How rich can they get?
By G. Dunkel
Under capitalism there is no limit to how much
wealth the very richest can accumulate at the expense of the
workers and poor.
That was proven yet again with the release of the Spring
2003 Statistics of Income Bulletin by the Internal Revenue
Service on June 26. It shows that in 2000 the 400 individuals
reporting the highest incomes in the United States accounted
for more than 1 percent of all income received. This was more
than double their share of the national income back in
1992.
In the nine years covered by this report, the income of the
top 400 increased 15 times faster than that of the bottom 90
percent. The median income for the population as a whole in
2000 was $27,000. This means that half of the families in the
United States made more than $27,000 and half made less--some a
lot less.
To be in that select group, the top 400, however, you had to
rake in at least $86.8 million. Some had incomes of more than
$1 billion.
Part of the reason why the wealthiest 400 got so much richer
was due to the stock market bubble of the 1990s. But the
figures in the report indicate that the wealthiest 400 also
took advantage of a big reduction in the capital gains tax in
1997, which was lowered from 28 percent to 20 percent. This tax
applies to money made by selling stocks at a gain.
Since then, Bush has lowered the tax on capital gains even
further, to 15 percent, so the income of these richest people
will rise even more.
At the same time, the Census Bureau reports that median
income went down from 2000 to 2001, which means that poor
people were making less at the same time the richest of the
rich were doing even better.
Some 63.2 million tax returns report incomes of less than
$50,000, while 2.8 million report incomes of over $200,000.
These wealthier people reported a total income of $1.7
trillion, of which $483 billion was from the sale of capital
assets, mostly stocks and bonds. Very few households with an
income less than $50,000 own stock. Bush's tax cuts are almost
entirely for the richest of the rich.
The income gap between rich and poor in the United States is
many times greater than in other developed capitalist
countries.
There are other significant gaps in income distribution in
the United States. Men make more than women for the same work;
African Americans make less than whites, and even at the same
income level have significantly less wealth--savings,
investments in a house, pensions--which makes it harder for
them to survive economically when they lose income. But the
struggles against racism and sexism and for affirmative action
have somewhat narrowed these gaps.
The only thing that will reverse the growing polarization of
rich and poor, however, is a broad and militant working class
struggle that threatens the very system of capitalism
itself.
Reprinted from the July 10, 2003, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
Email: ww@workers.org
Subscribe wwnews-subscribe@workersworld.net
Support independent news http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php)
HOME
:: U.S. NEWS ::
WORLD NEWS ::
EDITORIALS ::
SUBSCRIBE ::
DONATE
Email
this article
Printable
page