

The most important chart about the American economy you'll see this year - lkrubner
http://www.vox.com/xpress/2014/9/25/6843509/income-distribution-recoveries-pavlina-tcherneva

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api
Hmm.... cutting taxes on the super-wealthy while raising regressive taxes such
as sales tax and payroll tax results in a massive income divergence. Big
surprise.

[http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fa/Share_of_...](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fa/Share_of_Federal_Revenue_from_Different_Tax_Sources_\(Individual,_Payroll,_and_Corporate\)_1950_-_2010.gif)

I doubt this is the only factor, but it's certainly one of them. Others
include letting the financial industry run completely wild, and asymmetrical
neoliberal trade policies that seem almost designed to export jobs and depress
wages. We open our markets to foreign competitors while at the same time
permitting them to manipulate their currencies, engage in borderline slave
labor practices, and erect their own barriers to trade. It's basically
economic unilateral disarmament.

I'm actually concerned that if this trend doesn't reverse we're going to see a
_massive_ shift to the economic left in the near to mid term future. I'm
leaning that way myself more now, but I'm afraid the reaction could go too
far. I would not want to see an American Hugo Chavez, but I can easily imagine
it in the next 10-20 years if things do not change. I can also imagine
populist crypto-fascist types having wider appeal, which would be even worse.

