Senator Bernie Sanders writes that the American Middle Class is being decimated. He cites some interesting numbers. Here’s a couple shockers:
Robert Frank, a Wall Street Journal reporter, has detailed the lives of the rich and famous in the book Richistan. He writes that households with a net worth of between $100 million and $1 billion last year spent an average of $182,000 on watches. Meanwhile, in the real world, 400,000 qualified students were unable to go to college because they lacked the funds.
Frank also details how during this one-year period the economically elite households spent $311,000 on cars, $397,000 on jewelry and $169,000 on spa services. At the same time, President Bush presented a budget in which he proposed cuts that would deny child care to 300,000 families and food stamps for 280,000 families.
Here's more evidence of the growing disparity. Retail is starting to hurt, except for retailers who sell luxuries. http://www.slate.com/id/2176188/