The Wealth Gap Between Young, Old is Widest Ever

[SiriuslyLong]

While the Middle Class Suffers, Congress is Getting Richer - With Help From Legal Insider Trading
By Kerri Shannon, Associate Editor, Money Morning, Money Morning

While many Americans continue to struggle to save money, members of Congress are getting richer.

A Roll Call analysis of Congress members' financial disclosure forms showed their collective net worth was more than $2 billion in 2010 - a 25% leap from 2008. Minimum net worth in the House of Representatives rose to $1.26 billion, with minimum Senate net worth at $784 million.

With a median net worth of $891,506, Congress members are nine times wealthier than the average American household - and some Congressional leaders are exceedingly richer.

About 11% of Congress has net worth of more than $9 million, landing them in the top 1% of America's wealthy.

And these numbers aren't even the whole picture. They don't include members' homes and other non-income-generating property, which could add hundreds of millions of dollars to total net worth.

Congressional leaders' presence in the top 1% is one of the catalysts that angered citizens enough to start the global "Occupy Wall Street" movement. It also has prompted a closer look at how these elected representatives are gaining such riches, especially on an annual salary of $174,000.

According to a CBS News "60 Minutes" segment that aired Nov. 13, congressional "insider trading" might be a key factor in their financial success. Congress members may be using information gained from their "insider" positions to make highly profitable trades in the stock market.

This form of insider trading may be unethical, but it's also legal.

Read the rest here:

http://moneymorning.com/archives/#author.all.a.49

MORE GOVERNMENT PLEASE. MORE TAXES PLEASE. It would appear that "some" want the rich to get richer. Ain't that rich?

[SiriuslyLong]

Surging college costs price out middle class

I won't post any of the article because all one need see is the graph.

http://money.cnn.com/2011/06/13/news...lass/index.htm

It's called inflationism, and it is destroying the middle class. You can put whatever you want on the red line - the cost of a vehicle, a gallon of gas, a home.....

With inflationism, one needs more dollars to pay for the same damn thing.

[SiriuslyLong]

Solution to Income Inequality? Work Ethic not Hand-outs

Yahoo! News is seeking readers' stories that personalize income inequality in the United States. Below is one perspective. To share yours, sign up with Yahoo! Contributor Network.

FIRST PERSON | According to a recent poll by The Hill, 55 percent believe income inequality is a big problem in our country.

A Business Insider study shows the richest 20 percent are 8.5 times richer than the poorest 20 percent. But while The Hill attributes the disparity to a "lack of opportunity," I say it has more to do with a shortage of a work ethic.

While growing up in Virginia Beach, my first job was mowing lawns. I was 12. In high school, my classmates spent their summers getting tans. I worked 40 hours a week as a barber's apprentice. After graduation I took a second job as a waitress on the graveyard shift for minimum wage, plus tips. By my mid-40s, after 10 years in the corporate world, I was making $55,000 per year, plus bonuses.

According to the super-rich on ABC's 20/20, "successful people do all the things unsuccessful people don't want to do."

In December of 2008, I lost my job. Unable to find work I sold my home and moved in with my fiance. He lost his job in 2010.

"Live your life full throttle," the rich advised on 20/20. "Take risks!"

Hearing of an investment opportunity, I became co-owner of a financial consulting firm and sank $35,000 into a spring water venture that will create jobs for the Passamaquoddy Indian tribe in Maine.

I'm 52 now. My water investment, by current estimates, will generate around $75,000 -- per year -- when bottling begins.

In the meantime, I scrape by as a rental-unit property manager for around $28,000 a year and supplement my income with freelance writing.

Rather than steak, we eat burgers. Where I used to splurge on shoes, I save to pay electric bills.

I refuse to apply for government assistance. Rely on hand-outs, you'll never go beyond the length of the arm behind it. I am down but not defeated. I will rise again. My mom says my first words were "own self."

You'll have to read the rest of this inspirational story right here: http://news.yahoo.com/solution-incom...174500459.html