You weren't here when the coal miners and railroad workers first unionized. That was the beginning of the American middle class. The Republican party has resented and attempted to undo it ever since.
Because of the goddam mess George W. Bush and his "Tax Cuts For The Wealthy" policies plus two wars made we are back to the scenario where working people will once again put their lives on the line if it becomes necessary. 'Course I wouldn't want to tangle with one of those mean CEO's...they hire others to do their fighting. You know...like the Mafia bosses.
Now, now, Campy...neither were you.
1. Early on
Eugene Victor Debs was quite properly seen not as a radical but as a decent Democratic politician and labor leader. In 1884, he wrote an editorial for the Brotherhood of Locomotive Fireman, stating that the union “is not to antagonize capital. Strikes do that; hence we oppose strikes as the remedy for the ills of which labor complains.” Nick Salvatore, “Eugene V. Debs: Citizen and Socialist,” p.49.
2. The
Pullman strike of 1894 changed Debs. The issues of the day included the 8-hour day, and in its cause, the members of the railway firemen were grumbling about the no-strike policy. Pushed by the new militancy, Debs declared that “the men of brawn and brain who produce” should be given “a just proportion of the proceeds.”
a. George Pullman, of sleeping car fame, had constructed a workersÂ’ community in which he owned the land, the workersÂ’ houses, and ran the churches; the sewage was pumped into PullmanÂ’s farm to be used as fertilizer.
b. When the
Depression of 1893 hit, wages fell on average by 33 to 50 percent. While Pullman deduced from the workersÂ’ wages the costs of rent and water, library fees, and grocery bills, he refused to lower rents commensurate with the drop in wages.
c. Pullman banned the eight-hour day, saloons, and trade unions.
The truth is that the middle class has neither stagnated nor fallen back. The standard of living of same has continued to increase.
Need I do the math for you?
You are so full of shit that I smell you:
• 83 percent of all U.S. stocks are in the hands of 1 percent of the people.
• 61 percent of Americans "always or usually" live paycheck to paycheck, which was up from 49 percent in 2008 and 43 percent in 2007.
• 66 percent of the income growth between 2001 and 2007 went to the top 1% of all Americans.
• 36 percent of Americans say that they don't contribute anything to retirement savings.
• A staggering 43 percent of Americans have less than $10,000 saved up for retirement.
• 24 percent of American workers say that they have postponed their planned retirement age in the past year.
• Over 1.4 million Americans filed for personal bankruptcy in 2009, which represented a 32 percent increase over 2008.
• Only the top 5 percent of U.S. households have earned enough additional income to match the rise in housing costs since 1975.
• For the first time in U.S. history, banks own a greater share of residential housing net worth in the United States than all individual Americans put together.
• In 1950, the ratio of the average executive's paycheck to the average worker's paycheck was about 30 to 1. Since the year 2000, that ratio has exploded to between 300 to 500 to one.
• As of 2007, the bottom 80 percent of American households held about 7% of the liquid financial assets.
• The bottom 50 percent of income earners in the United States now collectively own less than 1 percent of the nation’s wealth.
• Average Wall Street bonuses for 2009 were up 17 percent when compared with 2008.
• In the United States, the average federal worker now earns 60% MORE than the average worker in the private sector.
• The top 1 percent of U.S. households own nearly twice as much of America's corporate wealth as they did just 15 years ago.
• In America today, the average time needed to find a job has risen to a record 35.2 weeks.
• More than 40 percent of Americans who actually are employed are now working in service jobs, which are often very low paying.
• or the first time in U.S. history, more than 40 million Americans are on food stamps, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture projects that number will go up to 43 million Americans in 2011.
• This is what American workers now must compete against: in China a garment worker makes approximately 86 cents an hour and in Cambodia a garment worker makes approximately 22 cents an hour.
• Approximately 21 percent of all children in the United States are living below the poverty line in 2010 - the highest rate in 20 years.
• Despite the financial crisis, the number of millionaires in the United States rose a whopping 16 percent to 7.8 million in 2009.• The top 10 percent of Americans now earn around 50 percent of our national income.
Well, with you sitting there in your underwear, I'd rather not guess at what you smell.
But, that you smell? A foregone conclusion.
What I am going to provide is
far beyond your capabilities...but for anyone interested in the statistics that would destoy this toad's post..
1. The percentage of households with
real incomes higher than $50,000 increased from 24.9% in 1967 to 44.1% in 2003, and the percentage with real incomes
lower than $35,000 fell from 52.8% in 1967 to 40.9% .
More On The Certain Equality Of Reaganomics - Forbes
a. “…
in 1967 only one in 25 families earned an income of $100,000 or more in real income, whereas
now, one in six do. The percentage of families that have an income of more than $75,000 a year has tripled from 9% to 27%. But it's not just the rich that are getting richer. Virtually every income group has been lifted by the tide of growth in recent decades.”
Great American Dream Machine
2. Mathematics is a factor in understanding the economy, as well: one must understand that the
any average, or mean, of incomes in the top 20% will always be much higher than the median income in this group, for the simple reason that the top group has no ceiling…i.e., it is everyone with incomes above the 80% percentile. Of course, this description can be applied to any “top” group…1%, 5%, etc.
a. The
median will consequently always provide a much more accurate reflection of the typical income earner in any top income group than any average or mean. So, changes in the “average” incomes of a top group are always misleading, and greatly exaggerates the level of typical income of top income groups.
b. “Mean income for the top 10% is about two-thirds larger than median income…” Reynolds, “Income and Wealth,” p. 21.
c. According to Federal Reserve data regarding incomes of different subgroups, the average or mean income of the top 10% households seems to increase much more from 1989 to 2004 than the average or mean of the next highest 10%, or of any lower income group. This would lead one to believe, mistakenly, that income inequality is growing, with the rich getting rich faster than any other group.
But when the more accurate median income is considered,
the income of the top 10% grew virtually at the same rate from 1989 to 2004 as the bottom 20%, and as the second lowest 20%. Reynolds, “Income and Wealth,” p. 20-21.
3. Similarly, changes
in the bottom limit, or threshold, of any top income group appears to be rapidly increasing the top groups incomeÂ…when in reality, it is the increase of the group below the top that has the benefit.
a. Thus, as the incomes of those in the second 10% grows into the top 10%, we must now add incomes of those from the next group below. This
makes the higher level appear to grow, while the lower group adds lower income earners in order to have the proper number to make 10% of the total. The effect is due to increase in incomes below the threshold!
b. In this case the average of the top 10% is being ‘pushed up’ from below by rising numbers of folks whose income has increased, with them leaving what had been a ‘middle class income’ and joining the ‘ranks of the rich.’
c. Example? The top fifth of household incomes began at $68,352 in 1980 (in 2004 dollars). But by 2004, the incomes of so many in the second 20% had increased above the former $68,352 threshold that the top 20% of earners now started at $88,029 in 2004! Therefore, if one calculates the mean average of all the incomes above $88,029 in 2004 it will be considerably higher than if you averaged all the incomes above the $68,352 as we did in 1980.
The essential point is that this statistical effect does not mean that the rich are getting richerÂ…it means more people are getting rich, and reflects the rising general prosperity!
See chapter 9, Ferrara, "America's Ticking Bankruptcy Bomb."