Robert Maguire

The top 1% has taken $50 TRILLION from the bottom 90% since 1975.

That's enough to more than double the median income—enough to pay every single working American in the bottom nine deciles an additional $1,144 a month. Every month. Every single year.
https://time.com/5888024/50-trillion-income-inequality-america/

The Top 1% of Americans Have Taken $50 Trillion From the Bottom 90%—And That's Made the U.S. Less Secure

A report shows that a $50 trillion redistribution of income to benefit the richest has made America less healthy, resilient, and secure

TIME
Mar 9, 2023 at 10:20pmWeb
Show threadRobert MaguireMar 9, 2023
"At every income level up to the 90th percentile, wage earners are now being paid a fraction of what they would have had inequality held constant."
Show threadJJ PetersonMar 9, 2023
@RobertMaguire @GottaLaff
And any time a democratic politician like Biden threatens to tax them to fund actions that will strengthen US infrastructure and help US citizens, they get all their oligarch pals in business and media to howl about democrats being evil communists who want to transfer hard-earned wealth to lazy people.
Show threadThe IdlerMar 9, 2023
@RobertMaguire Reminds me of that scene in Mr Robot when they hack the bank accounts of the ultra rich to redistribute the money to everyone else, and when someone sees their bank balance jump up, their eyes grow wide and they ask in shock "that much?"
Show threadD. G. MarshallMar 10, 2023

@RobertMaguire

Trickle up economics.

Show threadCykonotMar 10, 2023
@RobertMaguire giving money to poor people is inflation, giving money to rich people means the economy is doing well.
Or something
Show threadGrassroots JoeMar 10, 2023
@RobertMaguire Class warfare ...
Show threadNicole ParsonsMar 10, 2023

@RobertMaguire

It's not just the money though.

The same individuals are funding an anti-democracy movement to take away your civil rights like the right to vote & have it matter

The same individuals funded massive malign influence campaigns to prolong a pandemic that cost 1.2 million American lives.

The same individuals bought a Supreme Court to thwart climate action

The same individuals thwart #Medicare4All, Medicare and Social Security, fair IRS tax enforcement, and sided with Putin.

Show threadFroggyMcTicklesMar 10, 2023
@RobertMaguire I’m interested to see the actual numbers, but there’s no doubt it’s close. This is just another example of how brainwashed we are into worshipping the ultra rich and believing we need them. The free market is killing people, but somehow the success of 1 outweighs the survival of many. Gotta love capitalism.
Show threadAlakestMar 10, 2023

@RobertMaguire

"A 2014 report from the OECD estimated that rising income inequality knocked as much 9 points off U.S. GDP growth over the previous two decades...

...$2 trillion worth of GDP that’s being frittered away..."

Not *frittered*.

It was (is) the cost of maintaining an oligarchy.

If you were a sociopath what would you pay to not be arrested?

How much more to gloat openly?

9 points of GDP might seem like a bargain.

Show threadNobody In ParticularMar 10, 2023
@RobertMaguire The top 660 Americans could send a check of $12,600 to every man, woman, and child in the US, and still have as much as they had at the beginning of the pandemic
Show threadJayaravaMar 10, 2023
@RobertMaguire But... What do about this? In reality I mean.
Show threadBrittle Anxious Nonlinear IncoMar 10, 2023
@jayarava @RobertMaguire
Show threadBrittle Anxious Nonlinear IncoMar 10, 2023
@RobertMaguire trickle down was always torrent up
Show threadBCVenice1Mar 10, 2023
@RobertMaguire I’ve been bitching about this for nearly 5 decades
Show threadWallOffTrumpMar 10, 2023
@RobertMaguire
This is true worldwide. Mostly because billionaires have used globalization to outflank any attempts by mere nations to stand up for the needs of ordinary people.
Ordinary people will never get their power back until we figure out how to restrain the rich transnationally.
Show threadWallOffTrumpMar 11, 2023
@RobertMaguire
This isn't a side story-this is THE story.
Reagan and Milton Friedman told us we'd all be richer if we helped the billionaires get richer. Instead they've got more and more power to suppress the rest of us and buy enough media power to make half of us believe they are essential.
Unfortunately their power is destroying the world as they suck it dry. They don't see that even their lives depend on the world too.