January 19, 2013<\/span><\/em> \u00a0| \u00a0<\/p>\n Like this article?<\/p>\n Join our email list:<\/p>\n It’s so artfully done, and so diabolical, that one can picture secret seminars in subterranean Wall Street meeting rooms, guiding young business recruits in the proven process of taking an extra share of wealth from the middle class. Their presentation might unfold as follows:<\/p>\n 1. Boost productivity while keeping worker wages flat.<\/strong><\/p>\n The\u00a0trend<\/a>\u00a0is unmistakable, and startling: productivity has continued unabated while wages have simply stopped growing. Improved technologies have reduced the need for workers while globalization has introduced the corporate world to cheap labor. In effect, the workers who built a productive America over a half-century stopped getting paid for their efforts.<\/p>\n Paul Krugman<\/a>\u00a0suggests that a “sharp increase in monopoly power” is another reason for the disparity. As John D. Rockefeller said, “Competition is a sin.” That certainly is the rule of thumb<\/a>\u00a0in banking and agriculture and health insurance and cell phones. Yet despite the fact that low-wage jobs<\/a>\u00a0are increasingly defining the American labor market, apologists for our meager minimum wage claim<\/a>\u00a0an increase will worsen unemployment. So it remains at $7.25. A minimum wage linked to productivity would be $21.00 per hour<\/a>.<\/p>\n 2. Build up a financial industry that has no maximum wage.<\/strong><\/p>\n This is where the money is. In 2007, before the financial crisis, a Harvard survey revealed that almost half of the school’s seniors<\/a>\u00a0aspired to careers in finance. The industry’s share of corporate profits<\/a>\u00a0grew from 16% in 1980 to an astonishing 45% in 2002.<\/p>\n And there’s no limit to the earning potential. Hedge fund manager John Paulson<\/a>\u00a0conspired with Goldman Sachs in 2007 to bundle sure-to-fail subprime mortgages in attractive packages, with just enough time for Paulson to collect other people’s money to bet against his personally designed financial instruments. He made $3.7 billion, enough to pay the salaries of 100,000 new teachers.<\/p>\n 3. Keep accumulating wealth created by the financial industry.<\/strong><\/p>\n Experienced schemers have undoubtedly observed that over the past 100 years the stock market has grown three times faster<\/a>\u00a0than the GDP. The richest quintile of Americans owns 93%<\/a>\u00a0of such non-home wealth.<\/p>\n In the last 25 years, only the richest 5% of Americans have increased their share<\/a>\u00a0of non-home wealth, by the impressive rate of almost 20 percent<\/a>.<\/p>\n In just one year<\/a>, the richest 20 Americans<\/a>\u00a0earned more from their investments than the entire U.S. education budget<\/a>.<\/p>\n 4. Tax yourself as little as possible.<\/strong><\/p>\n The easiest and least productive way to make money – holding on to investments – is also taxed at the lowest rate. In addition to the capital gains benefit, tax ploys like carried interest<\/a>,\u00a0performance-related pay<\/a>,\u00a0stock options<\/a>, and deferred compensation<\/a>\u00a0allow hedge fund managers and CEOs to pay less than low-income Americans<\/a>, and possibly even nothing at all<\/a>.<\/p>\n The richest 400 taxpayers doubled<\/a>\u00a0their income in just seven years while cutting their tax rates nearly in half. U.S. corporations can match that, doubling their profits<\/a>\u00a0and cutting their taxes by more than half in under ten years. The 1.3 million individuals in the richest 1% cut their federal tax burden<\/a>\u00a0from 34% to 23% in just 25 years.<\/p>\n 5. Lend out your excess money to people who can no longer afford a middle-class lifestyle.<\/strong><\/p>\n As stated by Thom Hartmann<\/a>, “The ‘Takers’ own vast wealth, and loan it out at interest to everybody from students to governments..” Overall, Americans are burdened with over $11 trillion<\/a>\u00a0in consumer debt, including mortgages, student loans, and credit card liabilities.<\/p>\n Wealth has largely disappeared for the middle- and lower-income classes. More than $7 trillion has been lost in the decline of home prices<\/a>\u00a0since 2006. Young college graduates have an average of $27,200<\/a>\u00a0in student loans, and the 21-35 age group has lost 68% of its median net worth<\/a>\u00a0since 1984, leaving each of them about $4,000. Median net worth for single black and Hispanic women<\/a>\u00a0is a little over $100.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n As we struggle to support ourselves, the super-rich remain on the take, driving us ever closer to the status of most wealth-unequal country in the world.<\/p>\n January 19, 2013<\/span><\/em> | <\/p>\n Like this article?<\/p>\n Join our email list:<\/p>\n It’s so artfully done, and so diabolical, that one can picture secret seminars in subterranean Wall Street meeting rooms, guiding young business recruits in the proven process of taking an extra share of wealth from the middle class. Their presentation might unfold as follows:<\/p>\n 1. Boost productivity while keeping worker wages flat.<\/strong><\/p>\n The trend<\/a> is unmistakable, and startling: productivity has continued unabated while wages have simply stopped growing. Improved technologies have reduced the need for workers while globalization has introduced the corporate world to cheap labor. In effect, the workers who built a productive America over a half-century stopped getting paid for their efforts.<\/p>\n Paul Krugman<\/a> suggests that a “sharp increase in monopoly power” is another reason for the disparity. As John D. Rockefeller said, “Competition is a sin.” That certainly is the rule of thumb<\/a> in banking and agriculture and health insurance and cell phones. Yet despite the fact that low-wage jobs<\/a> are increasingly defining the American labor market, apologists for our meager minimum wage claim<\/a> an increase will worsen unemployment. So it remains at $7.25. A minimum wage linked to productivity would be $21.00 per hour<\/a>.<\/p>\n 2. Build up a financial industry that has no maximum wage.<\/strong><\/p>\n This is where the money is. In 2007, before the financial crisis, a Harvard survey revealed that almost half of the school’s seniors<\/a> aspired to careers in finance. The industry’s share of corporate profits<\/a> grew from 16% in 1980 to an astonishing 45% in 2002.<\/p>\n And there’s no limit to the earning potential. Hedge fund manager John Paulson<\/a> conspired with Goldman Sachs in 2007 to bundle sure-to-fail subprime mortgages in attractive packages, with just enough time for Paulson to collect other people’s money to bet against his personally designed financial instruments. He made $3.7 billion, enough to pay the salaries of 100,000 new teachers.<\/p>\n 3. Keep accumulating wealth created by the financial industry.<\/strong><\/p>\n Experienced schemers have undoubtedly observed that over the past 100 years the stock market has grown three times faster<\/a> than the GDP. The richest quintile of Americans owns 93%<\/a> of such non-home wealth.<\/p>\n In the last 25 years, only the richest 5% of Americans have increased their share<\/a> of non-home wealth, by the impressive rate of almost 20 percent<\/a>.<\/p>\n In just one year<\/a>, the richest 20 Americans<\/a> earned more from their investments than the entire U.S. education budget<\/a>.<\/p>\n 4. Tax yourself as little as possible.<\/strong><\/p>\n The easiest and least productive way to make money – holding on to investments – is also taxed at the lowest rate. In addition to the capital gains benefit, tax ploys like carried interest<\/a>, performance-related pay<\/a>, stock options<\/a>, and deferred compensation<\/a> allow hedge fund managers and CEOs to pay less than low-income Americans<\/a>, and possibly even nothing at all<\/a>.<\/p>\n The richest 400 taxpayers doubled<\/a> their income in just seven years while cutting their tax rates nearly in half. U.S. corporations can match that, doubling their profits<\/a> and cutting their taxes by more than half in under ten years. The 1.3 million individuals in the richest 1% cut their federal tax burden<\/a> from 34% to 23% in just 25 years.<\/p>\n 5. Lend out your excess money to people who can no longer afford a middle-class lifestyle.<\/strong><\/p>\n As stated by Thom Hartmann<\/a>, “The ‘Takers’ own vast wealth, and loan it out at interest to everybody from students to governments..” Overall, Americans are burdened with over $11 trillion<\/a> in consumer debt, including mortgages, student loans, and credit card liabilities.<\/p>\n Wealth has largely disappeared for the middle- and lower-income classes. More than $7 trillion has been lost in the decline of home prices<\/a> since 2006. Young college graduates have an average of $27,200<\/a> in student loans, and the 21-35 age group has lost 68% of its median net worth<\/a> since 1984, leaving each of them about $4,000. Median net worth for single black and Hispanic women<\/a> is a little over $100.<\/p>\n<\/div>\nStay up to date with the latest headlines via email.<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
![](\"http:\/\/pixel.quantserve.com\/pixel\/p-89EKCgBk8MZdE.gif\")
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Stay up to date with the latest headlines via email.<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1213,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[487],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-23099","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-breaking-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23099","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1213"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23099"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23099\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}