>Date: Tue, 4 May 1999 17:56:04 -0400 >Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Originator: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Sender: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Precedence: bulk >From: Robert Weissman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >To: Multiple recipients of list CORP-FOCUS <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Subject: A moment of silence >MIME-Version: 1.0 >X-Comment: Please see http://lists.essential.org for help > >As the Dow Jones industrial average shoots past 11,000 on its way to the >stratosphere, could we pause for a moment of silence to recognize the >wealth disparity that has resulted and the threat it poses to our fragile >democracy? > >If you read and listen to the corporate press -- the Wall Street >cheerleaders at Bloomberg, the Wall Street Journal, Investor's Business >Daily, or the other major corporate news services -- you might think that >the market boom has resulted in wealth all around. > >For the most part, the corporate press, caught up in their euphoria over >this bubble economy, has ignored the reality on the ground. > >They generally ignored, for example, the bit of reality recently presented >in succinct detail by the Boston- based United for a Fair Economy. > >Last month, the group issued "Shifting Fortunes: The Perils of the Growing >Wealth Gap in America," a report that features the latest findings of >economist Edward Wolff of New York University, a leading authority on >wealth distribution. > >This is what the report found: > >* Most households have lower net worth, adjusting for inflation, than they >did in 1983, when the Dow was still at 1,000. > >* From 1983 to 1998, the S&P 500 grew a cumulative 1,336 percent. But the >wealthiest households reaped most of the gains. > >* Since the mid-1970s, the top 1 percent of households have doubled their >share of the national wealth. The top 1 percent of U.S. households now >have more wealth than the entire bottom 95 percent. > >* The top 1 percent of households control 40 percent of the wealth. >Financial wealth is even more concentrated. The top one percent control >nearly half of all financial wealth (net worth minus equity in >owner-occupied housing). > >* Microsoft CEO Bill Gates owns more wealth than the bottom 45 percent of >American households combined. In the fall of 1997, Gates was worth more >than the combined Gross National Product of Central America -- for you >geography buffs, that's Guatemala, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Panama, >Honduras, Nicaragua and Belize. By the fall of 1998, Gates' $60 billion >was worth more than the GNPs of Central America plus Jamaica and Bolivia. > >* The boom has been a bust for millions of Americans. The >inflation-adjusted net worth of the median household fell from $54,600 in >1989 to $49,900 in 1997. Nearly one out of five households have zero or >negative net worth (greater debts than assets), an increase from the >1980s. > >* Workers are earning less, adjusting for inflation, than they did when >Richard Nixon was president. Average weekly wages for workers in 1998 were >12 percent below 1973, adjusting for inflation. Productivity grew nearly >33 percent in the same period. > >* Families have sunk deeper into debt. Household debt as a percentage of >personal income rose from 58 percent in 1973 to an estimated 85 percent in >1997. Total credit card debt soared from $243 billion in 1990 to $560 >billion in 1997. Credit card limits have risen to the point that the >average person can charge more than eight times what they already owe. As >of 1997, almost 60 percent of American households carried credit card >balances -- balances that average more than $7,000, costing these >households more than $1,000 per year in interest and fees. > >There is little question that wealth concentration presented in this >report is being fueled by corporate greed. And the resulting wealth >inequality poses serious threats to our democracy and civic life. > >"The wealth gap reinforces -- and is reinforced by -- widening disparities >in education, economic opportunity, and quality of life," says Chuck >Collins, co-director of United for a Fair Economy, and a co-author of the >report. "Even the affluent lose from inequality as it hurts life >expectancy for rich and poor, fuels violence, and denies all of us the >contributions of people whose opportunities are denied." > >Another co-author of the report, Juliet Schor, argues that "health, >well-being and satisfaction appear to be heavily influenced by the ways in >which economic resources, prestige and social position are distributed." > >"In more unequal societies, human well-being and quality of life appear to >be lower," Schor says. Wolff makes the point that "wealth, more than >income, directly translates into political power." To counter the wealth >threat to democracy, Wolff proposes a wealth tax on the richest Americans. > >As an act of capitalist self-preservation, we think Gates and his buddies >should agree. > >Russell Mokhiber is editor of the Washington, D.C.-based Corporate Crime >Reporter. Robert Weissman is editor of the Washington, D.C.-based >Multinational Monitor. Together, they are authors of Corporate Predators: >The Hunt for MegaProfits and the Attack on Democracy (Common Courage >Press, 1999, http://www.corporatepredators.org). > >(c) Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman > >Focus on the Corporation is a weekly column written by Russell Mokhiber >and Robert Weissman. Please feel free to forward the column to friends or >repost the column on other lists. If you would like to post the column on >a web site or publish it in print format, we ask that you first contact us >([EMAIL PROTECTED] or [EMAIL PROTECTED]). > >Focus on the Corporation is distributed to individuals on the listserve >[EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe to corp-focus, send an e-mail >message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the following all in one line: > >subscribe corp-focus <your name> (no period). > >Focus on the Corporation columns are posted at ><http://lists.essential.org/corp-focus>. > >Postings on corp-focus are limited to the columns. 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