<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://www.clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/87c67073-8fbf-4344-b02a-f1ff7263c450/83D31B87-AF21-4576-9913-03B22A291EC5/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://www.alternet.org/story/143028/what_recession_as_the_economy_crashed_around_them%2C_400_richest_americans_lined_their_pockets_with_%2430_billion_" href="http://www.alternet.org/story/143028/what_recession_as_the_economy_crashed_around_them%2C_400_richest_americans_lined_their_pockets_with_%2430_billion_" style="font-size: 11px;">www.alternet.org</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.alternet.org/story/143028/what_recession_as_the_economy_crashed_around_them%2C_400_richest_americans_lined_their_pockets_with_%2430_billion_"><P class="storyheadline">What Recession? As the Economy Crashed Around Them, 400 Richest Americans Lined Their Pockets with $30 Billion</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.alternet.org/story/143028/what_recession_as_the_economy_crashed_around_them%2C_400_richest_americans_lined_their_pockets_with_%2430_billion_">It's great to know that during the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, the wealth of the 400 richest Americans, according to <A href="http://www.forbes.com/2008/09/16/richest-american-billionaires-lists-400list08-cx_mm_dg_0917richintro.html"><EM>Forbes</EM></A>, actually increased by $30 billion.</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.alternet.org/story/143028/what_recession_as_the_economy_crashed_around_them%2C_400_richest_americans_lined_their_pockets_with_%2430_billion_">And $30 billion is enough to provide 500,000 school teacher jobs at $60k per year.</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.alternet.org/story/143028/what_recession_as_the_economy_crashed_around_them%2C_400_richest_americans_lined_their_pockets_with_%2430_billion_">Taxes were high back in the 1950s because people understood that constraining wild extremes of wealth would make our country stronger and prevent another depression.</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.alternet.org/story/143028/what_recession_as_the_economy_crashed_around_them%2C_400_richest_americans_lined_their_pockets_with_%2430_billion_"><P>Had we kept those high progressive taxes in place, instead of removing them, especially during the Reagan era, the Forbes 400 might each be worth "only" $100 million instead of $3.9 billion each. So let's imagine that the rest of their wealth, about $1.53 trillion, were available for the public good.</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.alternet.org/story/143028/what_recession_as_the_economy_crashed_around_them%2C_400_richest_americans_lined_their_pockets_with_%2430_billion_"><P>What does $1.53 trillion buy?</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.alternet.org/story/143028/what_recession_as_the_economy_crashed_around_them%2C_400_richest_americans_lined_their_pockets_with_%2430_billion_"><P>It's more than enough to insure the uninsured for the next twenty years or more.</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.alternet.org/story/143028/what_recession_as_the_economy_crashed_around_them%2C_400_richest_americans_lined_their_pockets_with_%2430_billion_"><P>Where's Dwight David Eisenhower when we need him?</P></blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/83D31B87-AF21-4576-9913-03B22A291EC5/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content8.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>

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