The rich are getting richer much, much faster.

[Ben Kenobi]

The government is very much capable of tracking transfer payments because the government is the entity that makes the transfer payments. I have no idea why you seem to think there is something invalid about measuring the amount of income people have after the government taxes and makes transfer payments. Really, I think you just wanted to argue and didn't care if your arguments was completely stupid.

One, the government isn't capable of tracking transfer payments. There are many cases where people who are ineligible for the benefits are receiving them, and the state doesn't even know exactly how many people they do have, and if everyone is actually a different person, etc. There are all kinds of holes.

It's invalid because - it's not income! It's not earned, but many times the government will count it as such and use it as justification to cut back your benefits. Which makes no sense to me. Either the person is getting too many benefits, or they are not. Having the benefits themselves push people over the line makes no sense at all.

[Ben Kenobi]

Ben isn't worth arguing with. Argue with Kuci, he provides thoughtful responses that are mostly right.

Take the exact same opinion - you'll call Kuci right and me wrong. We're arguing the exact same thing and you can't even admit that!

[Hauldren Collider]

That's generally the consensus among many on Apolyton. A lot of members here are tools for the one percent.

Anyone using the occupy wall street rhetoric is pretty much automatically a moron...

[DaShi]

You lack the authority to make such statements.

[KrazyHorse]

And some of us are the one percent.

:nervous:

[Tupac Shakur]

Get yourself a bodyguard and you can flaunt your wealth with impunity.

[Ben Kenobi]

You should hire me since I successfully intimidated Loinburger. Having a 5'5'' bodyguard would be pure awesome because nobody would have the guts to pull anything on you. "He must be a total badass if he's a bodyguard".

Plus Loinburger thinks I'm crazy so you get a crazy badass as a bonus!

[KrazyHorse]

There's nothing "incoherent" about defining income as the amount someone takes in.

Feel free to study accountancy then, and leave the econ to others.

[C0ckney]

And some of us are the one percent.

were. you can't take it with you

[Tupac Shakur]

Sure you can. They're building my pyramid as we speak.

[pchang]

Just get rid of the carried interest category of income.

[Straybow]

Back to the OP...

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/26/op...ef=todayspaper

93% of all the recovery in income in 2010 went to the top 1%. 65% went to the top .1%.

In previous recessions this occurred, but not nearly at this rate.

In the Clinton era expansion, 45 percent of the total income gains went to the top 1 percent; in the Bush recovery, the figure was 65 percent; now it is 93 percent.



There is a recovery going on for the country as a whole. But almost everyone in the country wouldn't know it from their own financial situation.

No, it's because this recovery is far more anemic than the others compared. In fact, as employment continues to fall in absolute numbers (the gummint is still reducing the number of official job seekers to make the unemployment numbers drop) one can argue we aren't in a recovery at all, we just have deficit spending and depletion of savings bumping our nominal GDP growth over the official recession threshold.

[MrFun]

So, why doesn't Romney want to talk about his involvement/management of the company, Bain?

[rah]

I think that was pretty clear in the article.

But as Romney tries to push back the uncaring corporate raider identity that the Obama campaign is trying to foist onto him, he appears to be grappling with how to describe his economic beliefs in a way that does not play into his opponent's hands.

He's still grappling

[Straybow]

Because he still hasn't quite taken the training wheels off the conservative bicycle he wants to pedal to the white house. I mean, he's all for making money while the sun shines, but you don't have to be conservative to do that.