Overall, the rich have become richer, and the poor have become poorer.
Ben H. Bagdikian put it well in his "Preface to the Sixth Edition" of the The Media Monopoly, after he explained that just six of the world's largest corporations, control 95% of the mass media, he wrote:
"The American economy [has been] undergoing an astonishing phenomenon that the mainstream news left largely unreported or actually glamorized in its infrequent references, the largest transfer of the national wealth in American history from a majority of the population to a small percentage of the country's wealthiest families." This process was facilitated by the fact that almost every "tax reform" from Kennedy in 1961, to Bush in 2004, has resulted in the taking of wealth from the working class and giving it to the capitalist class.
According to info please, Black households median income in 1972 was $21,311 or $97,201.78 in 2005 dollars, while white Households median income in 1972 was $36,510 or $166,526.06 in 2005 dollars. In 2004 Black households had a median income in 2004 was $30,947 in 2005 dollars. White Households had the highest median income at $47,957 in 2005 dollars. Significantly lower than the median incomes for 1972.
These figures show that Black Households median income in 1972 was 58% of white households median income and approximate 64% of white households today. This does not represent progress, it represents that income for workers, Black People and other minorities has decreased since 1972. Black people now have an income of 64% of white households that has not kept up with inflation and has actually decreased by over 50% since 1972. Since the working class and the poor have been suffering an ever-increasing rate of taxation and concurrent cuts in government services, the decline in real wages and their standard of living has been worse.
In order to regain what has been lost and win equality rights for all, we must stop supporting those who are oppressing us - the Democratic and Republican Parties - and go back to what made all movements powerful. Which was relying upon ourselves and building our own independent power.
As King said: "There is nothing, except a tragic death wish, to prevent us from reordering our priorities... The coalition of an energized section of labor, Negroes, unemployed, and welfare recipients may be the source of power that reshapes economic relationships and ushers in a breakthrough to a new level of social reform.
"The total elimination of poverty, now a practical responsibility, the reality of equality in race relations and other profound structural changes in society may well begin here."
Such a coalition, as King envisioned it thirty-three years ago, is needed today. In order to survive, we must begin the begin.
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