Obama may be finally
apologising (he'll be doing a whole lot more of that soon) for lies about medical insurance and the train-wreck that has been the 'Obamacare' roll-out but I think he may soon have more to worry about:
Zero hedge has a post by Michael Snyder of The Economic Collapse blog with some startling facts and figures (all sourced) all about the gap between rich and poor, wealth imbalance etc in the US. Of course in the UK and elsewhere I am guessing similar things can be said but in the USA, as always, things seem so much more exacerbated.
Here is a couple that made me sit up:
- Nearly 40 percent of all American workers make less than $20,000 a year (before tax!). [US SSA]
- One out of every four American workers has a job that pays $10 an hour or less. [Economist's View]
Now looking at the graph (left: click to enlarge) you'll see the UK, Canada, Ireland and Germany all with one out of every five workers in the low-wage bracket but you'll know - at least in the UK - our lower wage bracket (worked in relation to median wage) is higher: the US figure is 25% of all workers on the equivalent of our minimum wage (currently £6.31/hour).
Update: also
yesterday:
"Senate Democrats, hoping to move beyond the disastrous rollout of the new health care law, plan to pivot to legislation that would increase the federal minimum wage by nearly $3, to over $10 an hour."
