Inequalities, Taxes, and More Inequalities (tags)
Thanks to Occupy, most working people are well aware of the growing inequalities in wealth. But for those who lack the specifics, former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich provides a useful overview: “…the rich have been getting a larger and larger portion of total income. From 9 percent in 1980, the top 1 percent’s take increased to 23.5 percent by 2007. CEOs who in the 1970s took home 40 times the compensation of average workers now rake in 350 times.” (“Confessions of a Class Warrior,” August 22, 2010).
Money, Power, and Politics (tags)
There has been much talk recently about the impact of money on politics, especially in the wake of the Citizens United ruling that has ratcheted up the role of corporate money in political campaigns. Organized labor was quick to blame this ruling for its defeat in Wisconsin. And many have assumed that the relation of money to politics is like a law of nature: the more money one has, the more political power one can wield.
America’s majority who supported the Occupy Wall Street movement (OWS), within the 99% of all Americans, are being smeared by agent propagandists within the punditry of mainstream media (MSM). For example, Michael Gerson’s black demagoguery, of the closet-right-wing Washington Post, is a good example. In one of his recent columns he declared the OWS movement seems little more than a “…confused set of grievances…” and paints the movement to have little ideological coherence save Marxist socialism and anarchy. Equally he attempts to blame the Democratic Party (that he claims is their “desperate” political calculation) for this phenomenon of the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement.