4 Major Ways the Rich Pile On and Exploit the Rest of Us For More Money and Profit

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/economy/4-major-ways-rich-pile-and-exploit-rest-us-more-money-and-profit





***SNIP


1. Taking ALL the Income

Charles Koch said, "I want my fair share -- and that's all of it." He's been getting his wish lately. In the first two years of the recovery, the richest 1% seemingly impossibly captured 121% of the income gains, while incomes for 99% of Americans declined, with the median household income dropping by 7.3 percent.

More and more people are working in respectable but low-wage positions in food service and retail. Low-income jobs ($7.69 to $13.83 per hour) made up one-fifth of the jobs lost to the recession, but accounted for three-fifths of the jobs regained during the recovery.

2. Wealth Grab

According to an AP report, the stock market has regained all its losses since March 2009 while adding an extra 18 percent. That's $11 trillion restored, plus almost $2 trillion gained. Using Economic Policy Institute figures (Tables 6 and 7), we can determine the beneficiaries of the new wealth:

* The richest 1%, 1.15 million families with 38.3% of the stocks, each regained their losses and added an additional $666,000.
* The next 2-5%, 4.6 million families with 30.9% of the stocks, each regained their losses and added an additional $134,000.
* The rest of the top 20%, 17.25 million families with 22% of the stocks, each regained their losses and added an additional $25,500.
* The 30% just above the middle, 34.5 million families with 8.9% of the stocks, each regained their losses and added an additional $5,160.

The bottom 50%, 57.5 million families with 0% of the stocks, gained nothing.

[Laelth]

1. k&r for the truth, however depressing it may be. n/t

-Laelth

[marmar]

2. k/r

[another_liberal]

3. Makes me glad . . .

Statistics like these never fail to make me glad there are some many lamp posts and so much rope available.

[Newest Reality]

4. Time to give up

wanting your slice of the pie and switch to cake.

If there is no cake, try bread and you only get one slice.

No bread? Well, rather than using food stamps to steal from the rich, sawdust will do. It is used as a filler in the food supply anyway.

Plenty of sawdust for all!

[Safetykitten]

5. Thank God it passed.

[Saviolo]

6. This sort of story

... is the sort that makes me the saddest and angriest. It seems that there is -nothing- we can do within the current framework and structure to change this sort of thing. The laws were written by the lawyers of extremely rich people to favour them, and those same lawyers make sure that the same laws don't even apply if it's going to hurt one of them.

People are just a resource to be used (or used up) and discarded. If the cost of a person is too high, then the bottom line is far more important than that person. Wage disparity between the CEOs and the average worker are unbelievable. Corporations kill jobs at home because it's cheaper to have them elsewhere. Politicians are mostly wealthy as well, and don't really understand the struggles of people working multiple jobs and still just above homeless.

[raouldukelives]

7. It's nice to know the bottom 50% aren't investing against themselves and the natural world.

Not to say they wouldn't if they could. Seems to be a mark of success to some people. How much they have fueling the wheels of corporations, how much of the proceeds from destruction they pocket in return for being such a resourceful accomplice.
And then some still have the gall to wonder why things keep getting worse, why the wilderness is dying, why our fresh water is being polluted, why our political process is so corrupted, why our educational system is being gutted, why our prisons are full, why the mentally ill wander the streets alone and afraid, why our foods are killing us, why our health care only cares about profit. It's because we want it that way.
"Physician, heal thyself."