Hedge Fund Gamblers Earn the Same In One Hour As a Middle-Class Household Makes In Over 47 Years
The top 25 hedge fund earners took in $22.07 billion in 2010. Thanks to a generous tax loophole these billionaires will pay a top tax rate of 15 percent instead of 35 percent. Closing that loophole on just those 25 individuals – just 25 guys who wouldn’t miss a penny of it — would raise $4.4 billion, which is enough to rehire 126,000 laid-off teachers.
What’s amazing about our staggering income inequality is that it sparks so little anger among the general population. It’s going to take the kind of sustained protest that we’ve seen in Egypt and Wisconsin to force the Government’s hand - I say Government specifically because this is exactly what Government is intended for, it is a tool for doing together what cannot be accomplished alone, like any tool it can be taken advantage of.
We are watching the crest of a 35 year long wave begin to break; dropping union numbers, stagnent wages, austerity cuts in education and public programs; a concentration of wealth - and by concentration, I mean a deliberate theft of Government influence, law and resources by the richest one-percent, for the richest one-percent. If there is any silver-lining here, it is that our current environment is unsustainable, something is going to give, hopefully is gives sooner than later.
Source: alternet.org
