Work hard, get screwed-Greed in action in American Business, 1950-now

In the 1950s, one of the most prosperous (financially) decades in America, the ratio of CEO pay to that of the average worker was 25-1. By 2001 it was around 300-1. Since then, workers' productivity has exploded, as has the ratio of CEO pay, now around 500-1.

The thanks people got for working hard and doing a great job?

• they got fired, (downsized)
• the people left got to do 2 jobs for 1 salary
• businesses sent as many jobs as they could overseas
• while executives raised their salaries through the roof
• and shareholders got rich

What if CEOs were required by law to share the benefits. They can make as much as they want, but only 25 times what the average salary of their company is, including perks and benefits.
It was good enough under Eisenhower.
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Meanwhile, conservative politicians were scaring the bejesus out of people about violent crime, while passing all kinds of laws that allowed people to get mugged by

• banks
• credit card companies
• and all the rest of their rich friends

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Oh, and while they were doing that, they bought as many newspapers and TV stations and radio stations as they could,
Just so you wouldn't be troubled by hearing anything other than

"What's good for business is good for America".

After all, why leave elections to chance?

Did you know that:

George Bush fired a lot of the accountants at the IRS
who were in charge of auditing the incomes of the super wealthy.

So now they are using the media to get people worked up, that bad Obama is hurting the poor rich people, (the same ones who systematically looted the country as much as they could get away with).

If someone robs you,

and you see them on the street,

do you let them get away with it?

Well, do you?

(you'll never seem them on the street, they're in the back of limos and on their yachts, they got away with it)

And now,

the biggest scam of all,

the tool of tools,

that allows a few super-rich people to rule America

the sick joke known as

Corporate Personhood, which says that
they can do whatever they want
and not be held responsible

never heard of it, did you?

that's OK,

it's still impacting every aspect of your life

A corporation is a legal fiction. There are only people; owners, shareholders, CEOs, workers.

In 1933 60 families owned most of America. How many own it today?

In 1933 Ferdinand Lundberg wrote a book, based on a great deal of research, called

America's 60 Families  http://www.google.com/search?aq=0&oq=america's+60&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=america's+60+families

in which he detailed how a small number of super rich people owned America. Some of the names may have changed, but America is still owned and operated by perhaps 1000 people.

-Through the legal fiction of "corporation", their control is disguised.

-Through the legal bribery of "campaign contributions", they buy and sell politicians to get the laws and policies that benefit the super rich at the expense of everybody else.

-They own the media, so the only message heard mainstream is "capitalism and competition'

All the people complaining about corporations miss the point that

there is no such physical thing as a corporation, only people, and 

there is a ruling aristocracy in America that has names and faces.

Please, never say corporations again. Talk about the ruling class, the feudal lords who rule America as their person fiefdom. Name the names who own specific companies.

Read Perfectly Legal, by David Cay Johnston,
an incredible, eye opening book
http://www.google.com/search?q=Perfectly+Legal%2C+david+cay+johnston&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=com.yahoo:en-US:official&client=firefox

The Economic Policy Institute
http://www.epi.org/issues/category/wages_and_living_standards/