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Capitalism: a working class burden!
Big Business Runs The Show
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In 1996 unions put $35 million into the election process against the $242
million put in by business.
Corperate Welfare
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In 1995 we spent $167 billion on corporate welfare, about twice what we
spend on Food Stamps, AFDC and HUD combined.
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Health Care
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13 percent of the national income for the US is devoted to the system of
health care, which is far less efficient than the health service of Britain,
where only 5 percent of the national income is devoted to the health service.
This is because the US health service is a profit making business.Facts
taken from The Economics of the Mad House
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Malnurishment and Starvation
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Two billion people world wide live below the bread line in third world
countries. Financial Times
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500 million people most under the age of five will not survive to childbearing
age because there isn't enough food to eat.
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An expert for the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organizations said
that if food production was organized as it is in Holland, there would
be enough food to feed 67 billion people that's 15 times the worlds population.
(An argument to show there is enough food to go round).
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The British government dishes out 26 million a year to farmers to stop
them producing food.
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If 0.5 percent of the worlds spending on weapons was diverted to agriculture
in Africa, then ¾ of that continent's poverty would be lifted.
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Americans spend 11% of their incomes on food while most of Africa spends
80%.
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Misled and exploited
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People in the Eastern bloc in 1989 were promised a better deal under capitalism
but five years later the living standards have been cut by 40 or 50 percent.
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National, state and local Republican Party committees raised $555 million
over 1995 and 1996 for the election campaign. Democratic committees raised
$222 million during the same period.
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The Wall Street Journal just put out the 1997 Index of Economic Freedom.
The two winners who they give their highest accolades to? Singapore and
Bahrain. Right-wing Fascist police states where unions are outlawed.
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National Debt
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1981- National Debt = just a bit more than $1 trillion.
1988- National Debt = just a bit less than $4 trillion.
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Obscene Inequality!
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In 1980 the top managers of the top 300 US companies had income 29 times
larger than that of a manufacturing worker, by 1990 the same companies
had a 93 times greater income.
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In 1992 the total economic output of the whole world was five times what
it was in 1950, yet poverty is worse than what it was 45 years ago.
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In 1950 the richest fifth of the worlds population took home 30 percent
of the worlds income, today that richest fifth take home 60 percent of
the worlds income.
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Today's poorest fifth of the world share a mere 1.4 percent of the worlds
income.
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In the period since 1979 in the ex USSR, trade union membership has halved,
mass unemployment and the underclass have become a permanent feature of
life, casualisation of labor has rocketed, the gap between rich and poor
has mushroomed?
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"In addition to concentrating wealth and power, today's fossil-fuel-based
system has engendered large imbalances in energy use and social well-being.
Its benefits have not been extended to roughly 2 billion of the world's
poor--a third of global population--who still rely on biomass for cooking
and lack access to electricity. Today, the richest fifth of humanity
consumes 58 percent of the world's energy, while the poorest fifth uses
less than 4 percent. The United States, with 5 percent of the world's
population, uses nearly one quarter of global energy supplies; on a per
capita basis, it consumes twice as much energy as Japan and 12 times as
much as China." Excerpt is taken from "State of the World", the millennial
edition
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One out of five instances in American society where black people who have
exactly the same qualifications as their white counterparts go to the bank
to get a mortgage, they are denied.
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When the 3 richest people in the US have a combined wealth equal to more
than 115 million ordinary working class Americans.
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"the world's 358 billionaires... have more assets than the combined incomes
of countries representing nearly half -- 45 per cent -- of the planet's
population." David Usborne in New York reporting on the UN's 1996 Human
Development Report.
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America now has the highest inequality of income in the industrialized
world. In 1940 we had the least disparity of wealth with CEOs making about
12 times that of their average worker. Now it is 180 times as much. So
this as seen CEO salaries increase 500% since 1980 while wage earners salaries
have dropped 5%.
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In the past 25 years real wages for males (wages being money paid for labor
rather than pushing paper or talking on the phone) has dropped 15%.
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The United States is tied with Guatemala in having the richest and poorest
20% of the population.
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Between 1978 and 1988 the richest 1% of Americans had their incomes rise
by 122% while the bottom 60% saw their incomes drop.
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Mike Ovitz, who was fired as CEO of Disney Co after 14 months as incompetent,
was given only $90 million in severance play. He is of course suing for
more.
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John Walter, who was fired as CEO of ATT after only 9 months of incompetency
was given only $25 million.
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Purchase Power
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2/3 of working Americans make less in purchasing power than they did in
1979
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In 1970 a new house cost twice the annual salary of a married couple even
with only one working. Today a new house costs four times as much with
most couples both working.
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Poverty
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The World Health Organization claims the biggest killer in the world today
is not cancer or any other disease but “deep poverty”.
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In the United States the richest society in the whole of human history,
32 million people were living below the poverty line in 1988 (this was
at the height of a 1980’s boom) and nearly one in five children were born
into poverty.
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In Britain one in three children grow up into poverty.
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In 1992 the total economic output of the whole world was five times what
it was in 1950, yet poverty is worse than what it was 45 years ago.
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97 percent of the rural population of Bolivia (the poorest Latin American
country) are below the UN poverty line.
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In Britain, working class people are two times more likely to die of cancer
and three times more likely to die of heart disease than the rich or middle
classes.
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One in three children is born into poverty (defined as being half the average
wage) and one in five households have no breadwinner in Britain.
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Per capita, more Americans live in poverty than anytime since 1959
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2/3 of minimum wage earners are women.
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Stress
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Work [within the capitalist paradigm] is a major cause of stress and of
5000 office workers surveyed in 16 countries by the Financial Times
said that there stress levels had risen in the last two years.
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Americans now work an average of 164 more hours annually than 20 years
ago that amounts to about a month more at the work place.
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Unemployment
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Unemployment rates in inner city America is between 30% and 50%.
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