when the USA gets paid, who gets the money?

If you buy into the traditional media interpretation of the U.S. economy, it's always growing. The evidence of this is that the stock market generally grows over time.

But who gains when stocks go up?

Kevin Drum (Washington Monthly) quotes Afferent Input.

The punch line is that that top 1% are getting a whole bunch richer since 1979 and people below the top 20% are losing ground.

But those households losing ground every year are expected to pay more-and-more in taxes so government employees can get annual pay increases.

Oak Park Village President David Pope is the only politician I've ever heard raise questions about increasing the tax burden on households with declining real incomes to get revenue for annual pay raises.

The national situation is hosed-up too, but....