|
The top 1% of Americans own as much wealth as the entire bottom 95% percent combined! The top 1% (people who make more than $313,000 a year) owns 200 times the wealth of the bottom 40%. Bill Gates, America's richest person, alone has more wealth than 40% of all Americans combined (120 million people). The top 1% of households own almost 40% of the nation's wealth. The top 10% of Americans own over 70% of nation's wealth. The top 20% of the nation's households own 85% of the nation's total wealth. The bottom 40% of all American households own just 0.2% of the nation's wealth. (Source: Multi-National
Monitor. May, 2003) "The juxtaposition
was perfect. On Monday, the same day that President Bush was raking in
$4 million and touting his tax cuts at a Manhattan fund-raiser, the trustees
of the City University of New York met to formally approve the largest
tuition hike in the school's history. This is how it is in the United
States these days, massive tax cuts for the very wealthy at the same time
that the poor and working classes are being clobbered by reduced services
and myriad tax increases of one kind or another. For the students at CUNY,
who have traditionally come from poorer backgrounds, a tuition hike -
in this case $800 a year - is the equivalent of a tax increase. And it
can be devastating."
|
|