Friday November 25, 2011...781,660 to 1

A great infographic. A notable stat is that the U.S.'s 400 richest people have a greater combined net worth than the country's bottom 50%.

As of today's date, the United States has a total resident population of 312,664,000

312,664,000/400=781,660

population of California 37,253,956/781660=47.66

population of Texas 25,145,561/781660=32.17

population of New York 19,378,102/781660=24.79

population of Florida 18,801,310/781660=24.05

population of Ohio 11,536,504/781660=14.76

population of Missouri 5,988,927/781660= 7.66

population of Oklahoma 3,751,351/781660= 4.80

population of Maine 1,316,470/781660= 1.67

population of Wyoming 563,626/781660= 0.72

population of New York City 8,175,133/781660=10.46

population of Los Angelos 3,792,621/781660= 4.85

population of Chicago 2,695,598/781660= 3.45

population of Dallas 1,197,816/781660= 1.53

population of San Francisco 805,235/781660= 1.03

population of Washington D.C. 601,723/781660= 0.77

population of Kansas City 459,787/781660= 0.59

So 48 of the richest people have a combined net worth greater than the equivalent wealth of all Californians

or 11 of the richest people have a combined net worth greater than the equivalent wealth of all New Yorkers

or one of the richest people has a net worth greater than the equivalent wealth of all the folks in Washington.

These people have accumulated this wealth from all of our efforts and have amassed all of this wealth and it's accompanying power to the detriment of our greater society. And they want more. They don't want to pay taxes to the society that allowed them to acquire this wealth. They feel that they don't owe us anything. They figure that their efforts are worth more than the efforts of 781,660 people who have worked all their lives for the few things they have.

There is something way out of balance in our society and it is tilting strongly in the wrong direction. What would happen if all of the 781,660 folks stopped working for the one and started sharing between themselves and left the one out of the circle? Would the one care? Would he just gather up whatever he had that was portable and leave? How would he be able to survive without the efforts of the society around him? Communications? Travel? Clothing? Food? The basic necessities of life? Does the one owe something to the many? Aren't we all involved in survival of each other? How did one gain so much more than the many?

Tuesday, November 22, 2011...Job Creators?

Though disappointed, House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said the committee's work "did bring our enormous fiscal challenges into greater focus." In response to a USA TODAY editorial, he said the committee couldn't work because "President Obama and Washington Democrats insisted on dramatic tax hikes on American job creators, which would make our economy worse."

Of course, right now the “job creators” already have tax incentives working for them and they aren't creating any new jobs. In fact they have been losing jobs at a substantial rate for years with all of the tax incentives in place. Many of our job creators have been farming out our jobs to cheaper labor overseas.  Boehner's argument is silly. He is just protecting the wealthy and powerful from helping our nation to bounce back from this recession/depression. It would seem that the wealthy and powerful have way too much influence on all of our politicians and the healthiest thing our country could do would be to reform how our political system is funded and how we can protect our politicians from corrupt influences.

Couched in patriotic fervor, our politicians protect the wealthy backers from paying back into the system that made them wealthy in the first place. Greed seems to dominate and care for the poorest and weakest of us has been forgotten. The Occupy Wall Street protests are a cry for counterbalance efforts to help the 99% survive the greed of the 1%. Even when we get to vote, we are limited to choosing the candidates selected by the wealthy who can afford to pay for a campaign. It has gotten way out of hand and is unfair.

Sunday November 6, 2011...Come the revolt

Per Robert Reich:

"Diffident Democrats on the Supercommittee have already signaled a willingness to cut Medicare, Social Security, and much else that Americans depend on. The deal is being held up by Regressive Republicans who won’t raise taxes on the rich – not even a tiny bit.

President Obama, meanwhile, is out on the stump trying to sell his “jobs bill” – which would, by the White House’s own estimate, create fewer than 2 million jobs. Yet 14 million people are out of work, and another 10 million are working part-time who’d rather have full-time jobs.

Republicans have already voted down his jobs bill anyway.

The disconnect between Washington and the rest of the nation hasn’t been this wide since the late 1960s. "

And you wonder why the Occupy Wall Street crowds are growing?  Our politicians have lost touch with the people and are only answering to their wealthy supporters.  What's fair and what's right doesn't seem to be realized by them - hence the coming revolt.

Interesting times ahead probably.  Hopefully not too dismal.