Thanks to both the Democrats and the Republicans...

22 Statistics That Prove The Elite Are Becoming Fabulously Wealthy While The Middle Class Is Being Ripped To Shreds

The following are 22 statistics that prove that the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer in America today....

#1 Half of all American workers now earn $505 or less per week.

#2 In 2009, total wages, median wages, and average wages all declined in the United States.

#3 The only group that saw their household incomes increase in 2009 was those making $180,000 or more.

#4 According to one recent study, approximately 21 percent of all children in the United States are living below the poverty line in 2010.

#5 In 2009, the median annual wage for a U.S. worker was just $26,261.

#6 In the United States today, 317,000 waiters and waitresses have college degrees.

#7 In 2009, the 74 Americans that earned over 50 million dollars combined to bring in as much as the 19 million lowest paid Americans combined.

#8 According to Harvard Magazine, 66% of the income growth between 2001 and 2007 went to the top 1% of all Americans.

#9 Total student loan debt in the United States is climbing at a rate of approximately $2,853.88 per second.

#10 1.41 million Americans filed for personal bankruptcy in 2009 – a 32 percent increase over 2008.

#11 In 1976, the top 1 percent of earners in the United States took in 8.9 percent of all income. By 2007, that number had risen to 23.5 percent.

#12 According to a poll taken in 2009, 61 percent of Americans "always or usually" live paycheck to paycheck. That was up significantly from 49 percent in 2008 and 43 percent in 2007.

#13 New York state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli says that Wall Street bonuses for 2009 were up 17 percent when compared with 2008.

#14 One out of every six Americans is now enrolled in at least one anti-poverty program run by the federal government.

#15 The number of Americans enrolled in the food stamp program passed the 41 million mark for the first time ever in June.

#16 The number of Americans in the food stamp program increased a staggering 55 percent from December 2007 to June 2010.

#17 Over 50 million Americans are on now Medicaid. That figure is up more than 17 percent since the beginning of the economic downturn.

#18 Only the top 5 percent of all U.S. households have earned enough additional income to match the rise in housing costs since 1975.

#19 According to one recent survey, 28% of all U.S. households have at least one member that is looking for a full-time job.

#20 A recent Pew Research survey found that 55 percent of the U.S. labor force has experienced either unemployment, a pay decrease, a reduction in hours or an involuntary move to part-time work since the economic downturn began.

#21 The number of Americans working part-time jobs "for economic reasons" is now the highest it has been in at least five decades.

#22 The bottom 40 percent of all income earners in the United States now collectively own less than 1 percent of the nation’s wealth.

Link:
http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/22-statistics-that-prove-the-elite-are-becoming-fabulously-wealthy-while-the-middle-class-is-being-ripped-to-shreds