Graph: Income gap growing in US

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From Media Matters: This graph shows the Income Gains for all income brackets since 1979.

I have no problem with people getting wealthy.  I love it!  I want everyone to get wealthy. 

But here's the issue - why has the top 1% grown so much and yet the middle class lags behind?  If you listen to conservatives, tax cuts for the "job creators" (top income folks) creates jobs and prosperity.  And yet, it's not.

Here's why - trickle down economics doesn't work.  Give tax cuts to the wealthy and they aren't creating jobs.  The Bush tax cuts (now the Obama tax cuts) have been in place for over ten years.  Where are the jobs? 

In the coming election, you're going to hear over and over again how the GOP can create more jobs than President Obama and the Democrats.  However - Bloomberg studied the past 50 years of U.S. job creation, under Democratic and Republican presidents. The facts: For the near half-century following the Kennedy administration, Democrats created nearly twice as many private-sector jobs as Republicans. Even though Democrats held the presidency for only 23 years compared with 28 years of Republican rule.

Private-sector payrolls increased by 42 million jobs under Democratic administrations, and 24 million under Republican ones. That’s an average of 150,000 new paychecks a month under Democrats and 71,000 per month under Republicans.

And then there's the fact that investments do better under Dems.  Bloomberg analyzed the data. Investing $1,000 in a hypothetical fund that tracks the Standard & Poor’s 500 index over the past 50 years would have returned $10,920 when Democrats held the White House. The return when Republicans were in power? $2,087.

 

So when you hear how Romney and the GOP are going to do "so much better" than President Obama, just remember: past is prologue.