US 1% Will Control 70% of Wealth By 2021

Above Photo: America’s oligarchs are set to maintain their grip on the majority of the country’s wealth, with a new study claiming that they will control 70 percent of national wealth by 2021. (AP/Vadim Ghirda) A new study by the Boston Consulting Group has found that while wealth inequality is growing on a global scale, it has kicked into overdrive in the United States – where America’s 1% are expected to control 70 percent of the nation’s ... Read more

Are Robots Keeping Wages Low?

Above Photo: In this Aug. 21, 2015 photo, a man works amid orange robot arms at Rapoo Technology factory in southern Chinese industrial boomtown of Shenzhen. AP Photo/Vincent Yu It used to be the case that when employers had trouble hiring, wages would increase in places with low jobless rates. Then came the rise of machines. These days, employees aren’t being paid much more than they were in the past, a BMO economist said in a report ... Read more

Companies Can Either Make Things Or Make CEOs Rich

Above Photo: Funny Solution Studio / Shutterstock Making breakthroughs for consumers is hard, companies have found. But making fortunes for CEOs is easy. Jeff Immelt, the CEO of General Electric since 2001, is retiring. The 61-year-old will be making a well-compensated exit. Fortune magazine estimates that Immelt will walk off with nearly $211 million, on top of his regular annual pay. Immelt’s annual pay hasn’t been too shabby either. He ... Read more

Move Your Money To The New Economy

Above Photo: From neweconomy.net In recent years we’ve seen enormous energy from movements working to divest the money of individuals, institutions, municipalities, pension, funds, and more out of the extractive economy of Wall St. banks, private prison corporations, and the fossil fuel industry, and reinvest those funds into the New Economy. NEC believes in divestment and reinvestment as powerful strategies for change and offers the ... Read more

Involve Everyone In Production: Basic Principle Of The Economy In Rojava

Above Photo: From geo.coop in Rojava and Bakur This is an academic article translated from Abrstrakt Magazine, where it first appeared in Turkish on 5th October, 2016. The basic principle of the economic policies of the Assad regime in Rojava was to keep the people poor and deprived in order to maintain their dependence. The Jazira [Cizîrê‎ / Cezîre] and Kobanî [Kobanê] cantons served as the breadbasket of Syria. Before the revolution, forty ... Read more

Seattle Mayor, 2 City Council Members Propose City Income Tax On The Rich

Above Photo: by Joe Raedle/Getty Images SEATTLE — Mayor Ed Murray and City Council members Kshama Sawant and Lisa Herbold on Monday proposed a new tax on high-income households. The proposal would place a 2 percent tax on joint filers’ income over $500,000 and single tax filers’ income over $250,000. They said the estimated $125 million in new annual revenue would allow the city to lower the burden associated with property taxes and other ... Read more

Hawaii May Become First State With Guaranteed Income

Above Photo: A bill was recently passed in Hawaii through both the houses of the legislature in a unanimous vote that declares that all Hawaiians ‘deserve basic financial security’ and prompts state agencies to look over ‘universal basic income’ along with other policy. Getty Images Hawaii could become the first state to offer its citizens universal basic income after bill passes through both houses of state legislature Hawaii is working ... Read more

Veteran Organizer Gives Inside Look At The First $15 Minimum Wage Campaign

Above Photo: As the labor movement finds itself in a state of crisis, Jonathan Rosenblum’s new book is both a timely history of a bold campaign’s unlikely victory and an inspiring call for a flexible, progressive and power-building vision of labor organizing. (Photo by David Ryder/Getty Images) Back in 2011, as the Occupy Wall Street movement was still spreading through the country, a smaller standoff was unfolding at Sea-Tac, the ... Read more

Massachusetts To Vote On Taxing The Wealthy

Above Photo: From massteacher.org The Massachusetts Legislature, meeting in a Constitutional Convention, has approved sending the proposed Fair Share Amendment to the November 2018 state ballot. The legislators’ vote of 134-55 on Wednesday, June 14, was the second by a Constitutional Convention on the measure, as is required for amendments to the Massachusetts Constitution. The citizens’ initiative would create an additional 4 percent tax on ... Read more

Are You Unable To Afford Decent Housing? Welcome To The Club

Above Photo: ‘By the time I was seven, I had already moved four times.’ Photograph: Mario Tama/Getty Images The affordable housing crisis is becoming inescapable. We have now reached the point where a minimum-wage worker can only afford to live in about a dozen counties in the entire nation. Even those with college degrees and wages above minimum wage struggle. This problem doesn’t just impact countless poor Americans any more. Now it hits ... Read more