpa was. He currently makes $110,000 a year, gets bonuses every year (he got a $20,000 bonus this year... that is the most he's ever gotten), he gets stock options, etc.

So, my dad also works at an oil and gas company, is at a lower position than my grandpa was, and makes about $40,000 more per year than my grandpa did only about 15 years ago.

th3warr1or

15 years ago, 80k could do more than 100k now. Not by much, but that's like saying bankers a few decades ago earned 1/10 that of a banker does now.

15 years ago was 1996... I don't think that it does more today than it did then. Maybe 35 years ago...

People who make a ton of money tend to invest a fair portion of it, and there are going to be returns on the investment 20+ years later. Of course they are going to make more money.

[QUOTE="th3warr1or"]

[QUOTE="BMD004"]

This is where we are right now... I'll give a personal example:

My grandpa was a CPA. He was very high up at Texaco. Like management level. He did all of the hiring and firing in the accounting department. He only had 1 guy ahead of him. The most he EVER made was $80,000, and that was right before he retired. And he retired in 1994.

Now, my dad is also a CPA, although not nearly as high as my grandpa was. He currently makes $110,000 a year, gets bonuses every year (he got a $20,000 bonus this year... that is the most he's ever gotten), he gets stock options, etc.

So, my dad also works at an oil and gas company, is at a lower position than my grandpa was, and makes about $40,000 more per year than my grandpa did only about 15 years ago.

Wasdie

15 years ago, 80k could do more than 100k now. Not by much, but that's like saying bankers a few decades ago earned 1/10 that of a banker does now.

15 years ago was 1996... I don't think that it does more today than it did then. Maybe 35 years ago...

This is where we are right now... I'll give a personal example:

My grandpa was a CPA. He was very high up at Texaco. Like management level. He did all of the hiring and firing in the accounting department. He only had 1 guy ahead of him. The most he EVER made was $80,000, and that was right before he retired. And he retired in 1994.

Now, my dad is also a CPA, although not nearly as high as my grandpa was. He currently makes $110,000 a year, gets bonuses every year (he got a $20,000 bonus this year... that is the most he's ever gotten), he gets stock options, etc.

So, my dad also works at an oil and gas company, is at a lower position than my grandpa was, and makes about $40,000 more per year than my grandpa did only about 15 years ago.

BMD004

[QUOTE="BMD004"]

This is where we are right now... I'll give a personal example:

My grandpa was a CPA. He was very high up at Texaco. Like management level. He did all of the hiring and firing in the accounting department. He only had 1 guy ahead of him. The most he EVER made was $80,000, and that was right before he retired. And he retired in 1994.

Now, my dad is also a CPA, although not nearly as high as my grandpa was. He currently makes $110,000 a year, gets bonuses every year (he got a $20,000 bonus this year... that is the most he's ever gotten), he gets stock options, etc.

So, my dad also works at an oil and gas company, is at a lower position than my grandpa was, and makes about $40,000 more per year than my grandpa did only about 15 years ago.

Alter_Echo

You're saying the value of the dollar has decreased by over 100% in the past 12 years?

Yeah I don't think so.

[QUOTE="BMD004"]

This is where we are right now... I'll give a personal example:

My grandpa was a CPA. He was very high up at Texaco. Like management level. He did all of the hiring and firing in the accounting department. He only had 1 guy ahead of him. The most he EVER made was $80,000, and that was right before he retired. And he retired in 1994.

Now, my dad is also a CPA, although not nearly as high as my grandpa was. He currently makes $110,000 a year, gets bonuses every year (he got a $20,000 bonus this year... that is the most he's ever gotten), he gets stock options, etc.

So, my dad also works at an oil and gas company, is at a lower position than my grandpa was, and makes about $40,000 more per year than my grandpa did only about 15 years ago.

Alter_Echo

[QUOTE="Pirate700"]

[QUOTE="FragStains"]That's kind of why they are called rich...because they are rich. I'd be worried if the middle class people were now rich and all the rich people were poor, and all the poor people were middle class. Same complaints, different complainers.DroidPhysX

[QUOTE="Alter_Echo"][QUOTE="BMD004"]

This is where we are right now... I'll give a personal example:

My grandpa was a CPA. He was very high up at Texaco. Like management level. He did all of the hiring and firing in the accounting department. He only had 1 guy ahead of him. The most he EVER made was $80,000, and that was right before he retired. And he retired in 1994.

Now, my dad is also a CPA, although not nearly as high as my grandpa was. He currently makes $110,000 a year, gets bonuses every year (he got a $20,000 bonus this year... that is the most he's ever gotten), he gets stock options, etc.

So, my dad also works at an oil and gas company, is at a lower position than my grandpa was, and makes about $40,000 more per year than my grandpa did only about 15 years ago.

Wasdie

You're saying the value of the dollar has decreased by over 100% in the past 12 years?

Yeah I don't think so.

How does a 50% increase in pay and a 100% increase in cost come out to a 100%+ drop in value of the American Dollar?

Worst case scenario ( for me personally ) my dollar is worth 50% less than it was 12 years ago when factoring in the increased pay. The national average for that time span is 39% which given how screwed my situation is comes out to well within a reasonable variance.

The issue that article and the OP are referring to is that as the economy inflates naturally, so should the income of the average people to keep up with that inflation. The current economic situation probably doesn't help things either. An average of 33,000 is a good average for todays standards. The issue that people like myself and many other middle class (if I can even be called that) have is that nothing seems to really effect the income of the rich. There are tax cuts, tax breaks, interest earned, the stock market, financial analysts etc. for the rich to take advantage of and mantain if not increase their current income. Unfortunately the saying "it takes money to make money" really holds true.

No surprises there, considering almost every american who votes, votes for a party that hates the middle class.htekemerald