Better Off Than You Were When Bush Was In Charge?

Generally speaking, the wealthy-- always the first online when things start to turn around-- are. Forbes is reporting this week that the richest Americans' net worth grew by 13% in the past year alone.

The average net worth of the 400 wealthiest Americans rose to a record $4.2 billion, up more than 10 percent from a year ago, while the lowest net worth came in at $1.1 billion versus $1.05 billion last year, the magazine said.

..."The gap between the very rich and merely rich increased and helped drive up the average net worth of The Forbes 400 members to an all-time record $4.2 billion," said Forbes Senior Wealth Editor Luisa Kroll.

Collectively, this group's net worth is the equivalent of one-eighth of the entire U.S. economy, which stood at $13.56 trillion in real terms according to the latest government data. But the 13 percent growth in the wealth of the richest Americans far outpaced that of the economy overall, helping widen the chasm between rich and poor.

Forbes attributed the growth in net worth in part to the performance of the stock market and a recovering real estate market.

But while their wealth grew faster than the economy as a whole, which expanded at an anemic 1.7 percent annual rate in the second quarter of 2012, the super rich generally failed to keep pace with the stock market. The benchmark Standard & Poor's 500 index rose nearly 20 percent over the 12 months ended August 24, the last date of market performance measured for this year's list.

...Brothers Charles and David Koch, who run the energy and chemicals conglomerate Koch Industries Inc and who are active in conservative politics, were tied for fourth with $31 billion, Forbes said. ...Two notable names dropped from the top 10, however. Casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, also active in conservative political causes, fell to the 12 spot from No. 8 last year, and financier and liberal philanthropist George Soros dropped five spots to No. 12.

Michael Bloomberg, the billionaire founder of Bloomberg LP who is now in his third term as New York City mayor, rose to the No. 10 slot.

Yesterday, the NY Times put it more poetically: "The rich got richer and the poor got poorer in New York City last year as the poverty rate reached its highest point in more than a decade, and the income gap in Manhattan, already wider than almost anywhere else in the country, rivaled disparities in sub-Saharan Africa." And it's not just the hedge fund managers, buy-out specialists and financial predators who are getting fabulously wealthy. The politicians who have rigged the system on their behalf are benefiting as well. No one in Congress is more a creation of Wall Street's than Wisconsin congressman Paul Ryan. They found him teaching aerobics in a gym and made him into their congressional mouthpiece. And aside from financing his political career, they've made sure Ryan would be set for life financially. 

Ryan, who asks the "are you better off" question more than anyone, has become a multimillionaire during the Obama administration.

In 2008 his net worth was $790,093 to $2,830,000. In 2010, it rose to $927,100 to $3,207,000.

Meanwhile, residents of his district aren't doing quite as well as he is. The Janesville GM workers, for example, who he once promised that he'd work to protect their jobs, saw their lives devastated while his own was coming together nicely (and while Bush was president). Let me share a letter from some former auto workers that they sent me yesterday:

I’m amused watching Paul Ryan attempt to reinvent his congressional record while he is being exposed for his fictional marathon time, fuzzy math skills, alleged foreign policy experience, and his fake claims as a budget hawk!

Mr. Ryan likes to remind us that we are his employer. Doing an adequate job responding to constituents’ individual needs is the minimum requirement of the job; but let’s also look at what Mr. Ryan has been doing the last 14 years in Congress as our alleged representative. 

8 of those years, Ryan walked lock step with the agenda of former President Bush where the rich got richer and the rest of us poorer. Ryan voted AGAINST the minimum wage increase; stem cell research; ethics reform; lowering the cost of student loans; union organizing; troop withdrawal from Iraq; and lower prescription drug prices! Ryan advocates privatizing Social Security and diminishing Medicare to a more costly voucher program.

While he talks of reducing the deficit he supported the very causes of the largest budget deficit in U.S. history: two unfunded wars, unnecessary tax cuts for the rich and corporations, Wall Street/Bank bailouts, and the deregulation of financial markets. 

Now Ryan seeks election to not only his congressional seat, but also Vice President of the United States. Seriously, do we need to employ this obstructionist ultra conservative career politician any longer when it is apparent he collects a salary from the taxpayers, but serves the masters of privatization, deregulation, and the “ownership society?”

Signed in Solidarity by

55 Former Janesville, Wisconsin, General Motors Assembly Plant Dislocated Workers who now commute to Fort Wayne, Indiana

Tim Rutter

Jamie Schmeling

Terry Nyhus

Dianna R. Applebeck

Donald Clauer

James Wegner

Bret Bailey

Erin Meinen

Charlie Monday

Randy S.Kozak

Chad Perkin

Teresa Pearson

David Belm

Holly Tillman

Dale Granlund

Jeff Pearson

Daryl Crawford

Gerald Balis

Randy Tunks

Rodney Moen

Yoomi A. Saldana

Ronald R. Duoss

Randy Gorman

Steve Behm

Dennis McKeown

Jamie Teller

John C. Deems

Brian Biggerstaff

John Dohner, Jr.

Frannie Carpenter

David Dare

Joe J Steinman, Sr.

Gail Sockness

Glenn Wille

Jeffrey Kosharek

Douglas Keepers

David Draves

Dennis Huber

Alan Schneider

Jeff McCulloch

Kevin D. Johnson

David Gaddine

Terry Kundert

Daniel Brankhoff

Jon Bartz

Brian J. Linfvedt

Jim Brandt

Michael A. Hoof

David Harnack

Sarah Wille

Joe Cary

Rob Teubert

Todd Condo

Robert Petsma

Pam McCullick

If you'd like to help stop Paul Ryan, here are two ways you can do it. Ryan is a real threat to America, a real threat to democracy and a real threat to your family. Forget about lis lies about his marathon runs and his body fat. He wants to turn the country over to the banksters and predators-- all of it.