so this is Martin Luther King Day and you know we
we've been talking about how he is you know
known for go trying to get his pass the racial inequality we had
but we also want to talk about the income inequality that he talked about
decades ago
I and boy how right he was i mean he was right back then
he's even more I today john has some figures for you that are
stony yet so these figures are coming out of an Oxfam study and
if you thought that you would learn something about income inequality as a
result perhaps the nine
a but Occupy Wall Street these back to blow anything we thought we knew out of
the water
the most significant perhaps the 85 richest people in the world
own the same amount of wealth is the 3.5 billion poorest
you could fit there was 85 people
in the tiny studio that we are shooting this video in
and they probably have shoulder room: and they have more wealth than half of
all the humans living
in are overcrowded earth look beyond his way I get it meant of course
the richest people took more than the border 0 course and of course the
the 50 percent mark all the world that's
in the bottom bracket have very little money I know that all you got
sub-saharan Africa large parts to China India et cetera
we're not naive about that right it black solar for some I thought well okay
85,000 rate
a that the averages 85,000 people have more than three and a half billion
people right
that's on there he wrapped my mind around I can understand that BI
I get how economics works right 85 people period
85 period great know there's something wrong here
there's something wrong look the Impala promise john's mother explained use
their hiding the money
but there's a reason we do taxes I was just in the South I was in Kentucky now
is in
in tennessee won last couple days and get everybody complaining about taxes
but the taxes isn't just so like we just
throat in the arms importer we do a lot as their militarism et cetera idea
but it's so that people could have an opportunity so the three and a half
billion
has a shot to be one of those 85 right but instead the 85 hordes and hordes and
hordes and green is running agreed is run amok
and by the way it's not like it be better if those 85 people to keep 3.5
billion in extreme poverty
but doesn't even in a very general sense benefit the capitalist structure if
those 3.5 billion
had the money to buy things to engage in this order
shallow commercial lifestyle that we americans get to engage in
that would benefit everyone because the system itself would be so much stronger
but those 85 people who could fit on a bus Orlin
in that you know %uh of frat house they don't care about the system the only
care about their own obscene level
well you know there's a greater today than your time some guy named Pope who
used to work as a
investment banker and East trade derivatives
I made a lot of money doing it and he said one if he eventually quit because
he got a bonus or 3.4 million oz
not he quit because oh well that's plenty he quit because he thought he
should come
eight million okay and he's now couple years removed from that
any said all my god would I now that I'm removed from that insane bubble
I realize we're all addicts everybody in and
in wall street is addicted to money and any he literally 10 minutes
wake up moments was that use a new his boss at a hedge fund
and he said but wait a minute it some others regulations would actually
hoped economy and would help the market's 18 in the long run
and the guy said what the hell do I care about that all I care about is
today and of us I don't care about anything else
okay that gives you a sense of how shortsighted AR they keep digging and
digging and digging the Bell runs around the corner
but they keep their EPA because they can't help but they're addicted
they're addicted to that money in the greed is gonna destroy us all
yep Wall Street will be the next Morea Clark is worth
the more crazy facts but to give you an idea of not just
the end result of this but how we got to a position where 85 people have as much
wealth is 3.5 billion
since the late nineteen seventies tax rates for the richest have fallen in 29
of the 30 countries for which data
is available so when they say taxes or worse that's not true
it's the exact opposite to the truth tax evasion got lower lower lower some areas
some taxes go up like the sale site why because we all pay that the poor pay
that the middle class pay that
it's not that big a percentage of the riches income they love sales tax
because thats redistributing the money so the UK they get more the middle class
the poor
that differ whereas other taxes like a state taxes going down
right at the investment taxes the fact that the Mitt Romney's the war bob is
the world pay less in their sector is a crime
same executive told the New York Times from a guy who was there they say the
in that circle in Wall Street a local of course worship a
less taxes that are secretary we work so hard
but everybody works hard at everybody works hard you said you were going month
yeah oppressive but you're not extraordinary you just happen to be this
situation where you're able to buy out the politicians so the day lower your
taxes
to totally on natural and unfair level
my god Mitt Romney West literally hundreds of millions of dollars
in New Years Eve knew he was gonna run for president where you try to pay as
much sex as possible
could not even pay 30 percent he was a 12 point nine percent
twelve-point I was on average in the years he paid the most taxes
how is that fair an average guy will pair up 25 percent
and when you consider sales like will pay a much higher percentage
opposing come it a try mm okay was right
it's even worse today than it was back to yeah more crazy figures are wealthy
individuals and companies hide
21 trillion dollars in wealth and whether tax havens
around the world that is a very significant amount of money more than
the US GDP of course
in the US the top one percent captured ninety-five percent of the growth after
the 2009
financial crisis so that I love a crisis that was caused by them
wrecked the economy for us and they're doing quite well in that in the wake a
bit
no matter where they were covered it look it so you have to say something is
the temp
really important final point it's not an accident
it's not a a coincidence the rules were set
in their favor by them by the guys that they bought
okay so dip 29 very countries the taxes go down
they have these taxes twenty one trillion dollars they're hiding using
the
a the Treasury Department's have all those countries don't know that of
course they know that
but they're not mine anyway because they were only government
they get the taxes from us but not from those guys from the guys who can most
afford it
they get the least amount of taxes as a percentage right
so they know it the you think Obama the guy with the change placards oh god I
hope placards
like he doesn't know the ninety-five percent they economic
recovery under Obama went to the top one percent
he knows but I got bad news for you he was also elected by them
not just elected by them by selected by that
because before we even got the boat there was a different kinda primary a
primary where the donors
poured in a ton of money to the chem they say like weekend as they didn't
like that were more popular as well they're on the right or the left
were considered fringe candidates are acceptable candidates
outside the mainstream candidates so those guys
never got a chance they never got to go to the debates
they never got any of those things but they knew Obama that he wouldn't change
anything
any did he got he got a recovery and headed right back to all