Learn To Earn Online » earn a living on line

I have dual citizenship and don’t live in the US, do I still have to file in the US?

admin — Mon, 02 May 2011 22:17:35 +0000

I live and work in Switzerland. I earned around 60,000CHF last year and had to pay about 3500 in taxes here. I’m a first year teacher, Obviously I don’t plan on going back to teach and live below the povertly line in the US. If I have to file, What form do I need to fill out? or is it easier to just denounce my citizenship?

you mean for an american citizenship? I would retain proof that you are an american citizen (such as SSN card), but you don’t have to keep filing for citizenship and you don’t need to renounce it

Why are the D-rats destroying the middle class?

admin — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 15:34:44 +0000

http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/the-u.s.-middle-class-is-being-wiped-out-here%27s-the-stats-to-prove-it-520657.html?tickers=^DJI,^GSPC,SPY,MCD,WMT,XRT,DIA
The Middle Class in America Is Radically Shrinking. Here Are the Stats to Prove it
"the globalism and "free trade" that our politicians and business leaders insisted would be so good for us have had some rather nasty side effects. It turns out that they didn’t tell us that the "global economy" would mean that middle class American workers would eventually have to directly compete for jobs with people on the other side of the world where there is no minimum wage and very few regulations. The big global corporations have greatly benefited by exploiting third world labor pools over the last several decades, but middle class American workers have increasingly found things to be very tough.

Here are the statistics to prove it:

• 83 percent of all U.S. stocks are in the hands of 1 percent of the people.
• 61 percent of Americans "always or usually" live paycheck to paycheck, which was up from 49 percent in 2008 and 43 percent in 2007.
• 66 percent of the income growth between 2001 and 2007 went to the top 1% of all Americans.
• 36 percent of Americans say that they don’t contribute anything to retirement savings.
• A staggering 43 percent of Americans have less than $10,000 saved up for retirement.
• 24 percent of American workers say that they have postponed their planned retirement age in the past year.
• Over 1.4 million Americans filed for personal bankruptcy in 2009, which represented a 32 percent increase over 2008.
• Only the top 5 percent of U.S. households have earned enough additional income to match the rise in housing costs since 1975.
• For the first time in U.S. history, banks own a greater share of residential housing net worth in the United States than all individual Americans put together.
• In 1950, the ratio of the average executive’s paycheck to the average worker’s paycheck was about 30 to 1. Since the year 2000, that ratio has exploded to between 300 to 500 to one.
• As of 2007, the bottom 80 percent of American households held about 7% of the liquid financial assets.
• The bottom 50 percent of income earners in the United States now collectively own less than 1 percent of the nation’s wealth.
• Average Wall Street bonuses for 2009 were up 17 percent when compared with 2008.
• In the United States, the average federal worker now earns 60% MORE than the average worker in the private sector.
• The top 1 percent of U.S. households own nearly twice as much of America’s corporate wealth as they did just 15 years ago.
• In America today, the average time needed to find a job has risen to a record 35.2 weeks.
• More than 40 percent of Americans who actually are employed are now working in service jobs, which are often very low paying.
• or the first time in U.S. history, more than 40 million Americans are on food stamps, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture projects that number will go up to 43 million Americans in 2011.
• This is what American workers now must compete against: in China a garment worker makes approximately 86 cents an hour and in Cambodia a garment worker makes approximately 22 cents an hour.
• Approximately 21 percent of all children in the United States are living below the poverty line in 2010 – the highest rate in 20 years.
• Despite the financial crisis, the number of millionaires in the United States rose a whopping 16 percent to 7.8 million in 2009.
• The top 10 percent of Americans now earn around 50 percent of our national income.

Giant Sucking Sound

The reality is that no matter how smart, how strong, how educated or how hard working American workers are, they just cannot compete with people who are desperate to put in 10 to 12 hour days at less than a dollar an hour on the other side of the world. After all, what corporation in their right mind is going to pay an American worker 10 times more (plus benefits) to do the same job? The world is fundamentally changing. Wealth and power are rapidly becoming concentrated at the top and the big global corporations are making massive amounts of money. Meanwhile, the American middle class is being systematically wiped out of existence as U.S. workers are slowly being merged into the new "global" labor pool. "
scott, I gave the source at the very beginning. I guess your attention span was too short to read that far…..?

Last True Paladin, nope, I’m not buying it. We have careened from "Republicans are bad" to "Both sides are bad," and we NEVER say "Democrats are bad." I do not accept this "Both sides are bad" until I see people coming out and admitting "Democrats are bad" without bringing up the other side.

You know what I hate worse than people attacking my beliefs senselessly it’s when they do so ignoring their own side. My point is this, both parties are awful are they’ve all their share of the blame, so in fact it’s not just Democrats, it’s Republicans. Both follow Malthusian ideals thus leading to problems for the workers who bear the pain.

Can you proofread this paragraph?

admin — Sun, 27 Mar 2011 13:02:31 +0000

"In Bangladesh, women constitute half the total population and the majority of them live below poverty line. Despite efforts at local, national, and international levels, women and girls continue to face discrimination. Over the last few years, women have become visible as productive labor force, but they are deprived of their rights. Women generally work longer hours than men, but they are paid less than men and receive lower benefits. Women’s roles are often invisible, as they tend to be more informal in nature, such as self-employment and subsistence production. Undoubtedly, it is an atrocious conspiracy to undervalue women’s work and their contribution to society. In Bangladesh, female domestic workers are treated badly too. This under-valuation not only reduces women’s bargaining power, but also deprives them of the legal rights. Men hold the majority of positions of power and decision-making in the public sphere, with the result that decisions and policies tend to reflect the needs and preferences of men, not women. Women are dependent on men throughout their lives, from their fathers through to husbands, brothers or sons. The perceived lesser value and limited roles of girls and women are embedded in the socio-economic system. As the statistics illustrate, majority of girls are not receiving an education of an acceptable standard. Reaching the 10 per cent of girls who never enroll in school remains a challenge. Additionally, women are denied their rights to land and property, financial resources and health care, amongst others. In many cultures, women and girls are subject to female genital mutilation / cutting, and are harmed and even killed in the name of tradition. Women’s larger share of reproductive work, often known as the unpaid care economy, is undervalued as well as statistically invisible. Socially constructed roles too often thwart the potential of girls and women. Discrimination denies them health care and education. It hides information that they can use to protect themselves from HIV/AIDS. Discrimination robs girls and women of the power to make decisions, to earn a living and to be free from violence, abuse and exploitation. Often it deprives them of any legal protection at all. But life doesn’t have to be this grim for girls. Girls can be provided with opportunities to finish school and be prepared to find jobs, marry at a safe and healthy age, avoid abuse, and bring up healthy, educated children of their own, perpetuating societal and economic growth."

I’ve been writing an article and this is one of the paragraphs. I guess its too big and I can not be strict while proofreading my writings and making them shorter… So please, proofread this and make it shorter

………That is more like a whole Chapter than a paragraph.
………When typing in "Answers", I find it best to ‘Indent’ the start of a paragraph by typing a series of dots to emphasis the start of a sentence or paragraph. This is not needed when using a word processor, such as "Word".because then the ‘Tab" key is used.

……….’Proof reading’.such a large block of text can be a very daunting proposition and as I scan through it, I can see many places which should be typed as separate paragraphs.
………
………I suggest you open it up a little more, and take note of punctuation marks such as "Full stops / Periods", and ‘Commas’. .

…….Always "Indent" ( or "Tab" if using a computer) the first letter in a new paragraph.

…….Never have more than 2 commas per sentence and never more than three sentences per paragraph…..
…….Start each new paragraph on a new (indented) line
…….Give emphasis to your words – or phrase – by placing on a new line

…..Then perhaps a blank line now and again for Extra emphasis

…….I had a look through your text and although it was only briefly, I can see the great talent you have displayed. I feel that if I tried to change -or alter anything, I might ruin whatever you had in mind.
……I think it’s quite a good piece of work.

……After you have rewritten this in a more open form, I’m sure you will see many places you want to change — I know I always do to my writing.

Good Luck

please please please may i have your opinion on my euthanasia essay so far?

admin — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 17:28:39 +0000

i did not pick the topic or point of view so please do not write comments about how you agree or disagree with what I am saying. i only want opinion on content and writing style. the essay is for a grade 11 law class

Where the Line Lies, an Essay on Euthanasia
Euthanasia, according to the oxford dictionary is “Gentle and easy death; bringing about of this, in the case of incurable and painful disease.” In other words, euthanasia is assisted suicide for a person who is painfully suffering, brain damaged or unconscious for an extended period of time. A person cannot be euthanized under any circumstance apart from the reasons above. There are four types of euthanasia: direct and voluntary, indirect and voluntary, direct and involuntary, and indirect and involuntary. Voluntary and direct euthanasia is selected and approved by the conscious yet pain ridden patient. This essentially means that the patient has made the decision on their own to be mercifully killed by another being, usually but not limited to a doctor. Voluntary and indirect euthanasia is chosen and discussed in advance. This means that the person has stated ahead of time that if they are ever put on life support, are in a coma, brain damaged… that they give their permission to be put to death. Direct and involuntary euthanasia is executed on the patient without his or her blessing. This type of euthanasia is usually carried out when the patient is in a state where they cannot make decisions for themselves. It is decided for them (usually by a family member) that they should be euthanized. The last form of euthanasia is indirect and involuntary. This form of euthanasia occurs when a hospital feels that there is no hope left for a life support, coma ridden or brain damaged patient, and is in the best interest for the person and the hospital that they are put to death. Euthanasia in any form is a very controversial legal issue. In Canada direct and voluntary and direct and involuntary forms of euthanasia are illegal and constitute criminal acts. All categories of euthanasia except direct and voluntary and direct and involuntary, are preformed when a patient is on life support, has no brain activity and little to absolutely no chance of recovery. The focus of this paper is on direct and voluntary euthanasia. In my opinion I believe that Canada should change their law and allow direct and voluntary euthanasia to be legal, so long that it is performed by a doctor. I agree that direct and voluntary euthanasia should be legal. I believe this because 1. It will lower health costs and 2. We live in a democratic, free society in which lives belong not to the government but rather the patients themselves. Finally I believe that direct and voluntary euthanasia should be legal due to the reality that it may ease the friends and family members of sick patients, knowing their loved one is no longer suffering.
If direct and voluntary euthanasia was legal it would lower health costs and or provide more financial support to those who actually wish to live. In Canada we have universal health care. This means that through our taxes, we pay for every person in Canada to receive basic health care. Essentially it is Canadians taking care of other Canadians medically. Every time a Canadian earns a pay cheque, money from the cheque is automatically removed as part of universal health care. The average person loses approximately $500 every pay day in order to support the medical expenses of other people. If direct and voluntary euthanasia was legal, there would be fewer patients to care for, less medicine to buy, and more money in the average Canadian’s pocket. I myself have no issue paying for someone who wants to lives’ health care. In fact I would be honoured and proud to know my tax dollars are helping someone to keep holding on. My only problem is when I think of the people who do not want to live. I think of my hard earned dollars and how they are being wasted on someone who does not want the help my money is providing them. Why I ask, should we be paying for someone to live who wishes more than anything to be dead? It is a waste of money that could be better spent saving someone who truly has a thirst for existence.
Canada is a democratic society. Because our government is a democracy we are entitled to certain rights under section 2 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Being Canadian we have freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, freedom of religion, freedom of thought, freedom of belief, freedom of expression, freedom of the press, freedom of peaceful assembly, and lastly freedom of association. Freedom according to the oxford dictionary is the power to determine action without restraint. This essentially means that we are free to do as we please (so long that it is not criminal) without being held back or restrained. A teacher of mine once told me that freedom goes as far as other people’s freedom. The meaning behind this quote is that you can
do as you please just as long as it does not disrupt the freedom of others. If this is true then why may I ask do we not have the freedom or rights to our own lives. If we have the freedom to say what we like, have the religion we like, write what we like then why do we not have the freedom to choose life or death. If a person is in a severe amount of pain they should have the right to choose peaceful death as an option. Freedom goes as far as other people’s freedom. If we are not hurting anyone then why shouldn’t we have the choice to be euthanized? Just to breathe is not to live; to truly live you must be happy. If a person is in so much pain and so sick that they cannot enjoy the happiness of life then they cannot be categorized as TRULY living. It is hard for people to come to terms with, but sometimes forcing someone to live is worse than forcing someone to die. In death there is no pain… there is nothing. On earth if you are sick you must live with your pain every single day. F

First of all, the definition at the beginning is completely unnecessary. You have to assume that the reader of your paper knows what it is you are talking about. Besides, I don’t know any intelligent human being who doesn’t know what Euthenasia is. I would take it out.

"A person cannot be euthanized under any circumstance apart from the reasons above."
Why not? Explain this point. You can include something like "…apart from the reasons above, lest it be considered murder."

Rather than listing all the types of euthenasia and THEN explaining them, skip one step and explain as you list them.

"I agree that direct and voluntary euthanasia should be legal"
You already stated that. This sentence is redundant.

Do not use numbers in your paper. Write simply:
I believe this because ________, and ______.

"The average person loses approximately $500 every pay day in order to support the medical expenses of other people"
This needs a citation. Where did you get that number from?

I am not disagreeing with your points, but simply showing you possible counter-arguments so you can strengthen those points. For the first point:
What if someone only wants to die because they are depressed? Shouldn’t there be some sort of mental health check in place to determine whether the request is a reasonable one? What kind of things should be set in place to prevent unwarranted death? What about those miracle cases where comatose patients suddenly come out of their coma and are perfectly healthy? However rare it is, it still happens, and killing them is depriving them of that.

Second point:
Where do you draw the line between okay to die and not okay to die? What about the doctors who have to live with the "what ifs" of the person they killed? What about the vow doctors make to cause no harm? Should a doctor be able to choose for a person, even over the choice of the family? What about vice-versa — should the family be able to choose over the doctor?

I suggest using examples of places which have legal euthenasia already. Several US states allow assisted suicide: Oregon, Washington, Montanna. Some countries allow active euthenasia: The Netherlands, Belgium. etc. and list the results these places have had with having it in place.

help i need to know what others think?

admin — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 14:22:36 +0000

Your Open QuestionShow me another »
Relationship trouble?
If your girlfriend betrays your trust and still doesnt trust you?
my girlfriend has betrayed my trust in her a dozen times,every time im asked to forgive her mistake and trust her again.after about two years of her betraying me and still given her trust im made to earn my trust by telling her everything in my life that might happen when shes not around,i have to explain me haven female friends{why,who are they,did i ever mess with them}if i dont comply she will take my son and we will be done cause i dont know how to treat her i dont respect her and talken to other women is more important to me then my family.to be honest i hate to be questioned and she knows it but it also makes me feel like for her im untrustworthy and i havent done anything that anyone could say is shady except to demand trust from her.is it only me that feels like she is living in her own world and if so i need some ideas on how to deal with this cause everything i try blows up in my face.thanks for taken the time
2 hours ago
Additional Details
and my female friends are on line and i rarely ever talk to anyone who isnt family and im not allowed to add females i knew and havent seen in 20 years cause "i have no reason to want to be friends with them after so long,they are not my friends"
2 hours ago

she hasnt cheated but lied to me about guy friends,stayed out all night with a guy from a bar has her ex writing her calls a guy that she messed with and lied about. a lot

I sense a trusting issue here..

Has anyone living in New York ever earned a degree on-line at University of Maryland University college?

admin — Sun, 27 Feb 2011 16:15:36 +0000

Is it worth it? Do you know anyone who earned a degree on-line and is doing well presently. Did they get the job they wanted?

You can have no degree and still get the job you want..

The answer is yes, go for it. UMUC is a good, accredited school. I am currently enrolled in one of their programs.

Prior year taxes 2006. Doing a 1040EZ line 5 asks if someone can claim me as a dependent.Not sure what to do?

admin — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 19:28:33 +0000

OK, on line 5 it asks me if I can be claimed as a dependent.

I did live with my parents, but I’m not sure if they could have claimed me if they wanted to. I was born 2/7/1981 so I was 24 at the start of 2006 and 25 at the end of 2006. I earned $8,782.00 that year and have $849.00 in "Qualified Tuition and Related Expense" according to the IRS. Also, I have "Student Loan Interest Received by Lender" in the amount of $1,013.00 according to the IRS.

How do I work this?
Can I say that they could not claim me? It gives me a teletax number which is now invalid… so I dont know where to find out.
Also, I was in school for "greater than half time."
It doesnt ask me if they did claim me, but it asks me if they could claim me if they wanted to. I know they did not claim me, but thats not relevant to line 5 with how its worded.

no, you were over the limit in 2006 for your parents to claim you
you would have filed your own tax return for the year, and claimed your own exemptions and standard deduction, as well as the education credits you were entitled to
I don’t quite understand what it is that you are trying to amend, unless you filed assuming your parents claimed you and you would have been due more refund
which at this late date is no longer available
to get any refund for that year you would have filed by 4/15/10 to get it

My daughter is 20 and dating a 36 year old man is that creepy?

admin — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 21:00:33 +0000

(When writing this I’m using my younger daughters profile, I dont have one. My daughter told me about this website so I thought I’d give it a try after I told her about this whole mess!)

My oldest daughter is 20 years old and she’s seeing a 36 year old man. Personally I find this extremely disturbing. That’s a 16 year difference! I have friends my age who have a huge gap between them and there spouse and it hasn’t intervened with there relationships at all. However that’s because they met each other when they had finished collage, found and had maintained a stable job and had been living on there own for a while. My daughter is 20 years old going through collage and is living with us. Recently she has taken a semester off from school to earn more money. (College doesn’t pay itself!) While taking this time off she has been working extremely hard at two jobs. When not working she’s spending her time at her boyfriends house; who by the way she met at one of her two jobs waitressing. His profession…a cook in a line kitchen. How happy am I to hear such good news! (Note the sarcasm) But no I didn’t hear this news for a long time. Apparently she has been "hooking" up with him for a while now. Eventually it turned into a "thing". From what I’ve heard from respectable friends in the restaurant business, he’s fat, balding, 36, and he’s no jackpot moneywise. We also have family who are also in the restaurant business and know allot about this guy. They’ve been saying things like drugs, addiction; he’s a total creep and ect… I’m not too happy about my daughter’s choice. In fact I’m furious and really truly revolted. I can only imagine how happy the guy is having a 20 year old girlfriend when he’s 36 and balding! Especially when my daughter is no slouch at making herself appear nicely. However in defense of the boyfriend and my own believes I’m not saying that money, looks, and what he does for a living is everything but my daughter is young, beautiful, smart, ect… basically I think she can do WAY better then this chump! Not to mention we live in a small town and small community and I want her (like all mothers do) to go out and experience the world and travel before she decides anything serious too fast. (Not that she’s getting married to him or completely moving in with him….yet) She’s said to me and other people that she loves the town she lives in and wouldn’t want to go or live anywhere else. I disagree, she may love where she grew up but she doesn’t know anywhere else so how could she possibly say this without knowing what the world is like. She’s been going to a school (collage) in the middle of nowhere, basically surrounded by corn fields and she’s lived in a small town community. She needs to go out and explore the world live in a city, not sit here in some dumb town with a total loser, get high, and hang out with kitchen rats. (My husband has run a restaurant for 30 years we know the business and the people who get involved with it) But seriously what can I do?! I can’t tell her to lose the boyfriend she’s 20 years old. I can’t tell her what to do anymore! I can’t call the cops she’s old enough to make these decisions legally! I’ve thought about threatening to take away her collage funds (she wants to go and she knows its important) or kick her out of the house, but both of these would only make her move out and go live with the fat ass geezer! Please help is there anything that I could be doing! I’m hoping that this is some weird phase or that she’ll wake up and dump him but I’ve waited long enough and she’s not waking up! She’s still in ga gaa land, scribbling his name on her notebook, acting like a 13 year old with her first crush! What can I do to help my daughter? Is this whole relationship O.K? (i dont think so) but I’m open to any suggestions!! please help!

Children under 30 should not date. Period. Dating is too stressful and it causes damage to yourself.

how to increase crop production on Terraced fields?

admin — Sat, 12 Feb 2011 00:17:45 +0000

in nanital district part of uttranchal , India!
our fields are situated in slope of mountains !
we have many fields like that but they all are terraced field? so no tractor can enter in them so we get less productivity!
also our soil is not so worth of hard work thats why my all relatives and family member is going to metropolitan cities to earn a good living i am so concern to my ancestor land but i have no idea how to make my soil fertile so that we can earn a healthy living from it! our only main source of income from the milk my grandmother process the milk in ghee than sell it but sometime we just cant eat good food!
we have no purchasing power and bank want our land as mortgage if we seek for help!
we have a below poverty line ration card but the shopkeeper give us 20% less food grain and rice monthly!

now every one from my joint family have gone to city and live comfortable life via job!

only my grandmother lives in my village house and take care of the huge useless land !

please give any suggestion to save my land!

Sorry to hear about your problems…I know how much a family farm can mean. There are a few methods you can can use to improve soil fertility and crop yields along with better irrigation methods if needed on terraced land.

To improve soil fertility and crop yields, I would suggest you start adding partially burned wood products or crop wastes to the soil between harvest and planting….also known as bio-char or charcoal. The ancient Amazon people created a form of soil called "terra preta" by using such methods and that soil is 3 times more productive than the generally poor soil in the area which enabled them to have large populations in what was considered a poor area to grow crops. Scientists are still trying to figure out exactly what they used but bio-char/charcoal or partially burned wood or crop wastes seem to be the main ingredient along with animal dung, food wastes and some other items…perhaps experiment with different items in various areas and see what results. What kind of crops do you grow? Can you partially burn the remnant stalks and till them into the soil?

Other South American people such as the Inca grew abundant amounts of food using terraced farming by carefully managing their water resources and maximizing the flow of water from upper terraces to lower ones and adding stone walls to prevent erosion. Ideally, you want to bring the water to the top of the terraces or terraced stages and let it trickle down to lower levels through various passages…bringing nutrients along with it…improving the soil with bio-char helps and it doesn’t cost anything to make terra preta …just some time. It’s important that you don’t burn the wood or crop waste products down to ash but to stop the burning process when the wood/crop product is still only partially burned charcoal.

Another item which helped people in South America was a plant called the Quinoa….it’s perhaps the best high-protein food grain ever found for human diets and is in very high demand. Not sure if in can grow in Indian conditions though people do so in small plots.

"Quinoa (pronounced KEEN-wah) provides 10 essential amino acids, is loaded with minerals and has a high protein content — between 14 and 18 percent. The FAO (U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization) says it is so nutritious it can be substituted for mother’s milk.

"This food is about the most perfect you can find for human diets," said Duane Johnson, a 61-year-old former Colorado State agronomist who helped introduce it to the United States three decades ago.

Quinoa isn’t a cereal. It’s a seed that is eaten like a grain, but is gluten-free and more easily digestible than corn, wheat, rye, millet and sorghum. And it can be substituted for rice in just about anything — from soup to salad to pudding to bread.

"I’ve got high-performance athletes that swear by it," said David Schnorr, president of Quinoa Corp., the largest U.S. importer. It’s also being embraced by the increasing number of Americans with food allergies or celiac disease, an immunological rejection of gluten, a wheat protein"

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110104/ap_on_re_us/lt_fea_food_quinoa_rising

More info on Quinoa….

http://www.cookeatshare.com/popular/climates-quinoa-grow-in

Some terra preta related links and info…

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080410153658.htm

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/11/081119-lost-cities-amazon.html

"It turns out that vast patches of the mysterious, richly fertile, man-made soil can be found throughout Amazonia. Through plot work, researchers claim terra preta can increase yields 350 percent over adjacent, nutrient-leached soils.

Many well-respected researchers now say terra preta, most of it still hidden under jungle canopy, could have sustained large, agronomic societies throughout Brazil and neighboring countries.

Amazing properties

The properties of terra preta are amazing. Even thousands of years after creation, the soil remains fertile without need for any added fertilizer. For those living in Amazonia, terra preta is increasingly sought out as a commodity."

http://deltafarmpress.com/management/terra-preta-unearthing-agricultural-goldmine

How to make biochar…terra preta…

http://www.howtogardenadvice.com/soil_prep/make_biochar.html

www.motherearthnews.com/Organic-Gardening/Make-Biochar-To-Improve-Your-Soil.aspx

Terraced farming…

http://www.socialstudiesforkids.com/articles/geography/terracefarming.htm

http://english.turkcebilgi.com/Terrace+farming

http://www.rediscovermachupicchu.com/agricultural-terraces.htm

The rich get richer; the poor get poorer. What is your opinion on these statistics?

admin — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 07:54:34 +0000

Taken from the article:

http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/30-statistics-that-prove-the-elite-are-getting-richer-the-poor-are-getting-poorer-and-the-middle-class-is-being-destroyed

The Rich Are Getting Richer
1 – As of 2007, the top 1 percent of all Americans was taking home 24 percent of the national income. This was a level that had not been seen since the days of the Great Depression.
2 – Incomes have been growing in the United States, but those at the very top of the pyramid have been gobbling up almost all of the income growth. According to Harvard Magazine, 66% of the income growth between 2001 and 2007 went to the top 1% of all Americans.
3 – Even official government figures bear out the fact that the rich are getting richer. An analysis of income-tax data by the Congressional Budget Office a few years ago found that the top 1% of all American households own nearly twice as much of the corporate wealth as they did just 15 years ago.
4- Most Americans have suffered during the last few years, but not the boys and girls down on Wall Street. New York state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli says that Wall Street bonuses for 2009 were up 17 percent when compared with 2008.
5 – Even as the number of Americans living in poverty skyrockets, the number of millionaires just keeps growing. In fact, the number of millionaires in the United States rose a whopping 16 percent to 7.8 million during 2009.
6 – The amount of money some of these Wall Street hotshots are making is incredible. Back in 2005, the top 25 hedge fund managers earned a total of 9 billion dollars. That would be bad enough, but even in these hard economic times the rich just keep getting richer. One year after the recent financial collapse the top 25 hedge fund managers earned a total of approximately $25 billion. That breaks down to an average of $1 billion each. The truth is that the United States has been experiencing uneven prosperity for quite some time and things just seem to get worse with each passing year.

The Poor Are Getting Poorer
7 – Government anti-poverty programs are exploding in size in response to the recent economic difficulties. USA Today is reporting that a record one in six Americans are now being served by at least one government anti-poverty program.
8 – Over 50 million Americans are on now Medicaid. That figure is up more than 17 percent since the beginning of the recession.
9 – The number of Americans in the food stamp program rose to a new all-time record of 40.8 million in May. That number is up almost 50 percent since the beginning of the recession.
10 – The number of Americans who cannot afford even the basic necessities is absolutely staggering. A whopping 50 million Americans could not afford to buy enough food in order to stay healthy at some point over the last year.
11 – Compared to other industrialized nations, the United States is doing very poorly. The U.S. poverty rate is now the third worst among the developed nations tracked by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
12 – The saddest part of this is what we are doing to our children. According to one recent study, approximately 21 percent of all children in the United States are living below the poverty line in 2010.
13 – But the American people cannot provide for their families if they don’t have jobs. Today there are not nearly enough jobs for everyone. In 2010, it takes the average unemployed American worker over 8 months to find a job.
14 – Approximately 10 million Americans are currently receiving unemployment insurance, which is a number that is nearly four times higher than what it was at back in 2007.
15 – The truth is that we are creating a permanent underclass of Americans that cannot get jobs. The number of Americans receiving long-term unemployment benefits has increased over 60 percent in just the past year.
16 – Increasingly, the wealth of the United States is being held in fewer and fewer hands. One study found that as of 2007, the bottom 80 percent of American households held about 7% of the liquid financial assets.
17 – It is not a good time to be living in "the bottom half" in America. The size of "the pie" being divided up among those at the low end of the wage scale is becoming really, really small. In fact, the bottom 40 percent of all income earners in the United States now collectively own less than 1 percent of the nation’s wealth.

All opinions welcomed.
@Jimmuh: Good point, assuming of course that everyone starts out exactly equal.

The rich make mistakes just like the poor, but until the Federal Government quits supporting poorly managed businesses with our tax dollars and keeping the rich going the poor will never have a chance to get ahead. When the poor get into trouble all they get from the Feds is some money to put food on the table. The big boys from AIG, Citi bank and GM would be out on the street now if it were not for the helpful Feds. Until we let Capitalism have it’s natural checks and balances the poor will not have a chance.