The Rich Keep Getting Richer

The recession/depression rages on for most Americans. Millions of Americans have lost their jobs, and many have given up hope of finding another. For every job that does come open, there are many applicants wanting to fill it. And even those who still have their jobs are the victims of wage stagnation (with their current wage unable to purchase the same amount of goods and services that someone with that same job could have purchased in the 1970s). Both those with jobs and those without jobs find themselves falling further behind with every month that passes.

But while that is true of most Americans, it is not true for the richest Americans. They are doing better than ever, and find themselves controlling more and more of the nation's income and wealth. Take for example the Wall Street financial giants, who kicked off this recession with their greed and incompetence.

The American people had to save these Wall Street financial giant firms by giving them billions in taxpayer dollars. The taxpayer bailout worked and these companies are once again making record profits. Are they showing any appreciation for being saved by hard-working Americans? Are they giving back by making loans easier for individuals and small businesses? Are they helping out by backing off on home foreclosures and working with the owners in trouble? No, not at all. They are laughing all the way to the bank.

Instead of using some of their record profits to help the people whose hard-earned money bailed them out, they are using those profits to give themselves huge raises and bonuses. Just a few days ago, the CEO of Goldman Sachs, Lloyd Blankfein, had his salary TRIPLED to $2 million and then was given another $12.6 million in company shares. And what did he do to "earn" this $14.6 million? He presided over a company that saw its profits drop by 38% last year to a measley $8.5 billion (which I'm sure will be an excuse to avoid giving raises to rank-and-file workers).

And Blankfein is not the only beneficiary of Wall Street's generosity to the richest people. The CEO of Citigroup, Vikram Pandit, also got a raise last week -- a raise of $1,749,999.00. Who knows how many millions of dollars in stock went with that raise.

It should be clear to everyone by now that there are two Americas -- the America for the rich where its inhabitants are rolling in money, and the America for everyone else who are becoming little more than victims for the rich to exploit. Regardless of what the so-called economic pundits think, this country's economic problems cannot be fixed without addressing the vast inequality in wealth and income that exists (and grows wider each day).