Fact Sheets & Briefs

Banksters Run Amok: The Facts

Brian Dockstader — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 14:51:48 -0400

The Unprecedented Crises Our Nation Now Faces

The huge sums of federal money taxpayers are being asked to spent to cover bad bets could have been used to make America better:

• Fix a broken health care system. In 2007, 45.7 million Americans were without health insurance; 8.1 million of these Americans are children.
(United States Census Bureau. Current Population Survey 2007. Table C-1: Health Insurance Coverage: 1987 to 2007. Pg 61. Table C-3: Health Insurance Coverage by Age: 1999 to 2007. Pg. 66. August 2008. (Adjusted 2008 Dollars)).

• End our addiction to oil. Since September 2001, U.S. oil imports have increased 12 percent.
(Oil Price Information Service and AAA. Daily Fuel Gauge Report. 2008. (Adjusted 2008 Dollars).
(Energy Information Administration. U.S. Crude Oil and Petroleum Products Imports from All Countries (Thousand Barrels). 26 August 2008)..

• Rebuild a country that’s falling apart:

♦ One out of four bridges in the United States is structurally deficient or functionally obsolete. Every $1 billion of federal funding invested in transportation infrastructure creates 47,500 jobs.
(United States Department of Transportation. “Deficient Bridges by State and Highway System.” Federal Highway Administration. 14 August 2008)

♦ One third of United States’ schools need extensive repair. Investing $20 billion in deferred school maintenance would generate 250,000 skilled maintenance jobs.
(United States General Accounting Office. School Facilities: Condition of America’s Schools. February 1995)
(Mary Filardo. Good Buildings, Better Schools: An Economic Stimulus Opportunity with Long-Term Benefits. Economic Policy Institute. Briefing Paper #216. 29 April 2008)

♦ Investing $500 billion in a comprehensive economic strategy to build America’s 21st century clean energy economy over the next 10 years would generate 5 million high-quality, green-collar jobs.
(Apollo Alliance. The New Apollo Program: Clean Energy, Good Jobs. September 2008)

Wall Street Is A Monster Donor to Both Political Parties

From 1990 through July 2008, the banking, real estate and insurance industries poured more than $2 billion into federal election campaigns, including $311 million just in the first seven months of 2008. The money follows the party in power: Republicans got more money when they controlled Congress; now that Democrats do, they’re getting more. Plus, these industries spent $415,259,323 on lobbying in 2007.
(Center for Responsive Politics)

The Dream Gone Bad: The Facts

Alex Carter — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 16:55:23 -0400

The cost of living keeps rising.

• Since 2001, the overall costs of living has increased 21.5 percent, driven by big increases in such life essentials as gas, home heating oil and food.
(Consumer Price Index: All Urban Consumers-(CPI-U); U.S. City Averages. Bureau of Labor Statistics. 14 August 2008.).

• Gasoline and home-heating oil has increased 108 percent and 99 percent, respectively, since 2001.
(Oil Price Information Service and AAA. Daily Fuel Gauge Report. 2008. (Adjusted 2008 Dollars).
(Energy Information Administration. Weekly U.S. no. 2 Heating Oil Residential Price. 19 March 2008. (Adjusted 2008 Dollars)).

• Costs for many staples at the grocery store have gone up sharply: Shoppers are paying 41 percent more for bread, 37 percent more for ground beef, and almost 100 percent more for eggs since January 2001.
United States Bureau of Labor Statistics. Consumer Price Index: Average Price Data. 2008. Data compiled: 12 September 2008. (Adjusted 2008 Dollars).

Wages don’t keep pace.

Since 2000, median household income has declined by 1 percent ($324.00).
(United States Census Bureau. Current Population Survey 2007. Table A-1: Households by Total Money Income, Race, and Hispanic Origin of Householder: 1967 to 2007. Pg 31. August 2008. (Adjusted 2008 Dollars)).

Savings vanish.

The personal savings rate is the lowest it has been since the Great Depression (since 1933, the last year it was negative).
(United States Department of Commerce. National Income and Product Accounts Table; Table 2.1 Personal Income and Its Disposition [Billion of Dollars] Seasonally Adjusted at Annual Rates. Bureau of Economic Analysis. 28 August 2008.).

Debt builds up.

In 2007, the total value of all forms of household debt was at its highest on record—nearly 20 percent of all assets. All debt, as a share of annual disposable personal income, was also at its highest, at 141 percent.
(Lawrence Mishel, Jared Bernstein, and Heidi Shierholz. The State of Working America 2008/2009. (Advance Proof). Economic Policy Institute. Pg 284. Ithaca, New York: Cornel University Press, 2008.).

The inequalities scream out for change.

• An average worker works a whole year to earn what her CEO takes home in one day. In 2007, the chief executives of the 500 biggest companies in the United States made an average of $12.8 million apiece—$51,200 a day; while, the average weekly wage earner makes $42,650 a year.
(Scott DeCarlo. “Top Paid CEOs.” Forbes. 30 April 2008.).
(United States Department of Labor. Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages. Bureau of Labor Statistics. 2008. Data compiled: 12 September 2008.).

• A hedge fund billionaire pays a lower tax rate than his secretary. Hedge fund manager billionaire Warren Buffet presently pays taxes at a lower rate than his receptionist (18 percent vs. 30 percent) without offshore tax shelters or other devices he declines to use.
(Tomoeh Murakami Tse. “Buffett Slams Tax System Disparities Speech Raises at Least $1 Million for Clinton Campaign.” Washington Post. 27 June 2007.).

The old deal between the people who own the country and the workers who make it go has been busted.

• Over the last seven years profits and productivity have soared. Corporate profits have climbed 13 percent a year in the six years after the 2001 recession ended. Productivity has also increased by 11 percent since the recovery of the 2001 recession.
(“Worked and Over Worked.” New York Times. Pg. 3. 20 April 2008. ).
(Lawrence Mishel, Jared Bernstein, and Heidi Shierholz. The State of Working America 2008/2009. (Advance Proof). Economic Policy Institute. Pg 284. Ithaca, New York: Cornel University Press, 2008.).

• Meanwhile, since 2000, median household income has declined by 1 percent ($324.00).
(United States Census Bureau. Current Population Survey 2007. Table A-1: Households by Total Money Income, Race, and Hispanic Origin of Householder: 1967 to 2007. Pg 31. August 2008. (Adjusted 2008 Dollars)).

It’s time to empower workers to organize at the workplace and crack down on employees who trample their rights.

Some 60 million U.S. workers say they would join a union if they could, based on research conducted by Peter D. Hart Research Associates in December 2006. However, when faced with organizing drives, 25 percent of employers fire at least one pro-union worker; 51 percent threaten to close a worksite if the union prevails; and, 92 percent force employees to attend one-on-one anti-union meetings with their supervisors.
(American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations. “60 Million Workers Would Join A Union If They Could.” 2007.).
(American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations. “Employer Interference by the Numbers (Private-Sector Employees).” 2007.).

Corporations are shredding promises they made on health care and pensions. It's time to forge a new social contract.

• Employer-provided health insurance for workers has decreased by 8 percent since 2000. That means almost 2 million fewer workers have coverage.
(United States Census Bureau. Current Population Survey 2007. Table A-1: Households by Total Money Income, Race, and Hispanic Origin of Householder: 1967 to 2007. Pg 61. August 2008.).

• The percentage of workers covered by employer-provided pensions, which tended to rise in the 1990s, declined by 2.8 percentage points from 2000 to 2006 to 42.8 percent, 7.8 percentage points below the level in 1979.
(Lawrence Mishel, Jared Bernstein, and Heidi Shierholz. The State of Working America 2008/2009. (Advance Proof). Economic Policy Institute. Pg 284. Ithaca, New York: Cornel University Press, 2008.).

The Progressive Solution

Robert Borosage — Thu, 16 Nov 2006 10:44:43 -0500

Education has to become a real national priority. No Child Left Behind was great as a slogan coined by the Children's Defense Fund. It is a disaster as a national education law. College education is exceedingly unaffordable and the cost precludes many potential students from pursuing a college degree. Progressives must unite Americans to meet the challenges facing our education system in the 21st century. We must make progress in several key areas.

More Learning Time: All children should enjoy quality pre-school and kindergarten learning and socialization, and students from 1st through 12th grades should have meaningful afterschool education opportunities. The school year should move from the agricultural calendar of the 19th century to a calendar that maximizes learning.

Quality Teachers and Principals: Skilled educators should teach all students. Every teachers and principal should receive high-quality training before he or she enters school, have on-the-job training opportunities, and be rewarded for excellence. If we hope to retain the best teachers, we need to pay them more and provide them with career opportunities. Our best educators should receive financial incentives to teach in those schools with the most at-risk children.

An Equal Education: Every student should have an opportunity to learn. Adequate health care and nutrition, and an end to the savage inequality in school funding, are all keys to providing an equal education.

A Rigorous Education: Every student should be provided a first-rate education with demanding curriculum standards in core subject areas. Voluntary national standards can help parents hold schools accountable.

Affordable College: Every child must know that he or she can afford a college education. No student should be priced out of the college or advanced technical training they need to succeed in the modern economy. Tuition rates, grant aid, and loan forgiveness must be readjusted to make college affordable.

Progressives should challenge every sector of society and every level of government to make education a top priority. Doubling federal expenditures on education—from three to six percent—should be adopted as a near-term goal, even as states and localities are challenged to invest more. To guarantee the money is used well, we should require that districts are spending money wisely and investing in best practices.

America's future depends on how well we educate our children. To provide every child with a world-class education we need to start sooner, set standards higher and provide opportunities for advanced training and college for all. We need to attract and retain skilled teachers. We need to restructure the school day and the school year. Money alone won't solve the problems facing our schools, but a policy of reforms without resources mocks the scope of our challenge.