Cross-posted at
Clark Community Network.
As Katrina Vanden Heuvel, editor of The Nation magazine, pointed out recently, the CEO of Wal-Mart earned approximately $3,500 per hour last year. The CEO of Halliburton earned about $8,300 an hour. The CEO of ExxonMobil earned about $13,700 every hour.
And last year, the number of billionaires doubled. That's literally a ton of money made on the backs (and, in some cases, the deaths) of others. News Flash to all believers of "trickle-down economics": Millionaires don't become billionaires by sharing their wealth with working people.
Meanwhile, a full-time American worker, making minimum wage, earns $10,500 annually. Yes, that figure is correct. But it's not right.
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The CEO of Saudi-loving, terror-funding, global warming-causing, war-for-oil starting, tax break-getting Exxon makes more money every hour than many honest, hard-working Americans make all year.
Even more troubling, for the first time ever, a full-time worker earning minimum wage cannot afford a one-bedroom apartment anywhere - ANYWHERE - in America at market rates.
What we have here is a revival of Colonial America. American workers have no ally in the White House and painfully few friends in Congress. The deck has been stacked against us. As a result, the royalty and nobility get all the breaks, enjoying the fruits of our labor. And what do we get?
The bill.
In The American Prospect, Robert Kuttner recently noted a figure from the U.S. Census. From 1999 to 2004, median household income fell 3.8 percent or $1700. In other words, the average American made less money every year while economic productivity (i.e. corporate profits) rose 3 percent every year.
On top of falling income, expenses are on the rise. Housing, healthcare, education and childcare rose 46 percent between 1991 and 2002, according to economist Jared Bernstein of the Economic Policy Institute.
On top of that, the Bush administration recently pushed bankruptcy reform through Congress that makes it increasingly difficult for working-class people to file, while the richest Americans get a free pass. The prosperous can run from their creditors at will while working-class people are forced into poverty.
Being an enormous advocate of personal responsibility, I never promote bankruptcy as an easy way to avoid paying debts, but this rich-only bankruptcy is morally and financially unfair. If the Bush administration and Congress are morally opposed to "hand-outs" like bankruptcy, they should be morally opposed across the board. No bankruptcy for rich and poor alike. Instead, the nobility gets off the hook while everyday people get the shaft.
On top of that, the journal Health Affairs reported Harvard findings that nearly 50% of all people who filed for bankruptcy in 2001 did so in large part, not because of reckless spending or laziness, but because of illness and health care costs. Most had some health insurance at the start of the bankrupting illness. Most of the medical bankruptcy filers were middle class; 56% owned a home and the same number had attended college. In other words, they were the fairly comfortable among us. People like you and me. And this was a 2001 study! With healthcare costs skyrocketing since then, and the previously mentioned repeal of bankruptcy protection, where will sick people turn when the collectors come calling? Who would help if you were unfortunate enough to fall ill?
On top of that, there was last year's repeal of the so-called "death tax." By re-labeling the previously named "estate tax" on the nation's wealthiest individuals, the GOP made everyone outraged that they would be taxed simply for dying. Of course, nobody bothered to clarify that the estate tax applied only to heirs of multi-millionaires, people like Paris Hilton. Not you or me.
On top of that, there's the famous Bush tax cuts. Big cuts for the rich. Tiny cuts for the working-class. All while the government spends like mad. When most Americans can't afford one more expense, the Bush administration will have forced the next several presidents to impose far greater taxes than we've ever paid just to regain some sense of financial security. Just to help pay down the debt BushCo. sent through the roof.
On top of that...on top of that...on top of that...if the burdens on the American working-class continue to mount unchecked, we will witness the complete and utter transformation of our democracy into an undisputed monarchy. Far worse than the fascist system we have today.
Everyday people, independent of politics, need to realize one thing. Regardless of whether Democrats or Republicans are in office, they're not the ones in charge. The rich are. And we need to take back control.
I say, it's high-time Corporate America stepped up to the plate. Every year, nearly 60% of businesses pay zero federal income tax. Their payment is past due.
If they need a little encouragement, we should throw their tea into the harbor. Or, in Exxon's case, we should make it unprofitable to take it out of the Gulf.