You know I have come to a few short realizations doing some research:

[originalpckelly]

1. It doesn't really matter what people you send to Congress, or their party, they have already probably been bought off.
2. The directors of one company serve on the boards of other companies, a LOT of the same people control a LOT of the companies out there.
3. Most companies have a PAC, I mean MOST companies have a PAC, and boy 'o' boy you'd be stupid to think they aren't using them. (There are Federal Elections Commission records that prove this: http://www.fec.gov/finance/disclosure/norindsea.shtml )

The fourth and most important, America is no longer a democracy, if it ever was one. I'm not a communist/socialist, but I am also not a corporatist, and this is complete crap in my opinion:

32% of the wealth (in America) is controlled by the top 1%!!!!!!!!!

57.7% of the wealth is controlled by the top 5%!!!!!

69.8% of the wealth is controlled by the top 10%!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh yeah and the bottom 50% only control 2.8%!!!!!!!!



http://www.faireconomy.org/research/wealth_charts.html

[papau]

1. WITHOUT UNIONS THERE IS NO PUSH BACK - it will only get worse

:-(

[porphyrian]

9. Too many "right to work" states in the South. - n/t

[readmoreoften]

14. The young today know nothing about unions. It is frightening.

I'm in the middle of a labor strike. Most of the people I worked with are 30 and under. All but one in my division scabbed (other areas were at 100% striking.) They all thought I deserved to be fired. They don't have the faintest understanding of labor strikes and labor history. One even said as much. I told her that it was completely unacceptable to fire workers for striking even 25 years ago. She said, "Whatever. I'm 26. 25 years ago is ancient history. Things have changed."

Things haven't changed.

[deaniac21]

16. Apparently, they have.

:-(

[Parisle]

2. Yep,..... It's A Formulaic Mathematical Progression,.....

---- ..... And anyone who has ever played the Parker Bros. game "Monopoly" knows how it works. What did you do when the game was over, eh?

[undergroundpanther]

3. And they are all

Ruthless but "socialized"psychopaths.
And this process has been DELIBERATE,maybe not coordinated,but it is a product of a hive mind,the psychopath old boy network of corupt power watching out for thier own kind..

[eccles12]

4. Now here is a post really worth recommending!! Thanks! nt

[originalpckelly]

5. Thanks...

I always heard of the middle class, I think that is a bunch of bullshit. There is no middle class, just a really high standard of living in the underclass.

[leftchick]

6. And it is getting worse fast....

another article and graph...



<snip>

Even for those with jobs, the fruits of economic growth have been more unequally distributed within the labour market.

The incomes of the top 20% have grown much faster than earnings of those at the middle or bottom of the income distribution. The income of the top 1% and top 0.1% have grown particularly rapidly.

From 1992 to 2005, the pay of chief executive officers of major companies rose by 186%.

The equivalent figure for median hourly wages was 7.2%, leaving the ratio of CEOs' pay to that of the average worker at 262.

In the 1960s, the comparable figure was 24.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/5303590.stm#graph

K&R!

[Pacifist Patriot]

7. Quite honestly, I don't believe the United States has every been...

an example of a true representative democracy. The Great Experiment that never was.

[In Truth We Trust]

8. Want Democracy?!? Paper ballots and HAND COUNTS Now!!! nt

[Solly Mack]

10. Rowing in that boat with you

well, rocking in it...nothing smooth or comforting about it though.

but I still have to try...for my own conscience if no other reason. Doesn't mean I believe America is some great democracy(I don't)....but by golly, my so-called representatives are gonna get an earful every chance I get.

Water poured over stone will eventually change the surface of the stone...be the water. Demand change and keep demanding change...never just accept the status quo.

[OneBlueSky]

11. back in the late 60s or early 70s, I had a friends who wrote . . .

a very scholarly tome on "interlocking directorates" among the nations largest corporations (and certain foundations) . . . he was never able to get it published, but I read it and was appalled even then at how few people control so much of the wealth of this nation . . . I'm sure it's several levels of magnitude worse today . . .

[midnight]

12. If the corporations have pacs let the working people have

unions.....

[Cerridwen]

13. It's not just the U.S.

Australia seems to fit the US and European pattern

...the income of the top 5 per cent of Australians was increasing at a disproportionately high rate.

<snip>

It seems that a high level of income inequality is a fundamental characteristic of a market economy. (emphasis mine)

And, back in the U.S.; let's put some numbers and amounts to that graph:

In 2001, 1.0 percent of the U.S. adult population was approximately 2.1 million individuals. These individuals owned approximately 22.3 percent of total U.S. individual wealth, a 1.0 percent decrease since 1998 but virtually identical to the shares of wealth held in 1995 and 1992. A similar pattern was evident in the share of wealth held by the nearly 1.1 million individuals who made up the top 0.5 percent of the U.S. adult population in 2001. They held about 17.9 percent of the Nation's net worth in 2001, down slightly from 18.1 percent in 1998 and just above the shares held in 1995 and 1992. The slight interperiod variations shown in Figure O are well within the sampling error of these estimates. Overall, these results suggest that the share of wealth held by the very wealthiest Americans has been nearly constant over the 12-year period

There were more than 7.3 million individuals in the United States with gross assets of $675,000 or more in 2001. These individuals represented about 3.5 percent of the total U.S. adult population. Top wealth holders had a combined net worth of $13.8 trillion, or 32.7 percent of total U.S. net worth. Almost 4.0 million, or 53.7 percent, of these wealthy individuals were male, and 3.4 million were female. Although the median net worth of male and female top wealth holders was similar, men had a significantly higher average net worth, reflecting the impact of a relatively few very wealthy men at the top end of the wealth distribution. (emphasis mine)

From page 6 of Personal wealth, 2001 at Find Articles.

And, we're all aware that this disparity has increased in the past 5 years. Oh, joy.

[bbgrunt]

15. k/r Oh yes, and we need to get rid of that horrible death tax!!

seriously, though, when I covered such topics in a public finance class, most students simply could not comprehend why this mattered. Their eyes glazed over and they became incensed at any mention of ways to level the field. It seems they had been innoculated by the right wing propaganda machine before they even got to me.

[walldude]

17. This is why campaign finance reform is so important

we need to get corporate money out of elections.

[hootinholler]

18. And the American Dream

Is just to maybe break the 50th percentile.

-Hoot

[tbyg52]

19. It's the corporations, stupid!

Not that anybody is really going to use that.....