Since 1967, US population increased from 198,712,056 to 310,000,000, a growth of about 1% a year.
Per person income has risen about 1.2%/yr.
Per person GDP has risen about 1.6% over per person income.
BTW: nobody stole your growth. You get what you agree to in exchange for your efforts. If you work the same menial job year after year, don't expect much income growth. If you take risks and innovate and work hard, you can see huge income growth. This, of course, is the purpose of this discussion board: to take opportunities and profit from them. A lot of people are content with not much income growth; they're quite comfortable where they are. Those of us frequenting ycombinator.com are interested in doing a lot better than "comfortable where we are", and the numbers show there is a lot of money to be made by taking the marvelous opportunities this nation affords us.
>> You get what you agree to in exchange for your efforts. If you work the same menial job year after year, don't expect much income growth.
This just isn't true. A menial worker makes a little more than they would have in 1960, and a lot more than they would have in 1920. Innovation trickles down. Rich bankers riding a bubble on the way up, and bailouts on the way down does not.
"The system" isn't totally broken, but it's a little rigged. It always has been. The more corrupt the system is, the more certain people get paid for not innovating, taking risks, and working hard; which doesn't create a lot of real growth.
I'd say a lot of the corrupt growth is the result of bubbles at the moment - making short term gains at the cost of long-term gains. Tactics include dodgy financialization, creative accounting, ripping off customers at the cost of goodwill, mistreating employees then being screwed when talented staff abandon the company, outsourcing cost centers then getting hit by bait-and-switch prices (Chinese and Indian wages will rise), and so on.
People who are already rich benefit (due to good dividends, higher stock prices, and performance bonuses), but will lose in the long run (unless they get bailed out). Nobody complained when the rich were making money, because they though the benefits would trickle down; but now that a lot of the benefits have proved to be illusionary, people are pissed.
Name one person (not a left-wing nut-job) who bagged the Enron execs when everyone thought they were actually making money ;)
My point is, I don't see any good reason for relative difference between the rich and poor to change over time (past a certain point, say, what it was in the 60s). If it does, it might be because something is broken.
Since 1967, US population increased from 198,712,056 to 310,000,000, a growth of about 1% a year.
Per person income has risen about 1.2%/yr.
Per person GDP has risen about 1.6% over per person income.
BTW: nobody stole your growth. You get what you agree to in exchange for your efforts. If you work the same menial job year after year, don't expect much income growth. If you take risks and innovate and work hard, you can see huge income growth. This, of course, is the purpose of this discussion board: to take opportunities and profit from them. A lot of people are content with not much income growth; they're quite comfortable where they are. Those of us frequenting ycombinator.com are interested in doing a lot better than "comfortable where we are", and the numbers show there is a lot of money to be made by taking the marvelous opportunities this nation affords us.