another wealthy minority, "the next richest 9%". Let's
now find out how that group fares economically. You may be stunned
to learn that:
THE NEXT RICHEST 9 (NINE) PERCENT also possess more wealth
than THE COMBINED WEALTH OF THE BOTTOM 90(NINETY)PERCENT
As unbelievable as it sounds, there are two minority groups, not
just one, that own more assets than the bottom 90%. These two
statistics alone should leave little doubt that the bulk of the
wealth in America is owned by a very small minority of super rich
individuals. This reality contrasts so drastically with the "equal
opportunity", "equal prosperity" concepts fed to
the bottom 90% and the world at large, that statistics such as
these have had to be suppressed. Again, there is no misprint.
The only deceit involved is that the bottom 90% have been purposely
kept in the dark about wealth distribution realities.
(Part 4) Hidden Permanent Prosperity For The Rich
If you were unaware of the severity of wealth distribution inequities,
then you are probably in for an even bigger surprise to learn
that the rate, at which the economic elite are getting richer,
is simply astounding.
Statistics published in Forbes magazine's annual survey of
America's billionaires expose this little known but shocking reality.
In 1982 there were 13 billionaires; in 1983....15; in 1984....12; in 1985....13; in 1986....26; in 1987....49. Note carefully that prior to 1986 the number of American billionaires
had averaged around 13. Then the Reagan administration drastically
altered the wealth distribution patterns by introducing new
tax legislation favoring the top 1%.
In 1986 the number of billionaires DOUBLED, and by 1987 the number
of billionaires had virtually QUADRUPLED to 49!!
By 1988, there were 68 individuals or families that each had
net wealth in excess of $1,000,000,000. By 1989, the number had
risen precipitously to 82. And by 1990, the Forbes survey reported
the staggering total of 99!! {B3}
With favorable tax laws in place, the super rich can enjoy bonanza
years even during recessions!! The tax laws that allowed this
to happen are still in place, and will remain in place till
enough people get sufficiently concerned to insist that they be
changed.
What should cause the American people to sit up and take notice,
once and for all, is the fact that this explosion of wealth took
place during a period when:
- 1. The stock market crashed harder than in 1929.
- 2. Hundreds of American banks and Savings and Loan thrift institutions
declared bankruptcy and saddled the taxpayer with a debt to pay
that may ultimately exceed $500 billion dollars.
- 3. Thousands of farmers lost farms that had been in the their
families for generations.
- 4. Millions lost their jobs.
- 5. Wage earners were having to take massive pay cuts and reductions
to their benefits.
- 6. Social programs and health and education programs were being
drastically cut back or terminated.
- 7. Waves of pan-handlers were flooding onto the streets.
- 8. Shelters for the homeless, and grocery handout centers were
springing up like mushrooms in practically every city throughout
the nation.
It should not take an Einstein to observe that equal opportunity,
and equitable prosperity is an outright hoax for all but a small
minority. Unlike Britain, France, and Germany which can point
to their Feudal pasts to explain their existing wealth distribution
inequities, America can point to no such excuse! The American
economic elite have established Feudal wealth distribution inequities
equal to, and even surpassing their European counterparts (the
monarchs and the landed aristocracy), in just 200 years!!
We have been brainwashed into believing that the super rich are
so few in number that they and their wealth can be safely ignored.
In reality, they directly and significantly affect everyone else's
standard of living, and will continue to do so as long as their
power and influence remain unrecognized, and unchallenged. This
explosion of wealth for America's super rich has immense significance
not only for society as a whole, but especially for the bottom
90%.
Many of those in the bottom 90% who accepted pay cuts and decreases
to their employment benefits, did so because they had been led
to believe that everyone else was also feeling the pinch. Nothing
could be further from the truth.
What is being successfully hidden from public awareness is the
fact that the widening gap between the haves and the have-nots
is an ongoing process, and one which is running even now at
full throttle. The extent to which the bottom 90% are being successfully deceived can be made more obvious by noting just how
the current economic bad times are affecting American billionaires.
A good example, but not necessarily a typical one, is Sam Walton
and family, who increased their wealth by $2,300,000,000 (from
$6.7 billion to approximately $9 billion), in a twelve month
period, from the time Fortune magazine took their 1988 survey,
to the time they took their 1989 survey. For those who believe
that the rich pay high taxes, Sam's pre-tax profits had to have
been considerably higher than $2.3 billion. Even a 25% tax rate
would put his pre-tax profits in excess of $3,000,000,000 for
a 12 month period!!!
If you think that movie theater prices are exorbitant, or feel
that "pay TV" prices are unreasonable, then perhaps
you ought to have a word with Mr. Sumner Murray Redstone whose
fortune increased by $1,480,000,000 (from $1.4 billion to a hair
under $3 billion) in the same twelve month period. His name surfaces
attached to entities like Twentieth Century Fox, Columbia Pictures,
MGM/United Artists, or "pay TV" entities such as Showtime,
The Movie Channel, and MTV. Fortune magazine's own comment was:
"That's a compound annual rate of return of about 132%".
Or perhaps you would liked to have purchased a cellular telephone,
but found them too expensive? Try talking Mr. John Werner Kluge
into taking less profit. After all, his wealth increased by a
cool $2,000,000,000 ($2 Billion) just last year.{B4}
For those unused to thinking in terms of hundreds of millions,
not to speak of billions, let's take a moment to digest the significance
of this magnitude of wealth.
To begin with, a simple 10 percent interest on just one billion
dollars amounts to $100,000,000 (one hundred million dollars)
in interest alone per year. From a working person's perspective,
it would take 100 lifetimes, (of 40 working years each), for a
person earning $25,000 per year to earn the amount of income each
of our billionaires can earn in interest, per billion,
per year. (without lifting a finger) Who pays for these previously
mentioned profits? You of course, through an unnecessarily high
cost of living (high cost of goods and services, high bank interest
rates and inflated real estate prices, etc.).
It is worth keeping in mind that before families like the Carnegies,
Rockefellers, Morgans, Vanderbilts, and others of similar ilk
used PR campaigns and some supposedly philanthropic donations
to help convince Americans of their social nobility, they were
commonly known as "robber barons". Consequently, it
should come as no surprise that in recognition of the widespread
use of tax-deductible methods of purchasing civic respectability,
Ralph Waldo Emerson defined a philanthropist as a man who gives
away what he should be giving back.
In short, fantastic wealth is being generated virtually all the
time, but the bulk of it is being skimmed off by the wealthy while
the working class are kept on a relatively minimum standard of
living to help fuel the illusion of ongoing hard-times.
To avoid showing the rest of the nation the amount of money they
have managed to amass, and to further avoid paying taxes, some
of their corporations are registered in out of the way playboy
tax havens like the Bahamas. In addition, they keep much of their
money in specially numbered secret bank accounts (no questions
asked, no information given), in countries such as the Bahamas,
Switzerland, or Liechtenstein, whose banking communities have
grown fat by obligingly taking on the role of laundering and safely
storing secret treasures for some of the world's wealthiest thieves
and criminals. In fact, the August 21 1989 issue of Insight magazine
fully exposed just how cheaply and easily a money laundering network
can be set up.{B5} People who work from nine to five everyday don't
have the time to waste thinking about the activities of these
jet setters and playboys. Because of economic segregation, most
nine to fivers have never even met such a person. Quite often
the elite have their own jets, and seek obscurity behind tinted
limousine windows. For the most part, the elite who rule America
from behind the scenes, purposely go out of their way to maintain
extremely low profiles. Why? Because neither their fortunes nor
their business transactions would stand up well to public scrutiny.
Media owners, who belong to the richest echelons of our society,
cooperate with their peers to ensure that their profiles remain
as low as they wish. Laws that were supposedly enacted to protect
the privacy of individuals, have certainly served the purpose
of keeping the general public largely ignorant of the shocking
realities of wealth distribution inequities. In effect, the economic
elite are effectively making fools of 90% of society's so-called
equals. Not surprisingly, their lobbying power has ensured that
inheritance laws allow fortunes to remain virtually intact from
generation to generation.
(Part 5) Subsistence for the Working Class
The old Feudal system based on economic and social class discrimination,
which was supposedly left behind centuries ago, has in fact not
gone away. It has only been made to appear as if it had. For example,
from poor humble beginnings in servile poverty, the feudal
{B3} "The World's Billionaires" Forbes (Jul 23 1990): p121
{B4} "Billionaires" Forbes (Oct 23 1989): p164, p152
{B5} "Drug Money Soils Clean Hands" Insight (Aug 21 1989): p14