The 99 Percent Spring: The People Are Not Powerless

The 99 percent spring will energize the Occupy
movement. (photo: 99 Percent Spring)

By Chuck Collins, OtherWords

03 April 12

n 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