A huge share of the nation's economic growth over the past 30 years has gone to the top one-hundredth of one percent, who now make an average of $27 million per household. The average income for the bottom 90% of us ? $31, 244.
The richest 10% controls 2/3 of American's net worth.
From 2007 through 2009 Wall Street profits soared 720%. Unemployment rose 102%. American's home equity dropped 35%.
The average CEO pay is 185 times bigger than the average worker.
In 1985, THE FORBES 400 were worth $221 billion combined. Today, they're worth $1.13 trillion -- more than the GDP of Canada. The median household income has meanwhile stagnated at around $44, 000.
In 2005, there were 9 million American millionaires. In 2005, 25.7 million Americans received food stamps.
A minimum wage employee who works 40 hours a week for 51 weeks a year goes home with $10, 506 before taxes. Such a worker would take 7000 years to earn Oracle CEO Larry Ellison's yearly compensation.
And this from John Steinbeck (author of The Grapes of Wrath):
"Our royalists really think they own the world."
Now this from St Basil:
"The rich take what belongs to everyone, and claim they have a right to own it, to monopolize it."
Virtually every American and virtually every State in the Union is struggling to survive -- excepting the super-rich. So why not ask the trillion dollar question? Forget getting rid of the infamous Bush tax-cuts. Why not ask the super-rich to come to the aid of America and Americans? Why not ask them to just give us the two trillion or so they've got stashed away? They've scored a mighty big hit on America -- so why can't they ask what they can do for their country?
Can't we promise them, when things turn around and the middle-class is thriving again, that we'll build a monument for them in the National Mall?