Courtesy of Pam Martens.
We used to be a country with a rich heart. Now we’re the land of the heartless rich.
In one of the worst economic downturns since the Great Depression, the billionaire Koch brothers who habitually rail against government’s unfair burden on the wealthy, have almost doubled their net worth to a combined $64 billion. On March 10, 2010, Forbes listed the net worth of Charles and David Koch at $17.5 billion each. This year, Forbes says the Koch brothers are individually worth $34 billion.
During that same time period, some of the bleakest economic news has been reported for the rest of America. Just yesterday, the Pew Research Center released a study showing that between 2009 to 2011 the richest 7 percent of Americans increased their wealth by 28 percent while the remaining 93 percent of households lost 4 percent of their net worth. The study analyzed Census Bureau data for the period.
Last June, the U.S. Department of Education reported that there were 1,065,794 homeless children enrolled in America’s preschools, kindergarten and grades 1 to 12 in the 2010-2011 school year — the highest number on record, and a 13 percent increase over the 2009 to 2010 school year. The figure does not capture the total number of homeless children since school data excludes infants and toddlers and homeless children not attending public schools.
According to the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), it would cost $20 billion to end homelessness in the United States. The Kochs have enough money to do that with $44 billion left over to funnel to their plethora of right wing front groups who serially bellyache about how unfair things are for the affluent in America.
New York City’s Mayor Michael Bloomberg, also on the Forbes billionaire list with a net worth of $27 billion, owns at least 11 homes around the world. While the Mayor is adding to his country estates and horse stables, the Coalition for the Homeless reported this month that there are more than 21,000 homeless children living in New York City, an increase of 22 percent in the last year and the greatest homeless crisis since the Great Depression.
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