Reposting from Andy Tobias. With permission.

The 1% The Pendulum Has Swung Too Far In Their (Our) Favor Published on December 29, 2011

KEEPING MILLIONS UNEMPLOYED TO PUT ONE MAN OUT OF WORK

Here.   This is the URL he is referring to:  http://www.republicanjobcreation.com/

THE 1%

Did you see Joseph Stiglitz’s recent piece in Vanity Fair?  In small part:

It’s no use pretending that what has obviously happened has not in fact happened. The upper 1 percent of Americans are now taking in nearly a quarter of the nation’s income every year. In terms of wealth rather than income, the top 1 percent control 40 percent. Their lot in life has improved considerably. Twenty-five years ago, the corresponding figures were 12 percent and 33 percent. One response might be to celebrate the ingenuity and drive that brought good fortune to these people, and to contend that a rising tide lifts all boats. That response would be misguided. While the top 1 percent have seen their incomes rise 18 percent over the past decade, those in the middle have actually seen their incomes fall. For men with only high-school degrees, the decline has been precipitous—12 percent in the last quarter-century alone. All the growth in recent decades—and more—has gone to those at the top. In terms of income equality, America lags behind any country in the old, ossified Europe that President George W. Bush used to deride. Among our closest counterparts are Russia with its oligarchs and Iran. While many of the old centers of inequality in Latin America, such as Brazil, have been striving in recent years, rather successfully, to improve the plight of the poor and reduce gaps in income, America has allowed inequality to grow. . . .

. . . Those who have contributed great positive innovations to our society, from the pioneers of genetic understanding to the pioneers of the Information Age,have received a pittance compared with those responsible for the financial innovations that brought our global economy to the brink of ruin. . . .

. . . [O]ne big part of the reason we have so much inequality is that the top 1 percent want it that way. . . .

. . . [W]e started way behind the pack, but now we’re doing inequality on a world-class level. And it looks as if we’ll be building on this achievement for years to come, because what made it possible is self-reinforcing. Wealth begets power, which begets more wealth. . . .

. . . Alexis de Tocqueville once described what he saw as a chief part of the peculiar genius of American society—something he called “self-interest properly understood.” The last two words were the key. Everyone possesses self-interest in a narrow sense: I want what’s good for me right now! Self-interest “properly understood” is different. It means appreciating that paying attention to everyone else’s self-interest—in other words, the common welfare—is in fact a precondition for one’s own ultimate well-being. Tocqueville was not suggesting that there was anything noble or idealistic about this outlook—in fact, he was suggesting the opposite. It was a mark of American pragmatism. Those canny Americans understood a basic fact: looking out for the other guy isn’t just good for the soul—it’s good for business.

The top 1 percent have the best houses, the best educations, the best doctors, and the best lifestyles, but there is one thing that money doesn’t seem to have bought: an understanding that their fate is bound up with how the other 99 percent live.Throughout history, this is something that the top 1 percent eventually do learn. Too late.

☞  It’s worth reading the whole thing.  Here is the URL for the whole thing:  http://www.vanityfair.com/society/features/2011/05/top-one-percent-201105