Thursday, July 8, 2021

JOE BIDEN REACHING ALL THE WAY TO GUATEMALA FOR MORE 'CHEAP' LABOR DEM VOTING ILLEGALS

 

Democrat Congressman: No Spending Package Without Amnesty for Millions of Illegal Aliens

Immigration rights supporters march demanding citizenship for essential workers during a demonstration marking Mayday, in Washington DC, on May 1, 2021. (Photo by Jose Luis Magana / AFP) (Photo by JOSE LUIS MAGANA/AFP via Getty Images)
OSE LUIS MAGANA/AFP via Getty Images
3:47

Rep. Jesús García (D-IL) says he will not support a reconciliation spending package, which only would need majority support in the Senate, that does not include amnesty for illegal aliens.

In exclusive statements to The Hill, García said “a robust and equitable budget reconciliation deal must include” amnesty for millions of illegal aliens, specifically those enrolled and eligible for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, beneficiaries of Temporary Protected Status (TPS), and so-called “essential workers.”

García told The Hill:

We must seize this historic opportunity to bring compassion and dignity to our immigration system and provide the certainty that comes with having the legal status that millions of immigrants and their families deserve. [Emphasis added]

This is crucial for thousands of undocumented essential workers I represent. They sacrificed themselves to keep this country running during the worst of the pandemic and frequently had no access to relief or medical assistance for fear of being deported. We owe it to them. [Emphasis added]

As Breitbart News has reported, House and Senate Democrats are looking to slip an expansive amnesty for illegal aliens through the little-known reconciliation process where federal spending can receive approval with only a majority of support in the Senate and no threat of a filibuster to hold up a vote.

One such package by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) is expected to include provisions that would force American taxpayers to spend $150 billion on providing amnesty to millions of illegal aliens.

Likewise, members of the House Progressive Caucus have nearly threatened to tank any package that does not include amnesty for millions of illegal aliens.

Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), head of the caucus, said amnesty is one of her “needs” in a reconciliation package:

The amnesty proposals come as corporate interests have boosted their push to inflate the United States labor market by legalizing for American jobs the majority of the nation’s 11 to 22 million illegal aliens.

Center for American Progress, a left-wing lobbying group funded by big corporations, is insisting to lawmakers that amnesty for illegal aliens “can and should be done through the budget reconciliation process.”

In May, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s FWD.us hired a former assistant Senate parliamentarian to craft a plan for Democrats that would pass amnesty for illegal aliens through reconciliation.

Democrats, along with some House Republicans, have the support of a large amnesty coalition which includes former President George W. Bush, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Business Roundtable, and a number of Koch brothers-backed organizations.

Already, current immigration levels put downward pressure on U.S. wages while redistributing about $500 billion in wealth away from America’s working and middle class and towards employers and new arrivals, research by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine has found.

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has repeatedly found that amnesty for illegal aliens would be a net fiscal drain for American taxpayers while driving down U.S. wages.

Every year, 1.2 million legal immigrants receive green cards to permanently resettle in the U.S. In addition, 1.4 million foreign nationals are given visas to take American jobs while hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens enter the U.S. annually.

John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here

Jobless Claims Unexpectedly Climb Higher to 373,000

US President Joe Biden llooks on as Attorney General Merrick Garland (off frame) speaks about crime prevention, in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington, DC on June 23, 2021. - President Biden unveiled new measures Wednesday to tackle gun violence against a backdrop of surging crime …
MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images
4:06

New claims for unemployment benefits rose last week, the Department of Labor said Thursday.

Initial jobless claims climbed to 373,000 for the week ended July 3. Economists polled by Econoday had estimated 353,000 new claims after last week’s initial estimate of 364,000.

The prior week’s claims were revised up to 371,000.

Many Americans are hanging back from working because, for a very large share of those unemployed, supplemental federal jobless benefits, on top of regular state unemployment aid, pay them more than their old jobs did. Others are contending with health and child care issues related to COVID-19 and, in some cases, with career uncertainty after the recession wiped out many jobs for good. Some who have lost work during the pandemic have decided to retire while others have rethought their career choices after working from home or being out of work during the pandemic.

Many states, though, are set to begin dropping the supplemental federal jobless aid this month. That is likely prompting many Americans to return to work. The enhanced benefits, which pay $300 a week on top of an average $320 in state benefits, are set to expire nationwide in September.

With mask orders and capacity limits being lifted, vaccinations up, and more consumers venturing out to spend — on restaurant meals, airline fares, movie tickets, and store purchases — the economy is rapidly recovering from the recession. All that renewed spending—helped along by stimulus payments that went out in March and April—has fueled customer demand and led many companies to seek new workers, often at higher wages, and avoid layoffs. Consumers are shifting some of their spending from household goods to long-neglected services and vacations.

The speed of the rebound from the recession has caught many businesses off guard and touched off a scramble to hire. In June, the economy added 850,000 jobs, including 343,000 in leisure and hospitality. In May, employers added a less-than-expected 583,000 jobs but job openings hit a record high of 9.2 million. And the gap between hiring and openings expanded, evidence that many companies are struggling to find enough workers as the economy recovers faster than expected.  In April, companies posted over 9 million job openings, a record high and a jump of 12 percent from March but just 269,000 workers were added to payrolls.

Fiscal stimulus and loose monetary policy, however, are fueling inflation. As well, the sudden lurches in the economy have caused bottlenecks in the supply chain, triggering shortages and skyrocketing prices for things like used cars, lumber, and grains. Those rising prices are taking their toll and squeezing households. Retail spending actually fell in May, homebuilding is stalling, gasoline is at multi-year highs, and inflation-adjusted incomes have been declining as wage gains get swamped by larger rises in the cost of living.

“It turns out it’s a heck of a lot easier to create demand than it is to, you know, to bring supply back up to snuff,” Fed chair Jerome Powell said in a press conference at the conclusion of the Federal Open Market Committee’s June meeting.

Despite the higher than expected inflation, Powell said the Fed intends to keep rates low for as far as the eye can see. The Biden administration continues to push for billions of dollars of more spending, which many economists think will add to the inflationary pressures without substantially improving the performance of the economy. The economic projections of Fed officials showed that they expect inflation for the full year to run a full percentage point higher than they did in March while expectations for economic growth improved by just half a point and unemployment expectations did not improve at all.

DHS Chief Mayorkas in Guatemala: U.S. May Create ‘Other Legal Paths’ for Migrants

WASHINGTON, DC - MARCH 1: Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas speaks during the daily press briefing at the White House on March 1, 2021 in Washington, DC. Mayorkas discussed the Biden administration's plans for overhauling immigration policy. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
Drew Angerer/Getty Images
5:59

President Joe Biden’s border chief told government leaders in Guatemala that he is seeking to create “other legal paths” for migrants to enter the United States, according to a Spanish-language news agency.

Alejandro Mayorkas, the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), met with Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei on Tuesday.

Spanish news wire EFE quoted the DHS secretary as saying he discussed creating “other legal paths so that people do not need to migrate irregularly, putting the lives of children or their trust in people who do not have permits at risk.”

“The fact that people leave [Guatemala] for different reasons is driving them to put their lives at the discretion of traffickers, in whose hands we cannot guarantee their safety. We have started and developed programs so that the population does not have to travel in an insecure way,” Mayorkas added.

Mayorkas, who arrived in Guatemala for a two-day visit Tuesday, noted the U.S. already provides Guatemalans H-2B visas for temporary jobs and H-2A visas for agricultural work.

The DHS chief also signed two agreements to combat organized crime and tackle illegal migration at the Central American country’s borders and ports during the meeting.

Guatemalan Foreign Minister (FM) Pedro Brolo, who also attended the meeting, reiterated Guatemala’s Temporary Protected Status (TPS) request for its compatriots riding illegally in the United States. Each year, an estimated 300,000 Guatemalans attempt to sneak across the U.S.-Mexico border, a figure that appears to include those who successfully make it through.

Citing official U.S. figures, EFE noted there more than three million Guatemalans in the United States, the majority of them illegal aliens, adding that each year at least 300,000 individuals attempt to sneak across the U.S.-Mexico border, an estimate that appears to include those who successfully make it through.

According to data from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency, a component of DHS, border agents have encountered over 600,000 Guatemalans along the border since 2018, a figure that excludes those who avoid detection.

Via Twitter, the DHS secretary noted that he joined the Guatemalan president and FM to discuss various issues of shared interest, including “respecting the dignity of every human being.”

Guatemala borders Honduras and El Salvador in the south and Mexico in the north. The DHS chief said at the meeting that the U.S. would strengthen security at Guatemala’s borders.

Meanwhile, critics accuse the Biden administration of implementing a semi-open border policy responsible for a huge surge of migrants that has overwhelmed U.S. personnel and resources.

The agreements with Guatemala are essential to the Biden-Harris administration’s vision of strengthening local development and undermining corruption, drug trafficking, and human smuggling, Mayorkas told reporters after meeting Giammattei, according to EFE.

Mayorkas declared that the Biden-Harris administration “is committed to strengthening [the security of] the ports of Guatemala, fighting corruption, strengthening port operations and stopping the illicit drug trafficking and other articles.”

Under the agreements, the U.S. commits to fight customs fraud and illegal migration through the Guatemalan ports of entry.

Moreover, the U.S. will help train 1,500 new police officers to protect the Central American country’s border against human trafficking.

Mayorkas stressed that “the battle against illicit trafficking is important for the prosperity [of Guatemala] and to strengthen trade and legal travel between countries.”

The DHS secretary also confirmed that the U.S. would donate 1.5 million doses of Moderna vaccines against the Chinese coronavirus, scheduled to arrive in Guatemala next Thursday.

He wrote on Twitter, “The United States is supplying these life-saving vaccines to Guatemala for a simple reason: this is a global pandemic, and we can only end it if we get shots into everyone’s arms, safely, swiftly, equitably, no matter where they live.”

Mayorkas’s visit comes a month after Vice President Kamala Harris visited Guatemala and Mexico in early June.

President Joe Biden tapped Harris to address the alleged “roots” of migration in the Northern Triangle countries of Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador in Central America.

The White House, Democrats, establishment media allies, immigration advocates, and Republicans blasted Harris’s visit as a failure.

Biden has now sent Mayorkas to the region twice after Harris, including right after her trip and the ongoing visit to Guatemala. Harris’s team has reportedly indicated that the VP wants to avoid the border crisis because it can hurt her chances of becoming president in the future.

The Biden administration saw the Northern Triangle as key to dealing with border crisis fueled by the record-shattering surge of migrants, who traditionally came from that region.

Echoing a recent Breitbart News analysis, however, the Washington Post reported Tuesday that migration from the Northern Triangle is dropping and is offset by migrants from outside the region, including Mexico and a growing number of nations beyond that country and Central America.

Panamanian authorities, who help U.S.-bound illegal migrants aided by the State Department transit through their country, have warned of an unprecedented wave of migrants from Haiti, Cuba, and as far as Asia, Africa, and the Middle East.

Breitbart News has noted that Biden’s lenient immigration policies are attracting migrants from across the globe.

Washington, D.C. (July 8, 2021) - Much academic work has been published on U.S. employer preference for hiring foreign low-skill labor over American workers, particularly black American workers. In this week’s episode of Parsing Immigration Policy, Amy Wax, the Robert Mundheim Professor of Law at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, highlights reasons why employers might seek to hire foreign nationals and the implications for American workers and society. Wax and Mark Krikorian, the Center’s executive director and moderator of the podcast, explore the impact of the government permitting a constant flow of low-skill immigration, especially the impact felt by low-skill American workers who are unable to develop skills or support a family and may drop out of the workforce all together.

What would be the long-term implications for our country if the immigration level of unskilled foreign workers was reduced and policies putting Americans back to work were prioritized?

In his Closing Commentary, Krikorian examines the U.S. asylum system and the need for reform. He uses as an example of abuse the Haitian population’s fraudulent claims for asylum due to problems in Haiti, despite living and working in Brazil and Chile for years.



Report: Joe Biden Promises Wall Street Donors the Status Quo in Private Calls

OLIVIER DOULIERY/AFP via Getty Images

JOHN BINDER

8 Sep 2020343

3:50

Democrat presidential candidate Joe Biden is promising Wall Street donors the economic status quo that they became used to before President Donald Trump’s administration, according to a report.

An investment banker on Wall Street told the Washington Post that in private calls with financial executives two months ago, Biden’s campaign assured them that talk of populist reforms on the campaign trail was nothing more than talking points.

The Post reports:

When Joe Biden released economic recommendations two months ago, they included a few ideas that worried some powerful bankers: allowing banking at the post office, for example, and having the Federal Reserve guarantee all Americans a bank account. [Emphasis added]

But in private calls with Wall Street leaders, the Biden campaign made it clear those proposals would not be central to Biden’s agenda. [Emphasis added]

“They basically said, ‘Listen, this is just an exercise to keep the Warren people happy, and don’t read too much into it,’” said one investment banker, referring to liberal supporters of Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.). The banker, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private talks, said that message was conveyed on multiple calls. [Emphasis added]

In a statement to the Post, Biden’s campaign downplayed the influence of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) — left populists on trade and economic policy — on the former vice president’s agenda.

“The Biden-Sanders task forces made recommendations to Vice President Biden and to the [Democrat National Committee] platform drafting committee,” Biden spokesperson TJ Ducklo said. “This anonymous source appears to be confused and uninformed about this very basic distinction.”

The report comes as Biden told AFL-CIO members on Labor Day that he will be the “strongest labor president” union workers “have ever had.”

“You can be sure you’ll be hearing that word, ‘union,’ plenty of times when I’m in the White House,” Biden pitched. “The words of a president matter. Union. We’re going to empower workers and empower unions.”

In the Democrat presidential primary, Biden told a group of rich Manhattan donors at a private fundraiser that “nothing would change” for them or their wealthy lifestyles if elected.

“I mean, we may not want to demonize anybody who has made money,” Biden said at the June 2019 fundraiser.

“The truth of the matter is, you all, you all know, you all know in your gut what has to be done. We can disagree in the margins but the truth of the matter is it’s all within our wheelhouse and nobody has to be punished,” Biden said. “No one’s standard of living will change, nothing would fundamentally change.”

Like failed Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, Biden has enjoyed a cozy relationship with Wall Street executives, along with his running mate Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA).

Most recently, Biden touted Wall Street’s support for his plan to abolish America’s suburbs by seizing control of local zoning laws to construct housing developments and multi-family buildings in neighborhoods. Likewise, Wall Street is fully behind Biden’s plan to hugely expand legal immigration levels, beyond already historical highs at 1.2 million green cards and 1.4 million visa workers a year.

The Biden-Harris ticket has elated Wall Street so much that for the first time in a decade, more financial executives are donating to the Democrat candidates than Republicans, the latest Center for Responsive Politics analysis reveals.

John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.

Biden’s Billionaires

 By Steve McCann

Many years ago, while participating in a voter registration drive, I came upon a grizzled and disheveled old man sitting in the overgrown and weed-infested yard of his paint-starved house calming smoking his pipe.  Despite his gruff demeanor, Ully (Ulysses) was very pleasant and loquacious as we talked for over an hour on topics ranging from the weather to the innate foibles of mankind.  It turned out that he had to leave school after the fourth grade in order to work in the fields to help support his family and had toiled in a variety of menial and labor-intensive jobs ever since.  Yet, he had a deep and thorough insight into human nature.  Among his comments about the rich and ostensibly well-educated was: “All the money in the world cain’t buy a fool a lick of common sense.”

I was reminded of that observation after reading an article describing the 131 billionaires who are pouring millions into the coffers of the Democrat party and Joe Biden’s campaign in their mindless obsession to defeat President Trump in November.  Among the prominent names are Jeff Skoll, a founder of eBay who has contributed $4.5 million; Laurene Powell Jobs of Apple and owner of The Atlantic magazine has donated $1.2 million,  and Josh Bekenstein, Chairman of Bain Capital (co-founded by Mitt Romney), $5 million.  

Far more Wall Street financers have also jumped on the Biden/Democrat party bandwagon than are supporting Donald Trump, whose policies have overwhelmingly revived the economy after the stagnation of the Obama-Biden years. The tech billionaires, not content to simply cough up untold millions in direct political contributions, are also funding massive voter drives, promoting mail-in balloting, creating divisive partisan news sites, aiding and designing the Democrat party’s digital campaigns and unabashedly censoring the social media accounts of the Trump campaign and innumerable conservatives. 

The political party they are gleefully underwriting in order to oust Trump is no longer the party of the middle and working class (which is now one and the same) but a two-tier assemblage in which the prey is sleeping with the predator.  The witless wealthy and socially aware are in bed with the avowed socialists and militant Marxists.  What is holding this marriage of convenience together is a mutual hatred of Donald Trump and the undoable promises made by Joe Biden and the Democrat party hierarchy.

In a 2019 meeting with 100 super-wealthy potential donors, Biden assured the gathering that he would not demonize the rich and would only increase their taxes slightly while ensuring that their standard of living would not be affected by any of his policies.  He also stated: “I’m not Bernie Sanders.  I don’t think 500 Billionaires are the reason why we are in trouble”.  Further, he unabashedly emphasized that the wealthy are not the reason for income inequality and “If I win this nomination.  I won’t let you down.  I promise you.”  

Further, the dubious choice of Kamala Harris as the vice presidential nominee was made solely to placate and reassure Wall Street and the wealthy, as she was viewed by them as being very deferential to the mega-rich class based on her days in California. 

When the time came to deal with the Marxist/socialist wing of the Democrat party’s anti-Trump coalition, policy commitments, many diametrically opposite of what was promised the wealthy donors, were also guaranteed with a non-verbal pledge of we won’t let you down.

The first step was a de facto party platform.  The 110-page Biden-Sanders Manifesto which includes, among other commitments, a massive job killing $2+ trillion climate agenda to phase out fossil fuel usage within 15 years, the elimination of cash bail, redirecting (i.e. cutting) funding for the police, dismantling all border protections, legalizing virtually all illegal immigrants and massively raising corporate and individual tax rates on the wealthy.  This manifesto is a socialist screed that would destroy the middle class and permanently neuter the economy and nation. 

An effusive Bernie Sanders proclaimed to the world that Biden and the Democrats have embraced his socialist agenda and that Biden would be the most progressive president since FDR.  Sanders exposed not only the behind the scenes reality of today’s Democrat party but Biden’s figurehead role.

Further confirmation of the radicalization of the Party came about unexpectedly as the militant Marxist faction of the Sanders coalition forced the issue.  Impatient and unwilling to wait until after the 3rd of November, Antifa and Black Lives Matter used the death of George Floyd as a pretext to take to the streets and begin their long-hoped for revolution.  They claimed that rioting, looting, committing arson and attacking law enforcement was a necessity as this was a systemically racist country.  Yet, they openly demanded immediate changes rooted in their radical Marxist ideology of class warfare not so-called systemic racism.  As two of their preferred chants and graffiti slogans “eat the rich” and “abolish capitalism now” confirms. 

Biden, the Democrat party hierarchy as well as virtually all Democrat elected officials refused to address the violence and those responsible.  Thus, they tacitly approved of the lawlessness and by doing so flashed a green light to continue the riots.  When forced to acknowledge the reality on the streets of the nation’s cities, they instead blamed Trump, the police, white supremacists and even the Russians.  Due to their spinelessness, the armies of anarchy and revolution Biden and the Democrats unleashed will never be defeated or mollified by them.   

Considering the vast dichotomy in the litany of promises made and actions taken, it is inevitable that either the moneyed elite or the mob of passionate true believers will be betrayed.  There is no middle ground.  Who will prevail? 

Will it be the elites whose only weapon is money and fleeting political influence or the passionate mob whose weapons are unconstrained violence and intimidation?  Will it be those who believe a revolution could never happen here or those who are currently inciting revolution with the implicit blessing of a major political party?  Will it be those who believe that Biden and the Democrats, if elected, will be able to forcefully deal with the insurgents or the insurgents who now know that riots and extortion causes Democrat politicians to cower in the corner?

Beginning with the French Revolution and throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, history has recorded that passionate mobs always prevail when dealing with a feckless ruling class or party.  And the first casualties have inevitably been the wealthy elites.

I can envision sitting with my old friend, Ully, and asking him if he thought the wealthy elites, indiscriminately tossing money at the Democrats for the sole purpose of defeating President Trump, understood the pitfalls involved.  He would lean back, slowly exhale a puff of smoke from his well-worn pipe and with uncontrollable anger in his eyes would say: “Nope.  Those damn fools ain’t got a lick of common sense.”

Richest 50 Americans now have as much wealth as bottom 165 million

The Federal Reserve released data this week on US household wealth that documents the acceleration of wealth inequality during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the second quarter of 2020, the bottom 50 percent of households—some 165 million people—held $2.08 trillion, or $12,600 per person, while the richest one percent of the population controlled $34.2 trillion, i.e., over $10.4 million per person. In percentile terms, the top one percent of the population held 30.5 percent of all wealth, while the bottom 50 percent controlled only 1.9 percent.

According to a Bloomberg analysis of the data, the richest 50 Americans now have as much wealth as the bottom half of the population. The increased concentration of wealth at the top in the course of 2020 is the result of the unprecedented injection of money into the stock market by the Fed, which has led to an explosive growth in the fortunes of moguls such as Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Tesla chief Elon Musk and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

The divide in wealth appears even more gigantic when one looks at the top 10 percent of the population as a whole. Combined, the top one percent and next nine percent held 69 percent of the nation’s wealth at the end of the second quarter of 2020, a total of $77.32 trillion.

Between the first and second quarter of 2020, the top one percent of the population increased its share of the country’s wealth from 30 percent to 30.5 percent. The biggest losers were those in the 50 to 90 percentile range of wealth holders, who saw their overall share shrink from 29.7 percent to 29.1 percent. The 90 to 99 percentile and the bottom half remained largely unchanged.

While these changes may appear slight, they actually represent a substantial shift in a short period of time. The top one percent of the population substantially increased its share of the country’s wealth as the Fed effectively printed over $3 trillion and injected it into the financial markets. Better-off sections of workers, who, unlike the bottom half of the working class, have some level of savings, retirement funds or other assets, saw their wealth share decline, as they were forced to draw on savings amidst the global downturn.

One explanation for this sharpening division between, roughly, the top 10 percent of the population and the bottom 90 percent of the population is the disproportionate ownership of stocks and mutual funds. The top one percent of the population owns 52.4 percent of all corporate equities (stocks) and mutual funds, the next nine percent owns 35.8 percent.

Combined, 88.2 percent of the US economy, as represented in corporate equities and mutual funds, is owned by just 10 percent of the population.

While the bottom half of the population has for the last several decades held only one percent of the nation’s stocks, better-off sections of the working class, the 50th to 90th percentiles, held 21.4 percent of this wealth in the early 2000s. However, today this share has fallen to just 11.2 percent. In other words, better-off sections of the working class, less connected to the financial markets, have seen their fortunes move in an opposite direction to those in the top 10 percent of the population.

Another interesting feature of the Fed data is its breakdown by age group. The Millennial group—those born between 1981 and 1996—is today the largest share of the American workforce, accounting for 72 million workers. However, Millennials own just 4.6 percent of US wealth.

In contrast, the data shows that in 1989, when the typical member of the Baby Boomer generation was 34, that generation controlled about 21 percent of wealth.

This contrast between the wealth of Millennials and that of Boomers at similar times in their life cycles reflects the incredible difficulty that young people today face in landing a decent-paying job, paying for college and paying for health care, let alone taking out a mortgage, raising a family and saving for retirement.

The Fed data comes on top of several other recent reports and announcements about social inequality, including:

· A UBS report showing that the world’s billionaires have increased their wealth by over $1.3 trillion, more than 10 percent, in just three years.

· An announcement by the World Bank that the fallout from COVID-19 will push as many as 150 million people into what it classifies as extreme poverty (living on less than $1.90 per day) by 2021. This is the first time the number of people in extreme poverty has increased since 1998.

· Wall Street Journal report that, using Labor Department data, demonstrated the divergence of fortunes for educated and noneducated workers amid the pandemic. The Journal found that, while those with college degrees have nearly recovered from COVID-19 job losses (which were smaller), high school dropouts still have 18 percent fewer jobs.

· A RAND report that found the bottom 90 percent of Americans would be making 67 percent more without last four decades of deepening inequality.

The ever-growing concentration of wealth at the top of the population weighs like a malignant tumor over society. No social problem, whether it be inequality, global warming, education, health care, retirement or the pandemic, can be solved without mobilizing these vast fortunes at the top and placing them under the democratic control of the broad majority of the population.

The process of extreme class restructuring, and the decimation of the ranks of the better-off, “middle-class” workers depicted in the Fed data, has been underway for at least 40 years. Under Democratic no less than Republican leadership, president after president, Congress after Congress, policies have been carried out that inflated the wealth of the ultra-rich while degrading the conditions of the working class.

This process was sped up by the 2008 financial crisis, in which the Obama administration took measures to gut autoworkers’ pay while funneling trillions of dollars to Wall Street.

Now, a similar but even more drastic social restructuring is underway in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Millions have been thrown into long-term joblessness and poverty, while $3 trillion have been injected into the financial markets and hundreds of billions of dollars given out to major corporations under the bipartisan CARES Act.

The needs of the working class—the broad majority of the population—stand in direct conflict with the interests of the parasitic financial elite. The major banks and corporations, which control nearly every aspect of global life today, must be placed under the democratic ownership and supervision of the working class so that that the needs of the population can be met.

Super rich’s wealth concentration surpasses Gilded Age levels

·Senior Writer
·3 min read
FILE - In this June 6, 2019, file photo Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos speaks at the the Amazon re:MARS convention in Las Vegas.  The Amazon founder officially stepped down as CEO on Monday, July 5, 2021, handing over the reins as the company navigates the challenges of a world fighting to emerge from the coronavirus pandemic. Andy Jassy, the head of Amazon’s cloud-computing business, replaced Bezos, a change the company had announced in February.  (AP Photo/John Locher, File)

The wealth of the richest 0.00001% of the U.S. now exceeds that of the prior historical peak, which occurred in the Gilded Age, according to economist Gabriel Zucman.

In the late 19th century, the U.S. experienced rapid industrialization and economic growth, creating an inordinate amount of wealth for a handful of families. This era was also known for its severe inequality; and some have called the period that began around 1990 a “Second Gilded Age.” Back then, just four families represented the richest 0.00001% – today’s equivalent is 18 families.

Zucman, a French economist whose doctoral advisor was the historical economist Thomas Piketty, author of bestseller “Capital in the Twenty-First Century,” released data this week showing that as of July 1, the top 0.00001% richest people in the U.S. held 1.35% of the country’s total wealth. These 18 families include those of Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates.

- ADVERTISEMENT -

Zucman used real-time data from Forbes for the calculations. In 1913, at the end of the Gilded Age, the Rockefeller, Frick, Carnegie, and Baker families – names all tied to monopolistic power – held 0.85% of the country's total wealth.

The richest 0.01% — around 18,000 U.S. families — have also surpassed the wealth levels reached in the Gilded Age. These families hold 10% of the country’s wealth today, Zucman wrote. By comparison, in 1913, the top 0.1% held 9% of U.S. wealth, and a mere 2% in the late 1970s.

The increasing concentration of wealth comes as the ultra-rich face more scrutiny for the money they’re not paying in taxes. Recent reports have highlighted that because so much of their wealth consists of unrealized gains in stocks and real estate, they pay little or nothing in income tax. Many CEOs and founders take small salaries given their outsized stock holdings, as lower capital gains tax is preferable to a higher tax on ordinary income.

Seated portrait of John Davison Rockefeller (1839 - 1937), American oil  magnate, early twentieth century. (Photo by Interim Archives/Getty Images)
Seated portrait of John Davison Rockefeller (1839 - 1937), American oil magnate, early 20th century. (Photo by Interim Archives/Getty Images)

Zucman gained fame in 2019 as an architect of then-presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s wealth tax plan, which aimed to address the fact that the extremely rich pay little in taxes compared to their net worth. The plan would have imposed a 2% tax on net wealth above $50 million and 6% above $1 billion.

Since the pandemic began, the stock market’s gains have widened the gap between the wealthy and non-wealthy because stock ownership is largely concentrated among wealthy people. The number of millionaires globally jumped 5.2 million to 56.1 million, according to Credit Suisse. Though the pandemic’s wealth gains largely benefitted the richest Americans, “most” Americans did fare well financially during the pandemic, according to the Federal Reserve. Around $13.5 trillion of wealth was added to all households. Still, while a large portion of the country got somewhat richer, the rich saw most of that, with the top 1% seeing a third of the $13.5 trillion and the top 20% seeing 70% of it.

No comments: