Political Quotes

“Let me put a couple of more facts on the table and then let's talk about the policy changes that can redirect that. This is the last 40 years, 1979 to 2006, prior to the Great Recession. During that period of time, there was a shift of wealth and of income, wealth and of income, from the middle class and the low-income to the very wealthy. This lays it out. Again, this is prior to the Great Recession. If we look at it in the Great Recession, these statistics are even more startling. {time} 2100 For the low end, the poorest, 11 percent growth. And then you move up to the second group, 18 percent, 21 percent, 32 percent. For the top percentage, the top 20 percent, a 256 increase in income and wealth. Looking at the statistics, a wage earner in a factory versus the CEO, it used to be 1 to 40, now it's 1 to 300. We've seen an enormous shift in wealth from the working middle class families to the very, very wealthy. If you overlay this with the 2007, 2008, 2009, and where we are today in 2011, it would be even more startling because now these are running negative, as you said just a moment ago. For the middle class, that's here and down, not the top 20 percent, but down here, this is the top 1 percent.”