Democrat COWARDS

[Cleo's Mom 257]

A man from buffalo beast posed as a Koch brother in a phone conversation to Walker. Walker's office has confirmed that it is his voice on the tapes.

Here's what Walker says to who he thinks is one of his big contributors to which he is beholden:

"The 14 democratic senators can come back and I will talk to them but I will not negotiate. Once we have the 14 inside chambers, we don't need them, the 19 republicans will take over."

That hardly sounds like someone who is sincere about making compromises or negotiatie in good faith. He is just another right wing hack trying to bust unions, and he is losing this arguement no matter how many fireside chats he has. American people, union and non union, don't like these strong armed tactics. It brings back images of Pinkerton police (for those of us who actually studied and remember history - real history, that is, not Texas style revisionist history).

[Cleo's Mom 257]

A man from buffalo beast posed as a Koch brother in a phone conversation to Walker. Walker's office has confirmed that it is his voice on the tapes.

Here's what Walker says to who he thinks is one of his big contributors to which he is beholden:

"The 14 democratic senators can come back and I will talk to them but I will not negotiate. Once we have the 14 inside chambers, we don't need them, the 19 republicans will take over."

That hardly sounds like someone who is sincere about making compromises or negotiatie in good faith. He is just another right wing hack trying to bust unions, and he is losing this arguement no matter how many fireside chats he has. American people, union and non union, don't like these strong armed tactics. It brings back images of Pinkerton police (for those of us who actually studied and remember history - real history, that is, not Texas style revisionist history).

Here's more on this story. But hey, keep believing in the Koch brothers.

On prank call, Wis. governor discusses strategy

By RYAN J. FOLEY, AP

45 minutes ago

MADISON, Wis. — On a prank call that quickly spread across the Internet, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker was duped into discussing his strategy to cripple public employee unions, promising never to give in and joking that he would use a baseball bat in his office to go after political opponents.Walker believed the caller was a conservative billionaire named David Koch, but it was actually the editor of a liberal online newspaper. The two talked for at least 20 minutes — a conversation in which the governor described several potential ways to pressure Democrats to return to the Statehouse and revealed that his supporters had considered secretly planting people in pro-union protest crowds to stir up trouble.

The call, which surfaced Wednesday, also showed Walker's cozy relationship with two billionaire brothers who have poured millions of dollars into conservative political causes, including Walker's campaign last year.

Walker compared his stand to that taken by President Ronald Reagan when he fired the nation's air-traffic controllers during a labor dispute in 1981.

"That was the first crack in the Berlin Wall and led to the fall of the Soviets," Walker said on the recording.

The audio was posted by the Buffalo Beast, a left-leaning website based in Buffalo, N.Y., and quickly went viral.

Ian Murphy told The Associated Press he carried out the prank to show how candidly Walker would speak with Koch even though, according to Democrats, he refuses to return their calls.

Murphy said he arranged the call Tuesday after speaking with two Walker aides, including the governor's chief of staff. He placed the call using Skype and recorded it.

Walker spokesman Cullen Werwie confirmed that it was Walker's voice on the call. At a news conference, Walker acknowledged being deceived but stuck to his message that the union changes were needed to balance Wisconsin's budget.

"I'm not going to let one prank phone call be a distraction from the job we have to do," Walker said. "The things I said are the things I've said publicly all the time."

On the call, the governor said he was ratcheting up the pressure on Senate Democrats to return to the Capitol a week after they fled to block the legislation. He said he supported a move to require them to come to the Capitol to pick up their paychecks rather than have the money deposited directly.

He also floated an idea to lure Democratic senators back to the Capitol for negotiations and then have the Senate quickly pass the bill while they are in talks.

Walker said aides were reviewing whether the GOP could hold a vote if Democrats were not physically in the Senate chamber but elsewhere in the building. At the news conference, he insisted that idea was not a trick but an effort to get Democrats back to work.

Democrats seized on Walker's recorded comments as evidence that the governor plans to go beyond budget cuts to crushing unions.

"This isn't about balancing the budget. This is about a political war," Rep. Jon Richards of Milwaukee yelled Wednesday on the floor of the state Assembly.

The governor's plan would strip most public employees of their collective bargaining rights and force them to pay more for their health care and retirement benefits. Unions could not collect mandatory dues and would be forced to conduct annual votes of their members to stay in existence.

The proposal has set off more than a week of protests at the Capitol.

The GOP-controlled state Assembly began debating the bill Tuesday and was still hearing dozens of Democratic amendments nearly 24 hours later before taking a break. Assembly Speaker Jeff Fitzgerald said he expected to take a vote on the bill by the end of the day.

On the call, Walker said he expected the anti-union movement to spread across the country and he had spoken with the governors of Ohio and Nevada. The man pretending to be Koch seemed to agree, telling Walker, "You're the first domino."

"Yep, this is our moment," Walker responded.

The remarks showed Walker's private relationship with David Koch. He and his brother, Charles, own Koch Industries Inc., which is the largest privately-owned company in America and has significant operations in Wisconsin.

Its political action committee gave $43,000 to Walker's campaign, and David Koch gave $1 million to the Republican Governors' Association, which funded ads attacking Walker's opponent in last year's election.

The Kochs also give millions to support Americans For Prosperity, a conservative business group that launched a $320,000 television ad campaign in favor of Walker's legislation Wednesday. When the caller asked how he could help, Walker suggested outside groups could try to influence people to call their lawmakers and spread the message that his proposal is necessary.

On the recording, after Walker said he would be willing to meet with Democratic leaders, the caller said he should bring a baseball bat to negotiations.

Walker laughed and responded that he had "a slugger with my name on it."

The caller suggested he was thinking about "planting some troublemakers" among the protesters, and Walker said his administration had thought about doing that, too, but decided against it. Walker said the protests eventually would die because the media would stop covering them.

Walker told reporters the plan to bring in outside agitators was one of many ideas his supporters and aides have raised that were dismissed.

At the end of the call, the prankster says: "I'll tell you what, Scott, once you crush these bastards, I'll fly you out to Cali and really show you a good time."

"All right, that would be outstanding," Walker replies, adding that the standoff is "all about getting our freedoms back."

The caller responds: "Absolutely. And you know, we have a little bit of vested interest as well" and laughs.

Walker's budget bill also allows his administration to sell power plants that heat and cool state buildings to private companies without any bids.

Critics have seized on that provision, saying they are convinced the Koch brothers' business interests would be able to buy power plants on the cheap, and then profit by running them and driving up the price of energy.

Koch Industries has denied any interest in buying the plants. Republicans tried to privatize Wisconsin's power plants in 2005, but the plan was vetoed by Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle.

Immediately after taking office, Walker also pushed for legislation that would limit damage awards in lawsuits against many businesses.

Koch Industries lobbied for the bill, and Walker signed it into law last month. Walker is also seeking passage for another Koch Industries-backed bill to weaken state regulations by giving him the power to approve all rules proposed by agencies, a proposal that is moving quickly through the Legislature.

Koch Industries recently opened a lobbying office a block from the Capitol. Seven lobbyists have registered in Wisconsin to lobby for various Koch Industries companies.

Even before recordings of the call surfaced, the government watchdog group Common Cause in Wisconsin released a statement saying Walker's agenda matched with that of Koch Industries.

"Koch Industries and other corporate citizens have legitimate interests in Wisconsin, but their demonstrated willingness to push large amounts of money into state politics has given them a dangerously outsized voice," said Bob Edgar, the group's national president. That voice, he said, is "now demanding a return on its investments."

[loserbob 11]

This is so great! Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio, maybe Pennsylvania, this is a fight for every middle-class American citizen. We're tired of being sh^& on by the rich and we aint takin it anymore!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Cleo's Mom 257]

This is so great! Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio, maybe Pennsylvania, this is a fight for every middle-class American citizen. We're tired of being sh^& on by the rich and we aint takin it anymore!!!!!!!!!!!!

You're absolutely right.

Move over teaparty phonies, the REAL middle class is taking over fighting for real middle class rights and real middle class people.

We are tired of being blamed for the greed, corruption and crimes of the rich.

[ariscus99 1]

Great article, though it's just the tip of the iceburg:

The Wisconsin showdown between a determined Republican governor and spoiled public unions is shaping up as a crucial test of state and municipal solvency. But the financial stakes represent only part of the much larger conflict engulfing America.

The real war is over the entitlement culture itself. And while government spending is the most visible part, the ultimate issues are the character and fate of our nation.

Any serious conversation about American decline must start with the fact that too many of our countrymen have lost the plot about how the United States became the beacon of the free world, the world's largest economy, and the lone superpower.

For those who have no sense or interest in how we got here, it is easy to believe we are immune from the laws of history that inevitably reduce empires to dust.

From that willful ignorance, it's perfectly acceptable to demand pay without work, or, almost as insidious, pay and pensions that dwarf those of your neighbors who foot the bill.

It is also perfectly acceptable to assume that, if you have a house you can't afford, the government -- again, your neighbors -- should be dunned to help you keep it. If your business is failing, the government's deep pockets are there to bail you out, no?

Or if your child can't read, it's not your fault. It's the teacher or the school system or the mayor. Any scapegoat will do, as long as it's not you.

This is the noise of the entitlement culture as it plays out every day. It is contagious and so ingrained in how we live and think -- somebody else is to blame and must pay -- that we no longer think twice before demanding total satisfaction and expressing outrage when we don't get it.

We are entitled to it now because we want it, whatever it is. If somebody else has it first, then we have been cheated and are doubly furious.

As for giving it back, or taking less, what are you, a sucker? This is America, man, a free country.

Indeed it is, and that's the problem. We are free to be endlessly selfish, and nobody dares to tell us no.

Certainly, politicians won't do it. The entitlement scam has dominated public life for the better part of 50 years. John F. Kennedy's famous inaugural line of "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country" turns out to have been the high-Water mark of self-restraint.

Pretty much ever since, the "tax eaters" have been multiplying faster than the taxpayers. The balance has tilted so far that the great liberal lights of yesteryear, from FDR to JFK to LBJ, might well look at the Wisconsin unions and wonder what planet they're from. They certainly wouldn't recognize them as Democrats.

How dare the teachers skip school to protest? How dare they get fake doctor's notes to avoid consequences?

Easy -- they're entitled.

Soon, other states will be facing the same choice and, as voters made clear in last year's election, the war over Big Government will be settled in Washington.

It's not a comforting thought. The best politicians have been unable to stop the entitlement culture. Most are happy to stoke the demands for more, more, more as the easiest path to power.

We can't say we weren't warned. Thomas Jefferson, naturally, foresaw the consequences of unchecked entitlement. "The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not."

[ariscus99 1]

Americans Support Scott Walker

Sorry, libs. As you bring chaos to Madison, Wisconsin, Americans are not supporting you in your cause. In fact, we are getting fed up with the demands coming from public employee unions.

Scott Walker is a hero, and he is doing exactly what the people of Wisconsin elected him to do. As President Obama once reminded his opponents, "Elections have consequences."

Read from Weasel Zippers:

Poll: American Voters Support Wisconsin Republican Gov. Over Unions by a 48% to 38% Margin…

"Unionized entitlement class hardest hit.

'A sizable number of voters are following new Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s showdown with unionized public employees in his state, and nearly half side with the governor.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 48% of Likely U.S. Voters agree more with the Republican governor in his dispute with union workers. Thirty-eight percent (38%) agree more with the unionized public employees, while 14% are undecided.

In an effort to close the state’s sizable budget deficit, Walker is proposing to eliminate collective bargaining for public employees including teachers on everything but wage issues. He is excluding public safety workers such as policemen and firemen from his plan.

Thirty-eight percent (38%) of voters think teachers, firemen and policemen should be allowed to go on strike, but 49% disagree and believe they should not have that right. Thirteen percent (13%) are not sure.'

Rest here>>>"

As for the teachers who have not shown up for work, they should be fired on the spot. Imagine someone pulling a stunt like that in the private sector.

President Obama has thrown in his two cents, siding with the unions, of course. Interestingly, his poll numbers are slipping back into the gutter.

I vaguely remember the American Pravda coming out and condemning hateful political rhetoric used against the opposition. Somehow, they forgot to report about the hate coming out of Madison.

[ariscus99 1]

Liberals just don't seem to get it.

By Jim HayettFeb. 21, 2011 What is taking place in our Badger state may be shaping the political landscape for the rest of the nation. However, equally as important are the liberal democrats are making fools out of themselves. I have written a few blogs about Wisconsin’s fiscal mess and how our new Governor is doing what he said he would do if we elected him. Unlike our US president, Walker is making the hard choices and tackling the state’s fiscal disaster Doyle left us in. Which is: Our state is broke and we need to fix it now. So what do our liberal democrats do? Hide behind the LCAT and their hypocrisy. Yet only two liberals, Ref33 and Christian Democrat (we are still waiting for CD’s response where she said she had a plan), gave an attempt, though feeble and not researched, as to how to fix this mess without asking the government union workers. Ref’s plan also doesn’t include any government union workers paying for their super Cadillac benefit plans. Ref's plan is to “Increase state income tax on a graduated scale. Legalize and tax marijuana - eliminating the cost of incarcerating users. Raise the sin taxes. Quite honestly Jim, I don't know enough about how the state raises it's funds to comment. I do think that they do a poor job of overseeing how the money is spent.”

In today’s Milwaukee Journal/Sentinel a lady wrote an opinion in the Letters to the Editor section and ignorantly explained that the future and the quality of our children’s education will be worse off if teachers are required to pay for some of their benefits. I couldn’t believe our state newspaper actually printed such stupidity. None of these liberals mentioned the disastrous path we are heading towards. If it’s “all about the children,” like these demagogues want us to believe, then why don’t they think about our children and their children and stop making them pay for their mistakes!

[Cleo's Mom 257]

Everything you posted is just the extreme right wing political and economic philosophy that the kool aid drinker lap up like a kitten with cream. And I am not going to believe some right leaning Rasmussen poll over a Gallup poll

Unlike me, you have offered no facts, no proof of what is really going on or anything close to reality. There is a concerted effort by the right wing in this country to return to the Gilded Age. The facts show the middle class, far from feeling a right to or receiving entitlements, is losing ground fast. While at the same time - those at the top are gaining. They are not creating jobs, they are not doing anything to improve this economy. They are the real takers. And just like with the very costly, unpaid for, adding to the deficit tax cut just given to them - the republicans want to give to this entitled class even more.

Now, if you have any real facts and proof that the middle class wage earner has been profiting and improving his lot over the last 30 years in terms of earning power, wages adjusted for inflation, the value of his home, investments, etc. - THEN PLEASE OFFER IT. Otherwise quit pasting this right wing drible.

The phone conversation of the duped Walker shows his true colors. He just wants to do a bait and switch with democrats to get them back and then pass the bill without them actually voting. This man is seriously dangerous.

He have delusions of grandeur. He thinks of himself as some national hero and after he busts that pesky union he will be worshipped from afar. The corporate Koch brothers have pushed their no tax, no regulations, let us do what we want to increase our profits agenda through with his help and they will certainly help with his current efforts. But

in the end, even if this governor gets what he wants, he will have overplayed his hand and his political career will be over.

And btw, the independent ethics commison in WI is looking into possible ethic violations as a result of that phone call. Admitting that you were considering planting trouble makers into the protesters is very serious and unworthy of someone elected to this high office.

And one more thing about people buying homes they couldn't afford. That is the bank's job. They are loaning out their money - so it the their job to make sure they are loaning it to people who can repay the loan. If they don't, then it is their fault. People will always want to borrow money. It's the lenders who have to make sure it's to the right people. If someone loses their job after buying the house, then that is a different matter. There should be some kind of contigency plan to help them until they get another job and back on their feet. Do we really want to be a country that throws hardworking people who happen to hit some back luck out of their homes? I don't think so. But I think those who write that crap you posted think so. Because they all have jobs, health care and homes, so it's easy to pick on those who don't.

[Cleo's Mom 257]

Wealth, Income, and Power

by G. William Domhoff

September 2005 (updated January 2011)

This document presents details on the wealth and income distributions in the United States, and explains how we use these two distributions as power indicators.

Some of the information may come as a surprise to many people. In fact, I know it will be a surprise and then some, because of a recent study (Norton & Ariely, 2010) showing that most Americans (high income or low income, female or male, young or old, Republican or Democrat) have no idea just how concentrated the wealth distribution actually is. More on that a bit later.

As far as the income distribution, the most amazing numbers on income inequality will come last, showing the dramatic change in the ratio of the average CEO's paycheck to that of the average factory worker over the past 40 years.

First, though, some definitions. Generally speaking, wealth is the value of everything a person or family owns, minus any debts. However, for purposes of studying the wealth distribution, economists define wealth in terms of marketable assets, such as real estate, stocks, and bonds, leaving aside consumer durables like cars and household items because they are not as readily converted into cash and are more valuable to their owners for use purposes than they are for resale (see Wolff, 2004, p. 4, for a full discussion of these issues). Once the value of all marketable assets is determined, then all debts, such as home mortgages and credit card debts, are subtracted, which yields a person's net worth. In addition, economists use the concept of financial wealth -- also referred to in this document as "non-home wealth" -- which is defined as net worth minus net equity in owner-occupied housing. As Wolff (2004, p. 5) explains, "Financial wealth is a more 'liquid' concept than marketable wealth, since one's home is difficult to convert into cash in the short term. It thus reflects the resources that may be immediately available for consumption or various forms of investments."

We also need to distinguish wealth from income. Income is what people earn from work, but also from dividends, interest, and any rents or royalties that are paid to them on properties they own. In theory, those who own a great deal of wealth may or may not have high incomes, depending on the returns they receive from their wealth, but in reality those at the very top of the wealth distribution usually have the most income. (But it's important to note that for the rich, most of that income does not come from "working": in 2008, only 19% of the income reported by the 13,480 individuals or families making over $10 million came from wages and salaries. See Norris, 2010, for more details.)

As you read through these numbers, please keep in mind that they are usually two or three years out of date because it takes time for one set of experts to collect the basic information and make sure it is accurate, and then still more time for another set of experts to analyze it and write their reports. It's also the case that the infamous housing bubble of the first eight years of the 21st century inflated some of the wealth numbers.

So far there are only tentative projections -- based on the price of housing and stock in July 2009 -- on the effects of the Great Recession on the wealth distribution. They suggest that average Americans have been hit much harder than wealthy Americans. Edward Wolff, the economist we draw upon the most in this document, concludes that there has been an "astounding" 36.1% drop in the wealth (marketable assets) of the median household since the peak of the housing bubble in 2007. By contrast, the wealth of the top 1% of households dropped by far less: just 11.1%. So as of April 2010, it looks like the wealth distribution is even more unequal than it was in 2007. (See Wolff, 2010 for more details.)

One final general point before turning to the specifics. People who have looked at this document in the past often asked whether progressive taxation reduces some of the income inequality that exists before taxes are paid. The answer: not by much, if we count all of the taxes that people pay, from sales taxes to property taxes to payroll taxes (in other words, not just income taxes). And the top 1% of income earners, who average over $1 million a year, actually pay a smaller percentage of their incomes to taxes than the 9% just below them. These findings are discussed in detail near the end of this document.

The Wealth Distribution

In the United States, wealth is highly concentrated in a relatively few hands. As of 2007, the top 1% of households (the upper class) owned 34.6% of all privately held wealth, and the next 19% (the managerial, professional, and small business stratum) had 50.5%, which means that just 20% of the people owned a remarkable 85%, leaving only 15% of the wealth for the bottom 80% (wage and salary workers). In terms of financial wealth (total net worth minus the value of one's home), the top 1% of households had an even greater share: 42.7%. Table 1 and Figure 1 present further details drawn from the careful work of economist Edward N. Wolff at New York University (2010).

Table 1: Distribution of net worth and financial wealth in the United States, 1983-2007 Total Net WorthTop 1 percentNext 19 percentBottom 80 percent198333.8%47.5%18.7%198937.4%46.2%16.5%199237.2%46.6%16.2%199538.5%45.4%16.1%199838.1%45.3%16.6%200133.4%51.0%15.6%200434.3%50.3%15.3%200734.6%50.5%15.0% Financial Wealth Top 1 percentNext 19 percentBottom 80 percent198342.9%48.4%8.7%198946.9%46.5%6.6%199245.6%46.7%7.7%199547.2%45.9%7.0%199847.3%43.6%9.1%200139.7%51.5%8.7%200442.2%50.3%7.5%200742.7%50.3%7.0%

Total assets are defined as the sum of: (1) the gross value of owner-occupied housing; (2) other real estate owned by the household; (3) cash and demand deposits; (4) time and savings deposits, certificates of deposit, and money market accounts; (5) government bonds, corporate bonds, foreign bonds, and other financial securities; (6) the cash surrender value of life insurance plans; (7) the cash surrender value of pension plans, including IRAs, Keogh, and 401(k) plans; (8) corporate stock and mutual funds; (9) net equity in unincorporated businesses; and (10) equity in trust funds.

Total liabilities are the sum of: (1) mortgage debt; (2) consumer debt, including auto loans; and (3) other debt. From Wolff (2004, 2007, & 2010).

Figure 1: Net worth and financial wealth distribution in the U.S. in 2007

In terms of types of financial wealth, the top one percent of households have 38.3% of all privately held stock, 60.6% of financial securities, and 62.4% of business equity. The top 10% have 80% to 90% of stocks, bonds, trust funds, and business equity, and over 75% of non-home real estate. Since financial wealth is what counts as far as the control of income-producing assets, we can say that just 10% of the people own the United States of America.

Table 2: Wealth distribution by type of asset, 2007 Investment AssetsTop 1 percentNext 9 percentBottom 90 percentBusiness equity62.4%30.9%6.7%Financial securities60.6%37.9%1.5%Trusts38.9%40.5%20.6%Stocks and mutual funds38.3%42.9%18.8%Non-home real estate28.3%48.6%23.1%TOTAL investment assets49.7%38.1%12.2% Housing, liquid Assets, Pension Assets, and Debt Top 1 percentNext 9 percentBottom 90 percentDeposits20.2%37.5%42.3%Pension accounts14.4%44.8%40.8%Life insurance22.0%32.9%45.1%Principal residence9.4%29.2%61.5%TOTAL other assets12.0%33.8%54.2%Debt5.4%21.3%73.4% From Wolff (2010).

Figure 2a: Wealth distribution by type of asset, 2007: investment assets

Figure 2b: Wealth distribution by type of asset, 2007: other assets

Inheritance and estate taxes

Figures on inheritance tell much the same story. According to a study published by the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, only 1.6% of Americans receive $100,000 or more in inheritance. Another 1.1% receive $50,000 to $100,000. On the other hand, 91.9% receive nothing (Kotlikoff & Gokhale, 2000). Thus, the attempt by ultra-conservatives to eliminate inheritance taxes -- which they always call "death taxes" for P.R. reasons -- would take a huge bite out of government revenues (an estimated $1 trillion between 2012 and 2022) for the benefit of the heirs of the mere 0.6% of Americans whose death would lead to the payment of any estate taxes whatsoever (Citizens for Tax Justice, 2010b).

It is noteworthy that some of the richest people in the country oppose this ultra-conservative initiative, suggesting that this effort is driven by anti-government ideology. In other words, few of the ultra-conservative and libertarian activists behind the effort will benefit from it in any material way. However, a study (Kenny et al., 2006) of the financial support for eliminating inheritance taxes discovered that 18 super-rich families (mostly Republican financial donors, but a few who support Democrats) provide the anti-government activists with most of the money for this effort. (For more infomation, including the names of the major donors, download the article from United For a Fair Economy's Web site.)

Actually, ultra-conservatives and their wealthy financial backers may not have to bother to eliminate what remains of inheritance taxes at the federal level. The rich already have a new way to avoid inheritance taxes forever -- for generations and generations -- thanks to bankers. After Congress passed a reform in 1986 making it impossible for a "trust" to skip a generation before paying inheritance taxes, bankers convinced legislatures in many states to eliminate their "rules against perpetuities," which means that trust funds set up in those states can exist in perpetuity, thereby allowing the trust funds to own new businesses, houses, and much else for descendants of rich people, and even to allow the beneficiaries to avoid payments to creditors when in personal debt or sued for causing accidents and injuries. About $100 billion in trust funds has flowed into those states so far. You can read the details on these "dynasty trusts" (which could be the basis for an even more solidified "American aristocracy") in a New York Times opinion piece published in July 2010 by Boston College law professor Roy Madoff, who also has a book on this and other new tricks: Immortality and the Law: The Rising Power of the American Dead (Yale University Press, 2010).

Home ownership & wealth

For the vast majority of Americans, their homes are by far the most significant wealth they possess. Figure 3 comes from the Federal Reserve Board's Survey of Consumer Finances (via Wolff, 2010) and compares the median income, total wealth (net worth, which is marketable assets minus debt), and non-home wealth (which earlier we called financial wealth) of White, Black, and Hispanic households in the U.S.

Figure 3: Income and wealth by race in the U.S.

Besides illustrating the significance of home ownership as a source of wealth, the graph also shows that Black and Latino households are faring significantly worse overall, whether we are talking about income or net worth. In 2007, the average white household had 15 times as much total wealth as the average African-American or Latino household. If we exclude home equity from the calculations and consider only financial wealth, the ratios are in the neighborhood of 100:1. Extrapolating from these figures, we see that 70% of white families' wealth is in the form of their principal residence; for Blacks and Hispanics, the figures are 95% and 96%, respectively.

And for all Americans, things are getting worse: as the projections to July 2009 by Wolff (2010) make clear, the last few years have seen a huge loss in housing wealth for most families, making the gap between the rich and the rest of America even greater, and increasing the number of households with no marketable assets from 18.6% to 24.1%.

Do Americans know their country's wealth distribution?

A remarkable study (Norton & Ariely, 2010) reveals that Americans have no idea that the wealth distribution (defined for them in terms of "net worth") is as concentrated as it is. When shown three pie charts representing possible wealth distributions, 90% or more of the 5,522 respondents -- whatever their gender, age, income level, or party affiliation -- thought that the American wealth distribution most resembled one in which the top 20% has about 60% of the wealth. In fact, of course, the top 20% control about 85% of the wealth (refer back to Table 1 and Figure 1 in this document for a more detailed breakdown of the numbers).

Even more striking, they did not come close on the amount of wealth held by the bottom 40% of the population. It's a number I haven't even mentioned so far, and it's shocking: the lowest two quintiles hold just 0.3% of the wealth in the United States. Most people in the survey guessed the figure to be between 8% and 10%, and two dozen academic economists got it wrong too, by guessing about 2% -- seven times too high. Those surveyed did have it about right for what the 20% in the middle have; it's at the top and the bottom that they don't have any idea of what's going on.

Americans from all walks of life were also united in their vision of what the "ideal" wealth distribution would be, which may come as an even bigger surprise than their shared misinformation on the actual wealth distribution. They said that the ideal wealth distribution would be one in which the top 20% owned between 30 and 40 percent of the privately held wealth, which is a far cry from the 85 percent that the top 20% actually own. They also said that the bottom 40% -- that's 120 million Americans -- should have between 25% and 30%, not the mere 8% to 10% they thought this group had, and far above the 0.3% they actually had. In fact, there's no country in the world that has a wealth distribution close to what Americans think is ideal when it comes to fairness. So maybe Americans are much more egalitarian than most of them realize about each other, at least in principle and before the rat race begins.

Figure 4, reproduced with permission from Norton & Ariely's article in Perspectives on Psychological Science, shows the actual wealth distribution, along with the survey respondents' estimated and ideal distributions, in graphic form.

Figure 4: The actual United States wealth distribution plotted against the estimated and ideal distributions.

Note: In the "Actual" line, the bottom two quintiles are not visible because the lowest quintile owns just 0.1% of all wealth, and the second-lowest quintile owns 0.2%.Source: Norton & Ariely, 2010.

David Cay Johnston, a retired tax reporter for the New York Times, published an excellent summary of Norton & Ariely's findings (Johnston, 2010b; you can download the article from Johnston's Web site).

Historical context

Numerous studies show that the wealth distribution has been extremely concentrated throughout American history, with the top 1% already owning 40-50% in large port cities like Boston, New York, and Charleston in the 19th century. It was very stable over the course of the 20th century, although there were small declines in the aftermath of the New Deal and World II, when most people were working and could save a little money. There were progressive income tax rates, too, which took some money from the rich to help with government services.

Then there was a further decline, or flattening, in the 1970s, but this time in good part due to a fall in stock prices, meaning that the rich lost some of the value in their stocks. By the late 1980s, however, the wealth distribution was almost as concentrated as it had been in 1929, when the top 1% had 44.2% of all wealth. It has continued to edge up since that time, with a slight decline from 1998 to 2001, before the economy crashed in the late 2000s and little people got pushed down again. Table 3 and Figure 5 present the details from 1922 through 2007.

Table 3: Share of wealth held by the Bottom 99% and Top 1% in the United States, 1922-2007. Bottom 99 percentTop 1 percent192263.3%36.7%192955.8%44.2%193366.7%33.3%193963.6%36.4%194570.2%29.8%194972.9%27.1%195368.8%31.2%196268.2%31.8%196565.6%34.4%196968.9%31.1%197270.9%29.1%197680.1%19.9%197979.5%20.5%198175.2%24.8%198369.1%30.9%198668.1%31.9%198964.3%35.7%199262.8%37.2%199561.5%38.5%199861.9%38.1%200166.6%33.4%200465.7%34.3%200765.4%34.6%Sources: 1922-1989 data from Wolff (1996). 1992-2007 data from Wolff (2010).

Figure 5: Share of wealth held by the Bottom 99% and Top 1% in the United States, 1922-2007.

Here are some dramatic facts that sum up how the wealth distribution became even more concentrated between 1983 and 2004, in good part due to the tax cuts for the wealthy and the defeat of labor unions: Of all the new financial wealth created by the American economy in that 21-year-period, fully 42% of it went to the top 1%. A whopping 94% went to the top 20%, which of course means that the bottom 80% received only 6% of all the new financial wealth generated in the United States during the '80s, '90s, and early 2000s (Wolff, 2007).

[Cleo's Mom 257]

Continued....

The rest of the world

Thanks to a 2006 study by the World Institute for Development Economics Research -- using statistics for the year 2000 -- we now have information on the wealth distribution for the world as a whole, which can be compared to the United States and other well-off countries. The authors of the report admit that the quality of the information available on many countries is very spotty and probably off by several percentage points, but they compensate for this problem with very sophisticated statistical methods and the use of different sets of data. With those caveats in mind, we can still safely say that the top 10% of the world's adults control about 85% of global household wealth -- defined very broadly as all assets (not just financial assets), minus debts. That compares with a figure of 69.8% for the top 10% for the United States. The only industrialized democracy with a higher concentration of wealth in the top 10% than the United States is Switzerland at 71.3%. For the figures for several other Northern European countries and Canada, all of which are based on high-quality data, see Table 4.

Table 4: Percentage of wealth held in 2000 by the Top 10% of the adult population in various Western countrieswealth owned

by top 10%Switzerland71.3%United States69.8%Denmark65.0%France61.0%Sweden58.6%UK56.0%Canada53.0%Norway50.5%Germany44.4%Finland42.3%

The Relationship Between Wealth and Power

What's the relationship between wealth and power? To avoid confusion, let's be sure we understand they are two different issues. Wealth, as I've said, refers to the value of everything people own, minus what they owe, but the focus is on "marketable assets" for purposes of economic and power studies. Power, as explained elsewhere on this site, has to do with the ability (or call it capacity) to realize wishes, or reach goals, which amounts to the same thing, even in the face of opposition (Russell, 1938; Wrong, 1995). Some definitions refine this point to say that power involves Person A or Group A affecting Person B or Group B "in a manner contrary to B's interests," which then necessitates a discussion of "interests," and quickly leads into the realm of philosophy (Lukes, 2005, p. 30). Leaving those discussions for the philosophers, at least for now, how do the concepts of wealth and power relate?

First, wealth can be seen as a "resource" that is very useful in exercising power. That's obvious when we think of donations to political parties, payments to lobbyists, and grants to experts who are employed to think up new policies beneficial to the wealthy. Wealth also can be useful in shaping the general social environment to the benefit of the wealthy, whether through hiring public relations firms or donating money for universities, museums, music halls, and art galleries.

Second, certain kinds of wealth, such as stock ownership, can be used to control corporations, which of course have a major impact on how the society functions. Tables 5a and 5b show what the distribution of stock ownership looks like. Note how the top one percent's share of stock equity increased (and the bottom 80 percent's share decreased) between 2001 and 2007.

Table 5a: Concentration of stock ownership in the United States, 2001-2007 Percent of all stock owned:Wealth class200120042007Top 1%33.5%36.7%38.3%Next 19%55.8%53.9%52.8%Bottom 80%10.7%9.4%8.9%

Table 5b: Amount of stock owned by various wealth classes in the U.S., 2007 Percent of households owning stocks worth:Wealth class$0 (no stocks)$1-$10,000More than $10,000Top 1%7.4%4.2%88.4%95-99%7.8%2.7%89.5%90-95%13.2%5.4%81.4%80-90%17.9%10.9%71.2%60-80%34.6%18.3%47.1%40-60%52.3%25.6%22.1%20-40%69.7%21.6%8.7%Bottom 20%84.7%14.3%2.0%TOTAL50.9%17.5%31.6%

Both tables' data from Wolff (2007 & 2010). Includes direct ownership of stock shares and indirect ownership through mutual funds, trusts, and IRAs, Keogh plans, 401(k) plans, and other retirement accounts. All figures are in 2007 dollars.

Third, just as wealth can lead to power, so too can power lead to wealth. Those who control a government can use their position to feather their own nests, whether that means a favorable land deal for relatives at the local level or a huge federal government contract for a new corporation run by friends who will hire you when you leave government. If we take a larger historical sweep and look cross-nationally, we are well aware that the leaders of conquering armies often grab enormous wealth, and that some religious leaders use their positions to acquire wealth.

There's a fourth way that wealth and power relate. For research purposes, the wealth distribution can be seen as the main "value distribution" within the general power indicator I call "who benefits." What follows in the next three paragraphs is a little long-winded, I realize, but it needs to be said because some social scientists -- primarily pluralists -- argue that who wins and who loses in a variety of policy conflicts is the only valid power indicator (Dahl, 1957, 1958; Polsby, 1980). And philosophical discussions don't even mention wealth or other power indicators (Lukes, 2005). (If you have heard it all before, or can do without it, feel free to skip ahead to the last paragraph of this section)

Here's the argument: if we assume that most people would like to have as great a share as possible of the things that are valued in the society, then we can infer that those who have the most goodies are the most powerful. Although some value distributions may be unintended outcomes that do not really reflect power, as pluralists are quick to tell us, the general distribution of valued experiences and objects within a society still can be viewed as the most publicly visible and stable outcome of the operation of power.

In American society, for example, wealth and well-being are highly valued. People seek to own property, to have high incomes, to have interesting and safe jobs, to enjoy the finest in travel and leisure, and to live long and healthy lives. All of these "values" are unequally distributed, and all may be utilized as power indicators. However, the primary focus with this type of power indicator is on the wealth distribution sketched out in the previous section.

The argument for using the wealth distribution as a power indicator is strengthened by studies showing that such distributions vary historically and from country to country, depending upon the relative strength of rival political parties and trade unions, with the United States having the most highly concentrated wealth distribution of any Western democracy except Switzerland. For example, in a study based on 18 Western democracies, strong trade unions and successful social democratic parties correlated with greater equality in the income distribution and a higher level of welfare spending (Stephens, 1979).

And now we have arrived at the point I want to make. If the top 1% of households have 30-35% of the wealth, that's 30 to 35 times what they would have if wealth were equally distributed, and so we infer that they must be powerful. And then we set out to see if the same set of households scores high on other power indicators (it does). Next we study how that power operates, which is what most articles on this site are about. Furthermore, if the top 20% have 84% of the wealth (and recall that 10% have 85% to 90% of the stocks, bonds, trust funds, and business equity), that means that the United States is a power pyramid. It's tough for the bottom 80% -- maybe even the bottom 90% -- to get organized and exercise much power.

Income and Power

The income distribution also can be used as a power indicator. As Table 6 shows, it is not as concentrated as the wealth distribution, but the top 1% of income earners did receive 17% of all income in the year 2003 and 21.3% in 2006. That's up from 12.8% for the top 1% in 1982, which is quite a jump, and it parallels what is happening with the wealth distribution. This is further support for the inference that the power of the corporate community and the upper class have been increasing in recent decades.

Table 6: Distribution of income in the United States, 1982-2006 IncomeTop 1 percentNext 19 percentBottom 80 percent198212.8%39.1%48.1%198816.6%38.9%44.5%199115.7%40.7%43.7%199414.4%40.8%44.9%199716.6%39.6%43.8%200020.0%38.7%41.4%200317.0%40.8%42.2%200621.3%40.1%38.6% From Wolff (2010).

The rising concentration of income can be seen in a special New York Times analysis by David Cay Johnston of an Internal Revenue Service report on income in 2004. Although overall income had grown by 27% since 1979, 33% of the gains went to the top 1%. Meanwhile, the bottom 60% were making less: about 95 cents for each dollar they made in 1979. The next 20% - those between the 60th and 80th rungs of the income ladder -- made $1.02 for each dollar they earned in 1979. Furthermore, Johnston concludes that only the top 5% made significant gains ($1.53 for each 1979 dollar). Most amazing of all, the top 0.1% -- that's one-tenth of one percent -- had more combined pre-tax income than the poorest 120 million people (Johnston, 2006).

But the increase in what is going to the few at the top did not level off, even with all that. As of 2007, income inequality in the United States was at an all-time high for the past 95 years, with the top 0.01% -- that's one-hundredth of one percent -- receiving 6% of all U.S. wages, which is double what it was for that tiny slice in 2000; the top 10% received 49.7%, the highest since 1917 (Saez, 2009). However, in an analysis of 2008 tax returns for the top 0.2% -- that is, those whose income tax returns reported $1,000,000 or more in income (mostly from individuals, but nearly a third from couples) -- it was found that they received 13% of all income, down slightly from 16.1% in 2007 due to the decline in payoffs from financial assets (Norris, 2010).

And the rate of increase is even higher for the very richest of the rich: the top 400 income earners in the United States. According to another analysis by Johnston (2010a), the average income of the top 400 tripled during the Clinton Administration and doubled during the first seven years of the Bush Administration. So by 2007, the top 400 averaged $344.8 million per person, up 31% from an average of $263.3 million just one year earlier. (For another recent revealing study by Johnston, read "Is Our Tax System Helping Us Create Wealth?").

How are these huge gains possible for the top 400? It's due to cuts in the tax rates on capital gains and dividends, which were down to a mere 15% in 2007 thanks to the tax cuts proposed by the Bush Administration and passed by Congress in 2003. Since almost 75% of the income for the top 400 comes from capital gains and dividends, it's not hard to see why tax cuts on income sources available to only a tiny percent of Americans mattered greatly for the high-earning few. Overall, the effective tax rate on high incomes fell by 7% during the Clinton presidency and 6% in the Bush era, so the top 400 had a tax rate of 20% or less in 2007, far lower than the marginal tax rate of 35% that the highest income earners (over $372,650) supposedly pay. It's also worth noting that only the first $106,800 of a person's income is taxed for Social Security purposes (as of 2010), so it would clearly be a boon to the Social Security Fund if everyone -- not just those making less than $106,800 -- paid the Social Security tax on their full incomes.

Do Taxes Redistribute Income?

It is widely believed that taxes are highly progressive and, furthermore, that the top several percent of income earners pay most of the taxes received by the federal government. Both ideas are wrong because they focus on official, rather than "effective" tax rates and ignore payroll taxes, which are mostly paid by those with incomes below $100,000 per year.

But what matters in terms of a power analysis is what percentage of their income people at different income levels pay to all levels of government (federal, state, and local) in taxes. If the less-well-off majority is somehow able to wield power, we would expect that the high earners would pay a bigger percentage of their income in taxes, because the majority figures the well-to-do would still have plenty left after taxes to make new investments and lead the good life. If the high earners have the most power, we'd expect them to pay about the same as everybody else, or less.

Citizens for Tax Justice, a research group that's been studying tax issues from its offices in Washington since 1979, provides the information we need. When all taxes (not just income taxes) are taken into account, the lowest 20% of earners (who average about $12,400 per year), paid 16.0% of their income to taxes in 2009; and the next 20% (about $25,000/year), paid 20.5% in taxes. So if we only examine these first two steps, the tax system looks like it is going to be progressive.

And it keeps looking progressive as we move further up the ladder: the middle 20% (about $33,400/year) give 25.3% of their income to various forms of taxation, and the next 20% (about $66,000/year) pay 28.5%. So taxes are progressive for the bottom 80%. But if we break the top 20% down into smaller chunks, we find that progressivity starts to slow down, then it stops, and then it slips backwards for the top 1%.

Specifically, the next 10% (about $100,000/year) pay 30.2% of their income as taxes; the next 5% ($141,000/year) dole out 31.2% of their earnings for taxes; and the next 4% ($245,000/year) pay 31.6% to taxes. You'll note that the progressivity is slowing down. As for the top 1% -- those who take in $1.3 million per year on average -- they pay 30.8% of their income to taxes, which is a little less than what the 9% just below them pay, and only a tiny bit more than what the segment between the 80th and 90th percentile pays.

What I've just explained with words can be seen more clearly in Figure 6.

Figure 6: Share of income paid as tax, including local and state tax

Source: Citizens for Tax Justice (2010a).

We also can look at this information on income and taxes in another way by asking what percentage of all taxes various income levels pay. (This is not the same as the previous question, which asked what percentage of their incomes went to taxes for people at various income levels.) And the answer to this new question can be found in Figure 7. For example, the top 20% receives 59.1% of all income and pays 64.3% of all the taxes, so they aren't carrying a huge extra burden. At the other end, the bottom 20%, which receives 3.5% of all income, pays 1.9% of all taxes.

Figure 7: Share of all income earned and all taxes paid, by quintile

Source: Citizens for Tax Justice (2010a).

So the best estimates that can be put together from official government numbers show a little bit of progressivity. But the details on those who earn millions of dollars each year are very hard to come by, because they can stash a large part of their wealth in off-shore tax havens in the Caribbean and little countries in Europe, starting with Switzerland. And there are many loopholes and gimmicks they can use, as summarized with striking examples in Free lunch and Perfectly Legal, the books by Johnston that were mentioned earlier. For example, Johnston explains the ways in which high earners can hide their money and delay on paying taxes, and then invest for a profit what normally would be paid in taxes.

Income inequality in other countries

The degree of income inequality in the United States can be compared to that in other countries on the basis of the Gini coefficient, a mathematical ratio that allows economists to put all countries on a scale with values that range (hypothetically) from zero (everyone in the country has the same income) to 100 (one person in the country has all the income). On this widely used measure, the United States ends up 95th out of the 134 countries that have been studied -- that is, only 39 of the 134 countries have worse income inequality. The U.S. has a Gini index of 45.0; Sweden is the lowest with 23.0, and South Africa is near the top with 65.0.

The table that follows displays the scores for 22 major countries, along with their ranking in the longer list of 134 countries that were studied (most of the other countries are very small and/or very poor). In examining this table, remember that it does not measure the same thing as Table 4 earlier in this document, which was about the wealth distribution. Here we are looking at the income distribution, so the two tables won't match up as far as rankings. That's because a country can have a highly concentrated wealth distribution and still have a more equal distribution of income -- both Switzerland and Sweden follow this pattern. So one thing that's distinctive about the U.S. compared to other industrialized democracies is that both its wealth and income distributions are highly concentrated.

Table 7: Income equality in selected countriesCountry/Overall RankGini Coefficient1. Sweden 23.02. Norway 25.08. Austria 26.010. Germany 27.017. Denmark 29.025. Australia 30.534. Italy 32.035. Canada 32.137. France 32.742. Switzerland 33.743. United Kingdom 34.045. Egypt 34.456. India 36.861. Japan 38.168. Israel 39.281. China 41.582. Russia 42.390. Iran 44.593. United States 45.0107. Mexico 48.2125. Brazil 56.7133. South Africa 65.0

Note: These figures reflect family/household income, not individual income.Source: Central Intelligence Agency (2010).

The impact of "transfer payments"

As we've seen, taxes don't have much impact on the income distribution, especially when we look at the top 1% or top 0.1%. Nor do various kinds of tax breaks and loopholes have much impact on the income distribution overall. That's because the tax deductions that help those with lower incomes -- such as the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), tax forgiveness for low-income earners on Social Security, and tax deductions for dependent children -- are offset by the breaks for high-income earners (for example: dividends and capital gains are only taxed at a rate of 15%; there's no tax on the interest earned from state and municipal bonds; and 20% of the tax deductions taken for dependent children actually go to people earning over $100,000 a year).

But it is sometimes said that income inequality is reduced significantly by government programs that matter very much in the lives of low-income Americans. These programs provide "transfer payments," which are a form of income for those in need. They include unemployment compensation, cash payments to the elderly who don't have enough to live on from Social Security, Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (welfare), food stamps, and Medicaid.

Thomas Hungerford (2009), a tax expert who works for the federal government's Congressional Research Service, carried out a study for Congress that tells us on the real-world impact of transfer payments on reducing income inequality. Hungerford's study is based on 2004 income data from an ongoing study of a representative sample of families at the University of Michigan, and it includes the effects of both taxes and four types of transfer payments (Social Security, Temporary Assistance to Needy Families, food stamps, and Medicaid). The table that follows shows the income inequality index (that is, the Gini coefficient) at three points along the way: (1.) before taxes or transfers; (2) after taxes are taken into account; and (3) after both taxes and transfer payments are included in the equation. (The Citizens for Tax Justice study of income and taxes for 2009, discussed earlier, included transfer payments as income, so that study and Hungerford's have similar starting points. But they can't be directly compared, because they use different years.)

Table 8: Redistributive effect of taxes and transfer paymentsIncome definitionGini indexBefore taxes and transfers0.5116After taxes, before transfers0.4774After taxes and transfers0.4284

Source: Congressional Research Service, adapted from Hungerford (2009).

As can be seen, Hungerford's findings first support what we had learned earlier from the Citizens for Tax Justice study: taxes don't do much to reduce inequality. They secondly reveal that transfer payments have a slightly larger impact on inequality than taxes, but not much. Third, his findings tell us that taxes and transfer payments together reduce the inequality index from .52 to .43, which is very close to the CIA's estimate of .45 for 2008.

In short, for those who ask if progressive taxes and transfer payments even things out to a significant degree, the answer is that while they have some effect, they don't do nearly as much as in Canada, major European countries, or Japan.

Income Ratios and Power: Executives vs. Laborers

Another way that income can be used as a power indicator is by comparing average CEO annual pay to average factory worker pay, something that has been done for many years by Business Week and, later, the Associated Press. The ratio of CEO pay to factory worker pay rose from 42:1 in 1960 to as high as 531:1 in 2000, at the height of the stock market bubble, when CEOs were cashing in big stock options. It was at 411:1 in 2005 and 344:1 in 2007, according to research by United for a Fair Economy. By way of comparison, the same ratio is about 25:1 in Europe. The changes in the American ratio from 1960 to 2007 are displayed in Figure 8, which is based on data from several hundred of the largest corporations.

Figure 8: CEOs' pay as a multiple of the average worker's pay, 1960-2007

Source: Executive Excess 2008, the 15th Annual CEO Compensation Survey from the Institute for Policy Studies and United for a Fair Economy.

It's even more revealing to compare the actual rates of increase of the salaries of CEOs and ordinary workers; from 1990 to 2005, CEOs' pay increased almost 300% (adjusted for inflation), while production workers gained a scant 4.3%. The purchasing power of the federal minimum wage actually declined by 9.3%, when inflation is taken into account. These startling results are illustrated in Figure 9.

Figure 9: CEOs' average pay, production workers' average pay, the S&P 500 Index, corporate profits, and the federal minimum wage, 1990-2005 (all figures adjusted for inflation)

Source: Executive Excess 2006, the 13th Annual CEO Compensation Survey from the Institute for Policy Studies and United for a Fair Economy.

Although some of the information I've relied upon to create this section on executives' vs. workers' pay is a few years old now, the AFL/CIO provides up-to-date information on CEO salaries at <A href="http://www.aflcio.org/corporatewatch/paywatch/ceou/" target=_blank>their Web site. There, you can learn that the median compensation for CEO's in all industries as of early 2010 is $3.9 million; it's $10.6 million for the companies listed in Standard and Poor's 500, and $19.8 million for the companies listed in the Dow-Jones Industrial Average. Since the median worker's pay is about $36,000, then you can quickly calculate that CEOs in general make 100 times as much as the workers, that CEO's of S&P 500 firms make almost 300 times as much, and that CEOs at the Dow-Jones companies make 550 times as much.

If you wonder how such a large gap could develop, the proximate, or most immediate, factor involves the way in which CEOs now are able to rig things so that the board of directors, which they help select -- and which includes some fellow CEOs on whose boards they sit -- gives them the pay they want. The trick is in hiring outside experts, called "compensation consultants," who give the process a thin veneer of economic respectability.

The process has been explained in detail by a retired CEO of DuPont, Edgar S. Woolard, Jr., who is now chair of the New York Stock Exchange's executive compensation committee. His experience suggests that he knows whereof he speaks, and he speaks because he's concerned that corporate leaders are losing respect in the public mind. He says that the business page chatter about CEO salaries being set by the competition for their services in the executive labor market is "bull." As to the claim that CEOs deserve ever higher salaries because they "create wealth," he describes that rationale as a "joke," says the New York Times (Morgenson, 2005, Section 3, p. 1).

Here's how it works, according to Woolard:

The compensation committee [of the board of directors] talks to an outside consultant who has surveys you could drive a truck through and pay anything you want to pay, to be perfectly honest. The outside consultant talks to the human resources vice president, who talks to the CEO. The CEO says what he'd like to receive. It gets to the human resources person who tells the outside consultant. And it pretty well works out that the CEO gets what he's implied he thinks he deserves, so he will be respected by his peers. (Morgenson, 2005.)

The board of directors buys into what the CEO asks for because the outside consultant is an "expert" on such matters. Furthermore, handing out only modest salary increases might give the wrong impression about how highly the board values the CEO. And if someone on the board should object, there are the three or four CEOs from other companies who will make sure it happens. It is a process with a built-in escalator.

As for why the consultants go along with this scam, they know which side their bread is buttered on. They realize the CEO has a big say-so on whether or not they are hired again. So they suggest a package of salaries, stock options and other goodies that they think will please the CEO, and they, too, get rich in the process. And certainly the top executives just below the CEO don't mind hearing about the boss's raise. They know it will mean pay increases for them, too. (For an excellent detailed article on the main consulting firm that helps CEOs and other corporate executives raise their pay, check out the New York Times article entitled "America's Corporate Pay Pal", which supports everything Woolard of DuPont claims and adds new information.)

There's a much deeper power story that underlies the self-dealing and mutual back-scratching by CEOs now carried out through interlocking directorates and seemingly independent outside consultants. It probably involves several factors. At the least, on the workers' side, it reflects their loss of power following the all-out attack on unions in the 1960s and 1970s, which is explained in detail in an excellent book by James Gross (1995), a labor and industrial relations professor at Cornell. That decline in union power made possible and was increased by both outsourcing at home and the movement of production to developing countries, which were facilitated by the break-up of the New Deal coalition and the rise of the New Right (Domhoff, 1990, Chapter 10). It signals the shift of the United States from a high-wage to a low-wage economy, with professionals protected by the fact that foreign-trained doctors and lawyers aren't allowed to compete with their American counterparts in the direct way that low-wage foreign-born workers are.

(You also can read a quick version of my explanation for the "right turn" that led to changes in the wealth and income distributions in an article on this site, where it is presented in the context of criticizing the explanations put forward by other theorists.)

On the other side of the class divide, the rise in CEO pay may reflect the increasing power of chief executives as compared to major owners and stockholders in general, not just their increasing power over workers. CEOs may now be the center of gravity in the corporate community and the power elite, displacing the leaders in wealthy owning families (e.g., the second and third generations of the Walton family, the owners of Wal-Mart). True enough, the CEOs are sometimes ousted by their generally go-along boards of directors, but they are able to make hay and throw their weight around during the time they are king of the mountain.

The claims made in the previous paragraph need much further investigation. But they demonstrate the ideas and research directions that are suggested by looking at the wealth and income distributions as indicators of power.

[ariscus99 1]

And one more thing about people buying homes they couldn't afford. That is the bank's job. They are loaning out their money - so it the their job to make sure they are loaning it to people who can repay the loan. If they don't, then it is their fault. People will always want to borrow money. It's the lenders who have to make sure it's to the right people. If someone loses their job after buying the house, then that is a different matter. There should be some kind of contigency plan to help them until they get another job and back on their feet. Do we really want to be a country that throws hardworking people who happen to hit some back luck out of their homes? I don't think so. But I think those who write that crap you posted think so. Because they all have jobs, health care and homes, so it's easy to pick on those who don't.

This is what I mean by you not believing in PERSONAL ACCOUNTABILITY and RESPONSIBILITY. OMG are you serious. It's the banks fault? Responsible people make budget's for their household and know what they can and cannot afford. People's greed, the average American's greed. They wanted what was to good to be true, and guess what? It was. No rational RESPONSIBLE person who's household income is 70K a year thinks that they can afford a 1 million dollar home. Yeah the banks were greedy when they gave them the loans, but Fannie May and Freddie Mack were holding the banks hostage during all this, all but forcing them to give out loans to people who couldn't afford it. The banks were no more greedy then were the people trying to buy the homes. I have no pity for them. I knew what I could AFFORD, in good times or bad, and thats what I purchased. And I imagine the first home you bought was also one you knew you could afford. And you didn't buy it thinking, well if I get laid off and my husband gets laid off the government will carry the house for us for awhile, it's their responsibility. This is why the left is delusional, the expectation of entitlements is sickening and crippling our nation.

[Cleo's Mom 257]

This is what I mean by you not believing in PERSONAL ACCOUNTABILITY and RESPONSIBILITY. OMG are you serious. It's the banks fault? Responsible people make budget's for their household and know what they can and cannot afford. People's greed, the average American's greed. They wanted what was to good to be true, and guess what? It was. No rational RESPONSIBLE person who's household income is 70K a year thinks that they can afford a 1 million dollar home. Yeah the banks were greedy when they gave them the loans, but Fannie May and Freddie Mack were holding the banks hostage during all this, all but forcing them to give out loans to people who couldn't afford it. The banks were no more greedy then were the people trying to buy the homes. I have no pity for them. I knew what I could AFFORD, in good times or bad, and thats what I purchased. And I imagine the first home you bought was also one you knew you could afford. And you didn't buy it thinking, well if I get laid off and my husband gets laid off the government will carry the house for us for awhile, it's their responsibility. This is why the left is delusional, the expectation of entitlements is sickening and crippling our nation.

Firsty of all no one held the banks hostages and forced them to make bad loans. When we went to buy our first and second home we didn't know what table or computations the banks used to calculate your eligibility for the loan. If we had chosen too expensive of a house, they would have told us. And if the banks are making $1 million dollar loans to people earning $70,000 then they need to get out of the banking business because they are stupid and creating risk for the rest of us. So, it is the bank's fault.

If someone loses their job, there ought to be some program that they can pay a certain amount each month on their mortgage until they get back on their feet and are able to repay the loan in full. The bank doesn't have to foreclose (which they don't want) - the people get to stay in their homes and everyone wins.

Your whole "personal responsibility" arguement that is the cornerstone of those on the right who have jobs, homes and healthcare (and with you and your spouse - union perks) and is just smoke and mirrors to deflect from the real problem.

Show me where the middle class or working poor aren't pulling their weight. I have provided statistics to show how productivity is up.

Show me where the middle class have gotten richer and the rich poorer. I have shown you statistics that prove the opposite.

Show me where the current economic crisis was caused by middle class greed, enrichment, laziness or the fault of the working poor or senior citizens getting social security. I have shown you statistics that show it was from Wall Street greed and bush's failed economic policies.

Show me where the power of the middle class has been enhanced in terms of wealth or political clout. The last bastion of power to level the playing fields - the unions - is being assaulted in a concerted effort from the right (part of their larger, sinister agenda)

Because of the current recession there are more people hurting financially that are getting unemployment, food stamps and other entitlements that they paid for when they were working - but show me where, outside of the current recession, that this is the biggest cause of our economic problems - or even within this recession.

You can't give tax cuts (costing billions) - that aren't paid for- to millionaires and billionaries - and then say we have a budget problem - and therefore we need to cut subsidies to Planned Parenthood, or home heating oil, etc..

We just threw billions of dollars in tax cuts to the wealthiest americans that didn't need it. They aren't creating jobs - they are just getting richer. And they've been getting richer because they are taking from the middle class by asking for lower wages or shipping jobs overseas or any number of things to get richer.

How about if all the Wall Street crooks give up their bonuses for one year and donate that money to the struggling states to be used for education, police, fire and government services? It only took the bush administration one week - ONE FREAKING WEEK - to come up with $800 billion to bail out the crooks on Wall Street - so I think it's time they gave something back. THAT'S WHERE REAL PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY STARTS - WITH THE ONES WHO F***ED UP.

Quit blaming the hard working people of this country - starting with the easy targets - for the crimes of the rich. It's time the wealthy started acting responsible.

[ariscus99 1]

I have no pity for them.

I thought I would clear this up before you twist into something it's not. By "them" I mean the people who got the "too good to be true" deals. Not the everyday Joe, who bought a reasonably priced home, that subsequently lost value, it sucks for them, and I feel bad, but that is why you save money for the hard times. As those who lived through the '20's knew, frugality is king, living within your means is a necessity, not some neat idea. But the people who went and bought an $800k house on a $60k salary, because they thought it would go up in value 30% and they could flip it and sell it for more. They were greedy, and they make up a huge number of these foreclosure's. Also the people who took out huge second mortgages to buy cars and big screen tv's, they were greedy and are now reaping what they have sewn.

[ariscus99 1]

The war cry of the left: "It's everyone else's fault!!!!!!!!!!!!!" I took out a huge loan I couldn't afford, damn you banker's, and Bush....damn you Bush. I got a second on my home to by a mercedes and a flat screen, but I lost my job and have two mortgages to pay now, damn you wall street, and damn you Bush, I deserved that car and those tv's.

[Cleo's Mom 257]

Greedy millionaires and billionaries on wall street got $800 billion to bail them out and this is the best you can do? You can't refute the facts I have presented because you have nothing to back up your emotional rants about how it's the greedy middle class person who wants a second home that's the problem. Yeah, that's the problem.

And FYI - the number one cause of foreclosures is medical bills resulting from lack of insurance (possible due to losing their job) or insurance won't pay Not someone getting a flat screen tv. Just another right wing rant to deflect from the truth because the right wing can't handle the truth (they come out looking really bad).