Most of the gold bars I own are only this long
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Largely insulated from the country’s economic downturn since 2008, members of Congress — many of them among the “1 percenters” denounced by Occupy Wall Street protesters — have gotten much richer even as most of the country has become much poorer in the last six years, according to an analysis by The New York Times based on data from the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonprofit research group…
What is clear is that members of Congress are getting richer compared not only with the average American worker, but also with other very rich Americans.
While the median net worth of members of Congress jumped 15 percent from 2004 to 2010, the net worth of the richest 10 percent of Americans remained essentially flat. For all Americans, median net worth dropped 8 percent, based on inflation-adjusted data from Moody’s Analytics.
Going back further, the median wealth of House members grew some two and a half times between 1984 and 2009 in inflation-adjusted dollars, while the wealth of the average American family has actually declined slightly in that same time period, according to data cited by The Washington Post in an article published Monday on its Web site.
With millionaire status now the norm, the rarefied air in the Capitol these days is $100 million. That lofty level appears to have been surpassed by at least 10 members, led by Representative Darrell Issa, a California Republican and former auto alarm magnate who is worth somewhere between $195 million and $700 million…
While concerns go back decades about lawmakers trading on confidential information, the issue drew renewed attention with a new book on the topic, “Throw Them All Out” by Peter Schweizer, and a “60 Minutes” report in November. Both linked high-level briefings that Congressional leaders received on the 2008 financial crisis and on health care to their purchase and sale of certain stocks.
Members insisted that they never traded on information that was not public, and some Congressional leaders pointed out that their investments were in blind trusts managed by professional advisers. Nonetheless, the publicity led some 90 members of Congress to call anew for a ban on insider trading.
Confident our elected representatives in Congress will pass such a bill?
Wasn’t congress caught leaving a gay sex shop last week?
Ron Paul’s net worth – $4.9 Million
Just saying…
http://celebritynetworth.com/richest-politicians/ron-paul-net-worth/
These bastards are out of touch for the most part with the struggling day to day life of the average American. They hang out with the rich and do the bidding of the rich and are not exposed to the general public all that much. I have been trying for months to get in and see my congressman to ask him to look at HR 1322 the retirees health care protection act and unless I come with a check he wants nothing to do with me.
I have seen the enemy and they is us!
We have seen the enemy and they are the 1%er millionaires.
We have never seen the real enemy and they are 12,400 billionaires who won the class war, by stealth.
There are currently more people in prison than there are 1%ers.
The crimes committed by people like us cost us far less than the crimes committed in Washington (Of course the elected crooks and lawyers, but I repeat myself, get to define what is a crime. [How is that for fisting you up the ass wearing gloves covered with sandpaper and broken glass.])
Sorry to say this but my data is that your claim that this nation has 12,400 billionaires is a lot of BS:
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_many_billionaires_are_in_the_US
I got 96.
Give me one practical, executable, plan that could possibly fix what’s wrong with America in, say 20 years or less.
IMO, the monster that government/society has become is on a road to collapse to hellish anarchy, or by hellish revolt.
It could be done without bloodshed, without revolution, without dislocation by just getting rid of political parties.
(Of course I expect bloody screaming and the army at my doorstep before that ever happens. The people with power and money will reduce us to violent, crushing slavery before they ever give up a diminishing slice of a rapidly consumed pie.)
The internet can handle a democracy, people can’t.
1. Put some reasonable governance and oversight in place for financial institutions. Basically they can’t mix commercial and investment.
2. Use the large number of veterans as an excuse to refocus education towards the service sector. The US needs to shift from manufacturing for it’s growth.
3. Wait for the baby boomers to die.
Let me see:
Discointune welfare and entitlements.
Decentralise the Federal government. Just close D.C. and call the “United States” a defunct buisness like so many others.
Bail out the people from their debts.
Embargo all foreign imports
It never hit the 1% who benefit from the Bush tax holiday over the last ten years either.
No, the recession did hit them. The wealthy are not as well off under Obama, which is why he’s having trouble meeting his campaign target of one billion dollars in donations.
Ah, so what. Successful people with the gift of business sense have been with us all along, and so have those who don’t, and the ones who have it will continue to look after themselves and their offspring far into the future, while the less gifted will forever resent them. The only hope is that there are enough winners who can see that spreading their excess wealth around (with no gratitude expected or wanted) is something they should do for advancing civilization in general.
“The working class can kiss my ass
I’ve got the foreman’s job at last.”
- Edward Abbey
“The working class can kiss my ass
I’ve got the foreman’s job at last.”
- Edward Abbey
Edward Abbey was a tool; nothing but a tool.
Easily disposed of on a work bench.
Tool? Sorry, but I just don’t get that one.
Oh he was certainly off base in much of what he said, with plenty of balderdash for sure…but what kind of “tool” was he? Strange response there.
yOU REALLY WANT THE SOLUTION?
EASY.
Threaten to kick the REST of the corp out of the USA, to go live with the OTHER PART(S) of its company..the parts doing the work. In other countries IF’ you dont pay taxes, you end up NOT owning the company, or having a head chopped off.
Another point would be FAIR PRICES.
We are the only country with National and international prices, that we sell to OTHER nations, are the same. Which means that we sell at the highest point possible to other nations, and also charge those prices to OUR own people.
Selling scrap metals to China is funny. AS we up the prices for all the Scrap cars, that we cant get money for on a trade-in. The same metals we GOT from Japan/china/india/pakistan…
MOSt of the metals used in the USA, arent FROM the USA.
We ship wood to china, then add a 25% tax on imported from canada..
The 1 major import from Canada, is Canola oil. we label it vegetable oil. We cant even leave the PEANUT OIL in peanut butter. we have to sell it to others…for MORE MONEY.
There is NO fair trade in the USA.
Let’s face it, the only real perk to “working” in Congress, is to take advantage of all the business connections and insider trading tips, one can possibly get away with. Why not propose the having highest tier of income taxing, for Congress members. Simply because it’s a given, that they use all they know, and who they know, to get richer, on the tax payers’ dime. Ah, DIME! On the tax payers’ hard earned paychecks, investments, and retirement incomes. None of which is safe from the governments ability to sap try. But Congressmen’s everything, IS!!