Memo to all of those people out there asking what the point of #OWS is: Have a look at these payroll statistics to get a clue if you don't have one yet. Via Reuters:
The median paycheck — half made more, half less — fell again in 2010, down 1.2 percent to $26,364. That works out to $507 a week, the lowest level, after adjusting for inflation, since 1999.
The number of Americans with any work fell again last year, down by more than a half million from 2009 to less than 150.4 million.
There was, however, one group that did quite well. Quite well, indeed.
The number of workers making $1 million or more rose to almost 94,000 from 78,000 in 2009. However, that was still below some earlier years, including 2007, when more than 110,000 workers made more than $1 million each.
At the very top, the number of workers making more than $50 million rose in 2010 to 81, up from 72 the year before. But average pay in this group declined $4.5 million to $79.6 million.
Aw. Poor oligarchs took a little hit in pay but increased their ranks. Aren't they the lucky ones?
Meanwhile, we have Republicans in the Senate that are just worst than useless. At this point, I consider their inactions to be inactions of intentional evil.
Oh, here's a bonus. It's a long read, but worth it, if only to see how a teacher and a public employee in Ohio are coping. It's a story lots of us can tell -- just holding on by the edge of our fingernails, if that.
