Squeezed by rising living costs, a record number of Americans — nearly 1 in 2 — have fallen into poverty or are scraping by on earnings that classify them as low income.
Six Waltons Have More Wealth Than the Bottom 30% of Americans
Does anyone "get" that the extreme wealthy and MULTI-national corporations don't care about national boundaries? Hence the term "multinational". They're not beholden to a Pledge of Allegiance or some ideal that is anything other than profit... It's not about service, it's about PROFIT. So, why ON EARTH would they reinvest their money (that isn't taxed) back into a society that they don't care about... They'll invest it in their own version of "The Dollar Spot" - cheap labor, which is elsewhere. And because we end up BUYING that shit, you know what we get? Toasters that last 5 months. And I'm rather certain that "they" don't mind that we have to buy a new toaster every 5 months. I mean really, why own 1 or 2 through your lifetime when you can own 130?
Sorry. I haven't had my second cup of coffee yet and my mechanic just really pissed me off.
"Worker-Owners of America, Unite": Will Cooperative Workplaces Democratize U.S. Economy?
As the Occupy Wall Street movement continues to protest record levels of wealth and income inequality, we turn to an author who says the U.S. economy might be becoming more democratic. Gar Alperovitz argues in an op-ed in today’s New York Times that we may be in the midst of a profound transition toward an economy characterized by more democratic structures of ownership. Alperovitz finds that 130 million Americans are members of some kind of cooperative, and 13 million Americans work in an employee-owned company. He says the United States may be heading toward something very different from both corporate-dominated capitalism and from traditional socialism. "I think we’re seeing a change in attitude, both increasing doubts about what’s now going on in the economy, deep doubts, very deep doubts—thanks to Occupation, it’s crystallized—but this other trend of saying, 'What do you want? Where are we going?' in some ways to democratize the economy in a very American way," Alperovitz says.
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"Did you know that the National Football League is a nonprofit, and hasn't paid a dime in taxes since 1966? As a lifelong football fan, I was shocked to discover that I haven't just paid to watch games and bought NFL merchandise since I was 6 years old -- I've been paying higher taxes as an adult to make-up for the NFL's share."
