The Ruling Class or YOUCANTHANDLETHETRUTHCANYOU?

The middle class in America is losing ground, while overall income has grown by 27% since 1979, 33% of the gains went to the top 1%. And what has happened to the bottom 60%? - well they are actually making less, 95 cents for each dollar they made in 1979.

The income ratio between executives versus laborers has grown so out of proportion it is astonishing. In 1960 the ratio of CEO pay to factory worker pay was 42:1, in 2000 that ratio was as high as 531:1, partially due to CEO's cashing in big stock options. So things are better, right? Well. yes, if you are happy with a 344:1 ratio as it was in 2007.

From 1990 to 2005, CEO's pay increased almost 300% (adjusted for inflation) compared to production workers gain of 4.3% At the same time while CEO salaries increase the "effective" tax rate for the top 400 actually declined, down to a paltry 15% in 2007 thanks to tax cuts; a 6% drop under Bush and 7% under Clinton.

And what happens to you and me, average earners making about $25,000/year? -  we paid about 20.5% in taxes when all taxes are taken into account, and the lowest 20% of the earners, who average $12,400/year, they shelled over about 16% of their income in 2009.

In the United States, wealth is highly concentrated in a relatively few hands. We call them the top 1% of households, i.e. the upper class, i.e. The Ruling Class. It is this 1% that makes up twenty-five percent of the nation's income and if you discuss this is terms of wealth rather than income, the top 1% control forty percent.

Twenty-five years ago the figures were 12% of households controlling 33% of the nation's income. So it looks like we have taken a step or two back from the American Dream. The little guy running the local store in your hometown, gone. Your neighbors down the street with the 'in foreclosure' sign in the front yard, gone.

And what makes me mad is that it is this 1% that is running the show. They make the contributions to both political parties to keep the access doors open, they run the lobbyist groups to make sure their companies stay in business. They don't care about public education, their kids all go to private schools. They don't care about a national healthcare plan, they already are covered by corporate incentive packages and can see the best doctors.

They do care about taxes; keeping capital gains taxes low or not at all, and making sure that inheritance taxes won't stand in the way of their passing on this wealth to the next generation.

It is when The Ruling Class becomes so small and so powerful that the crooks in the Wall Street scandals remain untried and free and in some cases still in influential government positions - that is when "Too Big to Fail" sends chills down your spine.

Wall Street panics and wheels and deals and comes up with a plan where they get the government to make them zero percent loans, while at the same time appearing to having their arm twisted. And what do all those banks do? Make loans, right? Stimulate the economy, wrong... they sit on the money and improve their balance sheets.

So it is exactly this type of climate that Marx may have been talking about in his Manifesto. When the big guys get too big to fail and the little guys get trampled on. It is then the people - that bottom 60% - look for a voice to represent them.

The 60% that needs a job to go to, the 60% that needs to feed and house his family. The 60% that wants to remain healthy and see his children educated and with hopes for a better life. It's that 60% that needs a voice and it needs it soon.