Turning the Middle Class Poor to Make the Rich Richer

The rivers of money flowing into the overseas coffers of the filthy rich don't come out of nowhere; they originate in the high productivity, low pay and no benefits of working people. Working people who used to be comfortably middle class, but after being robbed of everything by the one percent, are now poor.

Chris Kenning at the Courier:

Brianna Fletcher thought she was doing everything right. She had a job in hotel housekeeping, was enrolled at Sullivan University and was raising her 2-year-old son, Brandon.

But her low wages couldn’t cover her rent, food, diapers and bus passes. Then she was laid off and lost her apartment, and at age 25, she found herself moving to a homeless shelter.

“It’s really hard to get where you need to be,” Fletcher said.

Despite some economic gains amid a slow recovery, poverty rates increased last year in Kentucky and Louisville, according to new Census Bureau data released Thursday. Incomes in Louisville grew slightly but still trailed pre-recession levels, the data show.

The results highlighted how improvements in jobs, home values and stock prices are largely bypassing the less affluent, who are taking the brunt of continuing wage stagnation and high unemployment, Kentucky state demographer Michael Price said.

“Many of the jobs that were lost for unskilled and uneducated workers have not returned, and may not,” he said.

What happened? Where did all the money go?  Income redistribution is what happened, to the obscenely rich is where it went. Here's how: