Saturday, December 3, 2016

Income Inequality in the US Grows


· Globally, in 2006, prior to the Great Recession, one percent of the world’s population was believed to control 40 percent of the world’s wealth.[i] Inequality grew in the wake of the recession.[ii]

· In US, “total income reported on the top 400 individual tax returns rose 20% in 2014, according to Internal Revenue Service data released” Dec 1, 2016. Minimum adjusted gross income for this group was $126.8 million. Their average tax rate was 23.13%.[iii]

· Ownership of the world’s largest corporations is highly centralized in a core group of 1318 corporations with interlocking ownerships, according to a revealing network analysis of 43,000 global corporations published in 2011 by Stefania Vitali, James B. Glattfelder, and Stefano Battiston.[iv] Further analysis revealed a tightly linked “super entity” of 147 corporations, mainly in finance, with interconnected ownership. Consequently, less than one percent of corporations essentially controlled 40 percent of the entire network. Furthermore, the study found that 734 “top holders of stock accumulate 80% of the control over the value of all TNCs.”[v]

· Rising Impoverishment Threatens Basic Security: In 2012, one in seven Americans relied on food stamps.[vi] By 2013, one in five Americans relied on food stamps.[vii] Food banks faced record demand. Eligibility and demand for free lunches in public schools grew, straining school lunch programs nationally.[viii]






[i] “40% of world's wealth owned by 1% of population,” CBCNews, December 5, 2006, accessed January, 3 2012, http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/story/2006/12/05/globalwealth.html; and James Randerson, “World's richest 1% own 40% of All Wealth, UN Report Discovers,” The Guardian, December 6, 2006, accessed January 3, 2012, http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2006/dec/06/business.internationalnews.

[ii] Simon Clark, “Credit Suisse Says Global Inequality Rose After Financial Crisis,” The Wall Street Journal, October 14, 2014, accessed September 17, 2015, http://blogs.wsj.com/moneybeat/2014/10/14/credit-suisse-says-global-inequality-rose-after-financial-crisis/.

[iii] Richard Rubin. (December 2, 2016). Tax Returns Show Rise for the Rich. The Wall Street Journal, A2.

[iv] Stefania Vitali, James B. Glattfelder, and Stefano Battiston, “The Network of Global Corporate Control,” PLOSone (2011), accessed December 3, 2011, doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0025995.

[v] Vitali, Glattfelder, and Battiston, “The Network of Global,” 36.

[vi] Jim Abrams, "Ag Dept Unveils New Steps to Stop Food Stamp Fraud," Lake Country News Sun, August 13, 2012, accessed, August 14, 2012, http://newssun.suntimes.com/news/14448564-418/ag-dept-unveils-new-steps-to-stop-food-stamp-fraud.html.

[vii] Ali Meyer, "Record 20% of Households on Food Stamps in 2013," CNS news, January 21, 2014, accessed January 22, 2014, http://cnsnews.com/news/article/ali-meyer/record-20-households-food-stamps-2013.

[viii] Alan. Bjerga, "School Lunches Strained by Recession, Farm Panel Told, Bloomberg. com, March 4, 2010, http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aPCZteEfTvaw&refer=u.

11 comments:

  1. 93 million unemployed in the united states. Millions homeless. Huge private prison system incarcerating poor people for victimless crimes and trump wants to build more. Trump hires one of the wall street bankers responsible for the responsible for the 2008 housing crisis/ bank collapses. This is not really a recession and it will become apparent soon, as trump billionaire appointees suck things completely dry.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Notice the wapo proponot bill just sent through congress is sponsored by a republican
    US Congress Quietly Passes Bill Targeting “Russian Propaganda” Websites
    Posted: December 3, 2016
    On November 30, one week after the Washington Post launched its witch hunt against “Russian propaganda fake news”, with 390 votes for, the House quietly passed “H.R. 6393, Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2017“, sponsored by California Republican Devin Nunes (whose third largest donor in 2016 is Google parent Alphabet, Inc), a bill which deals with a number of intelligence-related issues, including Russian propaganda, or what the government calls propaganda, and hints at a potential crackdown on “offenders.”

    A quick skim of the bill reveals “Title V—Matters relating to foreign countries”, whose Section 501 calls for the government to “counter active measures by Russia to exert covert influence … carried out in coordination with, or at the behest of, political leaders or the security services of the Russian Federation and the role of the Russian Federation has been hidden or not acknowledged publicly.”

    The section lists the following definitions of media manipulation:

    Establishment or funding of a front group.
    Covert broadcasting.
    Media manipulation.
    Disinformation and forgeries.
    Funding agents of influence.
    Incitement and offensive counterintelligence.
    Assassinations.
    Terrorist acts.
    As ActivistPost correctly notes, it is easy to see how this law, if passed by the Senate and signed by the president, could be used to target, threaten, or eliminate so-called “fake news” websites, a list which has been used to arbitrarily define any website, or blog, that does not share the mainstream media’s proclivity to serve as the Public Relations arm of a given administration. …

    Source: US Congress Quietly Passes Bill Targeting “Russian Propaganda” Websites

    ReplyDelete
  3. http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/12/02/trump-and-his-betraying-makeover/

    ReplyDelete
  4. Cornell west has been one of Obama harsher critics.
    http://www.alternet.org/right-wing/cornel-west-donald-trump-what-neo-fascism-looks

    ReplyDelete
  5. http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/12/01/egoism-and-empathy-in-the-era-of-neocons-and-neoliberals/

    Egoism and Empathy in the Era of Neocons and Neoliberals

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  6. Congressional conservatives to resurrect a 21st century version of the long-dead House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC).

    Recently, right-wing radio host Michael Savage called for Trump to restore HUAC or a similar committee to focus on “hunting down subversives.” “We need a new HUAC but you can’t call it HUAC,” he declared, “but we have to unmask the traitors within because we’re facing grave danger from these traitors.” Among the groups he identified as “subversive” and needed to be investigated are People for the American Way, the American Civil Liberties Union, MoveOn, Center for American Progress, Black Lives Matter, Media Matters and the National Council of Churches.

    He even proposed leading the inquiry.

    Savage picked up on a similar chant made earlier by Newt Gingrich.

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  7. Fake anonymous video. Protrump Jill stein hate video. Probably produced by bannon. Too bad stein recount bought off by undemocratic fascist
    PlowboyGrownUp
    DECEMBER 3, 2016 AT 5:11 PM LOG IN TO REPLY
    The election "Anonymous: Next 10 Days Will Rock The World "
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rfl1P9IUYA

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  8. Jill stein was not trying to get Hillary elected. American voting and democracy has been deeply wounded and commandeered in the past 30 years. It reached a new despicable lows during the election of "Patriot act," 911 , iraq invader George W. Bush.

    The american voting system is deeply flawed by untrackable electronic voting machines owned by republican activists like Diebold. There are people illegally purged from voter registrations in Republican controlled states which are the majority now. People are illegally blocked from polling places by dirty tricks, keeping people from voting who are american citizens and have the right to vote. There are mail in ballots being thrown away enmasse. Democracy in america is fading if not gone. There are the corporatist pro-oligarhists, proauthoritarian zealots. There are the nasty white racists, the kkk and neonazi racists that label themseveles euphemistically as altright. There are un civil libertarian right wing objectivists who say they believe in freedom but are really right wing thugs.

    See bradblog.com for black box electronic voting issues. He who counts the vote controls the election.

    Why would anyone in a democracy be against vote recounts?

    http://bradblog.com/?p=11938

    The awesome cs network of rightwing fascist political echoed chambers is well financed by oligarch billionaires and vulture capitalists. By clandestine alphabet soup operative. It is in every corner of every media. Rightwing blowhards still control am radio. Neoliberal globalists who are equally awful controlling corporate television medias. They are even trying to institute McCarthyism in shadow government media like the Washington post. The neofascist good cops chastise them, yet secretly acquiesce. The huge vampire squid is now rearing its ugly head it is consolidating its power as Orwell's 1984 predicted.

    There are citizens being deprived of voting rights by illegal gerrymandering to insure the monolithic power of the globalists and world neofascist oligarchs.

    Sorry no Russian hacker hunt in recount pursuit as the Orwellian neofascist activist would like you to think.
    http://www.gregpalast.com/no-bs-inside-guide-presidential-recount/

    For ongoing travesties in the consolidation of deriving american citizens of voting and freedom see

    Gregplallast.com

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  9. Of course, anyone who believes in democracy and every citizens right to vote and have theiir vote counted is labeled a socialist or communist in the current zeitgeist of altright and so-called mainstream politics.

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  10. As to their effects in the world, and to make an astronomical comparison, egoism is a black hole that swallows up everything that has the misfortune to stray too close, while empathy is a life-giving sun that gives to everyone and everything it benignly shines upon life-sustaining warmth and energy. There are two causes of over-weening egoism: either an abusive childhood or an entitled, privileged childhood. Of the two, the latter is most dangerous. The egoist at the extreme end of the scale is a psychopath; in these extreme cases the abused and unloved individual might become a psychopathic killer and claim a few victims, but many of those egoists sprung from elite, privileged childhoods are also psychopathic in their complete disregard for others (the libertarians of these neocon neoliberal days) and are responsible for the death of millions and the misery and desperation of millions more.

    ReplyDelete
  11. http://www.palmerreport.com/news/wisconsin-recount-observers-discover-five-vote-counting-machines-with-tampered-seals/345/

    Wisconsin recount observers discover five vote counting machines with tampered seals

    By Bill Palmer | December 2, 2016 | 7 
    With the Wisconsin statewide recount now fully underway, designated election observers have been monitoring the hand recounts of the election officials. Many of the observers who have been designated on behalf of third party candidate Jill Stein are sharing their first hand recount experiences on her official website. Most notable among them: one observer who reports that five of the nine voting machines in her county had tampered seals – and she posted visual evidence to prove it.

    The observer, named Wendy, has been observing the recount in St. Croix County. According to the state’s official election website, that county iscurrently doing both a hand recount and a machine recount. That’s what makes it notable that Wendy spotted the broken seals on five of the nine machines in question. Based on the photographs she postedto Stein’s official campaign website, the broken seals themselves come with the warning label that “Removal of seal voids warranty.” Take a look at one of her photos below:

    There has as of yet been no explanation from Wisconsin officials or St. Croix County officials as to why the majority of vote counting machines in the county have been visibly tampered with, and no one noticed during the original vote tally. It’s possible that these seals could have been broken by a hacker who was reprogramming them to produce rigged or false vote totals, and it’s also possible that an election worker could have simply pried open the seals for some unknown reason that didn’t involve malicious intent. But in any case, the broken tamper seals stand out as alarming – and could serve as legal fodder for expanding the scope of the recount.

    A judge ruled that there was insufficient evidence to force every Wisconsin county to do a hand recount, and that each county could decide on its own whether to do hand recounts or machine recounts. Sixty of the seventy-two counties havevoluntarily agreed to do hand recounts. However, of the twelve counties which refused, Donald Trump won nine of them. These tampered seals could be used to convince the judge to order the remaining twelve counties to do hand recounts.

    ReplyDelete

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