Socialism? The Rich Are Winning the US Class War: Facts Show Rich Getting Richer, Everyone Else Poorer
29 October 2010By Bill Quigley
The rich and their paid false prophets are doing a
bang up job deceiving the poor and middle class. They
have convinced many that an evil socialism is alive in
the land and it is taking their fair share. But the
deception cannot last facts say otherwise.
Yes, there is a class war the war of the rich on the
poor and the middle class and the rich are winning.
That war has been going on for years. Look at the
facts facts the rich and their false paid prophets
do not want people to know.
Let Glen Beck go on about socialists descending on
Washington. Allow Rush Limbaugh to rail about "class
warfare for a leftist agenda that will destroy our
society." They are well compensated false prophets for
the rich.
The truth is that for the several decades the rich in
the US have been getting richer and the poor and
middle class have been getting poorer. Look at the
facts then make up your own mind.
Poor Getting Poorer: Facts
The official US poverty numbers show we now have the
highest number of poor people in 51 years. The
official US poverty rate is 14.3 percent or 43.6
million people in poverty. One in five children in the
US is poor; one in ten senior citizens is poor.
Source: US Census Bureau.
One of every six workers, 26.8 million people, is
unemployed or underemployed. This "real" unemployment
rate is over 17%. There are 14.8 million people
designated as "officially" unemployed by the
government, a rate of 9.6 percent. Unemployment is
worse for African American workers of whom 16.1
percent are unemployed. Another 9.5 million people who
are working only part-time while they are seeking
full-time work but have had their hours cut back or
are so far only able to find work part-time are not
counted in the official unemployment numbers. Also, an
additional 2.5 million are reported unemployed but not
counted because they are classified as discouraged
workers in part because they have been out of work for
more than 12 months. Source: US Department of Labor
Bureau of Labor Statistics October 2010 report.
The median household income for whites in the US is
$51,861; for Asians it is $65,469; for African
Americans it is $32,584; for Latinos it is $38,039.
Source: US Census Bureau.
Fifty million people in the US lack health insurance.
Source: US Census Bureau.
Women in the US have a greater lifetime risk of dying
from pregnancy-related conditions than women in 40
other countries. African American US women are nearly
4 times more likely to die of pregnancy-related
complications than white women. Source: Amnesty
International Maternal Health Care Crisis in the USA.
About 3.5 million people, about one-third of which are
children, are homeless at some point in the year in
the US. Source: National Law Center on Homelessness
and Poverty.
Outside Atlanta, 33,000 people showed up to seek
applications for low cost subsidized housing in August
2010. When Detroit offered emergency utility and
housing assistance to help people facing evictions,
more than 50,000 people showed up for the 3,000
vouchers. Source: News reports.
There are 49 million people in the US who live in
households which eat only because they receive food
stamps, visit food pantries or soup kitchens for help.
Sixteen million are so poor they have skipped meals or
foregone food at some point in the last year. This is
the highest level since statistics have been kept.
Source: US Department of Agriculture, Economic
Research Service.
Middle Class Going Backward: Facts
One or two generations ago it was possible for a
middle class family to live on one income. Now it
takes two incomes to try to enjoy the same quality of
life. Wages have not kept up with inflation; adjusted
for inflation they have lost ground over the past ten
years. The cost of housing, education and health care
have all increased at a much higher rate than wages
and salaries. In 1967, the middle 60 percent of
households received over 52% of all income. In 1998,
it was down to 47%. The share going to the poor has
also fallen, with the top 20% seeing their share rise.
Mark Trumball, "Obama's challenge: reversing a decade
of middle-class decline," Christian Science Monitor,
January 25, 2010. http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/
2010/0125/Obama-s-challenge- reversing-a-decade-of-
middle-class-decline
A record 2.8 million homes received a foreclosure
notice in 2009, higher than both 2008 and 2007. In
2010, the rate is expected to be rise to 3 million
homes. Sources: Reuters and RealtyTrac.
Eleven million homeowners (about one in four
homeowners) in the US are "under water" or owe more on
their mortgages than their house is worth. Source:
"Home truths," The Economist, October 23, 2010.
For the first time since the 1940s, the real incomes
of middle-class families are lower at the end of the
business cycle of the 2000s than they were at the
beginning. Despite the fact that the American
workforce is working harder and smarter than ever,
they are sharing less and less in the benefits they
are creating. This is true for white families but even
truer for African American families whose gains in the
1990s have mostly been eliminated since then. Source:
Jared Bernstein and Heidi Shierholz, State of Working
America. http://www.stateofworkingamerica.org/
swa08_00_execsum.pdf
Rich Getting Richer: Facts
The wealth of the richest 400 people in the US grew by
8% in the last year to $1.37 trillion. Source: Forbes
400: The super-rich get richer, September 22, 2010,
Money.com
The top Hedge Fund Manager of 2009, David Tepper,
"earned" $4 billion last year. The rest of the top ten
earned: $3.3 billion, $2.5 billion, $2.3 billion, $1.4
billion, $1.3 billion (tie for 6th and 7th place),
$900 million (tie for 8th and 9th place), and in last
place out of the top ten, $825 million. Source:
Business Insider. "Meet the top 10 earning hedge fund
managers of 2009." http://www.businessinsider.com/
meet-the-top-10-earning-hedge-fund-
managers-of-2009-2010-4
Income disparity in the US is now as bad as it was
right before the Great Depression at the end of the
1920s. From 1979 to 2006, the richest 1% more than
doubled their share of the total US income, from 10%
to 23%. The richest 1% have an average annual income
of more than $1.3 million. For the last 25 years, over
90% of the total growth in income in the US went to
the top 10% earners leaving 9% of all income to be
shared by the bottom 90%. Source: Jared Bernstein and
Heidi Shierholz, State of Working America. http://www.stateofworkingamerica.org/
tabfig/2008/01/19.pdf
In 1973, the average US CEO was paid $27 for every
dollar paid to a typical worker; by 2007 that ratio
had grown to $275 to $1. Source: Jared Bernstein and
Heidi Shierholz, State of Working America. http://www.stateofworkingamerica.org/tabfig
/2008/03/SWA08_Wages_Figure.3AE.pdf
Since 1992, the average tax rate on the richest 400
taxpayers in the US dropped from 26.8% to 16.62%.
Source: US Internal Revenue Service. http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-soi/07intop400.pdf
The US has the greatest inequality between rich and
poor among all Western industrialized nations and it
has been getting worse for 40 years. The World
Factbook, published by the CIA, includes an
international ranking of the inequality among families
inside of each country, called the Gini Index. The US
ranking of 45 in 2007 is the same as Argentina,
Cameroon, and Cote d'Ivorie. The highest inequality
can be found in countries like Namibia, South Africa,
Haiti and Guatemala. The US ranking of 45 compares
poorly to Japan (38), India (36), New Zealand, UK
(34), Greece (33), Spain (32), Canada (32), France
(32), South Korea (31), Netherlands (30), Ireland
(30), Australia (30), Germany (27), Norway (25), and
Sweden (23). Source: CIA The World Factbook: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications
/the-world-factbook/fields/2172.html
Rich people live an average of about five years longer
than poor people in the US. Naturally, gross
inequality has consequences in terms of health,
exposure to unhealthy working conditions, nutrition
and lifestyle. In 1980, the most well off in the US
had a life expectancy of 2.8 years over the least
well-off. As the inequality gap widens, so does the
life expectancy gap. In 1990, the gap was a little
less than 4 years. In 2000, the least well-off could
expect to live to age of 74.7 while the most well off
had a life expectancy of 79.2 years. Source: Elise
Gould, "Growing disparities in life expectancy,"
Economic Policy Institute. http://www.epi.org/economic_
snapshots/entry/webfeatures_snapshots_20080716/
Conclusion
These are extremely troubling facts for anyone
concerned about economic fairness, equality of
opportunity, and justice.
Thomas Jefferson once observed that the systematic
restructuring of society to benefit the rich over the
poor and middle class is a natural appetite of the
rich. "Experience declares that man is the only animal
which devours his own kind, for I can apply no milder
term to
the general prey of the rich on the poor." But
Jefferson also knew that justice can only be delayed
so long when he said, "I tremble for my country when I
reflect that God is just, that his justice cannot
sleep forever."
The rich talk about the rise of socialism to divert
attention from the fact that they are devouring the
basics of the poor and everyone else. Many of those
crying socialism the loudest are doing it to enrich or
empower themselves. They are right about one thing
there is a class war going on in the US. The rich are
winning their class war, and it is time for everyone
else to fight back for economic justice.
By Bill Quigley. Bill is Legal Director of the
Center for Constitutional Rights and professor of law
at Loyola University New Orleans. You can reach Bill
at quigley77@gmail.com
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