The rich have been getting richer and the poor and middle have been getting poorer in the US recently. Here are seven examples that show how the US is going through Robin Hood in Reverse.

Between 1948 and 1979, the richest 10 percent of families in the US claimed 33 percent of average income growth. Between 2000 and 2007, the richest 10 percent claimed a full 100 percent of average income growth in the US, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
Business taxes were cut from 46 to 34 percent 25 years ago, according to Pro Publica. But today 115 of the big 500 companies listed on Standard and Poor's Stock Index paid federal and other taxes of less than 20 percent over the last 5 years according to David Leonhardt of the New York Times.
General Electric's tax rate for last year was 7 percent according to Pro Publica.
The top 5 percent US households claim 63 percent of the entire country's wealth. The bottom 80 percent hold just 13% of the growth, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
Last year, John Paulson, a hedge fund manager "earned" $4.9 billion, according to the New York Times. Ten years ago it took 25 such managers to collectively earn that much. Last year the top 25 hedge fund managers pocketed (a much better word) a total of $22 billion. It would take over 440,000 people each earning $50,000 a year to match that amount.
A federal development program intended to help poor communities, the New Market Tax Credit, instead funnels up to ten billion taxpayer dollars to big corporations like JPMorgan Chase & Co, Goldman Sachs and Prudential to build luxury hotels, office buildings and a car museum. Bloomberg Markets Magazine pointed to the Blackstone Hotel in Chicago which was renovated for $116 million. Prudential got $15.6 million in tax credit from the US Treasury for helping fund the project because the hotel was in a census zone that included two colleges which housed a lot of lower income students.
According to the Financial Times, there are now more people living in poverty in the US than at any time in the last 50 years. Foreclosure filings were nearly 4 million in 2010, up 23 percent since 2008 according to RealtyTrac.
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About author Bill is legal director of the Center for Constitutional Rights and a law professor at Loyola University New Orleans. You can reach him at Quigley77@gmail.com
http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/bill-quigley/35428/robin-hood-in-reverse-in-us-seven-examples

This is from 1998. When the size of government was nothing like it is today..


"There is overwhelming evidence that both the size of government and its expansion have exerted a negative impact on economic growth during the last several decades. As government outlays in the United States have grown from 28.4 percent of GDP in 1960 to 34.6 percent in
1996, investment as a share of GDP, labor productivity, and real GDP growth have fallen. Data for 23 OECD countries also revealed that higher government expenditures were correlated with both less investment and lower rates of growth during the 1960-96 period. An analysis of data
for a larger set of 60 nations illustrates the same thing. Moreover, the size of government in the world's fastest-growing economies is generally less than 20 percent, and their non-investment government expenditures are approximately 13 percent of GDP, far less than the comparable
figures in the United States and other OECD countries. In the few isolated cases where government expenditures shrank by an appreciable amount, this reduction in the size of government was correlated with an increase in real GDP growth.All this evidence points in the same direction: Larger government means slower economic growth."

http://www.house.gov/jec/growth/function/function.pdf

And if we don't start working together, Rich, Poor and Middle Class, it wont matter because China will own it all anyway!

"All this evidence points in the same direction: Larger government means slower economic growth."

And they wonder why the Economy has bee so slow to recover!

What really chaps my hide is the fact that Economist KNOW this and still they try to make 'models' that they think will 'circumvent' the inevitable consequences...

I realy dont think the rich care what nationality you are, they have no borders anyhow and our american rich have abandoned their countrymen years ago.

Then it's time for OUR Government to abandon them! There the ones getting the tax breaks, bailouts and Government contracts. Who exactly are the Politicians representing. I seriously question whether my best interests are served fighting a war for 10 years in a country that no one has successfully won a war in for 1000 years. Or if 2 billion dollars "loaned" to Brazil to drill for oil in the Gulf, where American companies can't drill, is improving my quality of life.

With the exception of the rank and file government workers I realy think at the national level the government serves the rich and their interests.

Someone has to make drinking water safe, keep the sewers clear and the roads paved and nuclear power regulated and I tip my hate to those that serve along those lines.

The people writeing the laws and pukeing out propaganda not even believeing their own lies should be tarred and feathered.

I happen to be in the Environmental Business, and the truly sad thing is that right now the "Government" doesn't even have the money to enforce the regulations and force the Oil Companies (that are making a fortune because of "the War on Terror" in the Middle East) to clean up the mess they make here. Most of the majors are pulling out of the retail market to avoid the pollution liability associated with the underground tanks. These stations are being bought up and operated by foreign companies who bail out if they have a spill. Then the "Government", our taxes, pay to clean up the mess. It's time for our Government to start working for us, not Big Business, not foreign nations, not illegal immigrants. The simple hard working Middle Class Americans! This is not what the Founding Fathers had in mind! This is not what my ancestors fought for.

Thanks for your work.

We have an area about fifteen miles from here being cleaned by the EPA. It is the former site if Diamond Shamrock a real old name that left a toxic legacy to be cleand by tax payers.

It is near Lake Erie and it is an on going project after spending millions to clean the site it was then sold cheap to private developers who were building a golf course and houseing development.

The only thing that stopped some developer from makeing a killing was the economy crashing but the tax payer paid clean up work still goes on and on, it is a huge area and to date only the lakeshore property has been cleaned up.

More accurately, it's bank robbery in reverse. The corporate banks and other buddies of the FED and congress getting fat at the expense of everyone who isn't politically well-connected.

Well, some of the rich. Welcome to fascist Amerika.

I think you have it backwards (no offence) your not going to ever be politicaly connected unless your first approved of by big business.