Reply #129: the Stock Market Watch

[UpInArms]

is our way of keeping an eye on those that have the money - and a pulse on what is going to trickle down on the rest of us (and it won't be $$$ or even $$ or even $).

I think that all of know the following facts:

Five percent of Americans own 59 percent of all wealth; the top 20 percent own 83 percent of all wealth. The bottom 20 percent have zero wealth. Excluding owner-occupied housing, the inequality is worse: 1 percent of families hold half of all non-home wealth.


Ten percent of families own 85 percent of financial securities and 90 percent of all business assets.


The average African American family has 60 percent of the income of the average white family. But the average African American family has only 18 percent of the wealth of the average white family.


In the U.S., 1 percent of American families own 38 percent of all wealth. In Great Britain, it's 22 or 23 percent. Until the early '70s, we had less wealth inequality than Britain.


More than 34 million Americans are officially "poor," a class including nearly 25 percent of all African Americans and more than 20 percent of all Latinos.


The minimum wage has fallen by about 35 percent in real terms since its peak in 1968.

http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0501,harkavy,59767,2.html