Monday, October 31, 2011

The 1 % unmasked, in the Bee



The Bee in its home delivery version has an excellent piece on The 1 % unmasked, and more than 500 critical responders.  I do not know why this article which the web says was published on Saturday appeared on Monday.
http://www.sacbee.com/2011/10/28/4014086/who-are-the-regions-top-1-of-earners.html
This is an excellent background piece.  As a democratic socialist, I want to be clear. I do not object to salary inequality in the range of 10 to 1, or even 20 to 1.  Such inequality may reflect background preparation, inherited positions, etc, and may encourage innovation and risk taking.
I do, however, object to differences of 100 to 1, or even 400 to one, such as developed in the 1990’s, and the first decade of  2000.  In particular I object when these financiers added little or nothing to the economy except gambling, and then the crashed the economy costing us all a loss of over $ 13 Trillion. 
They should be arrested and tried for grand larceny.  Bernie Maddoff was a small timer compared to the CEO’s of Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, AIG, and the others.  See, The Best Way to Rob a Bank is to Own One. By William Black.
The reason that the super rich are not on trial is that they have bought the government.  This larceny was once illegal, before de regulation.  They have now cost the jobs and the homes of millions.

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