Link below from Loki on FaceBook.
Always remember, taday's pigs are tomorrow's bacon.
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A Look at the Numbers: How the Rich Get Richer
How the rich get richer.
—Illustration: Stephen Savage
IN 1985, THE FORBES 400 were worth $221 billion combined. Today, they’re worth $1.13 trillion—more than the GDP of Canada.
THERE’VE BEEN FEW new additions to the Forbes 400. The median household income has also stagnated—at around $44,000.
AMONG THE FORBES 400 who gave to a 2004 presidential campaign, 72% gave to Bush.
IN 2005, there were 9 million American millionaires, a 62% increase since 2002.
IN 2005, 25.7 million Americans received food stamps, a 49% increase since 2000.
ONLY ESTATES worth more than $1.5 million are taxed. That’s less than 1% of all estates. Still, repealing the estate tax will cost the government at least $55 billion a year.
ONLY 3% OF STUDENTS at the top 146 colleges come from families in the bottom income quartile; only 10% come from the bottom half.
BUSH’S TAX CUTS GIVE a 2-child family earning $1 million an extra $86,722—or Harvard tuition, room, board, and an iMac G5 for both kids.
A 2-CHILD family earning $50,000 gets $2,050—or 1/5 the cost of public college for one kid.
THIS YEAR, Donald Trump will earn $1.5 million an hour to speak at Learning Annex seminars.
ADJUSTED FOR INFLATION, the federal minimum wage has fallen 42% since its peak in 1968.
IF THE $5.15 HOURLY minimum wage had risen at the same rate as CEO compensation since 1990, it would now stand at $23.03.
A MINIMUM WAGE employee who works 40 hours a week for 51 weeks a year goes home with $10,506 before taxes.
SUCH A WORKER would take 7,000 years to earn Oracle CEO Larry Ellison’s yearly compensation.
ELLISON RECENTLY posed in Vanity Fair with his $300 million, 454-foot yacht, which he noted is “really only the size of a very large house.”
ONLY THE WEALTHIEST 20% of Americans spend more on entertainment than on health care.
THE $17,530 EARNED by the average Wal-Mart employee last year was $1,820 below the poverty line for a family of 4.
5 OF AMERICA’S 10 richest people are Wal-Mart heirs.
PUBLIC COMPANIES spend 10% of their earnings compensating their top 5 executives.
1,730 BOARD MEMBERS of the nation’s 1,000 leading companies sit on the boards of 4 or more other corporations—including half of Coca-Cola’s 14-person board.
( Read more... )
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