An amazing quote.

[On Our own]

Friends of our family are currently facing filing for bankruptcy because their son was paralyzed from the neck down in an accident. They promised him medicaid coverage but he is a minor and before that goes through there are issues with the father's job. The boy was covered under his mother's plan, she quit her job to tend her son - but dad's insurer wouldn't pick him up for a "pre-exsisting condition".

He'll get coverage through medicaid catastrophic care, but they'll put the family through hades first. They've been told that to truly get him the care he needs they need to relinquish custody of him and make him a ward of the state.

I think it'll work out in the end, there are programs to help people in these circumstances, but they process makes the awful situation so much worse.


OH and thanks for the tip about contacting the company about meds - I already did that and I make too much money. Their idea of too much and mine are NOT the same!!

 

[DrakeMaiden]

I heard a statistic on NPR that the people who make the bottom 20% of income in our country have seen their incomes (adjusted for inflation) increase 1% between the early 80's and now, whereas the people in the top 20% have seen their incomes (adjusted for inflation) increase by about 30%. Meanwhile the top 10% has (adjusted for inflation) tripled. It is the insane income disparity that I take issue with. How is it that CEOs once only made modestly more than their workers and now they are earning ridiculously more? Are they working harder do you think? And if we asked them to work a day in their worker's shoes, do you think they would be cut out for it or do you think it would wear them out?

Before you start defending the "hard working" upper class take a look at this website , specifically click on the facts and figures link. American CEOs make 475 times as much as their workers, while in Japan it is just 11 times as much. I think the Japanese probably work harder than we do, or maybe that is just a stereotype.

 

[me&thegals]

Yep--pretty much insane. Now 10x higher salary I can see. There probably is a lot of stress. But, when you get golden parachutes after burning down the company AND being paid an insane amount of money... That is nuts!

I have read it over and over and over that when the income gap between the rich and poor grows wider and wider, countries don't stand. It's the perfect recipe for revolution. Obviously, I'm not advocating a bloody revolution here, but a moral revolution in our tax structure, business environment and political processes would be lovely.

 

[DrakeMaiden]

. . . but it makes me really uncomfortable when people are talking about stockpiling weapons and ammunition to take out anybody who tries to get their food. Just my thoughts...

Live by the sword, die by the sword. I honestly don't think the hoarding and militant stance will work, if things get ugly. These people will be targets. There is usually always someone more desparate and/or better prepared than you.

 

[DrakeMaiden]

I have read it over and over and over that when the income gap between the rich and poor grows wider and wider, countries don't stand.

Yes, history has a way of repeating itself.

 

[On Our own]

Published on Thursday, March 29, 2007 by New York Times
US Income Gap Is Widening Significantly, Data Shows
by David Cay Johnston
Income inequality grew significantly in 2005, with the top 1 percent of Americans - those with incomes that year of more than $348,000 - receiving their largest share of national income since 1928, analysis of newly released tax data shows.The top 10 percent, roughly those earning more than $100,000, also reached a level of income share not seen since before the Depression.

While total reported income in the United States increased almost 9 percent in 2005, the most recent year for which such data is available, average incomes for those in the bottom 90 percent dipped slightly compared with the year before, dropping $172, or 0.6 percent.

The gains went largely to the top 1 percent, whose incomes rose to an average of more than $1.1 million each, an increase of more than $139,000, or about 14 percent.

The new data also shows that the top 300,000 Americans collectively enjoyed almost as much income as the bottom 150 million Americans. Per person, the top group received 440 times as much as the average person in the bottom half earned, nearly doubling the gap from 1980.

Prof. Emmanuel Saez, the University of California, Berkeley, economist who analyzed the Internal Revenue Service data with Prof. Thomas Piketty of the Paris School of Economics, said such growing disparities were significant in terms of social and political stability.

Look at the date this was posted. The last time we had an income gap this large? You guessed it 1928.....

 

[DrakeMaiden]

At the risk of repeating myself, history repeats itself.

 

[Big Daddy]

We don't need socialism, but a socialist democracy would be real nice. Narrowing the disparity between wages would be a good start. All these huge companies laying off workers. Lay off the CEO and keep an extra 475 workers on board.

 

[sylvie]

We don't need socialism, but a socialist democracy would be real nice. Narrowing the disparity between wages would be a good start. All these huge companies laying off workers. Lay off the CEO and keep an extra 475 workers on board.

It was the disparity that led to the formation of the NLRB (National Labor Relations Act) because the workers were about ready to lynch the large company owners and higher management. It is sounding like we are moving to a more populist mindset regarding the CEO bonuses and layoffs.
The anger level isn't as high as it was back then but we are moving in that direction.

 

[Big Daddy]

How's everybody feel about the bill coming up to allow workers to promote formation of unions without retribution from their employer?
Unions have been going downhill ever since Reagen tried to get rid of them. Of course they probably are one of the reasons the big 3 are having such a hard time. Without them there would've never been a middle class.