Rich And Poor Jobs And Wages

"There is no need to sally forth, for it remains true that those things which make us human are, curiously enough, always close at hand.  Resolve, then, that on this very ground, with small flags waving and tiny blasts of tiny trumpets, we shall meet the enemy, and not only may he be ours, he may be us."  Pogo


According to a recent Harper's Index 10,149 US companies are now foreign owned. The average net worth of a white woman between 36 and 49 is 42,600 dollars. For a non-white woman it is five dollars. The CEO of Nike, Philip Knight is the sixth richest man in America. He is worth five billion dollars. "By 1992, Nike had eliminated nearly all of their U.S. work force in favor of low-wage Asian producers."

'As of 2004, the richest one percent of Americans possessed sixty percent of all wealth in the country, while the bottom forty percent accounted for a whopping two-tenths of a percent.' 791 American companies listed in URL below outsource their work to foreign countries. The few companies I am familiar with have well over 5000 employees in India. Added together, how many jobs do you think this list comprises? 'There are 2.4 million job openings for 15.3 million unemployed Americans.'

'The 400 American families with the highest incomes have seen a dramatic decline in their effective tax rate since 1992.'  '80 percent of Americans 65 years and older depend on Social Security for half of their income.'

'The rich countries' subsidies to their richest farmers were $300 billion in 2005. Their tariffs on manufactured imports from poor countries are four times higher than on those from other rich countries. In 2005, just $7.63 billion of the total $106.78 billion of aid went to basic social services - 0.02 per cent of the rich countries' combined GNP.' (Book below)

'In 2004, 2.5 billion people, 40 per cent of humanity, were living in severe poverty. Every year, 18 million people, a third of all who die, die early from poverty-related causes.'

The SCOTUS recently gave free speech rights to a corporation, do you think their next step will be to give free speech rights to foreigners as they own and operate much of America? Maybe Toyota's executives could inform Roberts, Scalia, Thomas, and Alito on their corporate needs making sure laws are in-line with profits.

"In 1980, the chief executive officers in the top three hundred largest American companies had incomes twenty-nine times that of the average manufacturing worker. Ten years later the incomes of the top executives were ninety-three times greater." (Source, Galbraith, The Culture of Contentment) Republicans fought tooth and nail against Clinton's raising of the minimum wage, and Reagan was content to keep minimum wage stagnant during his presidency. Republicans just voted down extending benefits for the unemployed, and BP has a real hero in Republican Barton. FDR started minimum wage at 25 cents.

Republican congresses have opposed every change since social security to medicare, and today continues to say 'no' to anything that helps the nation and its working people. One has to give their propaganda machine great credit, for they do nothing but make it appear all things done by the opposition are bad or will lead straight to hell.  

The Disclose Act is 'designed to increase transparency for corporations and other interest groups who make contributions to political campaigns. The bill passed 219 to 206 with only two Republicans voting in favor of the measure.'

'...if we completely repealed the estate tax, it would provide an estimated $32 billion tax break for the Walton family — the founders of Wal-Mart. So, let me make a contrast here with regard to Republican philosophy. They believe that it is a good idea to give a $32.7 billion tax break to one family worth $86 billion, but when it comes to providing $35 billion for an emergency extension of unemployment benefits to some 2 million Americans who lost their jobs through no fault of their own, the Republicans are just not there. One family gets almost $33 billion in tax breaks, 2 million working class Americans get nothing.' Bernie Sanders

It seems the truth is simple and obvious as the old cartoon Pogo demonstrates. Or is it just profit motivation regardless of the consequences. If money is the primary admired goal then the new American icon should be an overpaid sports figure (pick one), and/or Bernie Madoff or the many other investment millionaires who really do nothing, followed by televangelists such as the Crouches or Osteens, they at least make some people happy with the promise their reward follows this vale of tears.

'Don't Tread On Me' needs to be revised to include a fat-cat, smoking a cigar, wallowing in money on the French Rivera. That will at least get our new American values in line with reality.

And someone needs to revise 'Proverbs' as all this talk of helping the poor went out the window with the massive cathedrals that make Babel look like a shack.  "Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who run large businesses. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the wealthy and the corporations." Proverbs 31:8-9 [American Revised Edition]


Bibliography

http://harpers.org/subjects/Indexes

http://www.epi.org/economic_snapshots/entry/for_americas_top_earners_growing_incomes_falling_tax_rates/
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Boycotts/NikeThird_facts.html
http://uspoverty.change.org/blog/view/want_to_be_poor_work_one_of_these_8_jobs
http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/lou.dobbs.tonight/popups/exporting.america/content.html
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/03/03/us/20090303_LEONHARDT.html?ref=economy
http://www.jesus-is-savior.com/Wolves/greedy.htm
http://financemymoney.com/who-controls-wealth-in-america-top-1-percent-own-83-percent-of-stocks-housing-debt-eating-personal-income/
http://financemymoney.com/2-4-million-job-openings-for-15-3-million-unemployed-how-average-americans-don%E2%80%99t-partake-in-the-current-casino-stock-market-rally-most-of-net-worth-is-stored-in-housing-but-not-for-the-top/
http://financemymoney.com/the-5-percent-solution-how-5-percent-of-the-workforce-generated-40-percent-of-u-s-business-profits-and-all-of-it-was-a-ponzi-scheme/
http://debtreductionus.com/health/?p=97420
http://www.salon.com/news/karl_rove/index.html?story=/politics/war_room/2010/07/23/rove_group_billionaire_donors
http://www.amazon.com/World-Poverty-Human-Rights-Thomas/dp/074564144X/ref=pd_sim_b_6

"Ultimately, the ideal society is one in which, if taxes are necessary, everyone pays them as freely and cheerfully as they pay their dues to some club of which they are devoted members – where citizen and state can trust each other perfectly." Emrys Westacott

"People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices. It is impossible indeed to prevent such meetings, by any law which either could be executed, or would be consistent with liberty and justice. But though the law cannot hinder people of the same trade from sometimes assembling together, it ought to do nothing to facilitate such assemblies; much less to render them necessary." Adam Smith

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