Free Trade Agreements Redistributing Income and Wealth from the 99 to the One Percent

(Reuters) – “The number of Americans claiming unemployment benefits for the first time fell only slightly last week, suggesting that job growth in April will not improve much after March’s disappointing performance.”

The economy is weak because demand is weak and that is due to the massive redistribution of income and wealth the federal government has undertaken under sneaky, lying Democrats and their sneaky, lying Republican co-conspirators. The government has redistributed income from working people to the rich for the last thirty years, but nobody wants to talk about how the one percent now steal about 25 percent of total national income compared to about 7 percent under President Jimmy Carter; 12 million jobs were created under Carter’s watch, with real rising wages during his four years in office. No matter what you can say about Jimmy Carter as president, we got to say, “Those were the good old days.” Unfortunately, they were and we didn’t think that back then.

The one percent stole 93 percent of total national income growth from 2009 to 2010, and it’s likely they did pretty much the same from 2010 to 2011, although those statistics are not available, as of yet. The worse thing is that “Wall Street Obama” has knowingly continued to use the federal government to redistribute income and wealth to the rich, and expect even more money to be shoveled toward the rich should “Wall Street Romney” become president. Think in terms of the South Korea, Panama and Colombia free trade agreements. Once jobs are shipped to those nations, or created there because of those agreements, the difference between the old wages here and the new lower wages there go into the pockets of the one percent via rising corporate profits, enhanced dividends and soaring share prices. God forbid!

Actually, God help the American people because with these choices for president we’re racing toward economic disaster, and we’re going to need all the help we can get has we barrel our way toward third world status.

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Thousands of College Students March In London Against Cuts In University Funding Brought About by Offsourcing Jobs for the Rich

Note from John Hively–England’s economic problems are similar to the United States. Jobs have been shipped overseas and the difference between the old wages in England and the new wages elsewhere is pocketed by the rich in the form of dividends and higher stock prices. Think about this. The rich person receives the income from the jobs that has been shipped, year after year, for as long as that job remains overseas. Income is redistributed this way from working people to the rich, but the lose of jobs also means a reduction of the tax base, which forces a number of things, one of which is the increase in university tuition.

Below is the story of the march by by Agence France-Presse of Rawstory.com.

Thousands of students marched through London against cuts in university funding as a massive police operation prevented a repeat of the violence at similar protests a year ago.

Organizers said 10,000 people joined the march on Wednesday through the heart of the financial district in protest against the government’s tripling of higher education fees.

About 4,000 police were deployed, Scotland Yard said, adding that it did not dispute the number of protesters given by the organizers despite earlier giving a lower figure.

Police made 24 arrests, mainly for public order offenses but the rally remained largely peaceful despite a few sticks and bottles being lobbed at lines of riot police.

The only real moment of tension came when officers forcibly cleared a group of demonstrators who briefly pitched tents in London’s historic Trafalgar Square, leaving one protester with a bloody head injury.

Police had warned ahead of the rally that they had authorized the use of rubber bullets in case of “extreme circumstances”, but besides deploying riot and mounted police they did not take any major steps.

“It went extremely well. We’re very happy with the turnout, which is good given the amount of intimidation there was before,” Michael Chessum, of the National Campaign against Fees and Cuts, told AFP.

“We wanted to send out a clear statement to the government that this is a sustainable movement, it isn’t over, and I think that is what we have done pretty successfully today.”

The heavy police presence was in response to the violence that marred a series of four student protests last year against the tuition fees hike, which the government says is needed as part of austerity measures.

At the first rally on November 10, 2010, protesters smashed up the Conservative Party offices, while a month later they attacked a car carrying Prince Charles and his wife Camilla.

Riot police in fluorescent jackets lined the route of Wednesday’s protest from the University of London to the City of London financial district, blocking off all side roads, while police helicopters buzzed overhead.

They handed out booklets to protesters advising them what to do if there is disorder, for example to stand aside and let officers work, demonstrators said.

They also stopped the demonstrators joining a protest camp at St Paul’s Cathedral, where anti-capitalism activists inspired by the “Occupy Wall Street” movement have been camping out since mid-October.

A group of protesters had earlier broken off from the main rally to set up around 25 tents in historic Trafalgar Square at the foot of Nelson’s Column, which commemorates one of Britain’s greatest naval victories.

Police later moved in, hauling protesters out of the green and blue tents which officers then folded up.

“This is what democracy looks like,” screamed one protester with a trickle of blood running down his forehead, as police led him away in handcuffs.

Another protester, Glyn Jukes, told AFP the demonstrators were allied to the “Occupy London Stock Exchange” movement in St Paul’s.

“We’ve chosen this very public place at the centre of London to serve as a beacon for the general strike on the 30th to help communicate with people,” Jukes said.

Trade unions are planning a major walkout over pension reforms on November 30, which the student movement says it will join.

Fears of violence had also been raised after London was rocked by riots and looting for four nights in August, which the government blamed on criminality, but which many analysts linked to high levels of deprivation in some areas.

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