The Obscene Gap between the Rich and the Poor 11/10/2011

In January 2010, a 7.0 Earthquake hit Haiti that resulted in 316,000 deaths.  In October 1989, a 7.1 Earthquake hit San Francisco and 83 people died.  The difference is wealth.
Coughing out a scoff at the mention of trickle down wealth,

• 80 percent of poor households have air conditioning. In 1970, only 36 percent of the entire U.S. population enjoyed air conditioning.
• 92 percent of poor households have a microwave.
• Nearly three-fourths have a car or truck, and 31 percent have two or more cars or trucks.
• Nearly two-thirds have cable or satellite TV.
• Two-thirds have at least one DVD player, and 70 percent have a VCR.
• Half have a personal computer, and one in seven have two or more computers.
• More than half of poor families with children have a video game system, such as an Xbox or PlayStation.
• 43 percent have Internet access.
• One-third have a wide-screen plasma or LCD TV.
• One-fourth have a digital video recorder system, such as a TiVo.

One way or another, either through work of some kind, or direct government gifts from the rest of us, as our wealth increases, the poor in the US have benefited by our success over the years.  We have the richest poor people in the world.

The increase in the gap between the rich and the poor is not because the poor are getting poorer, it’s because the rich are getting richer at a greater rate than the poor are getting richer.