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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsBill Moyers- Government = Protection Racket for the 1%
April 21, 2014
by Bill Moyers and Michael Winship
The evidence of income inequality just keeps mounting. According to Working for the Few, a recent briefing paper from Oxfam, In the US, the wealthiest one percent captured 95 percent of post-financial crisis growth since 2009, while the bottom 90 percent became poorer.
Our now infamous one percent own more than 35 percent of the nations wealth. Meanwhile, the bottom 40 percent of the country is in debt. Just this past Tuesday, the 15th of April Tax Day the AFL-CIO reported that last year the chief executive officers of 350 top American corporations were paid 331 times more money than the average US worker. Those executives made an average of $11.7 million dollars compared to the average worker who earned $35,239 dollars.
As that analysis circulated on Tax Day, the economic analyst Robert Reich reminded us that in addition to getting the largest percent of total national income in nearly a century, many in the one percent are paying a lower federal tax rate than a lot of people in the middle class. You may remember that an obliging Congress, of both parties, allows high rollers of finance the privilege of carried interest, a tax rate below that of their secretaries and clerks.
And at state and local levels, while the poorest fifth of Americans pay an average tax rate of over 11 percent, the richest one percent of the country pay are you ready for this? half that rate. Now, neither Nature nor Natures God drew up our tax codes; thats the work of legislators politicians and its one way they have, as Chief Justice John Roberts might put it, of expressing gratitude to their donors: Oh, Mr. Adelson, we so appreciate your generosity that we cut your estate taxes so you can give $8 billion as a tax-free payment to your heirs, even though down the road the public will have to put up $2.8 billion to compensate for the loss in tax revenue.
more
http://billmoyers.com/2014/04/21/government-protection-racket-for-the-1-percent/
ErikJ
(6,335 posts)WinkyDink
(51,311 posts)is government, period.
Laelth
(32,017 posts)-Laelth
RandoLoodie
(133 posts)truedelphi
(32,324 posts)But Obama!
The government would be totally different, I tell ya, if only the mean awful Republicans would quit forcing the Democratic leadership to hand the country over to Big Military, Big Financial People, Monsanto etc.
The photos that fellow DU'ers have sent me, showing how Cruz and Rick Scott twisted Obama's poor wittle arms in order to get him to appoint the crooks he appointed to our nation's financial posts, and the awful foot stomping Mr Obama endured before he appointed Valsick and Taylor to Department of Ag and FDA, why the pain that poor man endured!
johnnyreb
(915 posts)A "drift toward oligarchy"? Come on, Bill. Just a little further-- about the murder treachery and deception that always goes along with a protection racket.
Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)And the government is more blatant about this in recent years. I guess they know the media will NEVER mention it.
redqueen
(115,103 posts)bvar22
(39,909 posts)[div class="excerpt"
Study: "Trade" Deal Would Mean a Pay Cut for 90% of U.S. Workers
http://citizen.typepad.com/eyesontrade/2013/09/the-verdict-is-in-the-trans-pacific-partnership-tpp-a-sweeping-free-trade-deal-under-negotiation-with-11-pacific-rim-coun.html
CHARTS: The Amazing Wealth Surge For The Top 0.1 Percent
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/the-amazing-wealth-surge-for-the-top-0-1-percent
Korean Free Trade Deal devastating for US Workers
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/larry-cohen/koreaus-free-trade-agreem_b_4965492.html
Retirement: A third have less than $1,000 put away
http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/personalfinance/2014/03/18/retirement-confidence-survey-savings/6432241/
65 percent of working families are living from paycheck to paycheck.
http://billmoyers.com/2014/01/10/why-conservatives-old-divide-and-conquer-strategy-%E2%80%94-setting-working-class-against-the-poor-%E2%80%94-is-backfiring/
"Obama Admins TPP Trade Officials Received Hefty Bonuses From Big Banks"
http://billmoyers.com/2014/02/20/obama-admin%E2%80%99s-tpp-trade-officials-received-hefty-bonuses-from-big-banks/
95 percent of the economys gains have gone to the top 1 percent
http://billmoyers.com/2014/01/10/why-conservatives-old-divide-and-conquer-strategy-%E2%80%94-setting-working-class-against-the-poor-%E2%80%94-is-backfiring/
Billionaire wealth doubles since financial crisis
http://www.upi.com/blog/2013/11/12/Billionaire-wealth-doubles-since-financial-crisis/5011384268135/?spt=hts&or=12
The Top .01 Percent Reach New Heights
http://www.demos.org/blog/9/13/13/top-01-percent-reach-new-heights
Rates of unemployment for families earning less than $20,000 - have topped 21 percent
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_JOBS_GAP_RICH_AND_POOR?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-09-16-08-11-23
Obama appoints industry insider to head the FCC
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024521140
Obama selects former Monsanto lobbyist to be his TPP chief agriculture negotiator
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023662210
The Totally Unfair And Bitterly Uneven 'Recovery,' In 12 Charts HuffPo
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023662029
Larry Summers Gets 'Full-Throated Defense' From Obama In Capitol Hill Meeting
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014553343#post1
Wall Street will get away with massive wave of criminality of 2008 - Statute of Limitations
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022516719
Income gap widest ever: 95 Percent of Recovery Income Gains Have Gone to the Top 1 Percent
http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2013/09/10/one_percent_recovery_95_percent_of_gains_have_gone_to_the_top_one_percent.html
Older Workers:.Set Back by Recession, and Shut Out of Rebound
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/27/booming/for-laid-off-older-workers-age-bias-is-pervasive.html?smid=tw-share&_r=3&
Corporate Profits Have Grown By 171 Percent Under Obama -- Highest Rate Since 1900
http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/corporate-profits-have-grown-171-percent-under-obama-highest-rate-1900
THIS ^ does NOT happen by accident.
It is the result of carefully planned and implemented Economic Policy.
It requires careful preparation, marketing, buying the right politicians, message control, courts packed with Conservative Corporate Rights Judges, and the marginalization and suppression of any opposition.
erronis
(15,306 posts)While we will all gnash and wring, those so privileged will just say "And your point is?"
cantbeserious
(13,039 posts)eom