Paul Buchelt’s latest book is, Disposable Americans: Extreme Capitalism and the Case for a Guaranteed Income. At Common Dreams, he writes—Morbid Inequality: Now Just SIX Men Have as Much Wealth as Half the World's Population:
In early 2016 Oxfam reported that just 62 individuals had the same wealth as the bottom half of humanity. About a year later Oxfam reported that just 8 men had the same wealth as the world's bottom half. Based on the same methodology and data sources used by Oxfam, that number is now down to 6.
How to account for the dramatic increase in the most flagrant and perverse of extreme inequalities? Two well-documented reasons: (1) The poorest half (and more) of the world has continued to lose wealth; and (2) The VERY richest individuals -- especially the top thousand or so -- continue to add billions of dollars to their massive fortunes.
Inequality deniers and apologists say the Oxfam methodology is flawed, but they're missing the big picture. Whether it's 6 individuals or 62 or 1,000 doesn't really matter. The data from the [Credit Suisse Global Wealth Databook (GWD)] and the Forbes Billionaire List provide the best available tools to make it clear that inequality is extreme and pathological and getting worse every year. [...]
The bottom 60% of Americans, according to Table 6-5 in the 2015 Credit Suisse Global Wealth Databook, own 3 percent of the nation's $85 trillion in total wealth, or $2.55 trillion. The Forbes 400 owned $2.4 trillion in October 2016, and that's been steadily increasing. [...]
Yet as inequality ravages the American and world economies, denial grows right along with it. Cato's Michael Tanner suggests that "even if inequality were growing as fast as critics claim, it would not necessarily be a problem." George Will, of course, agrees. But like the other deniers, they all protest too much as they try to explain away reality.
QUOTATION OF THE DAY
“The most reliable way to predict the future is to create it.”
—Abraham Lincoln
TWEET OF THE DAY
BLAST FROM THE PAST
At Daily Kos on this date in 2007—Bloggers at Last Unite Tony Snow and WH Press Corps:
Tony Snow and "real journalists" finally agreed on something tonight at a roundtable held forvery serious people at the National Press Club: Blogs suck. They’re mean. And ... and ... and ... they actually expect reporters to do their jobs!
We’ll skip Tony Snow. Who cares? But via Think Progress, a couple of journalists had some interesting things to say, kind of opening a door into the higher minds that are raised so far above the rest of us.
NBC News’ David Gregory bemoaned how political coverage has "become so polarized in this country...because it’s the internet and the blogs that have really used this White House press conferences to somehow support positions out in America, political views."
Can you imagine that? The nerve! People actually use White House press conferences to form and support political views! And then they write about those views! Where anybody can read and see and respond and argue and fact-check them! And they haven’t been seen—not once!—at a cocktail party in DC. Next thing you know, they’ll start thinking regular old ordinary people have a right to opinions or something.
HIGH IMPACT STORIES • TOP COMMENTS
On today’s “Encore Presentation” of the Kagro in the Morning show, we dusted off our spare episode from 2/29/16: Greg Dworkin parsed primary results and forecasts. The GOP’s Trumpmatic Stress Disorder. Even back then we were agog at GOP operatives pretending to be horrified.
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