25 HEDGE FUND MANAGERS MADE OVER $24 BILLION LAST YEAR.
In an address to the U.S. Senate this week, Vermont independent Bernie Sanders testified to the basics of wealth and income inequality and described how it distorts the U.S. political process.
The senator’s poignant speech, which is titled “A Threat to American Democracy,” begins with statistics many people have heard but that have not gotten their fair hearing in the corporate press. The Walton family, for example, heirs of the Walmart chain and its fortune, have long been the richest family in America. Today they are worth $148 billion—more than the bottom 40 percent of U.S. citizens combined. (Read about the nation’s 20 richest families here.)
A consequence of the extreme rise in income for the top 1 percent is the Pandora’s box of political power. This power was unleashed particularly with the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United decision. The ruling continued the court’s 19th century identification of citizen rights with corporations by granting corporations unlimited campaign contributions under the guise that money is speech protected by the Constitution. (The court is currently hearing a case that would ease remaining restrictions on campaign donations.)
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MADAM PRESIDENT, THE TOP 25 HEDGE FUND MANAGERS MADE LAST YEAR OVER $24 BILLION. 25 HEDGE FUND MANAGERS MADE OVER $24 BILLION LAST YEAR. THAT IS ENOUGH TO PAY THE SALARIES OF MORE THAN 425,000 PUBLIC SCHOOL TEACHERS. 24 HEDGE FUND MANAGERS AND 425,000 PUBLIC SCHOOL TEACHERS. OVER THE PAST DECADE, THE NET WORTH OF THE TOP 400 BILLIONAIRES IN THIS COUNTRY HAS DOUBLED, UP BY AN ASTRONOMICAL $1 TRILLION IN THE LAST TEN YEARS. WE HAVE HEARD—I WILL BE TALKING ABOUT THIS IN A MOMENT – THE EXTRAORDINARY POLITICAL POWER OF THE KOCH BROTHERS, A FAMILY THAT IS INVESTING VERY, VERY HEAVILY IN THE POLITICAL PROCESS, SPENDING HUNDREDS AND HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS TO ELECT RIGHT-WING CANDIDATES WHO WILL PROTECT THE INTERESTS OF THE WEALTHY AND THE POWERFUL. TO GIVE YOU SOME IDEA OF WHAT IS GOING ON IN THIS ECONOMY, EVERYBODY SHOULD UNDERSTAND THAT CHARLES AND DAVID KOCH, THE KOCH BROTHERS, THEY ARE THE SECOND WEALTHIEST FAMILY IN THIS COUNTRY. IN THE LAST YEAR ALONE, THAT ONE FAMILY SAW A $12 BILLION INCREASE IN THEIR WEALTH. $12 BILLION IN ONE YEAR, BRINGING THEIR TOTAL WEALTH TO UP TO $80 BILLION.
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http://www.truthdig.com/avbooth/item/sen_sanders_will_this_nation_become_an_oligarchic_form_of_society_20140328
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