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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsCNN: Wealthiest 1% will soon own more than rest of us combined, Oxfam says
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(CNN)Turns out, the rich really are getting richer. And they'll soon own more than the rest of us put together.
So says a new report, which estimates that the richest 1% will have as much wealth as the other 99% combined by next year.
"The richest 1% have seen their share of global wealth increase from 44% in 2009 to 48% in 2014," Oxfam says in a report Monday.
At that rate, the wealthiest will own more than 50% by next year, according to the report....
This made me think of Moyers report last April~
"Government = Protection Racket for the 1 Percent"
...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.
All of which makes truly repugnant the argument, heard so often from courtiers of the rich, that inequality doesnt matter. Of course it matters. Inequality is what has turned Washington into a protection racket for the one percent. It buys all those goodies from government: Tax breaks. Tax havens (which allow corporations and the rich to park their money in a no-tax zone). Loopholes. Favors like carried interest. And so on. As Paul Krugman writes in his New York Review of Books essay on Thomas Pikettys Capital in the Twenty-First Century, We now know both that the United States has a much more unequal distribution of income than other advanced countries and that much of this difference in outcomes can be attributed directly to government action.
Recently, researchers at Connecticuts Trinity College ploughed through the data and concluded that the US Senate is responsive to the policy preferences of the rich, ignoring the poor. And now theres that big study coming out in the fall from scholars at Princeton and Northwestern universities, based on data collected between 1981 and 2002. Their conclusion: Americas claims to being a democratic society are seriously threatened The preferences of the average American appear to have only a minuscule, near-zero, statistically non-significant impact upon public policy. Instead, policy tends to tilt towards the wishes of corporations and business and professional associations....
http://billmoyers.com/2014/04/21/government-protection-racket-for-the-1-percent/
InAbLuEsTaTe
(24,122 posts)Dont call me Shirley
(10,998 posts)Erich Bloodaxe BSN
(14,733 posts)Last edited Mon Jan 19, 2015, 10:43 AM - Edit history (1)
Oxfam blog post(mainly posted so I can find it directly again
RiverLover
(7,830 posts)Fred Sanders
(23,946 posts)RiverLover
(7,830 posts)If its big news, but it paints their owners in a very unflattering way, what to do?
Hope for a massive storm or missing airplane, quick...
Fred Sanders
(23,946 posts)benz380
(534 posts)Dustlawyer
(10,497 posts)contributions and the Revolving Door! We need to attack their ability to control our government before it is too late! We cannot make the changes necessary to start living in harmony with our environment to save ourselves unless we do! The whole thing is going down the drain as we stand by watching and believing if we just elect Hilary and more Democrats things will be ok.
If you don't believe this then stop wondering how Fox News viewers can be so stupid and look in the mirror!
RiverLover
(7,830 posts)To restore true, representative democracy in the United States by pressuring our State Legislators to pass a much needed Free and Fair Elections Amendment to our Constitution. There are only 2 ways to amend the Constitution. (1) Go through our Federal Government (2) Go through our State Legislators via an amendments convention of the states.
Wolf PAC believes that we can no longer count on our Federal Government to do what is in the best interest of the American people due to the unfettered amount of money they receive from outside organizations to fund their campaigns. We point to the failure of the Disclose Act as rock solid evidence that this would be a total waste of our time, effort, and money. We also point to the recent decision by the US Supreme Court to not even hear a case filed by Montana claiming it did not have to abide by Citizens United, as proof that state legislation is not a sufficient measure to solve this problem. We believe that we have no choice but to put an amendment in the hands of our State Legislators, who are not, at this moment in time, completely blinded by the influence of money and might actually do what 96% of the country wants...take away the massive influence that money has over our political process.
Step 1: Believe
Convince enough people to believe that we absolutely have the power to change our country for the better and that it is still possible to have a government of, by, and for the people in the United States....
Divernan
(15,480 posts)(From the OP Oxfam link)
hankthecrank
(653 posts)Do you have enough?
The Rich said I'm sure there is a little more blood when get out of those turnips
Dam peons still have too much
daleanime
(17,796 posts)yallerdawg
(16,104 posts)Not the government, poor and downtrodden, apparently.
Could it be the 'job creators' and the privileged entitled elites you serve?
seveneyes
(4,631 posts)It's like mass and gravity...the more of it in one place, the more it attracts more. Either spread it out more, or get sucked in to its attraction.