I was surprised to hear, Wolf Blitzer of CNN, say that the 1% were sports figures and Hollywood types because as a general rule, I have had respect for his reporting in the past. I also find it difficult that he does not understand when he asks,”If it is true that business hates OBama so bad then why is it that Wall Street is doing so well?”, that he doesn’t understand that they are doing so well, because they are stock piling profits into the millions to billions and even up to trillion of dollars and sharing it with the majority stock owners who also are making huge amounts of money. This all on the limited backs of workers they are hiring part-time so they do not have to pay benefits.
The 1% includes the Forbes 500 who own Wall Street and have since it’s invention, and who pay little to nothing in taxes along side of the middle class Americans. The wealth that goes way back to when Standard Oil was worth Billions in the 1800′s, is still alive in many of these families. The Rockefellers,the Hunts, John Kluge,Jay Allen and Robert Pritsker,Henry Hillman etc.; People who the majority of Americans have never heard of. Americans who set up the first banks in Iran and established oil rights in the Middle East. These are the true wealthy and the 1%.
To be a millionaire in today’s standards and with new money is really very irrelevant when compared to the Billionaires when we discuss the 1%. Most would not even be able to mix socially with the blue bloods. We have watched Hollywood and Sports figures fall as far as they rise in as many years as it takes to go up. They play a rather insignificant role when talking about the 1% of American wealth. It is the old money who owns Wall Street and Corporations who are the real 1%. (See previous posts by me)
The ironic part about it is, a great deal of the wealthy people also say,”Remove the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy.” Although Warren Buffet is a self-made Billionaire he has said,”I will gladly pay my fair share”, along with others. Still because of the greed of many of the Corporations’ CEO’s, who pull in millions and the Republicans who also stand to pocket more from the lobbyists, the Republicans refuse to lift the tax breaks on the 1% wealthy. Too many of them are their contributors and without their contributions they are not going to win the next election.
The Oil Companies also need to convince the voters through the Republican Party and Conservative base that there is nothing to global warming or their pollution and that their drilling and pipelines do not do damage to the environment etc. Instead they like to promote the jobs that they offer that helps the middle class. They also need the protection of the Republican Party so they pat each other on the back while running ads contradicting their own damaging effects to the environment. Why do we think the Conservatives and Tea Party run against environmental issues?
The old money is still very much alive and owns controlling shares on Wall Street in most of the businesses listed on the New York Stock Exchange,as well as, shares traded in the Banking Industry and in Exon and Halliburton, to name just two of the larger oil interests.
Don’t let the media, Religious right, or anyone tell you differently. The people being included in the 1%, many times, are not the people you are being told they are. Some of the Churches of America are also in the 1% of the wealthy. Now that we all know, help me to educate those who do not know the difference. Thank you!
