Occupy America- The End of the Corporate Class

[Donnachaidh]

http://www.addictinginfo.org/2011/10/08/occupy-america-the-end-of-the-corporate-class/

The United States has been in an economic free fall for over three decades. When Ronald Reagan was elected president in 1980, he stated that “Government was not the solution to our problems, government was the problem.” The problem with this quote is that it’s entirely misleading. Government could be the problem if it was in the hands of someone who was a problem maker. That problem maker, along with his fellow Republicans, was Reagan himself. Reagan set the United States on a path of economic collapse which destroyed the middle and working class as they watched the wealth get concentrated to a select few. That select few live in their gated communities, send jobs to China and cheat the United States out of fair revenue by putting a big portion of their money into off shore bank accounts.
According to a new study in TIME magazine, where Americans spend their money has changed drastically in the years following World War 2. In 1950, 32% of household spending went toward food and clothing, 13% went towards housing, 3% went towards financial services and insurance and another 3% went towards health care. With each decade–changing drastically once Reagan came into office–the percent of household spending shifted. Today only 10% of total spending now goes towards food and clothing, but the biggest change is in health care costs. Back in the 50′s and 60′s, before factories and unions were under total attack, families could have one parent work, you could send your children to school and college and have good health care and pensions. Today, health care costs have risen dramatically. In 2010, over 16% of household spending was put toward the rising health care costs, over 5 times the percent from 5 decades earlier.

How and where we spend our money isn’t the country’s only issue, where the actual money in our country happens to be is just as important. The top 1% of households now hold 25% of the total income, the largest income inequality since 1929, right before the stock market crashed causing the Great Depression. In fact, the top 400 richest Americans hold more wealth than the bottom 50% of Americans combined. Some radicals on the right complain that the wealthiest members pay most of the taxes and that can’t be debated. It’s true that the richest pay the most, but that’s because they have the most. You can even bring down the percentage a bit and still see the inequality. The top 20% of Americans own over 85% of the country’s wealth.

No matter how you slice and dice it, these numbers are downright scary. The “Occupy Wall street” protests that are happening in NYC and around the country are an awakening of the American people. The poor, the working and middle class and the people who just want to see fairness are now being heard. This isn’t a movement that is attacking capitalism, but it’s attacking what has happened to a capitalistic system that has been overrun and bought out to serve a select few while placing the burden on people less fortunate. If Americans will learn anything from the past, it’s that our current economic path needs to change and the balance of power must shift towards the people who help build this country, not the people sitting at a desk in their penthouse.

[ixion]

1. We're a long, long way from ending the corporate class

I'm totally down with the OWS movement, but I think that is getting ahead of things a bit.

[Andy823]

2. I agree

It is going to take a long time to change things, but I do believe that OWS is a start, and if we can get rid of all those politicians who are bought and paid for by big corporations, and we can get some politicians that will work for the "REAL" people, not the corporate people, we can make those changes, but it will take time.