By
The Numbers.
Take a look at this:
See that lone black figure up there? That represents the
1% of the American population which currently owns more
material wealth than all those blue icons, the bottom 95%
of the population. These blue guys also represent, for
all intents and purposes, you and me, bucko.
This disquieting image also represents the largest disparity
in wealth in this
country's
history. And, as we all know, this landslide of wealth
didn't happen because America suddenly became a manufacturing
giant, it's because Bush and his pals spent the last eight
years
shoveling cash from the Treasury into the pockets of
their buddies as fast as possible via endless tax cuts
for the rich, a couple of fake wars and muzzling the SEC
so that Wall Street could
run hog wild with your tax dollars.
(If you're interested in lots of charts graphing who has
what and how much, check out the info here.)
Unfortunately for us that "material wealth" includes
all the media in this country, meaning basically everything
you read,
hear or see. And the owner's of said media outlets are
not interested in letting you hear, read or see what you
should
know,
which
is why
American
media leans heavily towards entertainment, not news or
information. Compare cnn.com with aljazeera.net and
you'll see what I mean.
The problem in this country isn't that greedy lone one-percenter,
it's the lower 95-percenter's which turn a blind eye
to this rapacious greed because they all dream of someday
being
that one-percent guy. C'mon. Admit it.
But, as good old smilin' George H. W. Bush once said "Not
gonna happen."
Or it occurs so rarely that it's just a rounding error
in the
bigger
economic picture.
What needs to happen is that we need to stop people from
using money simply to make money, capital gains being one
of the worst offenders on the list. Instead, alter the
rules so
that the rich invest money in people and
maufacturing so that the money
is redistributed
and
not just socked away under what has become the world's
largest mattress.
Also bring back the 35% "real" tax rate for the
ultra-wealthy. It's not going to hurt them a bit and the
government, which
means you and me, could sure use it just about now.
--------
If you're at all puzzled by this cartoon you can read more
about our two favorite war criminals, Bush and Cheney,
and their
incarceration
of
hundreds of
innocent men for propaganda reasons here.
=lefty=
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