I've already posted on this subject elsewhere, so please forgive me, but the topic has really grabbed my attention... and I've just not worked it out of my system yet.
Perhaps some of you know a bright side, a "silver lining" to this data that I've not thought of.
Michael Moore makes a claim in his new documentary that the "top 1 percent owns more financial wealth than the bottom 95 percent"
^^^^ and the 2009 Pulitzer Prize-winning PolitiFact gave this statement a "Mostly True" rating.
PolitiFact | Michael Moore movie says that top 1 percent owns more financial wealth than bottom 95 percent
(There are six categories:
TRUE – The statement is accurate and there’s nothing significant missing.
MOSTLY TRUE – The statement is accurate but needs clarification or additional information.
HALF TRUE – The statement is accurate but leaves out important details or takes things out of context.
BARELY TRUE – The statement contains some element of truth but ignores critical facts that would give a different impression.
FALSE – The statement is not accurate.
PANTS ON FIRE – The statement is not accurate and makes a ridiculous claim.)
We all know the names -- that seem to be able to manipulate our political system to their end, no matter which party is in power....
Citigroup. ExxonMobil. Pfizer. ConocoPhillips. GlaxoSmithKline. JPMorgan Chase & Co. Shell/Royal Dutch Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. ING Group Dow Chemical McDonalds Procter & Gamble Capital One KPMG Novartis Chevron The Coca-Cola Company UBS Halliburton Virgin Group. Johnson & Johnson. The Walt Disney Company. American Express. Boeing.
etc etc etc etc
We no longer live in the age of Mom and Pop shop capitalism. This is Corporate Capitalism. A socialistic approach of breaking up some of that 1% wealth -- and re-distributing it among the lower 95% is now in order I think.
Here's another website. The numbers cited here seem to corroborate Michael Moore's as well, and, god, are they depressing.
Economic Inequality in the United States
A New York Times headline claimed that:
Top 1% Paid More in Federal Income Taxes Than Bottom 95% in '07
and I find this data only seems to back up the thread topic
by the way, this "the super-rich pay 40% in federal taxes" line is a favorite of Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck. They seem to prefer not to phrase it the other way round: "the richest 1 percent have more financial wealth than the bottom 95 percent combined".
(if I were in that top elite 1% club, I shouldn't mind paying 40% in federal taxes either. I already pay over 25%)
Top 1% Paid More in Federal Income Taxes Than Bottom 95% in ‘07 - Economix Blog - NYTimes.com
I am not here to write a simple polemic on the evils of our current capitalist system (I think I've done that elsewhere). I am here to try to honestly figure the damned thing out -- and if this system is really a just and equitable one.
Perhaps some of you know a bright side, a "silver lining" to this data that I've not thought of.
Michael Moore makes a claim in his new documentary that the "top 1 percent owns more financial wealth than the bottom 95 percent"
^^^^ and the 2009 Pulitzer Prize-winning PolitiFact gave this statement a "Mostly True" rating.
PolitiFact | Michael Moore movie says that top 1 percent owns more financial wealth than bottom 95 percent
(There are six categories:
TRUE – The statement is accurate and there’s nothing significant missing.
MOSTLY TRUE – The statement is accurate but needs clarification or additional information.
HALF TRUE – The statement is accurate but leaves out important details or takes things out of context.
BARELY TRUE – The statement contains some element of truth but ignores critical facts that would give a different impression.
FALSE – The statement is not accurate.
PANTS ON FIRE – The statement is not accurate and makes a ridiculous claim.)
We all know the names -- that seem to be able to manipulate our political system to their end, no matter which party is in power....
Citigroup. ExxonMobil. Pfizer. ConocoPhillips. GlaxoSmithKline. JPMorgan Chase & Co. Shell/Royal Dutch Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. ING Group Dow Chemical McDonalds Procter & Gamble Capital One KPMG Novartis Chevron The Coca-Cola Company UBS Halliburton Virgin Group. Johnson & Johnson. The Walt Disney Company. American Express. Boeing.
etc etc etc etc
We no longer live in the age of Mom and Pop shop capitalism. This is Corporate Capitalism. A socialistic approach of breaking up some of that 1% wealth -- and re-distributing it among the lower 95% is now in order I think.
Here's another website. The numbers cited here seem to corroborate Michael Moore's as well, and, god, are they depressing.
Economic Inequality in the United States
A New York Times headline claimed that:
Top 1% Paid More in Federal Income Taxes Than Bottom 95% in '07
and I find this data only seems to back up the thread topic
by the way, this "the super-rich pay 40% in federal taxes" line is a favorite of Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck. They seem to prefer not to phrase it the other way round: "the richest 1 percent have more financial wealth than the bottom 95 percent combined".
(if I were in that top elite 1% club, I shouldn't mind paying 40% in federal taxes either. I already pay over 25%)
Top 1% Paid More in Federal Income Taxes Than Bottom 95% in ‘07 - Economix Blog - NYTimes.com
I am not here to write a simple polemic on the evils of our current capitalist system (I think I've done that elsewhere). I am here to try to honestly figure the damned thing out -- and if this system is really a just and equitable one.
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