From DailyFinance.com
For much of the past decade, policymakers and analysts have decried America’s incredibly low savings rate, noting that U.S. households save a fraction of the money of the rest of the world. Citing a myriad of causes — from cheap credit to exploitative bank practices — they’ve noted that the average family puts away less than 4 percent of its income.
“Wealth Inequality in America,” a six-minute video produced by a YouTube user named “Politizane,” casts an interesting angle on the plummeting savings rate. Set to depressing piano music and packed with crystal-clear animations, it gives a powerful snapshot of the American economic landscape. Noting that “The top 1 percent own nearly half the country’s stocks, bonds, and mutual funds,” the video goes on to contrast those impressive holdings with the rest of the country. By comparison, it points out, the bottom 50 percent of earners own only 0.5 percent of those investments.
It isn’t hard to see why there is such a yawning gap between the richest Americans and the rest of us. Since 1976, the share of national income earned by the top one percent of workers has nearly tripled, from 9 percent to 24 percent. It’s not hard to see why their share has increased: As Clinton administration Labor Secretary Robert Reich recently pointed out, the economy has roughly doubled in size over the last 30 years — and, in an ideal world, more money in the economy should mean more money in everyone’s pocket.
But the distribution of this huge economic bonanza has been startlingly uneven. While the earnings of the top 1 percent have tripled, the average household income has effectively stagnated. Put another way, there’s a reason Americans haven’t saved: they haven’t had much money to save.
In terms of information, Politizane’s video isn’t offering anything new: Its analysis of American perceptions of wealth distribution, the line between rich and poor and the issue of America’s wealth continuum echo stories that have been in the media for years. But there’s something about seeing the country’s wealth gap in easy-to-follow animations that allows the dry analysis to hit home. Or, as the video puts it, these illustrations make it easier for viewers to “wake up and realize that the reality in this country is not at all what we think it is.”
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I’m less concerned about “wealth” inequality than figuring out ways for folks to get their necessities in varied conditions and settings…food, water, shelter, clothing, healthcare, basic education, energy, community and security…beyond that we start talking about wants and desires which are fine and important as well…but focusing on haves and have nots as though everyone wants or needs the same things is somewhat tangential to me…
WTF? mkivel: You seem unable to connect the dots even though someone else has connected them for you…
I’ve seen and read a lot about inequality. This is a powerful video. What it doesn’t tell us is that those countries where there is the highest levels of inequality (like the U.S.) also have the highest levels of social problems including violence, suicide, drug and alcohol abuse, and lower levels of health than countries (like Japan, Sweden, and just about all other wealthy countries in the world other than the U.S.).
“The easiest way to steal money from someone is for them to never know they had it in the first place.”
The Great Debt Scam aka The Biggest Lie
“Over the past weekend, Gov. Jerry Brown of California took to the safety of YouTube to reveal that the Golden State’s budget deficit is now $15.7 billion, far greater than the original $9.2 billion estimate in January. (CNN, May 15, 2012)”
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The Simple Truth
The State Government of California has $100′s of billions in liquid investments and assets, could easily pay off all of its debt tomorrow, and would have $100′s of billions left over.
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The Really Sad news is that a great scam has been perpetrated on the American people for decades by denying the existence of vast sums of money we have paid into our government systems and that the 99%’er’s have no idea this has/continues to occur.
The Great News is that we are not broke, not in the least!!! In fact, it is estimated that if just the CA government alone were to sell all the investment class assets it held, our debt would be eliminated and every resident would receive nearly $50,000. Think about that for a minute.
Big Government has taken money paid into the system (lotteries, pensions, health insurance, workmen’s comp., public utilities, etc.) and INVESTED it immediately as it came into its care and then passed laws making it illegal to use this invested money to balance our annual budgets….
…hence they can claim we are broke, when in fact every municipality, every city, every state has huge cache’s of investment funds available to pay down all of our debt…right now, today.
This, the Great Debt Scam, has been going on for decades. The talk about being broke allows, by law, only to use revenue income (income tax, sales tax, property tax, etc.) to balance our budgets and refuses to even acknowledge that assets in what they call ‘Comingled Funds’, that we the people have funded, can be made available to balance our annual budgets.
http://realitybloger.wordpress.com/2012/05/25/california-government-hides-billions-from-taxpayers/
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This is also why there is an estimated $32 Trillion in offshore tax avoidance accounts that the banksters and bureaucrats have scammed from our coffers by way of these investment funds through the charging of investment management fees, commissions, etc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/22/super-rich-offshore-havens_n_1692608.html
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“It’s not built into the budget because investment earnings aren’t part of the budgetary process. It’s very clever. The problem is, it’s legal.”
This fact is clearly laid out in the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report filed by every state, city and municipality, also known as the CAFR. Here is a short video to explain
California alone owns over 5 million shares of Goldman Sachs, Bank America and JP Morgan, etc. as well as many, many other ‘investments’ with the banksters that they will not/cannot sell to cover our debt (because they made a law that says so!). Yet they tell us they will drastically cut school funding if we do not ‘vote’ for a tax increase, that we are broke and that it is all our faults because we are not spending as much or our property prices have been reduced, etc.. This is all a big fat lie.
Yet due to the locked at the hip relationship between the banksters and the politicians, these investment funds, that all of us have paid into over time, are not allowed by law to be sold to satisfy our debt load.
This is the Great Debt Scam of our lifetimes.
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Also, when last year it was ‘uncovered’ that they had ‘found’ $55 million in unused funds in the State Park Fund, there was actually $2.3 BILLION of investment fund monies that was disclosed by the San Jose Mercury News but quickly hushed up and buried, lest the sheeple catch onto the Big Debt Scam. (I had to search several sites to locate a website who had cached the article since it had been removed from the SJ Mercury.)
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2012/07/ca-cafr-parks-dept-found-54-million-2-3-billion-more-now-found-full-600-billion-next.html
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Tens of billions was also ‘discovered’ in LA County funds while the county declared dire financial straits:
” The “County” of LA had a budgetary basis in 2007 of 17.5 billion dollars. From 2008 to 2011 the county of LA promoted how they were pulling in the belt and cutting back expenses. Stories of lack of funds flew through the news and political party streams. The realty of the situation was from 2007 to 2012 (five-years) LA County as seen in their CAFR increased their budgetary income from 17.5 billion to 25.8 billion dollars, an increase of 8.3 billion or a 47% increase as they promoted to the population they were in dire-straits and cutting back…..It does not take a genius to see the basics at work here per the local government of LA County’s wealth-base increase of annual income as the population is driven further into poverty.”
http://www.examiner.com/article/l-a-county-d-a-clarifies-fraud-not-a-crime-with-cafr-misrepresentation
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Every municipality, including Mendo Island, has filed annually its own CAFR and though we are told that our county is financially strapped, if one were to follow the formula below, they would most likely find ‘hidden’ investment funds that could be sold and used to fund many of our county social programs to feed the people, support our schools and raise the quality of lives in our community. Here’s how:
http://realitybloger.wordpress.com/2013/02/27/unmasking-the-cafr-scam-in-every-city-usa/
http://www.co.mendocino.ca.us/retirement/reports.htm
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For a full overview to get well informed and aware of the massive fraud being perp’d on us all watch these:
Walter Burien’s The Biggest Game in Town
Cliff Richardson’s: Corporation Nation
http://thecorporationnation.com/
We’re not broke folks but we have to bone up on how and why the Great Debt Scam has been worked upon all and take back money that is rightfully ours to take care of our own. Only through understanding and breaking the illusion the government continually espouses that we are all broke and need to pay and pay and pay can we demand satisfaction, accountability and full disclosure as to the true nature of our city, county and state finances.
Please remember the golden rule for the wealthy elite 1% er’s:
It is easier to control people when they are indebted to you….and immensely more profitable as well!