Plutocracy Now

The dictionary definition of PLUTOCRACY: Government by the wealthy.
• a country or society governed in this way.
• an elite or ruling class of people whose power derives from their wealth.

Are we already there?

(In reading the following facts, keep in mind the Supreme Court majority ruling known as "Citizens United," which says that corporate funding of independent political broadcasts in candidate elections cannot be limited.)

* The top 0.1 percent of income earners now make more money than the 120 million people at the bottom of the income scale.

* Since 1992, the average tax rate on the richest 400 taxpayers dropped from 26.8 percent to 16.62 percent.

* From 1979 to 2006, the richest 1 percent more than doubled their share of total US income, from 10 percent to 23 percent. The richest 1 percent have an average annual income of more than $1.3 million. For the last 25 years, over 90 percent of total growth in income has gone to the top 10 percent of earners, leaving 9 percent of all income to be shared by the bottom 90 percent.

* Today an American CEO earns about 300 times as much as an ordinary worker. In 1950, that number was only 30.

* We now have the highest number of poor people in 51 years. The official US rate is 14.3 percent or 43.6 million people in poverty. One in five children is poor; one in 19 senior citizens is poor.

* About 3..5 million people (about one third of them children) are homeless at some point in the year.

* The top Hedge Fund Manager of 2009, David Tepper, “earned” $4 billion last year. The rest of the top 10 earned: $3.3 billion, $2.5 billion, $2.3 billion, $1.4 billion, $1.3 billion (tie for sixth and seventh place), $900 million (tie for eighth and ninth place), and last place, $825 million.

* The US has the greatest inequality between rich and poor among all Western industrialized nations, and it has been getting worse for 40 years

* 11 million homeowners in the US owe the banks more than their properties are worth. Houses are on the market for $80,000 that were built for $120,000 two years ago and have never been occupied.

* No new jobs are being created on balance, because the US economy has undergone structural change. Companies are dominated by investors interested only in the kinds of quick and large profits that can be achieved by reducing the workforce. Almost six million jobs have been eliminated since 2000. Today only 9 percent of Americans work in the manufacturing industry -- half as many as in 1985.

(With thanks to Bill Quigley of Loyola University New Orleans for his research.)