Richest Year in History

I want my share!

clipped from www.alternet.org According to Forbes, this is the richest year in human history ... for those people who are already mind-bogglingly rich. But what about the rest of us? Says Forbes Chief Executive Steve Forbes: “This is the richest year ever in human history. Never in history has there been such a notable advance.” Of course this historic advance is largely confined to those who were already mind-bogglingly rich to begin with. For working people as a whole, there’s at best a holding action and at worst a retreat. Let’s look at the figures without Steve Forbes’ rose-colored glasses. The CBPP explained that the enormous gains at the top of the income pyramid caused a rise of income as a whole. But median income dropped between 2003 and 2004, and has not risen appreciably since then. So what does it all mean? Even if Bush wasn’t in Brazil peddling alternative fuels for South America while we pay higher and higher prices for fuel oil, the economy looks a lot better from the top.