By Henry McRandall
WRISEUP.COM
While tens of millions across America and hundreds of millions around the world have been severely hurt by this seemingly-endless recession, there is one distinct group that has done quite well – the rich and the super-rich.
In the days immediately before the global economic meltdown began in 2008, there were 10.1 million millionaires, mega-millionaires, billionaires and mega-billionaires in the world. Today there are 10.9 million such people – an increase of almost eight percent.
But the percentage increase in the number of billionaires was even greater than the percentage increase in the number of mere millionaires.
While 80 percent of the populations of most countries were suffering greatly, the one percent at the top were raking it all in.
In Amerikkka alone, millions of workers were thrown on the scrap-heap of unemployment and millions of families were turfed out of their homes by foreclosure.
The collapse of the American economy had a domino effect on most of the world’s other national economies.
Hundreds of millions worldwide are now much worse off than they were just three years ago.
Worldwide, governments spent close to 50 TRILLION borrowed dollars bailing out this tiny, pampered elite.
And for the next 25 years, the worldwide masses – the poor, the working class and the middle class – will have to pay for these loans through higher user fees, fewer public services and savage cuts to government spending on health care, education and social programs.
But while those who are already much worse off are now being asked to also shoulder the burden of government austerity, those at the top are doing much, much better.
Not only are they not being asked to suffer for the mess they created through their own greed, incompetence, corruption and criminality, they are actually being rewarded with still more tax cuts for themselves and their corporations.
The extreme right-wing, supply-side, trickle-down economic hogwash behind this trend had it that by throwing money at the rich, they would invest it and create quality jobs for the masses.
But that hasn’t happened. Almost every corporation in Amerikkka is now sitting on a mountain of cash that it steadfastly refuses to invest, despite the fact that corporate profits are at a record high and corporate taxes are at a record low.
And why should they invest? They can’t even sell everything they’re producing now. Any CEO who seriously boosted production at a time when the consumer economy is virtually crippled would be jailed for dereliction of duty to maximize shareholder profits.
It’s clearly not tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy that creates jobs. It is a consumer population with surplus disposable income that does so.
And until the $50 TRILLION that was stolen from the masses to bail out the bloody banksters and the corporate criminals is given back to the masses, the economic turmoil will only continue to worsen.