The Wall Street Journal reports:
In a new sign of increasing inequality in the U.S., the richest 1% of Americans in 2006 garnered the highest share of the nation’s adjusted gross income for two decades, and possibly the highest since 1929, according to Internal Revenue Service data.
Meanwhile, the average tax rate of the wealthiest 1% fell to its lowest level in at least 18 years. The group’s share of the tax burden has risen, though not as quickly as its share of income.
And…the economy is falling apart. The era of conservative governance is over. It has not worked out appreciable better than it did during the era of Harding/Coolidge/Hoover, although there is still hope that the worst will be avoided. We do not, for example, face hostile totalitarian armies in Asia and Europe. And, at least so far, there has been no total collapse of the stock market or attendant soaring unemployment. But we should be careful. Income disparity this extreme is a major warning sign. It truly tests the assumptions the economic, political, and media elite have been pushing on us since at least 1983.
It will take everyone some time to adjust to new realities, including the new Democratic majorities.
