News: Afternoon Quick Links | Sojourners

News: Afternoon Quick Links

SALON: A New Declaration Of Independence

Here's where we are in the course of human events right now: 14 million Americans are jobless and millions more are underemployed. Those still working have seen wages fall after 30 years of stagnation. The 1 Percent of top wage earners could buy and sell the rest of us without so much as a low balance warning on their checking account apps. The tenth-of-1 Percent earns millions more every year in barely taxed capital gains and derivatives while everyone else struggles to pay down trillions of dollars of debt. Massive, growing income inequality is now belatedly acknowledged by political and media elites, but many of them seem befuddled as to its cause and importance.

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POLITICO: Income Gap Slips Into GOP Talk

Income inequality, a cause of liberal economists and pundits, is working its way into the discourse of Republicans on Capitol Hill. It's a concept that the Occupy Wall Street movement has virtually owned and spread as its protests expand. Democrats have latched on, too, hammering Republicans for economic policies they say favor only the rich. And the Congressional Budget Office released a major report last week, showing that average household income for the top 1 percent of earners increased 275 percent from 1979 to 2007 while increasing just 18 percent for the bottom 20 percent of earners.

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THE HILL: Fears About Inequality In Income Grow

Two-thirds of likely voters say the American middle class is shrinking, and 55 percent believe income inequality has become a big problem for the country, according to this week's The Hill Poll. Only 14 percent of respondents said the middle class is growing and another 14 percent said it is staying the same, while an additional 19 percent said income inequality is somewhat of a problem for the United States. Only 21 percent said inequality was either not much of a problem or no problem at all.

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CROOKS AND LIARS: What If The U.S Were Divided By Income?

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THE HUFFINGTON POST: Bill Gates: I Support Taxing The Rich More Than The Poor

Another super-rich celebrity is voicing support for taxing himself more than other Americans. Billionaire Microsoft founder Bill Gates said in an interview with ABC's This Week, highlighted by Think Progress, that he's "generally in favor of the idea that the rich should pay somewhat more" than everyone else.

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THE NATION: Thinking Big On Poverty

"A dangerous myth that permeates our national narrative is that 'the poor will always be among us' and that there is little government can do to systematically reduce poverty. History shows this belief to be false."

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THINK PROGRESS: The U.S. Cuts Off Funding To UNESCO

Earlier today, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) voted to admit the Palestinian Authority as a full member. The United States just announced that it will be cutting off funding to UNESCO, which is required by a '90s-era law requiring funds to be cut off to any U.N. agency that admits the Palestinians.

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