BAD FOR YOUR COUNTRY - INEQUALITY

Biltmore, built by the Vanderbilts in North Carolina in 1889.

Today, 20% of USA's national income goes to the richest 1% of Americans.

This is roughly how it was at the time of the Vanderbilts. 

5% of the USA's national income goes to the top 16,000 families in America.

This is more extreme than in the days of the Vanderbilts.

The Economist: Growing inequality is one of the biggest social, economic and political challenges of our time 



"Social mobility in America, contrary to conventional wisdom, is lower than in most European countries. 

"The gap in test scores between rich and poor American children is roughly 30-40% wider than it was 25 years ago. 

"And by some measures class mobility is even stickier in China than in America."

True Progressivism

The reality is that the bottom 40% of Americans, own 0.3% of the wealth.

The top 20% own about 84% of the wealth.

BBC News - How Americans view wealth and inequality

"Both Reagan and Greenspan saw big government as an evil, and they saw big business as a virtue.

"They both had despised the progressive policies of Roosevelt, Kennedy and Johnson, and they wanted to turn back the pages of time.

"They came up with the perfect strategy for the redistribution of income and wealth from the working class to the rich.

http://dissidentvoice.org/2010/04/how-ronald-reagan-and-alan-greenspan-p/

This type of 'Feudal System' is found in many countries, including Britain, Canada, China, India and Sweden.

The rich 1% use 'terror' and 'cunning' to keep themselves in wealth and power.


Hong Kong

Hong Kong, "one of the wealthiest cities in the world, has such a shortage of public housing and such a vast number of elderly collecting garbage in the streets or pulling carts with goods three times their weight..."

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/9f7b947c-0f04-11e2-9895-00144feabdc0.html#ixzz29aNOxg8l

Mukesh Ambani’s 27 storey skyscraper in Mumbai is 1,300 times bigger than the average shack in the slums that surround it.

The biggest exception to the general upward trend in inequality is Latin America, where leaders such as Hugo Chavez have helped the poor.

Special report: Growing inequality is one of the biggest social, economic and political challenges of our time 

"Latin America has invested in schools and pioneered conditional cash transfers for the very poor; it is the only region where inequality in most countries has been falling."

True Progressivism


Houses for the poor in Venezuela

In Europe, France's new president, François Hollande, wants a top income-tax rate of 75%.

In the USA, however, some politicians would like to keep the 'Feudal System' in place.

A recent Gallup Poll found that 46% believe it "extremely important" or "very important" for the federal government to enact policies that would reduce the gap between rich and poor.

Column: Income inequality does matter - USATODAY.com - USA Today

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The elite are beginning to see that 'Inequality' is bad for the economy.

According to The Economist, which speaks on behalf of people like the Rothschilds:

"Countries run by entrenched wealthy elites do not do very well..."

"Big income gaps can ... be inefficient, because they can bar talented poor people from access to education or feed resentment that results in growth-destroying populist policies...



"Research by economists at the IMF suggests that income inequality slows growth, causes financial crises and weakens demand...

"More controversial studies purport to link widening income gaps with all manner of ills, from obesity to suicide."

Special report: Growing inequality is one of the biggest social, economic and political challenges of our time 

According to The Economist: "The priority should be an ... attack on monopolies and vested interests, be they state-owned enterprises in China or big banks on Wall Street."

True Progressivism

More children, women and men are held in slavery right now than over the course of the entire 400 year trans-Atlantic slave trade. Website for this image

The Economist fails to mention the rich elites' trade in narcotics, weapons and child sex slaves.

According to Professor James Petras

There are London bankers who cooperate with "the multi-billion pound drug, arms, people smuggling and sex-slave cartels."

"The Brits specialize in laundering funds from the Mexican, Colombian, Peruvian, Russian, Polish, Czech, Nigerian narco-kings. 

"Albanian white slavers have their ‘private bankers’ at prestigious City banks with a preference for graduates of the London School of Economics. 

"Bi-lingual Greek kleptocrats, lifelong billion dollar tax evaders, fleeing from their pillaged homeland have their favorite real estate brokers, who never engage in any sort of naughty ‘due diligence’ which might uncover improper tax returns...

"Dirty mercenary wars in Afghanistan, Libya, and Syria and elsewhere provide lucrative contracts for retired Colonel Blimps– in the best traditions of empire..."

Financial Crime in London’s “Parasites Paradise”, Or the Best Sanctuary Money Can Buy By Prof. James Petras

The Economist fails to mention the part played by the big global corporations in creating poverty.


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Jobs have been exported to cheap labour countries.

There was a big economic crisis in 1929, but, there was a recovery.

"Perhaps ... financial crises are very often caused by the fixing of currencies, and in particular the fixing of currencies at the wrong rate...

"It is worth noting that back in the 1930s the countries that left the gold standard fast recovered much faster in the 1930s than those who hung on until later in the decade.

"While Britain was growing, France - which refused to dump the Gold Standard until 1936  was contracting (by 1.6% by the end of the decade).

"Something for the Europeans and perhaps the Chinese (with their fix to the US dollar) to bear in mind."

What we can learn from the 1930s about economic recovery ...

1930s

Recovery?

In the UK, "four years after crisis first hit in the 1930s... recovery was well underway.

"Industrial production hit its previous peak in 1934 and the economy grew at nearly 7% in 1935.

"Between 1934 and 1939, growth averaged nearly 4% a year in real terms; unemployment halved; housebuilding, car manufacturing, textiles, pottery and aircraft production all boomed; and those fabulous commercial buildings popped up next to arterial roads everywhere."

What we can learn from the 1930s about economic recovery ...