Economic [In]Justice By the Numbers/Call Congress

·     Percentage of America’s net worth (source: Economic Policy Institute) owned by top 1%: 34
·     Percentage owned by top 10%: greater than [ > ] 70
·     Percentage owned by bottom 90%: 29
 
·     Percentage of income controlled by top 1% of Americans in 2007: 24
·     Percentage of total increase in American incomes from 1980-2005 that went to richest 1%: > 80
 
·     Number of times as much on average CEOs of largest US companies earned in 1980 compared to average US worker: 42
·     Number of times in 2001: 531
 
·     Amount generated (according to the Congressional Research Services) if Estate Tax is capped in 2011 at 35% after a $5 million tax free allowance: $11.2 billion
·     Amount generated if Estate Tax is capped at 45% after a $3.5 million tax free allowance: $18.1 billion
·     Amount generated if the current 55% Estate Tax is maintained: $34.4 billion
 
·     Amount of record profit posted by US corporations (source: Bureau of Economic Analysis) during third quarter of this year: $167 billion
·     Percentage increase from same time last year: 28
·     Current US unemployment rate (due in large part to corporations not creating US jobs): 9.6%
 
·     Number of unemployed workers for every new job created: 5
·     Number of people unemployment benefits lifted out of poverty in 2009: 3 million
 
·     Percentage worse off current recession would be (source: Labor Dept study during Bush administration) without unemployment insurance (UI): 18
·     Amount of jobs preserved in each quarter by continuing unemployment insurance: 1.6 million  
·     Number of dollar increase in economic activity for every dollar spent on UI: 2
 
·     Total amount of tax cuts to those with incomes above $250,000 per year (according to Tax Policy Center) if Bush cuts are continued: $700 billion
·     Average tax cut of richest .1% if Bush cuts are continued: $370,000
 
·     Recently released total of bailout by the Federal Reserve to US and foreign banks and corporations during the economic crisis: at least $3.3 trillion
 

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“My point [is] that the wealthiest plutocrats now actually control a greater share of the pie in the United States than in historically unstable countries like Nicaragua, Venezuela, and Guyana…I’m appalled by our growing wealth gaps because in my travels I see what happens in dysfunctional countries where the rich just don’t care about those below the decks. The result is nations without a social fabric or sense of national unity. Huge concentrations of wealth corrode the soul of any nation…I don’t know if that makes us a banana republic or a hedge fund republic, but it’s not healthy in any republic.”
-      Nicholas Kristof, New York Times (Plain Dealer, 11/21/10)

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Call Senators Brown and Voinovich using the US Action Congressional Hotline 1-866-606-1189

Messages:
Extend unemployment insurance through 2011.
Don’t extend tax breaks for rich.
Don’t cut estate tax on wealthy.
Bail out people, not Wall Street banksters.