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In 1913, Henry Ford wrote the following as the directors had been reaping the rewards of profits - "The wages we pay are too small in comparison with our profits. I think we should raise our minimum pay rate".

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Makers and Takers

I've seen a lot of talk about "The Makers" and "The Takers" going on.  Now, they want you to believe that "The Rich" are the makers and the working class are the takers, that "The Rich" are somehow 'job creators.'

I say that is just not the case. Unlike them (Fox News anchors for instance), I can back up my assertions with facts.

The Makers are the factory workers, the short order cooks, the chefs, the woodworkers, the upholstery workers, the CNC machine operators, the framers and roofers.  Those are the people who Make things and earn money.

The Takers are those who sit up in offices giving orders and taking profits off the labors of the Makers. They don't make anything, they don't really earn much of the money they take.

They are not even 'job creators.'  This absurd notion assumes that they just hire someone for no reason.  Nobody hires someone just to create a job.  They hire people because they have something to get done that they don't want to - or can't - do for themselves.  There has to be a cost benefit advantage for anyone to open a job position.

So, what creates that desire to create the job position? Demand. Something must be done and someone needs to do it and that work will generate or support more profit than it will cost.  Who drives demand? Consumers - most of those also happen to be the Makers - working class people.  Sure, "The Rich" create some demand, but they are only - at most - 10% of the population.  You can't support an economy with only 10% of the people able to participate.

Most 'job creators' are struggling entrepreneurs who have an idea or a plan or see a need they can fill.  Most never make it into the 'rich' category, most never make themselves over $250,000 per year.  To answer the stupid question "have you ever been hired by a poor person?" Yes.  In fact, I have.  I ran my own computer service and I had plenty of "poor" people hire me to fix or install their computers or telephone systems.  Many of them because they had to fix old computers instead of buying new ones because they were poor or even middle class.

What is causing our current problems?  The 80% of the population that drives the economy is being drained of that driving force - money.  The share of income and wealth that the bottom 80% get has decreased greatly over the last thirty or forty years.  The leeches - aka the takers, aka the rich - have siphoned more and more money up to the top - where it sits, "invested" to pull even more money out of the economy.

WHAT? That doesn't fit your political ideology? Look at the numbers, look at the facts, look at the condition of the economy right now.  I'm telling the TRUTH, backed up by facts. Its not theory, it is what the numbers say is happening. Sorry if you don't like it - at some point you have to face the facts.  You can theorize all day long that tax breaks for the rich and loopholes for corporations make life better for everyone - but that is just not supported by the facts of the last forty years.

See : The Real News - "New research demonstrates that when the wealthiest Americans get 10% richer, middle income Americans get 2% poorer."

See : Business Insider charts - "The poor are getting poorer, wages are falling behind inflation, and social mobility is at an all-time low. If you're in that top 1%, life is grand."


See and Watch : Elizabeth Warren - "I hear all this, you know, “Well, this is class warfare, this is whatever.”—No! There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own. Nobody."

The bottom 90% of the entire population of the United States has only 28.5% of all wealth.  We can not drive the economy any more - we're broke.  The Rich have pretty much all of the money.  Economy stalls.
The top 1% has 33.8% of the wealth.... 1% has more than 90%.  We're all tapped out. The leeches have it all.

In 1962, the wealthiest took home 125 times the average income, in 2004, they took home 190 times the average income.  Its only getting worse.  Which is why it is so frustrating when the Tea Party middle class people urge it to get even worse with the policies they support.

All tax rates are dropping, but the top tier tax rates are plummeting - which means we can't pay our bills as effectively, which drives up the debt. Which is why it is so frustrating that the people who claim to be concerned about the debt are the same ones refusing to have the top pay their fair share.

Mississippi has some of the worst income inequality in the Nation - not the worst, which goes to the very north east.  Yet we still vote Republicans into control of our state - it will never get better as long as we do.

To get more Facts about the Economy and Politics - Turn Off Fox News, they Lie.

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