Who killed the middle class? Oh yeah…

And conservatives are still arguing for more tax cuts…when is enough enough? A new report tells the story:

Income inequality in the United States is at an all-time high, surpassing even levels seen during the Great Depression, according to a recently updated paper by University of California, Berkeley Professor Emmanuel Saez.

Though income inequality has been growing for some time, the paper paints a stark, disturbing portrait of wealth distribution in America. Saez calculates that in 2007 the top .01 percent of American earners took home 6 percent of total U.S. wages, a figure that has nearly doubled since 2000.

“The top 1 percent incomes captured half of the overall economic growth over the period 1993-2007,” Saes writes.

“…while the bottom 99 percent of incomes grew at a solid pace of 2.7 percent per year from 1993-2000, these incomes grew only 1.3 percent per year from 2002-2007. As a result, in the economic expansion of 2002-2007 [George Bush’s tenure], the top 1 percent captured two thirds of income growth.”

What does this tell us about conservatives’ values? Profits are more important than families. And buy, buy, buy at all costs.