-
Hah Hah: You are So Poor
BREAKING: According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the rich are getting richer while the poor in America continue to get poorer. And the government is contributing to all this.
You are Poorer Now than BeforeHere’s the story from the CBO:
— Between 1979 and 2007, income grew by 275 percent for the top one percent of households, compared to only 18 percent for the bottom twenty percent of us.
— In 2007, federal taxes and transfers reduced the dispersion of income by 20 percent. The share of transfer payments to the lowest-income households declined. “The equalizing effect of federal taxes was smaller” in 2007 than in 1979, as “the composition of federal revenues shifted away from progressive income taxes to less-progressive payroll taxes,” thus doing less to reduce the concentration of income, the CBO said.
— The most affluent fifth of the population received 53 percent of after-tax household income in 2007, up from 43 percent in 1979. In other words, the after-tax income of the most affluent fifth exceeded the income of the other four-fifths of the population.
You can read the full Congressional Budget Office report online.
Shut Up Serfs
Just to make sure the point is clear, the top ten percent of wealth holders own roughly 70 percent of everything in the United States. The bottom half of us have roughly five percent, and falling, because…
The Great Recession of 2008 stripped swaths of the middle class of their most valuable asset. Some five million homes were lost to foreclosure between 2008 and 2013. 8.2 million more foreclosure starts took place in that same time period. Another three million homes in the next three or four years will face foreclosure.
The value of those homes and their real estate migrated into the hands of those who controlled the banks. Many homeowners were turned into renters, shoving more money upward to those who controlled the property. America’s the top earners’ wealth grew even as those responsible for the collapse were never punished and the companies involved received federal bail-out money to cover losses, being too big to fail. In a neat closing of the circle, the money came from taxes paid in part by those destroyed in the Recession.
This was one of the largest single redistributions of wealth in American, perhaps world, history. Cool– you were around to witness history in the making.
GINI
The mathematical measure of wealth-inequality is called “Gini,” and the higher it is, the more extreme a nation’s wealth-inequality.
The Gini for the U.S. is 85; Canada, 72; and Bangladesh, 64. Nations more unequal than the U.S. include Kazakhstan at 86 and the Ukraine at 90. The African continent tips in at just under 85.
Odd company for the “exceptional nation.”
Serfs All, or at Least 99% of Us
Thanks for reading this. I hope it distracted you briefly from the daily hunger pangs you face. If you don’t complain, we’ll allow you 30 minutes of TV tonight. Now back to work serf.
Copyright © 2020. All rights reserved. The views expressed here are solely those of the author(s) in their private capacity.
Recent Comments
Leave A Comment
Buy Peter’s Books on Amazon!
pitchfork said...
1Peter said:
“Thanks for reading this. I hope it distracted you briefly from the daily hunger pangs you face. If you don’t complain, we’ll allow you 30 minutes of TV tonight. Now back to work serf.”unquote
“Oh, btw, before you go back to work, our new ‘dress code’ is now in effect. Lucky for you though, we have the exact clothing you need. Please purchase them before reporting for work.”
Thank you
Walmart Management
(who stands to earn $51 MILLION dollars by virtue of sales to it’s employees)
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/09/17/1330399/-Walmart-finds-a-new-way-to-exploit-workers-with-a-new-dress-code?detail=email
I smell a Postal come-uppance brewing. Maybe using one of Walmart’s own products it sells.
09/19/14 11:37 AM | Comment Link
pitchfork said...
2btw..just in case you didn’t get my point…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Going_postal
09/19/14 11:42 AM | Comment Link
pitchfork said...
3ps…I also smell a viral youtube coming that will embarrass Walmart to the point of imploding.
09/19/14 11:48 AM | Comment Link
pitchfork said...
4Peter said:
“This was one of the largest single redistributions of wealth in American, perhaps world, history. Cool– you were around to witness history in the making.”
Yeah, well, if I’m not mistaken..given the information flowing out there now…I do believe some of the Plutocrats are getting nervous about it…
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/09/15/1329943/-Plutocrat-Predicts-The-Pitchforks-Are-Coming?detail=email
They oughtta be. I’m sharpening mine as I type.
09/19/14 12:01 PM | Comment Link
bloodypitchfork said...
5In regards to nervous Plutocrats..note an upgrade in my username.
09/19/14 12:09 PM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
6Your headline should read: Hah Hah, DCOTP, you are so stupid.
Earth’s atmosphere (carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide) rose at a “record-shattering pace” from 2012 to 2013, including the largest increase in CO2 in 30 years. In the same period, according to the Yale Project on Climate Change Communication, parts of the American public stopped absorbing information in no less striking fashion: the number of those who believe that global warming isn’t happening ROSE 7% to 23%.
09/19/14 12:12 PM | Comment Link
Kyzl Orda said...
7Speaking of economic malaise —
The UK Guardian had this interesting article on bleak employment prospects for workers who are arrested while protesting for a cause. Was surprising to read about 1 in 3 adults has a FBI record??
http://www.theguardian.com/money/2014/sep/19/protesting-for-worthy-causes-can-compromise-future-employment
One of the persons interviewed for the article also mentions a fair percentage are minority — but a silent sizeable number is likely white. Seems to me to make sense to tackle this societal problem equally, across the board. Keeping people unemployable regardless — is just wrong. Period
BTW, whistleblowers also know this intimately. How many cant get a job in their field because of false allegations by corrupt officials holding an official job, made specifically to keep whistleblowers from their fields of expertise??
09/19/14 4:12 PM | Comment Link
jo6pac said...
8Kyzl Orda said… 6
Yes the threat of protesting against the elite will have its cost, no job for you. Then of course that’s if there were any jobs to begin with. In the near future like right now the jobs will be for only the sheeple. Speaking out is against the laws for the serfs.
Pitchfork, they’re just around the corner watching:)
Come to the workers in Amerika soon.
http://action2.davidsuzuki.org/undemocratic-trade-deal
09/19/14 9:20 PM | Comment Link
bloodypitchfork said...
9jo6pac said…
‘Kyzl Orda said…
Yes the threat of protesting against the elite will have its cost, no job for you.”
quote”Pitchfork, they’re just around the corner watching:)”
Duh! Why do you think I’m trying to spit in their face?
09/19/14 11:32 PM | Comment Link
bloodypitchfork said...
10Meanwhile, thank god, the real world doesn’t stop documenting those who think they are gods answer to evil, when in reality, they have joined the ranks of upper echelon evil in the name of self defined perfect life expression of subscribing to 163 CORPORATE leader dictats that give them the right to murder. PERIOD
http://online.wsj.com/articles/wheres-jim-comey-1404771635
http://narcosphere.narconews.com/notebook/bill-conroy/2013/06/fbi-director-candidate-comey-complicit-dark-chapter-us-history
In the real world, Jim Comey is a fucking scumbag representative of everything wrong with this planet, no different than Hoover.
09/20/14 12:02 AM | Comment Link
bloodypitchfork said...
11meanwhile..the inhabitants of the DCOTP, in their struggle to survive, haven’t got a clue to the 1000 year trajectory of bloodline control of the planet. Indeed, the daily documentation of their success is even beyond comprehension. Beheading human beings is still happening in the year 2014, while corporate supply of the means to which these scum of the earth maggots threaten the entire planet continue to control the very nature of our manifest contribution to survival by virtue of the 16th Amendment. So be it.
09/20/14 12:21 AM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
12West Gathering Pitchforks
It may be the hot weather in the West but 23.9 percent of Americans polled from Aug. 23 through Sept. 16 said they strongly supported or tended to support the idea of their state breaking away, while 53.3 percent of the 8,952 respondents strongly opposed or tended to oppose the notion.
The urge to sever ties with Washington cuts across party lines and regions, though Republicans and residents of rural Western states are generally warmer to the idea.
Go West, Pitch.
09/20/14 11:25 AM | Comment Link
bloodypitchfork said...
13Rich said..”Go West, Pitch.”
How far? My budget will get me about 50 miles, to the west coast of Michigan. Which seems ridiculous seeing as I moved last year from the coast of Oregon. Never should have left. Biggest mistake in my life.
09/21/14 12:21 PM | Comment Link