Documentation
See Finance & Inequality for more material
See also: Plutocracy
Decline of Public Spending in America and Effects of War:
Upright Opinion: Wars and American Roads [see gmail email from Saeed Qureshi]
Current Economic Conditions in USA: High Unemployment, Low Wages, Huge Corporate Profits. [link]
Trillions Spent on Wars: Stiglitz on The True Cost of 9/11 [link]
RWER BLOG:
It’s Not Just Congress – the System Has Failed
Kerri Shannon, Associate Editor, Money Morning
Courtesy: http://www.yolohub.com/politics/it%e2%80%99s-not-just-congress-%e2%80%93-the-system-has-failed
August 18, 2011
THE gap between earnings by the rich and the poor is the widest in 30 years, the OECD said in a report released Monday.
The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development said the average income of the richest 10 per cent in OECD nations is now nine times the average income of the poorest 10 per cent.
How rich are the 1%?
The OECD report found that the richest one per cent of Canadians saw their share of total income increase from 8.1 per cent in 1980 to 13.3 per cent in 2007.
Furthermore, the share owned by the richest 0.1 per cent more than doubled, from two per cent to 5.3 per cent.
At the same time, Canada's top marginal tax rate dropped from 43 per cent in 1981 to 29 per cent in 2010, the OECD noted in the report.
That 9-1 ratio is the largest gap in a generation, the agency says. Even in traditionally egalitarian nations such as Germany, Denmark and Sweden, the ratio has risen from 5-1 in the 1980s to 6-1 today.
The gap is 10-1 in Italy, Japan, Korea and the United Kingdom, and higher still, at 14-1 in Israel, Turkey and the United States.
The report found the main reason for the growing disparity is that high-skilled workers have seen their wages increase disproportionately because their jobs have benefited more from technological progress than the low-skilled.
"Our report clearly indicates that upskilling of the workforce is by far the most powerful instrument to counter rising income inequality," OECD Secretary General Angel Gurría said. "The investment in people must begin in early childhood and be followed through into formal education and work."
Promoting part-time work and more flexible work hours, for example, has promoted productivity and brought more people into work, especially women and low-paid workers. But the rise in part-time and low-paid work also extended the wage gap.
Wealth gaps
The OECD's wealth co-efficient (income gap from rich to poor):
Norway, Germany and Denmark: 6-1.
Italy, Japan, Korea, Canada and the United Kingdom: 10-1.
Turkey, the U.S. and Israel: 14-1.
Mexico and Chile: 27-1.
In Canada, the OECD says the average income of the top 10 per cent of Canadians in 2008 was $103,500 — 10 times higher than those by the bottom 10%, who had an average income of $10,260. In the early 1990s, that ratio was at 8-1.
"The social contract is starting to unravel in many countries," Gurría said. "This study dispels the assumptions that the benefits of economic growth will automatically trickle down to the disadvantaged and that greater inequality fosters greater social mobility."
"Without a comprehensive strategy for inclusive growth, inequality will continue to rise."
The group gathers data on 34 developed nations and compares them to guide policy decisions
