The richest 1% of Americans earn nearly a quarter of the country's income and control an astonishing 40% of its wealth. [The bottom 90% own essentially nothing and actually have a negative net worth called debt. The Occupy Movement will no longer camp quietly to call attention to this.]
Inequality in the US is more extreme than it has been in almost a century -- and the gap between the super rich and the middle class and poor has widened drastically over the last 30 years.
"The Top 1%" - With 1% of Americans controlling 40% of the country's wealth, Fault Lines examines the gap between it and the 99%. This episode first aired on Al Jazeera English.
Meanwhile, in Washington, a bitter partisan debate over how to cut deficit spending and reduce the country's $14.3 trillion dollar debt is underway. [The debt is actually far larger than ever reported.]
As wages stagnate and unemployment remains above 9%, Republicans and [their moderate wing known as the] Democrats are tussling over whether to slash funding for the medical and retirement programs that are the backbone of the US's social safety net and whether to raise or cut taxes.
Occupy (Wall Street) Los Angeles developing stories and interviews (KPFK.org)
The budget debate and the economy are the battleground on which the 2012 presidential election race will be fought. And the United States has never seemed so divided, politically and economically.
How did the gap grow so wide so quickly? And how are the convictions, campaign contributions, and charitable donations of the top 1% impacting the other 99% of Americans? Fault Lines investigates the gap between the rich and the rest.
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