A constant conservative charge against President Obama is that he is inherently anti-business. However, businesses keep defying the storyline by making larger and larger profits, rebounding nicely out of the Great Recession.

In the third quarter of this year, “corporate earnings were $1.75 trillion, up 18.6% from a year ago.” Corporations are currently making more as a percentage of the economy than they ever have since such records were kept. But at the same time, wages as a percentage of the economy are at an all-time low, as this chart shows. (The red line is corporate profits; the blue line is private sector wages.):

Corporations made a record $824 billion in profits last year as well, while the stock market has had one of its best performances since 1900 while Obama has been in office.

Meanwhile, workers are getting the short end of the stick. As CNN Money explained, “a separate government reading shows that total wages have now fallen to a record low of 43.5% of GDP. Until 1975, wages almost always accounted for at least half of GDP, and had been as high as 49% as recently as early 2001.”

Income inequality has grown in nearly every state in the country over the last three decades and continues to climb across the nation, according to new report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and the Economic Policy Institute.

While a slow recovery from the Great Recession for middle- and low-income families has exacerbated income inequality in the short-term, government policies that are preferential to the wealthy and the long-term stagnation of wages have caused significant growth in the gap between the wealthiest 20 percent of Americans and the poorest fifth, the report found. Across the country, the richest 20 percent make eight times more than the average income of the bottom 20 percent, a ratio that didn’t exist in a single state 30 years ago:

In the United States as a whole, the poorest fifth of households had an average income of $20,510, while the top fifth had an average income of $164,490 — eight times as much. In 15 states, this top-to-bottom ratio exceeded 8.0. In the late 1970s, in contrast, no state had a top-to-bottom ratio exceeding 8.0.

Look:

Nationally, the richest fifth experienced more in income gains ($2,550 per year) each year during the three decade period than the bottom fifth experienced over the entire 30 years ($1,330). For the richest 5 percent, the gap was even bigger: in 11 large states the study examined, average incomes for the top 5 percent rose by more than $100,000. The largest increase any state experienced for the bottom 5 percent was just $5,620.

Much of the explanation for rising income inequality lies in wage stagnation, rising pay at the top of the income scale, and preferential tax rates for the wealthy. Pay for chief executives rose 127 times faster than worker pay over the last 30 years, according to one recent study. At the same time, tax rates for the richest Americans have plummeted, leaving the country with more inequality than places like Ivory Coast, Pakistan, and even Ancient Rome.

Today marks the one year anniversary of the Occupy Wall Street protests, and activists intend to mark the milestone by holding a new round of demonstrations. Dozens have already been arrested, even before the main protests began.

Occupy Wall Street managed to turn the attention of America’s politicians, at least for a moment, to income inequality, economic mobility, and the dismal state of both in the U.S. Here are some key facts and figures to know as Occupy once again takes to the streets:

1) Income inequality grew in 2011. According to data released last week by the Census Bureau, the gap between the wealthiest Americans and those in the middle grew last year, as all but the richest 20 percent of the country saw their income drop.

2) America’s 1 percent have 288 times as much wealth as the median household. This constitutes a huge increase from 1962, when the ratio was 125-1.

Our guest bloggers are Jon D. Wisman, Professor of Economics at American University, and Aaron Pacitti, Assistant Professor of Economics at Siena College.

Why, with the U.S. economy prospering over the three decades prior to 2007, did the quality of life for the overwhelming majority of Americans decline? Inflation-adjusted income more than doubled and wealth increased by 81 percent. So why did most people have to work longer hours and fall deeper into debt to make ends meet? Why did public services deteriorate?

The reason is that as the economy produced ever more, the very wealthiest Americans grabbed practically all of the gains.

Just how much did the rich grab? Between 1979 and 2007, inflation-adjusted income, including capital gains, increased $4.8 trillion — about $16,000 per person. Of this, 36 percent was captured by the richest 1 percent of income earners. The richest 10 percent captured 64 percent, almost twice the amount collected by the 90 percent below.

What happened to the gains in wealth was even more dramatic. Between 1983 and 2007, total inflation-adjusted wealth in the U.S. increased by $27 trillion. If divided equally, every man woman and child would be almost $90,000 richer.

But of course it wasn’t divided equally. Almost half of the $27 trillion (49 percent) was claimed by the richest one percent — $11.7 million more for each of their households. The top 10 percent grabbed almost $29 trillion, or 106 percent of the total. Meanwhile, the bottom 90 percent suffered an average decline of just over $16,000 per household.

What could be bought with the $29 trillion increase in the top ten percent’s wealth over the past three decades? Strikingly, it covers all of the expenses necessary for our future collective well-being — the very expenses that, we’re told, can’t be funded because of budget deficits and rising public debt.

The American Society of Civil Engineers estimates that the United States needs to spend $2.2 trillion over the next five years to meet its infrastructure needs. To ensure that Social Security can pay all promised benefits for the next 75 years would cost $8.6 trillion. Providing all needed Medicare funding for the next 75 years would cost a total of $4.6 trillion.

To pay for all Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, and subsidies for purchasing health insurance through the Affordable Care Act for the next 10 years would cost $1.5 trillion. To close all projected federal budget deficits until 2021 would cost $7 trillion. Taking back the $29 trillion would cover all of these needs and the $5.1 trillion that would be left over could pay off about one-third of the national debt.

The rich managed to capture this $29 trillion because they gained greater command over the political process, which allowed them to engineer economic policy for their own gain. Their greater wealth meant greater command over the political process, which in turn made them wealthier. The explosion of corporate lobbyists and corporate campaign contributions leveraged their political influence.

The rich promised that everyone would benefit from deep tax cuts for the wealthy and welfare cuts for the less privileged. Deregulation, weaker unions, and freer trade, they argued, would make the economy grow more rapidly, creating jobs and raising everyone’s incomes.

But these promises never materialized. Between 1948 and 1976 — a period in which taxes were far higher, the safety net stronger, regulations stiffer, labor unions stronger, and inequality lower — GDP grew an average of 3.8 percent per year and unemployment averaged 5 percent. Since then, GDP growth averaged only 2.8 percent and unemployment averaged 6.4 percent.

Americans need a new social contract, one that partially recaptures the $29 trillion rip-off, offers protection against it happening again, and moves us toward a more equitable and democratic society. So how can we take back the rich’s ill-gotten gains?

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According to a new report by the Economic Policy Institute, the wealthiest 1 percent of American households had a net worth 288 times as large as the median household wealth of $57,000 in 2010. This constitutes a huge increase from 1962, when the ratio was 125-1:

Since 1983, nearly three-quarters of the growth in total household wealth went to the top 5 percent, while the bottom four-fifths of American households saw their wealth decrease:

This is yet another indication of the explosion of income inequality that has occurred over the last few decades, as more and more of the country’s income and wealth traveled to the richest Americans. This is detrimental to America’s economic success because, as EPI explained, “wealth makes it easier for families to invest in education and training, start a small business, or fund retirement.” Wealth also makes it easier to cope in a financial emergency.