Peace out, Big Man...

I still remember the first time I heard 'Badlands'. Man, I was blown away by that saxophone solo.

Thanks for the music, Big Man. You will be missed.

income inequality...

While there were a variety of interesting articles in today's Sydney Morning Herald - in between the coverage of the first anniversary of the removal of Kevin Rudd, his apparent desire to return to the top job, and Labor's continually sliding poll numbers (See Hartcher, Hartcher II, Coorey, Coorey and Hartcher, Taylor etc) - one piece that stuck out to me as I was navigating my way through it this morning was Simon Mann's piece on income inequality in America.

Some interesting takeaways:

• "the top 400 American's earned on average $US270.5 million each - 20 times what they made in 1955 (which was $US13.3 million, in 2008 dollars)";
  
• "the top 1 per cent of American taxpayers now takes almost a quarter of all income, which accounts for 40% of America's wealth"; and
• "the 400 highest-earning Americans in 1955, after exploiting all possible deductions, paid 51.2 per cent of their total earnings in federal income tax. Fifty years later, in 2008, the top 400 paid just 18.1 per cent in tax".

Although this may not be new to many people, I was struck by the sheer magnitude of these numbers alongside the insight into the fears and aspirations of America's Rich by Boston College's Centre on Wealth and Philanthropy, the amount of U.S Debt that is currently held by this demographic (40 per cent), and the declining tax rate paid by American Corporations (47.4 per cent in the 1960s to 11.1 per cent today. Further Reading: G.E.’s Strategies Let It Avoid Taxes Altogether from the New York Times March 24, 2011).

Also, the wealth distribution study by Dan Ariely and Mike Norton, "Building a Better America – One Wealth Quintile at a Time" that was mentioned yielded some interesting results.

All in all Simon Mann captures a component of the current fiscal problem of the United States that should be discussed more.