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| Occupy Wall Street Protesters on Times Square October 15, 2011/Getty Images |
In case Occupy Wall Street's message of income inequality still falls on a few deaf ears, Ham on Wry will review a few facts that pertain to the protest. According to the US Census Bureau's report "Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance in the United States: 2010," several startling facts illustrate a decline in household income. For example, real median household income declined 2.3% from 2009 TO 2010. Since 2007, real median household income dropped 6.4%. Further, real median household income has not returned to the all-time high reached prior to the 2001 recession. One final statistic aptly illustrates the protesters' claims of inequality. Changes in the shares of aggregate household income by quintiles indicate an increase in income inequality between 2009 and 2010.
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| Michael Moore |
On Saturday, March 5th, 2011 in a speech to protesters in Madison, Wisconsin, Michael Moore claimed that just 400 Americans have more combined wealth than half of all Americans, with heavy emphasis on 400. Politifact Wisconsin checked the accuracy of his statement and found it correct. Moore published something on his website from a Forbes article stating that the net worth of the wealthiest 400 individuals in America in 2009 was $1.27 trillion. In addition, he used data from a Federal Reserve Board report setting the net worth for all American households at $53.1 trillion in September '09. Politifact did some further research and found that 60% of all households had a combined net worth of $1.22 trillion. Thus, Moore actually understated the percentage.
Ham on Wry asks readers to consider one final statistic about economic inequity. During the Bush presidency, the wealthiest 1% of Americans realized 65% of the economic gains. Herman Cain, do you now understand the point demonstrators are making? These numbers don't add up to anything remotely equal to a reasonable distribution of wealth. CEO's of large corporations in this country receive average compensations 30 times greater than the average worker. No other major industrialized nation has that kind of monstrous gap in employee pay.
Readers, go buy some walking shoes and start marching, if you fall in the 99% of Americans who don't earn that kind of money. Some of you have adequate incomes and a comfortable lifestyle, but that might not last long, unless substantive changes occur. As many of us learned in typing or keyboarding class, "Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country."
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