Posted on 06/02/2013 6:40:41 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
According to a study that was just released by Boston Consulting Group, the wealthiest one percent now own 39 percent of all the wealth in the world. Meanwhile, the bottom 50 percent only own 1 percent of all the wealth in the world combined. The global financial system has been designed to funnel wealth to the very top, and the gap between the wealthy and the poor continues to expand at a frightening pace. The global elite continue to hoard wealth and heap together enormous mountains of treasure in these troubled days even though the economic suffering around the planet continues to grow.
So exactly how have the global elite accumulated so much wealth? Well, one of the primary ways is through the use of debt. As I have written about previously, there is about 190 trillion dollars of debt in the world but global GDP is only about 70 trillion dollars. Our debt-based global financial system systematically transfers wealth from us and our governments into the hands of the global elite. And of course the gigantic banks and corporations that the elite control are constantly gobbling up everything of value that they can find: natural resources, profitable small businesses, real estate, politicians, etc. Money, power, ownership and control are becoming very, very tightly concentrated at the top of the food chain, and that is a very dangerous thing for humanity. When too much money and power gets into too few hands, it almost always results in tyranny.
What will eventually happen when the global elite have ALL the wealth?
Will the rest of us work as serfs in a system that they have iron-fisted control over?
And what if they decide that they don't really need billions of people working for them? Will they decide to implement population control measures in order to reduce the number of "useless eaters"? It is already happening in China and other highly centralized societies.
When all of the economic rewards of a society go to a very small handful of people, it tends to be very destabilizing. We have seen this again and again throughout history.
When people have everything taken away from them and they have nothing left to lose, they tend to become very desperate. And right now we are rapidly hurtling toward a time of great global instability. Anger and frustration are growing all over the globe, and the rate at which the gap between the wealthy and the poor is widening seems to be accelerating. Just check out these numbers...
-The wealthiest 1 percent of the global population now owns 39 percent of all the wealth on the planet.
-According to a report that was released last summer, the global elite have up to 32 TRILLION dollars stashed in offshore banks around the planet.
-According to a study conducted by Credit Suisse, the bottom two-thirds of the global population owns just 3.3% of all the wealth.
-A study by the World Institute for Development Economics Research discovered that the bottom half of the world population owns approximately 1 percent of all global wealth.
-It is estimated that the entire continent of Africa only owns approximately 1 percent of the total wealth of the world.
-Approximately 1 billion people throughout the world go to bed hungry each night.
-If you can believe it, more than 3 billion people currently live on less than 2 dollar a day.
In the world that we live in, money equals power. And the more money that the top one percent accumulate, the more power they will accumulate as well.
So exactly who are the top one percent? I discussed this at length in my previous article entitled "Who Runs The World? Solid Proof That A Core Group Of Wealthy Elitists Is Pulling The Strings". The global elite are absolutely obsessed with power and control and they have been working to implement their agenda for a very long time. In the end, they hope to unite the entire planet under a monolithic global system that they control. They are actually quite open about this - it is just that most people do not want to believe it.
The gap between the wealthy and the poor is rapidly growing in the United States as well. Sadly, this means that the middle class is steadily disappearing as the ranks of those that are living in poverty continues to increase.
But of course not everyone is doing badly in the U.S. right now. In fact, those that own stocks have had lots of reasons to celebrate in recent months.
So who owns stocks?
Well, the wealthy do of course. In fact, approximately 60 percent of all individually held stocks are owned by the top 5 percent of all Americans.
During the last recession, Americans lost 16 trillion dollars of wealth. Since then, about 45 percent of that wealth has been "recovered", but the vast majority of that "recovery" has been due to rising stock prices. The following comes from a recent Washington Post article...
From the peak of the boom to the bottom of the bust, households watched a total of $16 trillion in wealth disappear amid sinking stock prices and the rubble of the real estate market. Since then, Americans have only been able to recapture 45 percent of that amount on average, after adjusting for inflation and population growth, according to the report from the St. Louis Fed released Thursday.
In addition, the report showed most of the improvement was due to gains in the stock market, which primarily benefit wealthy families. That means the recovery for other households has been even weaker.
“A conclusion that the financial damage of the crisis and recession largely has been repaired is not justified,” the report stated.
Once upon a time, the United States had the largest and most thriving middle class in the history of the world. That was a great thing. But now the middle class is being destroyed and government dependence has surged to an all-time high.
The following are some of the incredible statistics that show how wide the gap between the wealthy and the poor in America is becoming...
-The wealthiest 1 percent of all Americans now own more than a third of all the wealth in the United States.
-In the United States today, the wealthiest one percent of all Americans have a greater net worth than the bottom 90 percent combined.
-According to Forbes, the 400 wealthiest Americans have more wealth than the bottom 150 million Americans combined.
-The six heirs of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton have as much wealth as the bottom one-third of all Americans combined.
-On average, households in the top 7 percent have 24 times as much wealth as households in the bottom 93 percent.
-Between 2009 and 2011, the wealth of the bottom 93 percent of all Americans declined by 4 percent, while the wealth of the top 7 percent of all Americans increased by 28 percent.
-The poorest 50 percent of all Americans collectively own just 2.5% of all the wealth in the United States.
-The top 0.01% of all Americans make an average of $27,342,212. The bottom 90% make an average of $31,244.
For much more on how poverty is rising and the middle class is being destroyed, please see my recent article entitled "22 Facts That Prove That The Bottom 90 Percent Of America Is Systematically Getting Poorer".
Obviously we have a huge problem here.
With each passing day, poverty is rising and more people are becoming dependent on the government.
So what is the solution to this mess?
You know it as the welfare state.
When you raise taxes on the rich for more govt handout to provide goods and services to the poor, you aren't redistributing “WEALTH” to the poor from the rich, it's just the opposite. It's a paradox.
The rich are the ones providing the goods and services and in most cases they are getting paid more for the goods and services by the govt. than the goods and services cost to produce.
Food stamps is the perfect example. The poor don't pay less for the food they by with FS, they pay the same as everyone else that's shelling the money out of their pocket.
The wealth is being redistributed from people that have to pay for the goods and services out of their own pocket to the people providing the goods and services, the so called rich.
Raise taxes on the rich that provide goods and services, they raise their price. Those on the govt dole aren't out any wealth if prices go up, but the people that actually have to pay for the goods and services themselves are loosing their wealth every time prices go up.
Look who is paying the overwhelming taxes collected in this country especially the income tax. It's the rich.
With an overwhelming amount of tax revenue dependent on the top earners, the govt. cannot increase it's income from income taxes unless there is a plan to increase the income of the top earners that pay the tax.
The dems call this little plan of theirs “Trickle UP economics”, you actually increase the number of people in poverty to increase revenue to the govt.
Of course it's doomed to fail.
Eventually the middle class that actually pays the tax increase hidden as a price increase in goods and services, no longer has enough money to pay for goods and services that are beyond necessities and the whole system will come crashing down.
This money cannot buy the violence that will destroy it.
Then we have the children, crips, widows, orphans, handicapped, prisoners..... just all sorts of people out there including the elderly infirm ...... and they not only don't work, those of their class never worked except during times of disaster.
About 100 million people in this country are actually employed in jobs. With 320 million population, that means 220 million DO NOT WORK ~ not you, not me, not your grandparents, not Mitt Romney, not Bill Gates (Tending to giving money away really isn't work now is it).
You imagine 47% don't work, and it's actually 69%!!!!
Just to let you know what my base of understanding is ~ and frankly I don't care if there's somebody out there who's never paid federal income tax ~ it's an antiquated unproductive taxing method we should ~ in fact MUST get rid of as soon as possible ~ so good for the 47%
This is such a foolish, immature, and ridiculous worldview that it is consigned to all he other little crackpot global warming conspiracy theories, and dinghy pretty wheel describes its intellectual content.
Your proof of this allegation can be found where?
Yes, the reality is the top 5% pay over 40% (or more) of all taxes in this country, and the bottom 50% pay ZERO (followed by wealth re-distribution "tax credits") that however doesn't translate into your allegation that those at the top 1% are getting their money back through same redistribution scheme.
That's circular logic and it don't fly on this side of the keyboard.
What mess? Both parties are happy with it. The Democrats will continue to be elected and the welfare state will get bigger. The GOP will continue to be see the rich get richer regardless of who gets elected. And both will keep any third party out of the debates.
The housing bubble can blamed almost entirely on the government.
You are right.
It’s the poor that are providing the goods and services, and they are poor because they charge less for the goods and services they provide than it cost them.
Supermarkets are a perfect example.
The supermarkets buy all that food then actually GIVE all that food away to people on food stamps, they actually loose money every time a govt leach uses food stamps not make a profit.
You’re a genius, and it’s an honor to be correct by a genius.
People on food stamps don't worry about spending $5 for a bag of potato chips, cases of soft drinks, cookies, candy etc. every time they are at the store, but people that do pay for it themselves will only do it on special occasion.
If the govt. wasn't paying for all that junk food for govt. leaches the sales for it would be way down.
A lot of grocery stores, especially convenience stores, wouldn't have near the profit for the govt. to tax.
Boy, I sure blew that one. Damn' my dyslexia, I should've read that more carefully a second and third time. I had interpreted the above into something completely different, my apologies.
“I note that skiing on flat ground is not much fun.”
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That is very true but while people go up a snowy hill for the exhilaration of sliding back down it at a rapid rate they have no such intention while climbing the economic slope.
Sorry, my bad. ;>)
I suspect a large % of what is owned/held by the top 1%, top 10% or even top 40% of wealthy is valued, on paper, at todays new bubble prices/values than is the portion owned by the bottom 60%.
But, in fact, that’s the nature of capitalism, creative destruction. The most volatile segment of the economy is the top 1% with more movement into and out of it than any other economic segment. It’s very hard to stay on top.
Accepted.
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