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| The 99 percent spring will energize the Occupy movement. (photo: 99 Percent Spring) |
03 April 12
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the coming weeks, millions of Americans will take to the streets as
part of the "99 percent spring," echoing last year's "Arab Spring.".
At the root of this discontent are the extreme
inequalities of income, wealth, and opportunity that have emerged over
the last four decades.
The richest 1 percent now owns over 36 percent of all
the wealth in the United States. That's more than the net worth of the
bottom 95 percent combined. This 1 percent has pocketed almost all of
the wealth gains of the last decade.
In 2010, the 1 percent earned 21 percent of all
income, up from only 8 percent in mid-1970s. The 400 wealthiest
individuals on the Forbes 400 list have more wealth than the bottom 150
million Americans.
These trends among the 1 percent are bad for the rest
of us. Concentrated wealth translates into political clout - the power
to use campaign contributions to rent politicians and tilt the rules of
the economy in their favor. READ MORE
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