Rich richer, poor poorer in the USA

This video from the USA says about itself:

“Campaign to Reduce Poverty in America,” Catholic Charities U.S.A.: A very straightforward, six minute overview of the causes, consequences, and faces of poverty from one of the largest social service organizations in the U.S. The goal of the Campaign is to cut domestic poverty in half by 2020; suggestions for activism are included.

Jesse Jackson: We in the US possess the greatest resources and wealth ever known to humankind. So to have over 44 million people — 14% of our population — and 20% of our children living in poverty strains the soul of America: here.

Les Leopold: You’d think the Wall Street moguls would be thankful. Not just thankful — down on their knees kissing the ground taxpayers walk on and hollering hallelujah at the top of their lungs! These guys profited from puffing up the housing bubble, then got bailed out when the going got tough. Without taxpayer largess, these hedge fund honchos would be flat broke. Instead, they’re back to hauling in obscene profits. Yet standing before us are these troubled souls, haunted by visions of persecution. Why? Here.

The number of US households living on less than $2 a day per person rose from 636,000 in 1996 to 1.65 million in mid-2011: here.

The eruption of US militarism is bound up with the enormous growth of social inequality: here.

THE gap between the richest Americans and the rest of the nation has widened after the recession, highlighting the worsening income inequality in the United States, a new survey has found, as over 450 were arrested during sit-in protests by fast food workers in 150 US cities : here.

For the first time in more than four decades, “middle-income households” no longer constitute the majority of American society, according to a study published Wednesday by the Pew Research Center. Instead, the majority of households are either low or higher-income: here.

Manhattan’s Old Homestead Steak House, an upscale New York City restaurant located on the lower West Side, is offering a Thanksgiving dinner to its well-heeled clientele at a price of $35,000 for four, or $8,750 per person: here.

STATE OF THE UNION TONIGHT: OBAMA TO TACKLE INCOME INEQUALITY “With the American job market surging to life, President Obama plans to use his State of the Union address on Tuesday night to effectively declare victory over the economic hard times that dominated his first six years in office and advocate using the nation’s healthier finances to tackle long-deferred issues like education and income inequality.” Democrats hope Obama “goes big” on issues such as overtime pay. And here’s what the State of the Union means for 2016, as well as who is sitting with Michelle Obama tonight. [NYT]

THE PRIVATE TAX SYSTEM FOR THE UPPER CRUST “The very richest Americans have financed a sophisticated and astonishingly effective apparatus for shielding their fortunes. Some call it the ‘income defense industry,’ consisting of a high-priced phalanx of lawyers, estate planners, lobbyists and anti-tax activists who exploit and defend a dizzying array of tax maneuvers, virtually none of them available to taxpayers of more modest means.” [NYT]

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