From an interview with Barack Obama aired on CNBC tonight;
“We know that over the last decade or so that more than half the economic growth has been captured by the top 1% of US citizens. That means the other 99% have seen their effective incomes go down. That is not a recipe for long term economic growth.”
I’m sorry – if half the gain went to just the top 1%, the remaining gain went to the rest of the people. Let me be clear, I am not suggesting this is ‘fair’ or that I’d advocate policy that would perpetuate it. I offer the following chart, which supports Obama’s intentions;
My issue, and reason for this post is that I believe precision is important. If all (100%) of the gains had gone to the top 1% of earners, then the rest of us would have remained level. It would take for the top X% to increase more than 100% of whatever gains occurred in a given period to impact the statistics so the rest of us would have lost ground. Please, Mr. Obama, the facts are bad enough, use them to your advantage. Learn to speak about the numbers and the numbers will speak for themselves.
(Note – click on the image above to read the entire article from the CPBB)
Joe