Who cares how the rich spend their money? Well, perhaps everyone should these days. Consumer spending accounts for roughly two-thirds of U.S. gross domestic product, or the value of all goods and services produced in the nation. And spending by the rich now accounts for the largest share of consumer outlays in at least 20 years. By contrast, the bottom 80% by income account for 39.5% of all consumer outlays.
What is surprising is just how much or our consumer economy is now dependent on the rich, and how that share has increased as the U.S. emerges from recession. In the third quarter of 1990, the top 5% accounted for 25% of consumer outlays. That held relatively steady until the mid-1990s, when it started inching up past 30%. It dipped in 2003 and again in 2008, but started surging in 2009 amid the greatest bull market rally in history, with the Dow Jones Industry Average rising nearly 50% in the last nine months of the year.
Mark Zandi, chief economist for Moody's Analytics, cites two main reasons for the increase. First, the wealthy panicked during the financial crisis and stopped spending. When markets rebounded, they came out of their shells and started spending again. "I think that pent-up demand was unleashed," he said. "It was an unusually high rate of spending."
In fact, the recent spending of the wealthy may be unsustainabSo, the rich have been SO maligned by leftwingers, including the Obama Administration (I guess his wife's trip to Spain doesn't count as "something only the rich do"), that people could see this information and just PILE IT ON THE RICH! But, CAN WE? What's WRONG with people working hard and investing, spending, playing $?
Is this the time to tax MORE? Is this the time to make vulnerable those people who hire and buy? (To say nothing about their PAYING MOST OF THE TAXES, of course.)
"I think we're already seeing a slowdown in spending by this group," Mr. Zandi says. Yes! Why SHOULD they, how CAN they spend when they can't depend on the economy and hear nothing but HIGHER TAXES COMING?
z
38 comments:
Who cares how the rich spend their money? Well, perhaps everyone should these days.
What? Are we supposed to spy on the rich's spending and make sure they spend their money on "the right things"? What kind of freedom is THAT?
The income tax IS the largest component of federal revenue, mr. ducky. So who is being dishonest here...
Your over-valued "prol's" contribute very little to the federal coffers, yet collect the vast majority of outlays in the form of "entitlements".
Duck, who raises the gas tax, sales tax, etc on the middle and lower class? I don't know about Massachusetts's but here in Michigan it has historically been the left that has favored raising these taxes. Then they sit around and whine about sparing the middle and lower classes from tax increases.
AOW, they really should be giving this money back to the government so those with less ambition can have the same things they have worked for.
with the tinkle down economics which have already failed
Thanks for the morning laugh.
France, Germany, Spain, Greece, Italy.
States and cities run by Democrats for decades: Michigan, New Jersey, California.
Ducky you should be a stand up comedian too.
What will stimulate small business demand more, a cut in the upper quartile income tax or an extension of unemployment benefits and food stamps?
and now the number of unfilled jobs are double of those applying for them. If you're on the dole what's the point of working a job at $8-10 an hour when you can make that much or more staying at home?
I'm glad you're proving my point Ducky.
Socialism is not social. Socialism goes against the people. It goes against the poor.
The poverty level is the same in France despite all the socialist policies.
I remember seeing more homeless people after the Mitterrand's years.
Wages are low.
Socialism and lefty policies go against the middle class.
I've lived it. I've seen it. And the numbers prove it.
And it helps the rich maintain their position and status. It creates more classes. Less social mobility.
And yet liars or fools like you and Obama say it's capitalism fault.
You liars and fools want us to believe you have the knowledge about economics when you know NOTHING, when you can't look at facts and numbers.
Your brain is so up the rear end of your ideologies that you can't look at the cold truth: failure of the lefty policies everywhere.
You people are a disease. The cancer of Western civilization.
And I can't take it anymore. I've had enough in France. 10% unemployement. 40% for people under 25.
Do you need more numbers, Ducky?
FROM Z:
FrogBurger, thanks...
Elbro...please delete Ducky at any time you see this after 1:30 EST...I want to give people more chance to address his points and then, sadly, he's done for good..and I so didn't want to have to do this!
Ducky, to suggest food stamps are the answer to stimulating small business..um.......you're kidding.
Yes, richer American DO pay BY FAR the greater proportion of American income taxes and by buying more than others, also pay a lot of every other tax....
Chinese imports are draining the life out of this country..nobody seems to care. Also draining us is the stimulus package whose money was SUPPOSED to go to 'shovel ready' projects...sad it hasn't. Where are the hundreds of infrastructure projects this admin had said would be hiring and buying for those projects? Anybody really KNOW why so little of the money's been spent and where it IS? Any media people even curious?
Regarding your leaving geeeZ,I'm so sorry, DUcky, I truly am..some people have leftist trolls who really do add kindly and unsarcastically to blogs and they're welcome here but you just can't control yourself...my readers know I've asked you approx 15 times in the last 2 weeks or so to stop the sarcasm and ugliness and smug elitism, just so you wouldn't have to be banned........... and I'm afraid that, when I get back to my computer tonight, I'll have to be deleting you permanently. I've warned you enough and am pretty surprised and even a little sad that you've caused this to have to happen. I never yet had finally decided to delete every single of your comments, hoping against hope you'd just be kind and informative!..to give a good argument like a man!
So, Elbro and I will be on it. I never thought this would have to happen to anybody at geeeeZ. I really tried to keep you here. Just doesn't make sense to ME personally to work at a blog and open up my comments every morning and realize I'm giving a Keith Olbermann-type denigrating commenter a voice HERE!~ I'm sure you understand that. Or at least I"ve told you this many, many times.
Open your OWN BLOG.....You've also taken recently to chiding me for not covering certain subjects you found more important than my choices...that's fair ... but without a blog of your own? not so much, if you don't mind my saying so!
How many times have I told my complaining conservative friends via emails about why I keep you here is that "I don't want a conservative echo chamber here"? Why couldn't you have just stopped the kind of tone in your comment here?
Thanks, Anonymous; yes fed income tax is by far the largest fed revenue......I appreciate your input.
Anonymous (same one?)....we're finding that people are stopping looking now; while it has to be debilitating to good people who want to work and they'll probably keep looking even while they have to collect welfare, there seems to be a group who are settling for the welfare payments, which is exactly what we don't need right now. you're so right.
Chuck, not much of an argument when you're dealing with someone who actually thinks that raising taxes is a good thing. :-(
Always..that whole phrase needs to be read in contest, don't you think? We might not exactly be caring HOW the rich spend money as LONG AS THEY DO. and this article points out the fact that they won't be able to soon, even the rich have a point where they can't take from their children's futures and will have to stop spending because this government is so threatening to them ....
this is why small businesses aren't hiring, buying, etc., too............they're getting wildly mixed messages, none of which are conducive to a thriving economy and how can they hire one person when they fear even higher taxes next year?$$
Where are the Republicans? We need grown ups who understand that supporting business is better than supporting food stamps!
That's the whole solution to every economic problem, Z... just take from the rich.
After all, they don't, like, spend money or provide JOBS or anything. And they certainly dn't deserve to keep their own money.
Z: Karen, they don't even spend money they get from us to "help us"... Where ARE those 'shovel ready' jobs? They DO provide jobs, census, etc...they even bragged that they'd created JOBS, then OOPS!...poof! Sure, they provide jobs, all government jobs...ugh
Right, undermine the basis of capitalism and bring the whole nation crashing down economically, just as the boosting of Islam will bring us down in spirit and morale, and the boosting of gay marriage and abortion and other slaps in the face of God invites His judgment against us. That's the objective of ALL the policies of the Left whether they know it or not and it's hard to believe they don't.
That's a piece of utter dishonesty you learned from Limbaugh and refuse to drop.
That's a piece of utter dishonesty Ducky learned from Janeane Garofalo and refuses to drop.
With a net worth of $57 billion Bill Gates is America's richest person. In my view, Mr. Gates earned every penny. He pays the government’s rate of income tax. He employs 89,000 persons and contributes to their unemployment insurance, health care, and social security pension. He helped create 15 millionaires. He donated $28 billion to charity. So who is a better arbiter of how Mr. Gates should spend his money: Mr. Gates, or the government?
What does this prove? It proves Ducky is an idiot.
Ducky, what I said was "He pays the government’s rate of income tax." Your communist party is in charge; your communist party took Gates to court in an attempt to ruin him. Didn't work.
I never doubted you own Apple stock. Buy a brain, man.
//As Warren Buffet, said, "Why should I pay a lower rate than my secretary".//
Then I am sure the government won't care if he withholds some deductions on his tax return so he can pay more. 10% of a $100,000,000 is still more than 15% of $100,000, no matter how you angle the numbers.
Bottom line.... you believe in punishing the rich for being rich. Just say it, get it off of your chest, and I am sure you will feel better.
Ducky, yes the middle class gets hammered. You're right. That's what happens when socialist policies kicked in.
Why? Because the rich people market if I may say gets smaller once you've taxed them to the bones.
So the government, always hungry for more money to waste and pay unions and other useless, unproductive paper pushers, has to tax the middle class.
Which itself shrinks after a while because of unemployement.
And so forth.
And you just proved how little principles you have. What a miserable human being you are.
You're anti capitalist. The live up to your principles and ideals. Don't invest in the stock market and brag about your profit on Apple stocks.
Shows what a FRAUD you are like 98% of you leftists.
Parasites of society.
the original OS monopoly
Inability to look at numbers. Apple is cool. You're cool because you have an ipod and have Apple stocks. You da man!
In the meantime Mac OS only has 10% of market shares.
That's not the reason why MSFT is flat. So if you want to sound smart, please do some research and stop talking out of your pretentious leftist rear end.
I told you. Stick to movies. No numbers involved.
I hate to burst your bubble Ducky, but you're for trickle down too.
Your way is for trickle down through the government so that bureaucrats can decide who money trickles down to through welfare, food stamps, etc., and regulation at every turn.
Capitalists believe that trickle down into the economy, through employment, entrepreneurship, and productivity, expands the economy.
This spreads the wealth widely throughout the economy, thus creating a large middle class, which is a consistent pool for the poor to ascend to.
Your way guarantees a permanent underclass. Lyndon Johnson's War on Poverty has already proven that.
Capitalism guarantees freedom to innovate, productivity, and opportunity for those willing to work, and aspire to a higher standard of living.
All high taxes will get you is a stultifying, stagnation which helps no one. Jimmy Carter's administration proved that.
Now really Ducky, which would you, as a free individual, choose and why.
Pris
Ah, I see Ducky, when in doubt, punt!
Pris
//Ah, I see Ducky, when in doubt, punt!//
Sometimes he punts on first down.
He punts at kick off.
But that's ok because he's a mac guy and he must think we're more like the PC guy. He's part of the cool crowd.
Ducky hasn't matured since high school. Arrested development.
I happen to work with many people who receive welfare, food stamps, WIC, and unemployment benefits. I can tell by first hand experience and observation that increasing these entitlements only increases government dependency, which of course increases the pressure to tax the working folks who are already struggling to make ends meet. And who do those working folks get their jobs from? Anyone? Anyone? The business owners --also known as, in lefty cirlces, the rich; yep all lumped into one group.
If the rich are taxed more (as well as the middle class, Ducky and you know they are headed for a large tax increase as well) they will begin to spend less, make cut backs in their businesses and send less money into the economy. This affects everyone.
And if you are really willing to honestly discuss the issue without adding lefty spin, you would find that the facts Z mentioned are spot on. But then, that would be expecting far too much; we assume it is either an intellectual defect or common communist practice --but then I repeat myself.
Leslie, the administration and the leftist are now starting to consider freelancers as rich with this 1099 requirements.
We already have to pay our own social security, healthcare, etc... while finding clients, delivering steady work once you get them and then making sure they pay. All that after working countless hours.
They just hate the fact we're independent workers. That drives the left nuts.
FrogBurger, it does drive them nuts because it proves that the American Dream is still a possibility, that hardwork results in success, and that anything is still possible in this great experiment called America. They just hate when that is proven right, but they just love to drain the revenues from such success in effort to prove it wrong.
And then there are people like Ducky who just drool at the chance to further their communist dogma. What a shame too, yes?
"In the meantime Mac OS only has 10% of market shares."
In defense of Mac...they're pretty damn good machines. Reliable, without virus and infections, never blue screen, run forever, easier to use overall ( Mac's do the work for you, really! ) Great graphics and friendlier. Swear...I used PC's for damn near 20 years before I swore them off. Mac's used to be behind PC's when it came to gaming ( big deal...go to an arcade and put a quarter in the machine ) However since the switch to Intel processors...Macs can now sport up to and over 32gb's of RAM! And Mac's have been 32/64 bit capable for a decade. Long before PC's even offered it. Unix platforms have long been the programmers choice for OS platforms, long before C++....became fashionable as the bloated, huge, hog system it is.
The real reason for Mac's 10% share? Well...you get what you pay for. Mac's cost more than double a PC. I detest the class distinctions / competition between Mac and PC...( you know the fat guy and the "hip" Mac user ).
Here's the rule of thumb: Macs are hard to break...and easier to fix...while PC's easy to break...and you need to be a goddamn propeller head to fix the damn things.
But...ducky using a Mac...is purely eletist. He thinks it makes him cool. While he's really running on Win ME.And still...a Loser.
Oh..I almost forgot....AAPL ( Apple ) is at about $250 a share...MSFT...maybe $18?
Apple has made quite a few people rich too. Many times over.
Major
Major I use a mac for my work but who gives a hoot about that, right?
Actually I use MAc, PC, Linux.
Does that make me cooler than Ducky? Please tell me because I am so insecure...
Hello , i like your blog . Do you want link exchange with www.zecode.info ?
"Major I use a mac for my work but who gives a hoot about that, right?"
Right....I got carried away...thanks for bringing me back to....mediocrity!! LOL
Major
Ohhh..Frog...I forgot to pay tribute to you...my Red Hat's off to you... Linux / Red Hat...you're...super cool.
Major
In Ducky's Ducktatorship, we can save the cost of insuring 40 million Americans by sending them to the gas chambers.
In defense of Mac...they're pretty damn good machines. Reliable, without virus and infections, never blue screen, run forever, easier to use overall ( Mac's do the work for you, really! )
Macs don't run viruses because they don't run much of anything else either.
Throwback PC thug life 4evah!
I don't have MAC myself but keep hearing friends switching over who love it..several recently.
Yes Mac is great. But Apple is personally getting on my nerves. Especially since they shut down lala.com. So I've refused to buy on iTunes since then.
I like PCs because you can modify them to your heart's content, hardware and software. Walking within 5 feet of a Crapple with a screwdriver voids the warranty.
The rich should be taxed less, this gives them more money to spend and also is a great incentive for the rest of us to work harder and become rich. The only people who don't like this are either too stupid to see this or are just lazy parasites who want to get some of what wealthy folks worked for, perhaps both.
"Walking within 5 feet of a Crapple with a screwdriver voids the warranty.
Aww for Krist sake...give it up, OK? Some drive Chevy's and some drive Audi's...OK? Stick with what gives you what you want.
No one is shoving the damn thing down your throat, are they?
Just keep updating the damn thing every five minutes....the pop up balloons tell ya what to do.
Anonymous,
You can download and install Windows for Mac, whenever you want a more versatile operating system for your overpowered fax machine. ;)
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