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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Bill who wrote (488960)	11/7/2003 11:26:26 AM
From: PartyTime	Respond to of 769670

Note that the below exerpts shows how bad it was before Bush took office. Imagine how bad it is today! >>>* The financial wealth of the top one percent of households now exceeds the combined wealth of the bottom 95 percent. [Note 1] * The wealth of the Forbes 400 richest Americans grew by an average $940 million each from 1997-1999 [Note 2] while over a recent 12-year period the net worth of the bottom 40 percent of households declined 80 percent. [Note 3] * For the well-to-do, that's an average increase in wealth of $1,287,671 per day. [Note 4] If that were wages earned over a 40-hour week, that would be $225,962 an hour or 43,876 times the $5.15 per hour minimum wage. * The Federal Reserve found in its latest survey of consumer finances that although median family net worth rose 17.6 percent between 1995 and 1998, family wealth was "substantially below" 1989 levels for all income groups under age 55. [Note 5] * From 1983-1997, only the top five percent of households saw an increase in their net worth while wealth declined for everyone else. [Note 6] * As of 1997, the median household financial wealth (marketable assets less home equity) was $11,700, $1,300 lower than in 1989. [Note 7] * Anticipated Social Security payments are now the largest single "asset" for a majority of Americans. Funded by a levy on jobs, the Social Security payroll tax is now the largest tax paid by a majority of Americans (the largest for 90 percent of GenXers), funded with a flat tax of 12.4 percent on earnings up to $72,600. * For the first time since the Great Depression, the national savings rate turned negative (during the first quarter of 1999). [Note 8] * What about the largest intergenerational transfer of wealth in history -- that $12 trillion in the hands of baby-boomers' parents? Current wealth patterns indicate that one-third of that pending transfer will go to 1 percent of the boomers ($1.6 million each). Another third will go to the next 9 percent ($336,000). The final slice will be divided by the remaining 90 percent (an average $40,000 apiece). [Note 9] sharedcapitalism.org