Tag: wealth gap

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Conspiracy Theory — Not the Movie

Dick Cheney Speaks At The American Enterprise InstituteI was recently taken to task for a previous blog posting, Opinion Bombs. The precise section that was objectionable to the commenter was:

“I feel like there is some unknown force driving wedges between the various factions of our country and of the world. I’m not a big believer in conspiracy theories, but it feels like the “powers that be” want to keep the little folk bickering among themselves. It is the magician’s sleight of the hand. Distract the masses with these wedges and the powers can go on with whatever it is they want to do.”

Specifically, the commenter found my use of “conspiracy theory” problematic. Perhaps I used the word incorrectly. Conspiracy is defined as – “a secret plan by a group to do something unlawful or harmful.” A conspiracy theory is defined as – “a belief that some covert but influential organization is responsible for a circumstance or event.” The operative difference is “belief”.

What I was referring to as conspiracy theories is no longer very covert, Continue reading “Conspiracy Theory — Not the Movie”

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Minimum Wage Over Time

Comparing the value of labor over time is apparently not that straight forward. I was wondering about minimum wage. When I graduated high school in 1970 kennedy-half-dollar(gasp… yes) the minimum wage was $1.60. I dropped out of college after a year, and I went to work in a factory for somewhat more than the minimum wage. After a few months I had raises that put me up to $2.60 an hour which was nearly 60% higher than minimum wage. Even at that astronomical wage, even without a car to support, even with living in basically a slum apartment, I was having a hard time making ends meet. I had to be careful with every penny. I had a crisis back then that wiped out very quickly what little savings I had. I had absolutely no benefits. A medical emergency would have been a financial disaster.

Using data as calculated on the website, Measuring Worth , I came up with the following data:

Current data is only available till 2012. In 2012, the relative worth of $1.60 from 1970 is: Continue reading “Minimum Wage Over Time”

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Illustration of Michael Moore’s Stat About Inequality

More conversation about the wealth gap in this country.

From the referenced article, “Michael Moore joined the demonstrators in Madison, Wisconsin on March 6, and mentioned that the 400 richest Americans have more money than all of their 155,000,000 fellow citizens at the bottom of the pyramid combined.”  As much as I dislike Michael Moore personally, I have to agree with his positions on many things.

Here is another way to think about this number. The current USA population is 311,000,000 more or less. Half of that is pretty close to 155,000,000. So 400 people have as much wealth as 1/2 of the total US population. Mind boggling.

400 = 155,000,000.  I started to quip, “in what universe”.  I then realized it is in our universe.

This is one of most dramatic demonstrations of that concept I have seen. You have to strain hard to see the white dot that represents the rich among the sea of “commoners”. Call me a socialist, but nobody needs or should be that rich. I’m back on the one pie analogy. In order to have an over sized piece of pie you have to take some from someone else’s piece of pie. Or in this case a bunch of someones.

Link was not longer valid….sorry

What really slays me is that our politicians seem to be on a tear to make these folks richer.  Call me old school, but I firmly believe that to whom that more is given, more is expected.

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This Land is Your Land

Woody Guthrie wrote this song in 1940 during the Great Depression and Dust Bowl days.  In this day of union busting, growing wealth gap, and some say outright class warfare, maybe we need to be reminded of Woody’s words.  This is land is for all of us, just not a few, and certainly not the corporations that seem to have hijacked our government.

By the way, the gal in the middle of the 3 women singing back up is Moncia Taylor who I do a website for…check it it out.

MonicaTaylorMusic.com

Enjoy!

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Huge concentrations of wealth corrodes the soul of any nation

A couple quotes from the Nicholas Kristof editoral linked to below:

A Hedge Fund Republic? Nicholas Kristof in the New York Times

“But there is also a larger question: What kind of a country do we aspire to be? Would we really want to be the kind of plutocracy where the richest 1 percent possesses more net worth than the bottom 90 percent?’

“I’m appalled by our growing wealth gaps because in my travels I see what happens in dysfunctional countries where the rich just don’t care about those below the decks. The result is nations without a social fabric or sense of national unity. Huge concentrations of wealth corrode the soul of any nation.”

I’ve been watching and crying over this growing problem for years.  Part of me just cannot understand how in a democratic society where the vast majority of folks are in the middle and lower economic classes this happened.  After all 9 to 1 should win ever time, right?

In large part it has happened because both political parties are unabashedly junkies when it comes to financing political campaigns.  Continue reading “Huge concentrations of wealth corrodes the soul of any nation”