Over the last quarter-century, the vast majority (81.7 percent) of increases to wealth have gone to the wealthiest 5 percent, while those in the middle saw declines in their wealth.
What does $40 mean to you?
To break down the payroll tax cut and the repercussions of the stalemate into simpler terms, the White House took to Twitter and asked the masses what $40 meant to them and came away with sad snapshots of American life in 2011. $40 is “what officials estimate the average American would lose from his or her paycheck every two weeks, starting in January without an agreement on an extension of the tax cut. The $40 is based on someone earning about $50,000 a year and paying about $1,000 more in taxes annually,” writes Jennifer Preston of The New York Times. The White House sent a tweet two days ago asking America about that $40 (right), and have posted, what seems to be the most heart-breaking collection stories on its blog.
A reminder that the debate over the payroll tax cut has real, serious consequences for many people in this country:
$40.00 a week will provide gas to get to work for the week, or, it will pay our electric bill, or, it will pay a third of our prescription drug bill, or, one third of our grocery bill for the week.
C.W., Glen Alen, Virginia
After everything that comes out, including my mortgage my take home pay is $150.00 every two weeks. So minus forty would be $110.00. I can barely get by now, that forty bucks is my gas for my car to get to work. Taking forty away from my pay would, just about put me under.
R.T., Charleston, West Virginia
$40 less a paycheck means I will have to pick between my insulin and the water bill. It means never being able to see my doctor - even though I have insurance.
B.T., Roswell, New Mexico
(Source: theatlanticwire.com)
The real ‘welfare queens’
An important point:
If someone who works is still eligible for food stamps and government assistance – it’s really the employer who is federally subsidized. These “job creators” are taking advantage of government programs so they won’t have to cut into their profit margins to pay living wages.
"A banking system is supposed to serve society, not the other way around."
— Economist Joseph Stiglitz, discussing a Great Depression reprisal. (via vanityfair)
(via theamericanprospect)
This is adjusted for inflation. I don’t think our education system is about education anymore.
(via stfuconservatives)
"The U.S. system of government has produced what is known as a dual-welfare system. Programs for the poor are termed relief, welfare, assistance, or charity. Programs for the rich, however, are called tax expenditures, subsidies, price supports, parity and the like.
The dual-welfare system is an integral part of the higher immorality, allowing the rich to become richer at the expense of the middle class and the poor. Mark Zepezauer and Arthur Naiman have recently put the costs of the corporate welfare at $448 billion, “about 3.5 times as much as the $130 billion we spend yearly for the poor.” Such “wealthfare” includes subsidies, tax deductions, tax exemptions, tax-free investments, excessive government pensions, and $172 billion worth of fraud and waste in the Defense Department."
The dual-welfare system is an integral part of the higher immorality, allowing the rich to become richer at the expense of the middle class and the poor. Mark Zepezauer and Arthur Naiman have recently put the costs of the corporate welfare at $448 billion, “about 3.5 times as much as the $130 billion we spend yearly for the poor.” Such “wealthfare” includes subsidies, tax deductions, tax exemptions, tax-free investments, excessive government pensions, and $172 billion worth of fraud and waste in the Defense Department."
— David Simon, Elite Deviance (via yesalltheposts)
(via nezua)
A former Chase banker spoke with The New York Times’ Nick Kristof about how Chase pushed subprime loans to minorities for big commissions. The Young Turks host Cenk Uygur breaks it down.
From Kristof’s article:
One memory particularly troubles [James] Theckston. He says that some account executives earned a commission seven times higher from subprime loans, rather than prime mortgages. So they looked for less savvy borrowers — those with less education, without previous mortgage experience, or without fluent English — and nudged them toward subprime loans.
These less savvy borrowers were disproportionately blacks and Latinos, he said, and they ended up paying a higher rate so that they were more likely to lose their homes. Senior executives seemed aware of this racial mismatch, he recalled, and frantically tried to cover it up.
Just how disproportionately? The people receiving these bad loads were 16% white, 33% Latino, and 50% Black. According to Think Progress:
These disparities help explain why, according to a new report from the Center on Responsible Lending, Latinos and blacks are twice as likely to have been impacted by the housing crisis as whites. In fact, “approximately one quarter of all Latino and African-American borrowers have lost their home to foreclosure or are seriously delinquent, compared to just under 12 percent for white borrowers.”
According to the Republicans and weak Democrats, we need to deregulate the banks anyway because these are the “professionals” Alan Greenspan referred to that are so brilliant, only they can trick minorities into taking bad loans so they can make money and we need to let them so they can get the economy back up and running again!
These people have no morals. Yeah, we need to deregulate an industry where its employees are throwing minorities out onto the street so they can make a quick buck.
(via pantslessprogressive)
Thirteen Observations made by Lemony Snicket while watching Occupy Wall Street from a Discreet Distance
4. People who say money doesn’t matter are like people who say cake doesn’t matter—it’s probably because they’ve already had a few slices.
6. Nobody wants to fall into a safety net, because it means the structure in which they’ve been living is in a state of collapse and they have no choice but to tumble downwards. However, it beats the alternative.
7. Someone feeling wronged is like someone feeling thirsty. Don’t tell them they aren’t. Sit with them and have a drink.
8. Don’t ask yourself if something is fair. Ask someone else—a stranger in the street, for example.
Read the rest here
