O Plutocrats for Specious Skives

While you’re enjoying the filibuster, a look back at a recent Bernie Sanders claim:

“Mr. President, in the year 2007, the top 1 percent of all income earners in the United States made 23.5 percent of all income,” Sanders said. “The top 1 percent earned 23.5 percent of all income — more than the entire bottom 50 percent. That is apparently not enough. The percentage of income going to the top 1 percent has nearly tripled since the 1970s. In the mid-1970s, the top 1 percent earned about 8 percent of all income. In the 1980s, that figure jumped to 14 percent. In the late 1990s, that 1 percent earned about 19 percent.”

And the Truth-o-Meter scores it… True.

Bernie Sanders, in viral speech, says top 1 percent earn more than 23 percent of U.S. income [PolitiFact, via Gen JC Christian]

nojo
4:20 pm • Friday • December 10, 2010
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Choose Your Delusion

Senate Cagematch! Is Bernie Still Talking?

4 Comments

Mistress Cynica

5:15 pm • Friday • December 10, 2010

Yay, class warfare!

al2o3cr

5:43 pm • Friday • December 10, 2010

I found this paper from a while back pretty interesting on this issue; in short, people in the US don’t KNOW how fucked they are – and when they describe their “ideal” situation, even Shrub fans end up wanting to be in Sweden instead of here.

It’s kind of like the way that people (when surveyed) will identify themselves as “conservatives” but then when asked for more detail end up being in favor of mostly progressive policies.

TJ/ Jamie Sommers /TJ

9:02 pm • Friday • December 10, 2010

@Mistress Cynica: I want a bumper sticker that says “Proud to be a Class War Veteran”.

karen marie doesn’t want to know

10:46 pm • Friday • December 10, 2010

@TJ/ Jamie Sommers /TJ: Oooh, me too!

ADD: OMG! I just googled it and didn’t find a single hit for “Proud to be a Class War Veteran”!