Why They Are Protesting

I hear a lot of people asking exactly what it is that the occupy Wall Street people are protesting...You have everything from union members, hippies, anarchists and accountants. While there may not be one, unified message coming out of the mouths of everyone this is basically what it comes down to.

I know I have talked about many of these issues before but this is what they are protesting:

In the 1970s, the average CEO made 30 times what an hourly worker made. Today, a CEO makes 300 times what an hourly worker makes.

From 1960 to 1969 the bottom 90% of income earners saw 65% of all wage increases while the top 10% got 12% of the income increases but from 2002-2007 the bottom 90% got 12% of the increase in income while the top 10% got 65% of those increases.

In the 1950's, 35% of the American labor force belonged to a union, it is now at 11% and 6.9% in the private sector.

In 1977 the income share of the top 1% was at about 10% of all wage earners, today it's 24%, back to where it was just before the stock market crash of 1929 and the Great Depression.

In 1965, manufacturing accounted for 53% of the economy, by 1988 it only accounted for 39%, and in 2004, it accounted for just 9%.

A study by the universities of Cornell and Massachusetts-Amherst found that India alone may be responsible for up to 700,000 outsourced jobs from America as of 2005

In 2004, average employee compensation in the U.S. fell for the first time in 14 years

Between 1979 and 1999(at the beginning of the outsourcing trend) the Bureau of Labor Statistics found that 31 percent of workers displaced by trade, mostly in the manufacturing industries, were not fully re-employed. Only 36 percent of workers soon found jobs that matched or increased their wages

Where as the average salary in manufacturing was $51,000, the average wage in the service industry(medical, hospitality, construction) is now $29,000

Forrester Research conducted a study that found 12,000 to 15,000 service jobs are outsourced from the US per month.

From 1983-1998 the change in net worth for the bottom 40% was -76% but the change for the top 1% was +42% and those numbers are probably far more drastic today.

In the same time period, the change in income from the bottom 20% was -5% while the top 5% saw a 64% increase

Nearly 80% of all economic gains made in the past thirty years have gone to the richest 1%

The capital gains taxes now are 1/3 of what they were under Reagan and the top income tax rate is 50% lower than what it was in 1970

80% of American families own less that $250,000 of wealth, the bottom 20% have nearly 0 wealth

The richest 10% of families own 85% of all outstanding stock and 90% of all business assets.

6 out of the 10 richest people in America never worked a day for their wealth! It was all inheritance which is apparently now a sin to tax that income.

In 2007 Rick Wagoner, CEO of GM, announced the closing of 4 plants producing SUVs and trucks, posted a 39 billion dollar loss and increased his pay by 64% to 15.7 million

The top 1% receive 21.8 % of all income and own about 39% of all wealth in the U.S

The top 10% receive 48.5 % of all reported income ('05), own 71 % of all wealth

The top 300,000 income earners in America received more income than the bottom 150,000,000 Americans.


All the other stuff from education costs and health care would be irrelevant if not for these facts.

THIS IS CLASS WARFARE! The class war is real and it was declared on the poor and middle class in the 1980's by Ronald Reagan. Restoring top tax rates (up only 3%) back to where they were 12 years ago is NOT class warfare...If anyone tries to tell you it is, stick their face in a pile of white dog shit!