The Great Sucking Sound

Occupy Wall Street says the top one 1 percent of Americans have gotten too rich. Are they right? - Slate Magazine

That big sucking sound you hear in the news is the wealth and opportunity of American citizens disappearing into the great black hole of Wall Street. We've reached a turning point in our history. We're in worse shape now than in 1928 before the Great Depression.  The difference between "them's that's got" and "them's that don't" is wide and growing wider.

The share of income among the top 1% is 21%.  It's higher than at any point in American history. The share of wealth among the top 1% is 33%, also higher than at any point in American history.

The bad news is that the wider the disparity in wealth and income, the less opportunity exists for the 99% to improve their lot.  This represents a severe downturn in the expectations for the American Dream.  It is a waste of the most precious resource this country has, it's people.

How bad is it?

The 1 percent has about 43 percent of all the nonhousing wealth, which has held up comparatively better. Sociologist William Domhoff reports that the 99 percent hold just 38 percent of equity in businesses, 40 percent of financial securities, and 62 percent of stocks and mutual funds. Among the 99 percent, about one in three households has more than $10,000 in stock. Among the 1 percent, nearly nine in 10 households do.

In short, inequality has increased in the past decade, leaving the 99 percent with smaller and smaller proportions of income and wealth. And it has many economists, public policy wonks, and, well, protesters very, very worried. As put by Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz, “growing inequality is the flip side of something else: shrinking opportunity. Whenever we diminish equality of opportunity, it means that we are not using some of our most valuable assets—our people—in the most productive way possible.”

This is the reason the 99% are now marching in the streets.  This is the reason that folks are starting to wake up to the loss of social justice, of the social contract, and of the opportunity to chase a dream.  It's not just about the money. It's about America. It comes down to who is doing well and who isn't.  Is much more about who will be able to well and who won't.  It's about the future.  Vast quantities of opportunity and wealth are getting sucked up by fewer and fewer of our citizens.  It should be the reverse.

More work to do.