This news site abhors both welfare statism and crony capitalism.
Both crowd out authentic innovation and take money from the individuals whose work (and incomes) ought to be fueling our economic engine.
That’s why we pushed so hard during the debate over tax reform for the majority of relief to be targeted where it was (is) needed most – middle income earners and small businesses. It’s also why we pushed so hard for government spending to be reduced in connection with the plan.
Unfortunately, our “leaders” didn’t listen … and since then, the spending part of the equation has only gotten further out of control.
Gotta love “Republican” rule, right? It’s virtually indistinguishable from Democratic rule …
So, where is all of this leading? That’s easy: The steadily escalating concentration of more and more wealth in the hands of fewer and fewer people.
According to a Credit Suisse report issued last fall, “the top one percent own 50.1 percent of all household wealth in the world.”
“Global wealth inequality has certainly been high and rising in the post-crisis period,” the bank noted, referring to the new normal that has followed from the Great Recession.
That’s true … and the wealth gap is projected to grow in the coming years as those of us in the middle class get squeezed out even more.
According to a new report from the United Kingdom’s House of Commons library, the world’s richest one percent will control two-thirds of the world’s wealth within the next dozen years.
[timed-content-server show=”2018-Jan-17 00:00:00″ hide=”2018-May-18 00:00:00″]SPONSORED CONTENT – ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW
[/timed-content-server]***
According to the report, if the trends seen in the aftermath of the Great Recession continue, the one percent will own a whopping 64 percent of global wealth by the year 2030. Since 2008, the one percent have seen their wealth expand by an estimated six percent per year, on average – roughly double the estimated three percent growth rate experienced by the remaining 99 percent of the population.
Is that sustainable? No … not without violent upheaval, anyway.
The wealth gap isn’t just a global phenomenon either.
In the spring of 2016, the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute (EPI) released a report showing that from 2009-2013 South Carolina was one of fifteen states in which the top one percent of income earners captured all of the income growth over that five-year period.
Additionally, the report found South Carolina was one of only ten states in the nation in which the top one percent of earners saw incomes climb by double digits from 2009-2013 while the bottom 99 percent saw incomes fall over the same time period.
In other words those gains in income levels touted by Palmetto State politicians clearly aren’t everything they are cracked up to be …
Needless to say we will keep a close eye on the latest income data when it is released in September to see if these trends continue.
Meanwhile, as we’ve stated on several occasions in the past, it’s clear former U.S. president Barack Obama kept his word when he promised to “spread the wealth around.” He just didn’t spread it in the direction most of us were expecting …
***
WANNA SOUND OFF?
Got something you’d like to say in response to one of our stories? Please feel free to submit your own guest column or letter to the editor via-email HERE. Got a tip for us? CLICK HERE. Got a technical question or a glitch to report? CLICK HERE. Want to support what we’re doing? SUBSCRIBE HERE.
Banner: Getty