05 November 2012

XXIII - VIDEO The truth about the economy


What's the problem with the economy? Let me connect the dots and show you the big picture in less than two minutes fifteen seconds.

Dot 1 - Since 1980 the American economy has doubled in size but adjusting for inflation most people wages have barely increased.

Dot 2 - Where did all that money go? Almost all the gains have gone to the super rich. The top one percent used to take home about ten percent of total income now it takes home more than twenty percent and the super rich have forty percent of the nation's entire wealth.

Dot 3 - All this money at the top has given the super rich lots of political power, especially power to lower their tax rates. Before 1980 the top tax rate was over seventy percent now it's down to thirty five percent and much of their income is capital gains subject to only a fifteen percent tax. According to the IRS the richest four hundred Americans pay only seventeen percent.

Dot 4 - This means huge budget deficits. Tax revenues are down to less than fifteen percent of the total economy, the lowest in sixty years. So public services are being cut at all levels of government. Our kids are being crowded into classrooms with more and more other children. Roads, bridges, levies, health care, safety nets, they're all being sacrificed.

Dot 5 - Instead of joining together for better wages and jobs many people are so scared that they're competing with other working people for the scraps that are left behind. So we get union versus non-union, public employee versus private, native born versus immigrants.

Dot 6 - The vast middle-class, unable to borrow as it could before, no longer has the purchasing power need to get the economy growing again. Which means continued high unemployment and an anemic recoverty.

So you see the big picture? The only way we can have a strong economy is with a strong middle-class.

XXVII - VIDEO How to Answer "Tell me about yourself"