Drip Drip Drip

[Amazon 7]

MMMMMMM Got TRICKLE???

Here is how much economic progress America has made in the 21st Century: the average taxpayer’s 2009 income was at the same level as 1997.

Average 2009 income was $54,283, just $18 more than in 1997 when you adjust for inflation, not that anyone would notice a difference of $1.50 a month in their pocket.

And compared to 2007, the last peak year of the economy, average income fell a painful $8,588 or 13.7 percent in real terms. Having $716 less each month is something most people would notice.

These figures come from the newest tax return data issued by the Internal Revenue Service. You won’t find the numbers above at the IRS website, just raw numbers that I use to calculate changes in incomes, taxes paid and related information.

You also won’t find this data analyzed in most of the mainstream press because our major newspapers and broadcast outlets are too focused on what politicians stay instead of what they do and what the official measures of economic performance tell us.

When you hear politicians saying the cure for what ails our economy is to cut taxes, and that high-income Americans are the job creators who will stop creating jobs if their taxes are not cut more, think about what the data show.


So here is what the latest data show, starting with the big picture:

The total income reported by all Americans in 2009 was 4 percent less than in 2000. Since the country’s population grew by more than 25 million people during those years that means not just a smaller pie, but thinner slices all around.

The reason our economy sits stuck in the doldrums is not taxes, which are much lower now than in 2007, especially for the highest income Americans. Indeed, as a share of the economy the income tax is at its lowest level since Eisenhower was in his first term.

Individual income taxes in 2010, other data show, were one-third less per capita than in 2001, a recession year when the tax cuts sponsored by President Gorge W. Bush took effect. Total income taxes have never reached the amount collected in 2001 despite a growing population, a situation that contributes mightily to our federal debt and our failure to thrive economically in the 21st Century.

Changes in economic conditions and in policies set by our elected leaders in Washington and the state capitals are pushing down wages for most people and encouraging elimination of jobs, especially public sector jobs on which the economy relies to provide healthy, educated workers and otherwise grease the wheels of commerce.

Employers have plenty of money to invest. American corporations have roughly $2 trillion in cash, nearly $7,000 per American. They have so much idle cash that they cannot even invest at a high enough interest rate to keep pace with inflation.

Putting that money to work would mean more jobs, more income, more taxes and smaller deficits that could quickly turn into surpluses if our political leaders thought more about numbers than scoring political points

[jclalor 12]

Quote

Quote

MMMMMMM Got TRICKLE???

Here is how much economic progress America has made in the 21st Century: the average taxpayer’s 2009 income was at the same level as 1997.

Average 2009 income was $54,283, just $18 more than in 1997 when you adjust for inflation, not that anyone would notice a difference of $1.50 a month in their pocket.

And compared to 2007, the last peak year of the economy, average income fell a painful $8,588 or 13.7 percent in real terms. Having $716 less each month is something most people would notice.

These figures come from the newest tax return data issued by the Internal Revenue Service. You won’t find the numbers above at the IRS website, just raw numbers that I use to calculate changes in incomes, taxes paid and related information.

You also won’t find this data analyzed in most of the mainstream press because our major newspapers and broadcast outlets are too focused on what politicians stay instead of what they do and what the official measures of economic performance tell us.

When you hear politicians saying the cure for what ails our economy is to cut taxes, and that high-income Americans are the job creators who will stop creating jobs if their taxes are not cut more, think about what the data show.


So here is what the latest data show, starting with the big picture:

The total income reported by all Americans in 2009 was 4 percent less than in 2000. Since the country’s population grew by more than 25 million people during those years that means not just a smaller pie, but thinner slices all around.

The reason our economy sits stuck in the doldrums is not taxes, which are much lower now than in 2007, especially for the highest income Americans. Indeed, as a share of the economy the income tax is at its lowest level since Eisenhower was in his first term.

Individual income taxes in 2010, other data show, were one-third less per capita than in 2001, a recession year when the tax cuts sponsored by President Gorge W. Bush took effect. Total income taxes have never reached the amount collected in 2001 despite a growing population, a situation that contributes mightily to our federal debt and our failure to thrive economically in the 21st Century.

Changes in economic conditions and in policies set by our elected leaders in Washington and the state capitals are pushing down wages for most people and encouraging elimination of jobs, especially public sector jobs on which the economy relies to provide healthy, educated workers and otherwise grease the wheels of commerce.

Employers have plenty of money to invest. American corporations have roughly $2 trillion in cash, nearly $7,000 per American. They have so much idle cash that they cannot even invest at a high enough interest rate to keep pace with inflation.

Putting that money to work would mean more jobs, more income, more taxes and smaller deficits that could quickly turn into surpluses if our political leaders thought more about numbers than scoring political points

You are so wrong. The reason the middle class is shrinking is because they are lazy and it is easier to live off the ever increasing Government programs offered to the shiftless and lazy unemployed. The middle class has no one to blame but them selves for the mess they find them self in. You state that their wages have not increased since 1998, I bet it's because they are not working nearly as hard as they worked in 1998.

With the middle class shrinking, our wealthier friends are now being hounded to pay more taxes to cover for the people who are now in the lower class and leach off the rest of us. Why should we expect the job creators to bare such a burden when they are busy providing high quality jobs for their fellow Americans. All because God blesses some people with great wealth, why would we expect them to give a dime of it to the poor and downtrodden, this is not based on the Christian values our country was founded on.

[airdvr 210]

Quote

Putting that money to work would mean more jobs, more income, more taxes and smaller deficits that could quickly turn into surpluses if our political leaders thought more about numbers than scoring political points

This is about the only part I agree with. Unfortunately, most businesses are sitting back in a 'wait and see' mode with Barry at the helm. Never know what'll happen next. This president has no clear cut agenda anymore. He's lost his way and has no breadcrumbs. I predict we'll be reading his memoirs in 2013.

Please don't dent the planet.

Destinations by Roxanne

[Amazon 7]

Quote

Quote

Putting that money to work would mean more jobs, more income, more taxes and smaller deficits that could quickly turn into surpluses if our political leaders thought more about numbers than scoring political points

This is about the only part I agree with. Unfortunately, most businesses are sitting back in a 'wait and see' mode with Barry at the helm. Never know what'll happen next. This president has no clear cut agenda anymore. He's lost his way and has no breadcrumbs. I predict we'll be reading his memoirs in 2013.

Were you praying for that in church this morning??

[winsor 236]

Quote

Quote

Putting that money to work would mean more jobs, more income, more taxes and smaller deficits that could quickly turn into surpluses if our political leaders thought more about numbers than scoring political points

This is about the only part I agree with. Unfortunately, most businesses are sitting back in a 'wait and see' mode with Barry at the helm. Never know what'll happen next. This president has no clear cut agenda anymore. He's lost his way and has no breadcrumbs. I predict we'll be reading his memoirs in 2013.

Given the string of losers and half-wits the Republicans are fielding, he could continue to screw up until election day and still have a good chance.

Sometimes you can't bring yourself to hold your nose and pull the handle. All too often "none of the above" would be a marked improvement.

[StreetScooby 5]

Quote

All too often "none of the above" would be a marked improvement.

Agreed.

We are all engines of karma

[airdvr 210]

Quote

Quote

Quote

Putting that money to work would mean more jobs, more income, more taxes and smaller deficits that could quickly turn into surpluses if our political leaders thought more about numbers than scoring political points

This is about the only part I agree with. Unfortunately, most businesses are sitting back in a 'wait and see' mode with Barry at the helm. Never know what'll happen next. This president has no clear cut agenda anymore. He's lost his way and has no breadcrumbs. I predict we'll be reading his memoirs in 2013.

Were you praying for that in church this morning??

You know how I feel about religious nutjobs. Nice try.

Please don't dent the planet.

Destinations by Roxanne

[Amazon 7]

Quote

Quote

Quote

Quote

Putting that money to work would mean more jobs, more income, more taxes and smaller deficits that could quickly turn into surpluses if our political leaders thought more about numbers than scoring political points

This is about the only part I agree with. Unfortunately, most businesses are sitting back in a 'wait and see' mode with Barry at the helm. Never know what'll happen next. This president has no clear cut agenda anymore. He's lost his way and has no breadcrumbs. I predict we'll be reading his memoirs in 2013.

Were you praying for that in church this morning??

You know how I feel about religious nutjobs. Nice try.

But millions of your fellow travellers were... and now you call them nutjobs

[hwt 0]

Quote

MMMMMMM Got TRICKLE???

Here is how much economic progress America has made in the 21st Century: the average taxpayer’s 2009 income was at the same level as 1997.

Average 2009 income was $54,283, just $18 more than in 1997 when you adjust for inflation, not that anyone would notice a difference of $1.50 a month in their pocket.

And compared to 2007, the last peak year of the economy, average income fell a painful $8,588 or 13.7 percent in real terms. Having $716 less each month is something most people would notice.

These figures come from the newest tax return data issued by the Internal Revenue Service. You won’t find the numbers above at the IRS website, just raw numbers that I use to calculate changes in incomes, taxes paid and related information.

You also won’t find this data analyzed in most of the mainstream press because our major newspapers and broadcast outlets are too focused on what politicians stay instead of what they do and what the official measures of economic performance tell us.

When you hear politicians saying the cure for what ails our economy is to cut taxes, and that high-income Americans are the job creators who will stop creating jobs if their taxes are not cut more, think about what the data show.


So here is what the latest data show, starting with the big picture:

The total income reported by all Americans in 2009 was 4 percent less than in 2000. Since the country’s population grew by more than 25 million people during those years that means not just a smaller pie, but thinner slices all around.

The reason our economy sits stuck in the doldrums is not taxes, which are much lower now than in 2007, especially for the highest income Americans. Indeed, as a share of the economy the income tax is at its lowest level since Eisenhower was in his first term.

Individual income taxes in 2010, other data show, were one-third less per capita than in 2001, a recession year when the tax cuts sponsored by President Gorge W. Bush took effect. Total income taxes have never reached the amount collected in 2001 despite a growing population, a situation that contributes mightily to our federal debt and our failure to thrive economically in the 21st Century.

Changes in economic conditions and in policies set by our elected leaders in Washington and the state capitals are pushing down wages for most people and encouraging elimination of jobs, especially public sector jobs on which the economy relies to provide healthy, educated workers and otherwise grease the wheels of commerce.

Employers have plenty of money to invest. American corporations have roughly $2 trillion in cash, nearly $7,000 per American. They have so much idle cash that they cannot even invest at a high enough interest rate to keep pace with inflation.

Putting that money to work would mean more jobs, more income, more taxes and smaller deficits that could quickly turn into surpluses if our political leaders thought more about numbers than scoring political points

_________________________________________

We have a government that has not run on a budget in close to three years.

We have a president that does not understand the fundamentals of capitalism .( he is a socialist )

We have a senate that is run by a fool.

We have a fed that robs the wealth of it's people twice ( they are talking about a third) in the form of QE 1 and QE 2.

We have a government that is addicted to spending the people's wealth on shovel ready ( union ) jobs that were not so shovel ready . there is no end in sight in the spending and taxes are on the horizon.

We have a government which is passing more rules and regulations .

We have a government that grows at 8% a year and any time that 8% is attempted to be lowered, the democrats scream that the old are going to die ...

I do not blame business. the socialist are making us into Cuba.

[jclalor 12]

Quote

Quote

Putting that money to work would mean more jobs, more income, more taxes and smaller deficits that could quickly turn into surpluses if our political leaders thought more about numbers than scoring political points

Quote

This is about the only part I agree with. Unfortunately, most businesses are sitting back in a 'wait and see' mode with Barry at the helm. Never know what'll happen next. This president has no clear cut agenda anymore. He's lost his way and has no breadcrumbs. I predict we'll be reading his memoirs in 2013.

You are exactly right. We will destroy Obama at any cost and will stop him from doing any good for this country. I pray with my family daily for high unemployment numbers for the next 15 months, a weekend dollar, turmoil in Afghanistan and Iraq, and a president that accomplishes nothing the rest of his term. We need to have this country in dire straights to assure a Tea Party victory in 2012, and we know just how to do it.

[Amazon 7]

It is truly sad that tea baggers like you truly believe all of your bullet points.

[CanuckInUSA 0]

Quote

Employers have plenty of money to invest. American corporations have roughly $2 trillion in cash

Businesses are sitting on this cash because the anti-business Hollywood created Messiah Savior of the Universe Super Hero Barack Obummer is in charge. Obummer has an opportunity to create thousands and thousands of jobs and at the same time reduce America's dependency on Middle East Oil by approving the construction of the Keystone Pipeline from Alberta to Texas. But so far Obummer has dithered on the issue. I guess he is too busy admiring his Faux Nobel Peace Prize to think that creating jobs and reducing the dependency on the Middle East would be good for the nation. I would much rather see this oil sold to America. But if Obummer thinks we are an unethical source of the dino juice, China will be all to happy to buy it instead.

Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

[hwt 0]

It is the right way...
socialism does not work.
you are old enough to have experienced a lifetime of this system. look around does this look like the American dream?

Name one place where socialism works?/

It breeds laziness and generates, generation after generation of welfare families.

look at Chicago.. Obama has been there for years helping them. look at these ghetto people. do they look like socialism is helping them?

I really truly believe that a swift kick in the ass would help a lot of these people more.

[hwt 0]

Quote

Quote

Employers have plenty of money to invest. American corporations have roughly $2 trillion in cash

Businesses are sitting on this cash because the anti-business Hollywood created Messiah Savior of the Universe Super Hero Barack Obummer is in charge. Obummer has an opportunity to create thousands and thousands of jobs and at the same time reduce America's dependency on Middle East Oil by approving the construction of the Keystone Pipeline from Alberta to Texas. But so far Obummer has dithered on the issue. I guess he is too busy admiring his Faux Nobel Peace Prize to think that creating jobs and reducing the dependency on the Middle East would be good for the nation. I would much rather see this oil sold to America. But if Obummer thinks we are an unethical source of the dino juice, China will be all to happy to buy it instead.

_____________________________________
+1

I can think of so many ways that Obama could generate jobs and trickle down tax revenue( for you Amazon ) with one executive order.

[grimmie 186]

We have been Socialists for years.

Free medical care for all, free education, free money for farmers, free money for corporations, free money for rich folks, free money for poor folks...and on and on.

This dilemma we are in didn't start 2 years ago. It's been brewing for years. Going on the Crusades to the Middle East didn't help the nations piggy bank either.

Politicians at local levels are knucklheads.

When cities and states decided to be business men and build stadiums, arenas and convention centers they screwed the pooch.

A city has three jobs. Keep the trash picked up, the fires put out and the bad guys in jail.

The state of America has been heading this way for years. Now back to Fox News.

[hwt 0]

I remember back in the sixties , nothing has changed .
same welfare system . except some of the welfare recipients could afford a Cadillac back then .

I truly believe that a swift kick in the ass would help a lot of these people more.

[StreetScooby 5]

Quote

Politicians at local levels are knucklheads.

You live in Westchester County, NY, too? It's got a Democratic super majority, and we have the nation's highest county taxes. Think there's a connection there?

We are all engines of karma

[Amazon 7]

Quote

It is the right way...
socialism does not work.
you are old enough to have experienced a lifetime of this system. look around does this look like the American dream?

Name one place where socialism works?/

It breeds laziness and generates, generation after generation of welfare families.

look at Chicago.. Obama has been there for years helping them. look at these ghetto people. do they look like socialism is helping them?

I really truly believe that a swift kick in the ass would help a lot of these people more.

OK we get it.. you want a return to the Capatalist free for all that brought us the Great Depression... and the robber baronswho took most of the wealth of the Gilded age while the disease ridden cities of the 1800's and 1900's went lacking... cool.. That worked out so well.. and we are basically headed back there..

Got Cake???? Less and less people do and when that happens.. eventually those with nothing, have nothing to lose, So far we have avoided events like France of 1789 . But remember.. human beings have that same capacity to this day.
Do you think Xe will shoot their fellow Americans when they come for their benefactors?? Do you think our own military will fire on Americans????

[jclalor 12]

Quote

Name one place where socialism works?

Norway.

[Amazon 7]

Quote

Quote

Name one place where socialism works?

Norway.

Funni dat...... Seems Sweden works purty darn good too.

[mirage62 0]

Quote

Funni dat...... Seems Sweden works purty darn good too.

C-O-O-L move there........and don't get all pissy with me...I go to church and I'll just pray for you.

Kevin Keenan is my hero, a double FUP, he does so much with so little

[kelpdiver 2]

Quote

Quote

Name one place where socialism works?

Norway.

they just suffered a disaster that was proportionally worse than 9/11, so apparently it's not working for everyone.

Its population is 1.5% of America's, yet it is now in the top 5 for the world in oil exports. Nice blessing to have, but no evidence that it would scale. OTOH, they have to be credited for using that gift much more effectively than Chavez has in Venezuela.

[Andy9o8 2]

Quote

Quote

Name one place where socialism works?

Norway.

they just suffered a disaster that was proportionally worse than 9/11, so apparently it's not working for everyone.

I see neither causation nor even correlation. What part of your point am I missing?

[kelpdiver 2]

Quote

I see neither causation nor even correlation. What part of your point am I missing?

angry right wingers didn't enjoy socialism, kill a bunch of people. Single (or in this case double) events can be written off as one-offs, but when they repeat they're called insurgencies.

[jclalor 12]

Quote

Quote

Quote

I see neither causation nor even correlation. What part of your point am I missing?

angry right wingers didn't enjoy socialism, kill a bunch of people. Single (or in this case double) events can be written off as one-offs, but when they repeat they're called insurgencies.

So using your logic, An angry liberal kills many conservatives but it's ok because the liberal does not enjoy conservatism? So when the overwhelming majority of a population is happy with the current style of government, mass murder of children for the small minority is an acceptable form of recourse?

What about Canada? they have the ultimate Obama care, yet most are happy. The list of countries go on. Perhaps you can provide an example of your capitalistic paradise.