America: Land of Billionaires & The Rest Of Us

Today's Plain Dealer listed the following statistics and information, provided by Holly Sklar, co-author of "A Just Minimum Wage: Good For Workers, Business, and Our Future."

Number of billionaires created in America since 2000........184

In 2006, for the first time, the Forbes 400 (richest Americans) had only billionaires. This year, it says, there are 482 billionaires, but also 47 million Americans without health insurance.

Since 2000, the number of additional Americans living below the poverty line: 5 million.

The poverty line for one person in 2006: $10,294.

The price of two pounds of caviar on the "Forbes Cost Of Living Extremely Well Index:
$9800.

Earnings for the highest paid hedge fund manager in 2006: $1.7 billion!!!!

Earnings for the highest paid CEO in 2006: $647 million!!!

Earnings for the average worker in 2006: $34,861 (the article notes: "with vanishing health and pension coverage)

Average income of the top 1% of households: $1.5 million (presumably in 2006)

In a separate article about dergulation of electricity in Ohio, the article pointed out that Ohio's utilility companies want to be able to tell their investors (that is, their RICH, and want to be RICHER at the expense of Ohioans, investors) that they'll be able to charge more for electricity and that means more profits, which means more dividends and higher stock prices, which means mo' money, mo' money, mo' money!!! These rich #$%&*# are just squeezing the doo doo out of us! I can't wait for the next election!