Class Warfare

Larry Beinhart’s Body Politic

by Larry Beinhart and photographs by Dion Ogust, November 23, 2010

We’re in a class war.

It’s the corporations and the very wealthiest against all the rest of us.
We’re losing.

In 1962 the wealthiest 1% of American households had 125 times the wealth of the median household. Now it’s 190 times as much.

Is that a case of a rising tide lifting all boats, just a few of them a little bit higher?
No.

From 1950 to 1965, median family income rose from $24,000 a year to $38,000 a year. That’s close to 4% a year, close to 60 percent over 15 years. That’s a rising tide.

In 1964 there was a big tax cut. That’s when things started to slow down for average people. By the mid-seventies the rise of the middle class stalled.

From 1975 to 2010, median family income rose $42,936 to $49,777, not quite 16% over 25 years, less than .06% per year.

Briefly, when taxes went up under Clinton, median income rose, peaked at $52,587 in 1999, and then, after Bush cut taxes, it declined.

Keep in mind that this is median family income. In the fifties and sixties, family income was usually earned by a single person. Today, almost all family income comes from at least two people.

At the same time income for the richest rose. In 1979 the richest 1% of Americans earned 9% of all US income. Now they earn 24% of all US income. One percent of Americans earn nearly one fourth of all the income in the country.

Then came the crash and the recession. It hasn’t changed anything. Things have become worse.