{"id":48655,"date":"2014-10-20T12:00:03","date_gmt":"2014-10-20T11:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=48655"},"modified":"2015-05-05T21:29:38","modified_gmt":"2015-05-05T20:29:38","slug":"why-we-should-be-seething-with-anger-over-inequality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2014\/10\/why-we-should-be-seething-with-anger-over-inequality\/","title":{"rendered":"Why We Should Be Seething with Anger over Inequality"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was recently reported that Americans greatly underestimate<\/a> the degree of inequality in our country. If we were given proper media coverage of the endless takeaway of our country’s wealth by the super-rich, we would be infuriated. And we would be taking it personally<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Each of nine individuals<\/a> (Gates, Buffett, 2 Kochs, 4 Waltons, Zuckerberg) made, on average, so much from his\/her investments since January, 2013 that a median American worker would need<\/a> a quarter of a million years<\/em><\/strong> to catch up. For the most part it was passive income, new wealth derived from the continuing productivity of America’s workers.<\/p>\n

Why We Should Take It Personally<\/strong><\/p>\n

First, because our productivity is rewarding a relatively few people. In addition, many of the top money-makers are damaging other American lives. The top nine include four people<\/a> (Waltons) who pay their employees so little that we taxpayers<\/em><\/strong> have to pay almost $6,000 a year to support each one of the employees. And it includes two people<\/a> (Kochs) who have polluted our air and water to enrich themselves while quietly funding<\/a> organizations that threaten to dismantle what’s left of our democracy.<\/p>\n

Another personal issue: While the Forbes 400<\/a> made almost enough in one year to fund the entire safety net<\/a>, they don’t even have to pay taxes<\/em><\/strong> on their half-trillion dollars of investment gain until they cash in, which may be never.<\/p>\n

On Average, Most of Us Got ONE DOLLAR for Every BILLION DOLLARS of New Wealth<\/strong><\/p>\n

A look at the numbers compiled by Us Against Greed<\/em><\/a> shows how personal it really is. Out of that $5,350,000,000,000 ($5.35 trillion) made since the start of 2013, the bottom 80 percent<\/em><\/strong> of America took an average of less than $5,000 each. The richest 6 to 20 percent fared better, taking an average of about $65,000.<\/p>\n

Now it begins to heat up. From that $5.35 trillion, the richest 2 to 5 percent took an average of about $343,000. The one-percenters need to be split up into the rich, the super-rich, and the filthy-rich:<\/p>\n

—-The more common members of the one-percent (1,068,000 families) made over $1,000,000 each ($1,068 billion total)<\/p>\n

—-The .1 percent (108,000 families) made about $4 million each ($480 billion total)<\/p>\n

—-The .01 percent made about $40 million each ($480 billion total)<\/p>\n

The unimaginably rich Forbes 400 each took, on average, almost $1,500,000,000 ($1.5 billion) since January, 2013.<\/p>\n

That brings us to the Final 9 (Gates, Buffett, 2 Kochs, 4 Waltons, Zuckerberg). Each of them has accumulated<\/a>, on average, over $13,000,000,000 ($13 billion) since January 2013.<\/p>\n

Getting Billions for Working Less<\/strong><\/p>\n

A big reason to get angry: Our country’s wealth grew from $64 trillion<\/a> to $80 trillion<\/a> (a 25 percent increase!) in two years, reflecting the unprecedented surge in America’s productivity and wealth over the past few years. But there was little if any new innovation or job creation<\/em><\/strong> by these big takers over the past two years. The simple fact that they were already incomprehensibly rich allowed them to sit back and collect more and more and more.<\/p>\n

Mainstream Media: Incompetent or In Bed with Business<\/strong><\/p>\n

And thus a final reason to be incensed about inequality: The fact that the regular media doesn’t properly inform the public about all this. That should be their job, to report on issues that have a great impact on our lives, instead of hushing up the perversity of redistributed national wealth. But apparently it’s good business for the super-rich media owners to keep their viewers harmlessly underestimating the truth.<\/p>\n

_______________________<\/p>\n

Paul Buchheit is a college teacher, an active member of US Uncut Chicago, founder and developer of social justice and educational websites (UsAgainstGreed.org, PayUpNow.org, RappingHistory.org), and the editor and main author of “<\/em>American Wars: Illusions and Realities<\/a>” (Clarity Press). He can be reached at paul@UsAgainstGreed.org<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License.<\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 commondreams.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Each of nine individuals (Gates, Buffett, 2 Kochs, 4 Waltons, Zuckerberg) made, on average, so much from his\/her investments since January, 2013 that a median American worker would need a quarter of a million years to catch up. For the most part it was passive income, new wealth derived from the continuing productivity of America’s workers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48655","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-anglo-america"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48655","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48655"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48655\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}