miss i, gin pen
24year-old writer with two degrees and no fucks to give.
Ten Numbers the Rich Would Like Fudged | Alternet
1. Only THREE PERCENT of the very rich are entrepreneurs.
According to both Marketwatch and economist Edward Wolff, over 90 percent of the assets owned by millionaires are held in a combination of low-risk investments (bonds and cash), personal business accounts, the stock market, and real estate. Only 3.6 percent of taxpayers in the top .1% were classified as entrepreneurs based on 2004 tax returns. A 2009 Kauffman Foundation study found that the great majority of entrepreneurs come from middle-class backgrounds, with less than 1 percent of all entrepreneurs coming from very rich or very poor backgrounds.
2. Only FOUR OUT OF 150 countries have more wealth inequality than us.
In a world listing compiled by a reputable research team (which nevertheless prompted double-checking), the U.S. has greater wealth inequality than every measured country in the world except for Namibia, Zimbabwe, Denmark, and Switzerland.
3. An amount equal to ONE-HALF the GDP is held untaxed overseas by rich Americans.
The Tax Justice Network estimated that between $21 and $32 trillion is hidden offshore, untaxed. With Americans making up 40% of the world’s Ultra High Net Worth Individuals, that’s $8 to $12 trillion in U.S. money stashed in far-off hiding places.
Based on a historical stock market return of 6%, up to $750 billion of income is lost to the U.S. every year, resulting in a tax loss of about $260 billion.
4. Corporations stopped paying HALF OF THEIR TAXES after the recession.
After paying an average of 22.5% from 1987 to 2008, corporations have paid an annual rate of 10% since. This represents a sudden $250 billion annual loss in taxes.
U.S. corporations have shown a pattern of tax reluctance for more than 50 years, despite building their businesses with American research and infrastructure. They’ve passed the responsibility on to their workers. For every dollar of workers’ payroll tax paid in the 1950s, corporations paid three dollars. Now it’s 22 cents.
5. Just TEN Americans made a total of FIFTY BILLION DOLLARS in one year.
That’s enough to pay the salaries of over a million nurses or teachers or emergency responders.
That’s enough, according to 2008 estimates by the Food and Agriculture Organization and the UN’s World Food Program, to feed the 870 million people in the world who are lacking sufficient food.
For the free-market advocates who say “they’ve earned it”: Point #1 above makes it clear how the wealthy make their money.
6. Tax deductions for the rich could pay off 100 PERCENT of the deficit.
Another stat that required a double-check. Based on research by the Tax Policy Center, tax deferrals and deductions and other forms of tax expenditures (tax subsidies from special deductions, exemptions, exclusions, credits, capital gains, and loopholes), which largely benefit the rich, are worth about 7.4% of the GDP, or about $1.1 trillion.
Other sources have estimated that about two-thirds of the annual $850 billion in tax expenditures goes to the top quintile of taxpayers.
7. The average single black or Hispanic woman has about $100 IN NET WORTH.
The Insight Center for Community Economic Development reported that median wealth for black and Hispanic women is a little over $100. That’s much less than one percent of the median wealth for single white women ($41,500).
Other studies confirm the racially-charged economic inequality in our country. For every dollar of NON-HOME wealth owned by white families, people of color have only one cent.
8. Elderly and disabled food stamp recipients get $4.30 A DAY FOR FOOD.
Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) has dropped significantly over the past 15 years, serving only about a quarter of the families in poverty, and paying less than $400 per month for a family of three for housing and other necessities. Ninety percent of the available benefits go to the elderly, the disabled, or working households.
Food stamp recipients get $4.30 a day.
9. Young adults have lost TWO-THIRDS OF THEIR NET WORTH since 1984.
21- to 35-year-olds: Your median net worth has dropped 68% since 1984. It’s now less than $4,000.
That $4,000 has to pay for student loans that average $27,200. Or, if you’re still in school, for $12,700 in credit card debt.
With an unemployment rate for 16- to 24-year-olds of almost 50%, two out of every five recent college graduates are living with their parents. But your favorite company may be hiring. Apple, which makes a profit of $420,000 per employee, can pay you about $12 per hour.
10. The American public paid about FOUR TRILLION DOLLARS to bail out the banks.
That’s about the same amount of money made by America’s richest 10% in one year. But we all paid for the bailout. And because of it, we lost the opportunity for jobs, mortgage relief, and educational funding.
Bonus for the super-rich: A QUADRILLION DOLLARS in securities trading nets ZERO sales tax revenue for the U.S.
The world derivatives market is estimated to be worth over a quadrillion dollars (a thousand trillion). At least $200 trillion of that is in the United States. In 2011 the Chicago Mercantile Exchange reported a trading volume of over $1 quadrillion on 3.4 billion annual contracts.
A quadrillion dollars. A sales tax of ONE-TENTH OF A PENNY on a quadrillion dollars could pay off the deficit. But the total sales tax was ZERO.
It’s not surprising that the very rich would like to fudge the numbers, as they have the nation.
I feel that men can definitely experience discrimination and prejudice based on their gender, but not sexism. Reverse sexism is not a thing. Men are not systematically oppressed.
Read this stuff if you are interested in further understanding this (if my followers have any more good links I will add them here, this short list comes from a quick google search):
- Reverse Sexism Is Not A Thing
- Reverse Sexism Is Still Not A Thing
- This Is Good
- Diktionary Activism (aka, But The Dictionary Definition Is…!)
- Gender Roles Pt 1 and Pt 2
- Interesting Video and Article (Feminism vs ‘Equalism’)
- And this
- Why Feminism Not Equalism? (Aka Why Are Women’s Rights More Important Than Mine Omg This Is Sexist: A Misguided Fallacy)
People starving when tons of unsold food is thrown away globally because people couldn’t afford to purchase the food, that’s violence.
People dying and going bankrupt to pay for their healthcare, that’s violence.
People being evicted from their homes when there are more houses than there are houseless people, that’s violence.
Advocates of our current socio-economic system have taken the word ‘entitlement’ and through the clever use of PR have associated it with what they refer to as the ‘entitlement generation’ - a generation of people who feel ‘entitled’ to shelter, food, water, healthcare, education etc. A simple google search for ‘the entitlement generation’ will reveal the results of this PR - a torrent of abuse, disgust and hatred directed at an entire generation of human beings.
Thanks to the understandably narrowed mindset of most people that this system is the best that we can do, that we have no choice but to live in a world of scarcity and that we must fight to make our living and survive, the idea of entitlement has very negative connotations as generally speaking in our current system, one person’s gain is nearly always another person or people’s loss. The people who feel entitled to a safe and healthy life are shamed and made to feel guilty for their assumption of ‘surely we can do better than this?’.
So when I advocate a more efficient and productive socio-economic system that isn’t restricted by inventions such as debt, money, economic growth, employment, where all people should be entitled to a roof over their heads, many people’s reaction is to remain in the scarcity mindset and I am met with arguments such as ‘and why does everyone DESERVE all of this for free?’.
I’d like to address this right now.
The reason everyone DESERVES free shelter, food, water, healthcare, education etc. is no feat of complicated economic or philosophical reasoning. The reason everyone DESERVES these things is simply that we have the knowledge and the technical capacity to provide them.
To not utilise this knowledge and technical capacity when we have tens of thousands of people across the world dying of starvation every day, instead insisting under threat of violence - starvation, dehydration, homelessness, prison and physical violence - that people submit to employment or slavery to perpetuate a system which has odds heavily loaded against them, channels the majority of the fruits of their labour to an ownership-investment class and reinforces scarcity (and the resulting violence, war, starvation etc) to maintain profit for the same ownership-investment class is completely and utterly morally reprehensible.
We should feel glad to be part of the ‘entitlement generation’ - a generation of people defined by having the largely shared feeling that we can and should do better than this and provide for people - even if many people aren’t aware of exactly how that’s possible.
I would also add that in our current system, some people seem to “deserve” more than others simlpy by being lucky to be born in a rich family for instance. They are “entitled” to many more things than other people, even though they did absolutely nothing to get or deserve that entitelment. They were merely born at the “right” geographical coordinates.
www.now.org
www.rawa.org
www.womenslaw.org
www.amnestyusa.org
www.globalissues.org
www.globalfundforwomen.orgTo the men who have told me that I’m overreacting and “it’s the 21st century women are equal now”
Ditto.
Note that the “women make only 77.5 cents for every dollar that men earn” statistic applies only to white women. Women of color make significantly less.
- Black women make about $0.68 to a man’s dollar.
- Latina women make about $0.58 to a man’s dollar.
Nuer Massacre - Sudan, 1991
This pattern — women can dress like men, but men don’t dress like women — suggests that there is, in fact, something demeaning, ridiculous, or subordinating about presenting oneself to the male gaze. Most men feel stupid, gross, or vulnerable when they do it. This isn’t just about conformity to different gendered expectations. If it were just about difference women would feel equally weird dressing in men’s clothes. Instead, when women adopt masculine ways of dressing and moving, they often feel empowered.
So, when men do femininity they feel ridiculous and when women do masculinity they feel awesome. This is what gender inequality looks like.
"via Sociological Images (via aminamithri)
YES
(via donotcallmeashley)
can i print this and hang it up everywhere?
(via jayandsilentboob)
I feel it also has a lot to do with the stigmatization of femininity. But maybe that’s just me.
(via dandelionchild)
^ That too.
(via lesbianoutlaw)
I think this has more to do with hating on femininity than it does with the male gaze. Many gay men who dress and conduct themselves to attract men have similar feelings of hatred towards femininity and revulsion towards the idea of dressing or conducting themselves femininely.
(via pomme-poire-peche)
Visualizing the 99%
The Guardian put together this compelling animated short explaining wealth distribution in the United States. It’s a must watch and something I’m going to share with everyone I know.
Click through to see the data behind the animation.
(via futurejournalismproject)
Here’s something chilling for Canadians to consider: the population of our country is, at present, estimated to be a little over 34.6 million.
Keeping that in mind, the number of Americans living under the poverty line is 46.2 million, or 12.2 million more than the population of Canada. The number of Americans without healthcare is 50 million, or 15.4 million more than the population of Canada.
This is why people are out on the streets protesting. This is why — for the admitted fuckery that’s gone down on both sides at some Occupy camps — the Occupy movement is important. Frankly, if you don’t think it’s important that something be done about this kind of disparity, whether you’re American or not, as far as I’m concerned you don’t deserve the air you breathe.
Women have to have a PhD to make as much as a man with a BA.
Men with some college but no degree earn about the same a women with a BA.
