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By Les Leopold
What are the Occupy Wall Street protesters angry about? The same things were all angry about. The only difference is the protestors turned their anger into public action. Occupy Wall Street lit the embers and the sparks are flying. Whether it turns into a genuine populist prairie fire depends on all of us.
Now is not the time for wonky policy solutions, as the media meatheads are calling for. Rather, its time to air our grievances as loudly as possible, which is precisely what Wall Street and its minions fear the most. Heres a brief list of why we should be angry and the charts to back it up.
1. The American Dream is imploding
The productivity/wage chart says it all. From 1947 until the mid-1970s real wages and productivity (economic output per worker hour) danced together. Both climbed year after year as did our real standard of living. If youre old enough, you will remember seeing your parents doing just a bit better each year, year after year. Then, our nation embarked on a grand economic experiment. Taxes were cut especially on the super-rich. Finance was deregulated and unions were crushed. Lo and behold, the two lines broke apart. Productivity continued to climb, but wages stalled and declined. So where did all that productivity money go? To the rich and to the super-rich, especially to those in finance.
2. Our wealth is gushing to the top 1 percent
Actually the top tenth of one percent. Because of financial deregulation and tax cuts for the rich, the income gap is soaring. Heres one of my favorite indicators that we compiled for The Looting of America. In 1970 the top 100 CEOs earned $45 for every $1 earned by the average worker. By 2006, the ratio climbed to an obscene 1,723 to one.
read more The Shocking, Graphic Data That Shows Exactly What Motivates the Occupy Movement : Kevin Trudeau Show
What are the Occupy Wall Street protesters angry about? The same things were all angry about. The only difference is the protestors turned their anger into public action. Occupy Wall Street lit the embers and the sparks are flying. Whether it turns into a genuine populist prairie fire depends on all of us.
Now is not the time for wonky policy solutions, as the media meatheads are calling for. Rather, its time to air our grievances as loudly as possible, which is precisely what Wall Street and its minions fear the most. Heres a brief list of why we should be angry and the charts to back it up.
1. The American Dream is imploding
The productivity/wage chart says it all. From 1947 until the mid-1970s real wages and productivity (economic output per worker hour) danced together. Both climbed year after year as did our real standard of living. If youre old enough, you will remember seeing your parents doing just a bit better each year, year after year. Then, our nation embarked on a grand economic experiment. Taxes were cut especially on the super-rich. Finance was deregulated and unions were crushed. Lo and behold, the two lines broke apart. Productivity continued to climb, but wages stalled and declined. So where did all that productivity money go? To the rich and to the super-rich, especially to those in finance.
2. Our wealth is gushing to the top 1 percent
Actually the top tenth of one percent. Because of financial deregulation and tax cuts for the rich, the income gap is soaring. Heres one of my favorite indicators that we compiled for The Looting of America. In 1970 the top 100 CEOs earned $45 for every $1 earned by the average worker. By 2006, the ratio climbed to an obscene 1,723 to one.
read more The Shocking, Graphic Data That Shows Exactly What Motivates the Occupy Movement : Kevin Trudeau Show
