What the Wall Street Protestors

are so Upset About

Three years after the financial crisis, the unemployment rate, except for a brief blip in the early 1980s, is still at the highest level since the Great Depression.

Jobs are scarce, so many adults have given up looking for them. Thus, there has been a sharp decline in the "participation ratio."

A record percentage of un-employed people have been unemployed for longer than 6 months.

The median duration of all un-employment is also near an all-time high.

The 9% unemployment rate equates to 14 million Americans —people who want to work but can't find jobs.

To the unemployed, add people working part-time who want to work full-time, people who have given up looking for a job, and the 9% becomes 17%.

Put differently, this is the lowest percentage of Americans with jobs since the early 1980s.

Despite the high unemployment, corporate profits just hit an all-time high.

Corporate profits, as a percent of the economy, are higher than they've been since the 1950s. And they are VASTLY higher than they've been for over half a century.

CEO pay is now 350 times the average worker's -- up from about 50 times from 1960-1985.

CEO pay has increased 300% since 1990. Corporate profits have doubled. Average "production worker" pay has increased 4%.

After adjusting for inflation, average hourly earnings haven't increased in 50 years.

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics. Average Hourly Earnings in 1982 dollars (adjusted for inflation with CPI-U).

While CEOs and shareholders have been cashing-in, wages as a percent of the economy have dropped to an all-time low.

The Gini Coefficient is a measure of the inequality of a distribution, a value of 0 expressing total equality and a value of 1 maximal inequality. These figures reflect family/household incomes according to the Central Intelligence Agency.

The United States is the 93d worst country in the world in terms of income inequity (only selected countries shown here).

Despite these facts, some in Congress want to

continue conditions that have caused the disparity:

•Deregulation of financials•A tax code that favors the wealthy•Media censorship of the news•Lobbying of Congress•Subsidies and tax loop holes•Gerrymandering•Skyrocketing costs for health care and education

So, what do the protestors want?

Social and economic equity (fairness).

Enough is Enough!It’s Time for a New New

Deal.