From 1973 to 1985, the financial sector never earned more than 16 percent of domestic corporate profits. In 1986, that figure reached 19 percent. In the 1990s, it oscillated between 21 percent and 30 percent, higher than it had ever been in the postwar period. This decade, it reached 41 percent. Pay rose just as dramatically. From 1948 to 1982, average compensation in the financial sector ranged between 99 percent and 108 percent of the average for all domestic private industries. From 1983, it shot upward, reaching 181 percent in 2007. There are tons more statistics relating to income inequality in this same period of time.
Do you think this trend is good for America? Do you think that these financial titans "deserve" all this money? Do you think they are that much smarter and hard-working than everyone else? I mean look at the gap between financial sector compensation and say scientists or engineers? Does that gap make sense in your mind? I mean are these people contributing to society, making our lives better, raising our standards of living on par with their compensation? Are they innovating, inspiring and creating? Are they producing? Isn't that the goal/purpose behind economic growth?
I personally have no problem with people getting rich. It's one of the best things about America and its a dream that I, myself, share. But I do have a problem with a system that rewards people in warped ways; where social mobility is very low, the gini index is very high; and where incentives are so screwed up that someone can bankrupt their company and walk away rich.