The top 1% of the population has an average income of $1.2 million, with $350,000 being the threshold to join the top level. The 1% limit in terms of net worth is $9 million, according to the professor.
According to his research, the top 1% held 34.6% of the total net worth in the country in 2007. The next 19% held 50.5%.
The bottom 80% of Americans were left with just 15% of the wealth. That is down from 18.7% in 1983.
When the home is removed as a measure of net worth, the picture is measurably worse, the portion of wealth held by the top 1% is 42.7%, while the bottom 80% had 7%.
Fast forward to the year 2011, because of privatization and deregulation of government agencies, and protections for the American voter, 1% of the population holds more wealth than 99% of the population.
The middle class is disappearing right before our eyes, the sooner all Americans realize this, the faster we can react to change the trajectory.
Privatization and deregulation have attributed to a large part of the wealth gap. The more government agencies are privatized, the more taxpayers dollars are spent on products and services at double to quadruple the cost.
The government does not need to produce profits for shareholders, the private corporations need to produce profits, and that contributes to abuse of taxpayers dollars.
Higher prices are paid for goods and services and lower wages are paid to employees. When employees cannot produce the highest profits for the corporation, then the employees are all fired, and the jobs are sent overseas. This happens with government contractor jobs and deregulated industries.
The middle class is disappearing, largely because of privatization and deregulation.
President Obama wants to save the middle class. Msfinancialsavvy
