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Related: About this forumThe Year of the Great Redistribution
Saturday, January 4, 2014by Robert Reich
One of the worst epithets that can be leveled at a politician these days is to call him a redistributionist. Yet 2013 marked one of the biggest redistributions in recent American history. It was a redistribution upward, from average working people to the owners of America.
The stock market ended 2013 at an all-time high giving stockholders their biggest annual gain in almost two decades. Most Americans didnt share in those gains, however, because most people havent been able to save enough to invest in the stock market. More than two-thirds of Americans live from paycheck to paycheck.
Even if you include the value of IRAs, most shares of stock are owned by the very wealthy. The richest 1 percent of Americans owns 35 percent of the value of American-owned shares. The richest 10 percent owns over 80 percent. So in the bull market of 2013, Americas rich hit the jackpot.
What does this have to do with redistribution? Some might argue the stock market is just a giant casino. Since its owned mostly by the wealthy, a rise in stock prices simply reflects a transfer of wealth from some of the rich (who cashed in their shares too early) to others of the rich (who bought shares early enough and held on to them long enough to reap the big gains).
http://robertreich.org/post/72265646495
Income Inequality
Ending Inequality[/]
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The Year of the Great Redistribution (Original Post)
Crewleader
Jan 2014
OP
Demeter
(85,373 posts)1. K&R FOR THE CARTOONS
Crewleader
(17,005 posts)2. Thanks Demeter
The cartoons fit.
cantbeserious
(13,039 posts)3. Kick And Recommend
eom