Infuriating facts about our disappearing middle-class wealth

As our middle class dwindles, the rich keep on getting richer:

1. Each Year Since the Recession, America's Richest 1% Have Made More Than the Cost of All U.S. Social Programs

In effect, a reverse transfer from the poor to the rich. Even as conservatives blame Social Security for being too costly.

Much of the 1% wealth just sits there, accumulating more wealth. The numbers are nearly unfathomable. Depending on the estimate, the 1% took in anywhere from $2.3 trillion to $5.7 trillion per year.

Over 90% of the assets owned by millionaires are held in low-risk investments (bonds and cash), the stock market, and real estate. Business startup costs made up less than 1% of the investments of high net worth individuals in North America in 2011. A recent study found that less than 1 percent of all entrepreneurs came from very rich or very poor backgrounds. They come from the middle class.

source

This is why we need revolt's, tribunals, and guillotines. Heads need to ROLL and the time grows near. Push these oligarchs back to HELL where they spawned from!

It's a cyclical event. The events that lead up to the Great Depression in the 30's are very similar. During the time just before the depression, the richest 1% had more wealth than at any other time in history. The results will probably be similar as well, economic collapse and global war. Nature always find a way to achieve equilibrium, however bad we perceive the process.

a reply to: GodEmperor

I agree. Though I believe it will be more intense this time around. The results will be more iron-fisted and I'm not too certain we'll secure rights and freedoms once again.

Everything is cyclical. The circadian rhythm of existence. Constant periods of warfare with false periods of peace in between.

There was one news comment about this being a tsunami for the Republicans. Best to remember, after every tsunami there is a pile of #, for lack of a better word, to dig out and destruction to evaluate. I would suggest reading Nick Hanaur's The Pitchforks Are Coming...For Us, Plutocrats. Obviously, both parties see political office as a means of getting wealth, and kissing up to the wealthy, for more money and glory.

a reply to: AlaskanDad

You forgot another factor, as the wealthy gets wealthier the working poor also keeps growing, the middle class that used to support the economy is now supporting both classes, one to keep richer the other one to keep their government benefits even when they work.

a reply to: Yeahkeepwatchingme

Everything is cyclical. The circadian rhythm of existence. Constant periods of warfare with false periods of peace in between.

peace is a time to prepare for war......

the hoarding of wealth is certainly at epidemic levels

originally posted by: GodEmperor
It's a cyclical event. The events that lead up to the Great Depression in the 30's are very similar. During the time just before the depression, the richest 1% had more wealth than at any other time in history. The results will probably be similar as well, economic collapse and global war. Nature always find a way to achieve equilibrium, however bad we perceive the process.

The positive being that their ivory towers are taller than they were in the 30's.

Much more success when they lose it all then jump from the windows.

Actually a great way to earn a little cash by us ground-lings...sell sidewalk front row seats. Show of the Century!

Peace

a reply to: hopenotfeariswhatweneed

And that fact speaks volumes about the times we're living in

a reply to: AlaskanDad

I gotta ask. I used to be lower middle class and now I am approaching upper middle class. Is it because I made the right choices in my investments and career and maybe others didn't?

Yes it was a hard road to follow....but I'm just sayin'.

I am by no means the smartest investor out there.

BTW, I started out homeless and below poverty level.

This shocked even my cynical mind:

5. Ten Percent of the World's Total Wealth Was Taken by the Global 1% in the Past Three Years

As in the U.S., the middle class is disappearing at the global level. An incredible one of every ten dollars of global wealth was transferred to the elite 1% in just three years. A level of inequality deemed unsustainable three years ago has gotten even worse.

The 1% gobbled up 10% of the world's wealth in just 3 years? This roller coaster is going off the rails and soon. The only possible result of such pillaging is starvation, social upheaval and revolt. Somebody has to serve them their caviar and roll their cigars, wash their yachts and cook their food - or did they forget that?

originally posted by: jude11
The positive being that their ivory towers are taller than they were in the 30's.
Much more success when they lose it all then jump from the windows.

Actually a great way to earn a little cash by us ground-lings...sell sidewalk front row seats. Show of the Century!

George Soros, David Rockefeller, Michael Bloomberg - come on down!
It's time to play The Height Is Right.

1. Each Year Since the Recession, America's Richest 1% Have Made More Than the Cost of All U.S. Social Programs

Assuming that's 2008, Hmmm.

Who's was in control of the House 2007-2008-2009-2010? Hmmm.

Who's been line-backing the Senate 2007-2008-2009-2010-2011-2012-2013-2014? Hmmm.

Now what happens?

Something's gotta change.

a reply to: TDawgRex

This issue is much like climate change. Weather and climate are not the same. This article talks about the overall picture. People made money during the Great Depression. That didn't mean there was no Great Depression. The fact that you made money changes nothing. That's called luck. Sure you worked hard but so did many other people who are now homeless.

www.dailymail.co.uk... -boyfriend-children.html

This woman certainly worked harder than most people and was by all accounts a truly good person. Sorry, we have a problem when a woman can work this hard and get nowhere. Back in the old days one person could support a family without even having that great a job. I picked this story very specifically. I hope you read it.

originally posted by: tavi45
a reply to: TDawgRex

.... The fact that you made money changes nothing. That's called luck.

This statement is simply condescending to TDawg.....LUCK?? How dare you say that to someone that WORKED and made an effort to better themselves. It is not LUCK....it's personal fortitude and personal responsibility. I say KUDOS for taking it upon yourself to make a better life. It is a lot easier to sit back and take fro the govt (oh wait, take from the workers paying the taxes where that govt money comes from).

Sorry to call this out, but I am sick of hearing how everyone that makes some headway in life is LUCKY they did. Screw that I say!

a reply to: Krakatoa

Luck plays no part? Every single person who works hard becomes successful? That's utterly false.

See the part where I said "Sure you worked hard but so did many other people who are now homeless."

I'm not being condescending at all. I'm stating a fact of reality. The universe is far too chaotic to deny the involvement of luck. The amazing situation I'm in at the moment most definitely involved me working hard but it also involved dozens of factors completely outside my control.

a reply to: Krakatoa

By your theory most people would have been reasonable wealthy in the Western World by now.

Disclaimer, my take on things are way different, namely people choose their lives before they are born.

a reply to: Asktheanimals

Somebody has to serve them their caviar and roll their cigars, wash their yachts and cook their food - or did they forget that?

unless of course the next generation of robot slaves are rolling out of the production line....if so they may just think they have that covered

originally posted by: GodEmperor
It's a cyclical event. The events that lead up to the Great Depression in the 30's are very similar. During the time just before the depression, the richest 1% had more wealth than at any other time in history. The results will probably be similar as well, economic collapse and global war. Nature always find a way to achieve equilibrium, however bad we perceive the process.

That may be true but I don't think it's a Depression were heading towards, we've already gotten that. I believe that in the next financial collapse heads will quite literally start rolling. It won't be a Depression next time, it will be an execution.

a reply to: Aazadan

It's not even a matter of if at this point. It's a matter of when. That is nearly impossible to predict with any accuracy.