...the median wealth of your Congressmen and women is $1 million, your president is a multimillionaire, but the median wealth of your citizenry is just $44,911.
(The median number is the point at which half of the group is above and half of the group is below. Figures from the 2013 Credit Suisse Global Wealth Report and the articles "Members of Congress Richer Than Ever" and "How Wealthy are President Barack Obama and His Cabinet?.")
And you might live in a ruthless plutocracy if that very same Congress and president are always weaseling around trying to cut Social Security, cut Medicare, cut food assistance, cut unemployment benefits, cut funds for job training, and cut anything else that helps non-rich Americans.....while simultaneously turning a blind eye to white collar crime--crime that just so happens to generate money for their political campaigns. (Corporate America funds the campaigns our major political candidates, and Corporate America has made billions with fraudulent securities, insider trading, interest-rate rigging, collusion, illegal tax evasion, money laundering for drug cartels, cooking the books, bribery, and Lord knows what else. See, as just one example: "Are Banks Too Big To Jail: PBS Frontline's stunning report shows how the Obama administration undermined the rule of law.")
Above: Members of Congress have always been wealthier than the average American, but at least during the New Deal they weren't as cruel as they are today. For example, New Deal policymakers created work and training opportunities for unemployed Americans in the Civil Works Administration, the Civilian Conservation Corps, the Works Progress Administration, and the National Youth Administration. But today's millionaire Congress has cut funding for job training, even though Americans are experiencing stagnant wages and high unemployment. WPA poster image courtesy of the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
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