Nation’s wealthiest 1 percent triple their incomes, according to CBO report

[R.R]

Quote:Nation’s wealthiest 1 percent triple their incomes, according to CBO report

By Brian Faler, Published: October 25 | Updated: Wednesday, October 26, 2:53 PM

ct. 25 (Bloomberg) -- The nation’s richest citizens almost tripled their incomes between 1979 and 2007 as the inequality of the distribution of wealth in the United States expanded, according to a new government report.

The top 1 percent saw their inflation-adjusted, after-tax earnings grow by 275 percent during that period, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

Those at the other end of the spectrum, whose earnings put them in the bottom 20 percent of incomes, saw an 18 percent increase. The average increase for all households was 62 percent, the report said.

“The precise reasons for the rapid growth in income at the top are not well understood,” the report said. “Researchers have offered several potential rationales, including technical innovations that have changed the labor market for superstars (such as actors, athletes and musicians), changes in the governance and structure of executive compensation, increases in firms’ size and complexity, and the increasing scale of financial-sector activities.”

The income gap was exacerbated by a decrease in the share of so-called government transfer payments -- which include Social Security, Medicare, food stamps and unemployment insurance -- that were received by the poorest Americans, the CBO said.

Households in the bottom quintile of incomes received about 35 percent of transfer payments in 2007, down from more than 50 percent in 1979. The change is attributable to increased spending on Social Security and Medicare, which is not restricted to the poor, CBO said.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/c...story.html

[rockingtheboat]

Oh hey, ...no surprise there really... :

2011 10 22 : Sales Of £1 Million Houses Reaches Highest Level Since 2007

Who said "crime never pays" ?.

[thokling]

I'm curious as to whether this disregard for "economic equality" will lead people to institute forms of socialism, and how such a response would affect (positively or negatively) those at the top of the pyramid.

[rockingtheboat]

"...They who hoard up gold and silver and spend it not in the way of Allah, unto them give tidings (O Muhammad) of a painful doom. On the day when it shall be heated in the fire of hell, and their foreheads and their flanks and their backs will be branded with it (and it will be said unto them) : Here is that which you hoarded for yourselves. Now taste of what you used to hoard." (Quran : 9:34-35)

[FastTadpole]

(10-28-2011 08:36 PM)rockingtheboat Wrote:  "...They who hoard up gold and silver and spend it not in the way of Allah, unto them give tidings (O Muhammad) of a painful doom. On the day when it shall be heated in the fire of hell, and their foreheads and their flanks and their backs will be branded with it (and it will be said unto them) : Here is that which you hoarded for yourselves. Now taste of what you used to hoard." (Quran : 9:34-35)

Christian Equivalent:

Quote:Greed (Latin, avaritia), also known as avarice or covetousness, is, like lust and gluttony, a sin of excess. However, greed (as seen by the church) is applied to a very excessive or rapacious desire and pursuit of wealth, status, and power. St. Thomas Aquinas wrote that greed was "a sin against God, just as all mortal sins, in as much as man condemns things eternal for the sake of temporal things." In Dante's Purgatory, the penitents were bound and laid face down on the ground for having concentrated too much on earthly thoughts. "Avarice" is more of a blanket term that can describe many other examples of greedy behavior. These include disloyalty, deliberate betrayal, or treason,[citation needed] especially for personal gain, for example through bribery . Scavenging[citation needed] and hoarding of materials or objects, theft and robbery, especially by means of violence, trickery, or manipulation of authority are all actions that may be inspired by greed. Such misdeeds can include simony, where one profits from soliciting goods within the actual confines of a church.

As defined outside of Christian writings, greed is an inordinate desire to acquire or possess more than one needs, especially with respect to material wealth.[15]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_deadly_sins#Greed

It is also referred to as lasciviousness in by Epistle (Galatians 5:19-21)

Opposed by the virtue of charity which has been construed in modern tongue to the more restricted use of the word charity to mean benevolent giving.

Quote:Charity has two parts: love of God and love of man, which includes both love of one's neighbor and one's self.

Paul describes it in the First Letter to the Corinthians, chapter 13 (KJV):

Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.

Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.

Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.

When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.
And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charity_%28virtue%29

It could also see some overlap with the more consumptive and wasteful in gluttony which is offset by temperance or self-control/self-respect by way of abstinence, chastity, modesty, humility, prudence, self-regulation, forgiveness and mercy.

A bit more on the Seven Deadly Sins and Seven Virtues in this post.

Related Torrent/NZB:

Tickle - The Seven Deadly Sins - Greed (2004)
http://concen.org/forum/showthread.php?tid=11999
http://concen.org/forum/showthread.php?tid=11846
https://isohunt.com/torrent_details/268147433/ (this may be the entire series)

[rockingtheboat]

@ FastTadpole : cool, thanks for sharing. I will read it later.

[rockingtheboat]

2011 04 04 : JP Morgan profits rise to $5.6bn in first quarter.

2011 07 14 : JP Morgan Chase has reported a 13% rise in quarterly profits, beating market estimates.

Quote:"Those who benefit from interest shall be raised like those who have been driven to madness by the touch of the Devil; this is because they say: "Trade is like interest", while God has permitted trade and forbidden interest…God deprives interest of all blessings but blesses charity" (Quran 2:275-276)