As the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympic Games begin, we are reminded that success in sports is a source of nationalist pride. Americans love and respect athletes, because they love winning. Yet you, the American worker, are getting creamed. You have been losing for years!

Jesse Drucker, writing in the Wall Street Journal, pointed out that America's rich are only getting richer (see Drucker's chart below):

In a new sign of increasing inequality in the U.S., the richest ONE percent of Americans in 2006 garnered the highest share of the nation's adjusted gross income for two decades, and possibly the highest since 1929, according to Internal Revenue Service data.

At the same time, the tax rate of the wealthiest ONE percent fell to its lowest level in a least 18 years. The average tax rate in 2006 for the top ONE percent, based on adjusted gross income, was 22.8 percent, down slightly from 2005 and the fifth straight year of declines. The average tax rate of this group was 28.9 percent in 1996, and was 24 percent in 1988. [1]

Are you pissed off enough to wake up from this economic nightmare? I know you're screaming about high gas prices and soaring costs for food. You're mad as hell that your home value has dropped precipitously. People on the political right, Republicans, demand "market economics" when times are good. Yet you, the taxpayer, are currently bailing out Wall Street financial and mortgage companies. You don't share in their profits, but you help pay for their losses. You are getting creamed!


Income Inequality
The chart above compares CEO Pay to the Average Wages of Workers between 1970–1999 [2]. While management compensation is exploding, worker pay is barely rising (but you already knew that, didn't you?).

You're working harder than ever. You're actually more productive than ever as well.

Since 1979, hourly earnings for 80 percent of American workers (those in private-sector, nonsupervisory jobs) have risen by just ONE percent, after inflation. The average hourly wage was $17.71 at the end of 2007.

Worker productivity, meanwhile, has climbed 60 percent. If wages had kept pace with productivity, the average full-time worker would be earning $58,000 a year. $36,000 was the average in 2007. [3]

You're working more; you're doing more per hour; so where's the extra money going? Yep! That extra profit is going straight into the pocket of the CEO and upper management. You're getting creamed financially.


Real Income Growth
America has been a great place to live and work due in part to our robust Middle Class. Workers and management have shared in the profits of our labor and their leadership. It is a delicate system where we share the winnings. Yet in recent years, we have lost the balance that helped build this great nation. The chart above highlights Real Annual Income Growth between 1993-2006. [4] This covers both the Bill Clinton and George W. Bush presidencies. Under Clinton, incomes for the TOP ONE percent of wage earners grew nicely at 10.3 percent per year (column 2). For the rest of us, the remaining 99 percent, we saw our incomes rise at about 2.7 percent per year (column 3).

This changed dramatically during the GW Bush administration. The TOP ONE percent of wage earners grew dramatically by 10.9 percent per year -- at the expense of the bottom 99 percent. Our income grew by only ONE percent per year.

Column 4 captures the distribution of this newly created wealth. Under Clinton, increased profits were shared in a more balanced fashion, as 45 percent of profits went to the TOP ONE percent and the remaining went to the rest of us. Under GW Bush, the TOP ONE percent captured nearly $0.75 of every growth dollar (73%). Under Clinton, the rich prospered handsomely; under GW Bush it has been robbery.

You are getting creamed, yet you do nothing!