...Sachs says the "real story" is much bigger than Wisconsin: It's about stagnant wages of public and private sector workers alike, and the increasing and increasingly pernicious role of big money in politics.
The following statistics speak to Sachs' first point:
- Since 1973, the median take home pay of full-time workers is virtually unchanged on an inflation-adjusted basis.
- The top 11,000 households in America have more income than the bottom 25 million.
- Since 1976, 58% of real income growth has gone to the top 1% of Americans.
"We've reached the greatest income [and] wealth inequality in history," Sachs says. "This is a new ‘Robber Baron' era, of course."
And just like the titans of industry in 19th century America, "the people at the top buy the politicians," he laments. "All of them - all parties. Everyone is in the hands of the super wealthy."
Decrying a "shocking game that got out of hand," Sachs notes President Obama is seeking to raise $1 billion for his presumed reelection bid. "He's not going to get it from poor people, he's going to get it from rich people," Sachs says. "So when push comes to shove and rich people say ‘we want our taxes cut', that's what happened."
Which probably goes to further the point that most places in the world, be it India, Libya or the US, the rich and the powerful screw the poor and the weak. All the teeming millions need is the 'soma' of Ayn Rand's Anthem (or was it Aldous Huxley's Brave New World? I forget!) to forget their plight. The US worker gets it from a standard of living better than anyone else in the world (but not a fraction of the US elites'), the Indian daily wage earner gets it from the Naxal speeches of his misled brethren, and the Kuwaiti sheik gets it in the form of 1,000 dinars in his bank account.
Long live revolution!!
1 comment:
so can this be taken as the beginning of the shift in your stance on capitalism
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