Massive Income Gap Between Rich and Poor Is Killing America

To the very, very wealthy in America, no amount of money is too much.  Any Conservative in this country will refuse to admit that our country's economic problems spring from one main source; the huge and widening wealth gap in America. While they wage war on working Americans they seek to enact policies that do one thing, widen that gap even further. Now, with all the wealth already horded to the very top Americans have little hope if more radical right-wing economics are enacted.

The fact is that the current rate of wealth distribution is unsustainable for our economy. Wealth is important to working American families for several reasons. This quote is taken from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI). Why is wealth important? Like wages and income, overall wealth is central to a family's standard of living. Wealth-particularly liquid assets such as savings and checking account balances and direct holding of stocks and bonds-can help families cope with financial emergencies that arise due to unemployment or illness. Wealth also makes it easier for families to invest in education and training, start a small business, or fund retirement. More tangible forms of wealth such as cars, computers, and homes can directly affect a family's ability to participate fully in work, school, and community life. http://www.epi.org/publication... Sadly as this chart demonstrates more Americans have been losing more wealth as the very few have seen their wealth skyrocket: Even more discouraging for working American families is the fact that the Republican recession of 2008 eroded the wealth of working America even more by destroying the main source of wealth for millions of them: The deflation of the housing bubble which started in 2006 pushed the U.S. economy into recession by the end of 2007. As house prices fell and already low equity (due to second mortgages) vanished, foreclosures and "upside down" mortgages, in which homeowners owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth, became a vicious cycle. Given the reliance of typical families on housing as a source of wealth, the housing debacle has devastated the net worth of millions of American households. Which follows the cycle of the last thirty years and proves the "Two Americas" theory of John Edwards. You see those in the other America have seen a much different recovery from the recession they caused than the rest of us have: The Great Recession officially lasted from December 2007 through June 2009-the longest span of recession since the Great Depression. The recovery since then has proceeded on two tracks: one for typical families and workers, who continue to struggle against high rates of unemployment and continued foreclosures, and another track for the investor class and the wealthy, who have enjoyed significant gains in the stock market and benefited from record corporate profits. Now even with all of this inequality and with the lack of wealth for millions of American families what are the solutions offered by too many Republican and Corporate Democrat politicians? Do they seek to close the wealth gap in America giving more money to more families to spend reviving the economy? No. Republican policies seek to do merely one thing. Ignore the huge wealth discrepency in this country and horde even more wealth to the top and heap even more damage onto our already decimated economy. They seek to lower the wages of any middle-class workers who are left and destroy any chance of them to negotiate fair compensation for their skills. The most discouraging part is that many Americans either through hate, or ignorance or just a stubborn refusal to admit that they were wrong in electing people who work against them too many Corporate stooges and millionaires are elected to continue waging war upon working America. As long as we allow the elites to tell us that they live in a different America than we do we our country will never recover and live up to the principles of freedom and equality it was founded upon. Unfortunately it appears as if the people of this country do not wake up soon we are indeed a nation that has seen its better days and will never recover from the slow and steady decline that those who dream of an old world Europe in America have initiated. Supply side economics is a pleasant fiction that doesn't work. George Bush the First called it, "Voodoo Economics" for a reason. Reducing or eliminating taxes on the very rich doesn't create jobs. It simply does not. And contrary to the assertions of the very wealthy, we do NOT live in a meritocracy. The vast majority of the obscenely wealthy have obscenely wealthy parents. Class warfare is already here...are we going to fight back? Consider a donation to The House of Four Cats...my computer died. My hat in hand is extended to you!