Wealth distribution

[ashling]

[silverweb]

1. K&R

[font color="navy" face="Verdana"]More of the 98% need to see this.

[Squinch]

2. Kicking.

[woo me with science]

3. Huge K&R

Also:




*our middle class has been virtually obliterated through policy

*forty percent of our wealth has been looted

*virtually ALL new wealth of the past 30 years has gone to the top one percent

*93 percent of the "recovery" has gone to the top one percent

*over a million American schoolchildren are now homeless

*America now ranks higher than any other developed nation in child poverty with the exception of Romania, which a DUer mentioned was only recently added to the list, perhaps to spare America the embarrassment of being last...

*CEO pay is now 350 times the average worker's pay, up from fifty times between 1960 and 1985

*CEO pay has skyrocketed 300% since 1990. Corporate profits have doubled. Average "production worker" pay has increased 4%. The minimum wage has dropped. (All numbers adjusted for inflation).

*After adjusting for inflation, average hourly earnings haven't increased in 50 years.

*income inequality has gotten so extreme here that the US now ranks 93rd in the world in "income equality." China's ahead of us. So is India. So is Iran.

*Social mobility is near an all-time low.

*The top 1% of Americans own 42% of the financial wealth in this country. The top 5% own nearly 70%.

*Hundreds of millions of Americans are deep in debt.

*Taxes on the highest earners are near the lowest they've EVER been and lower than for many who earn less.

etc., etc., etc., etc.,





We have received no compromise. We have been looted, again and again and again, with no end in sight. And still the message comes, like a drumbeat: You have not compromised enough. You are being a purist.

It doesn't fly anymore. In fact, it has reached the point of ludicrousness.









_____________________________________________________________


*Much of this taken directly from this article at Business Insider, perhaps the best summary I have seen of the looting of America: http://www.businessinsider.com/what-wall-street-protesters-are-so-angry-about-2011-10?op=1

[SomethingFishy]

12. This should be it's own thread...

They keep squeezing us a little at a time so it doesn't hurt much until you look back years later and see that even though you have worked harder longer hours you have managed to climb down the ladder instead of up. And now that they know they can slash our safety nets without so much as a complaint, they'll keep doing it.

It's like our privacy rights, slowly but surely they will all be gone.

[Angry Dragon]

4. kick

[liberal_at_heart]

5. this is something that needs to repeated until people actually know about it

Right now I don't think people know about this. I wonder if there is a bumper sticker with this somewhere.

[Joe Shlabotnik]

7. I think many do know but,

a) are delusional in thinking that they're just temporarily poor.
b) Acknowledge the disparity but don't know or disagree on what to do about it,
c) Too busy trying to make ends meet, and feel helpless and hopeless about ever changing it.

[Horse with no Name]

11. Actually the answer is even simpler than that

The oligarchs have been very successful in the demonization of others.

Example:

"Illegals" are stealing the jobs.

"Minorities" are all on welfare stealing their hard-earned dollars.

Your taxes go directly to support "those that don't want to work".

"Unemployed" people are leeches on society.

"Welfare Moms" spend all of their money on their nails, cell phones and fancy cars.

You get the drift.

[Incitatus]

6. What's so different here? Is it the tax system?

Are rates on higher incomes in other countries so high that CEOs there can't justify exorbitant salaries?

[moondust]

8. Just a guess.

It probably has something to do with the fundamental nature of U.S. capitalism: amoral, (anything goes) laissez-faire. "I am not my brother's keeper! I'm out to get whatever the market will bear!"

Other countries have smaller, more homogeneous populations that are less inclined to prey on each other/more inclined to stick together against the bigger fish.

[Egalitarian Thug]

9. I say it is our government system. Ours was the first and was heavily influenced by

"English sensibilities". From the very beginning our governments have never been shy about picking the winners in business. Every great fortune here originated through huge land grants and favors from the Crown. Once we rebelled this tradition was continued. It was the major influence in forming our system of restricting representation to the ruling class and continues to this day.

Our government is only laissez faire when it comes to restraining business practices. It has only rarely intervened on behalf of the "small people" and is currently skewed entirely in favor of the rich over everybody else. Taft-Hartley is only one example of this imbalance. If we really did want to help the people, we would get rid of this abomination. Unfortunately, no one even dares suggest such a thing.

[littlemissmartypants]

10. LMSP kicking...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/101780365

http://rollingjubilee.org/

[Cleita]

13. Interesting article this was taken from. Thank you.

I added the link for those who might be interested in reading it:

http://www2.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/power/wealth.html