The chart puts it all together and shows how it has been "all downhill since Nixon" in terms of income in the United States of Inequality. With the loss of union scale jobs and declining bargaining power, the middle class has dropped to below half of aggregate income while top 1% incomes have increased disproportionately. In terms of wealth concentration the United States is behind only ultra-capitalist Switzerland in the share of total wealth owned by the top 10%. According to 2000 figures the top 10% own 70% of the wealth in the US.
This chart compares CEO incomes as a multiple of the average worker's:
As you can see CEO pay took off under the Democratic administration of Bill Clinton. The AFL/CIO publishes the latest information on CEO pay at its
website. The median compensation for a CEO in all industries in early 2010 was $3.9 million while the median figure for an industrial worker is about $36,000. According to the AFL/CIO top executive median pay is now 343 times workers'. CEOs effectively set their own salaries because of interlocking directorates and compliant "outside compensation experts" who get wind of what the CEO thinks he deserves to maintain face with his peers and blowback that information to the board. Satisfied, the CEO will hire the "expert" again for future compensation reviews or recommend his services to a colleague.
Round and round it goes, and with each pass the executives grab the golden ring. The process is not controlled by value of services rendered or company performance.
Finally, don't let anyone convince you that the rich are "taxed enough already":
