Greetings,

        The following data is mainly, but not entirely, for the United
States.  Actual U.S. population is about 270 million.
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- "Between 1983 and 1989 the top 20% of wealth holders received 99% of the
total gain in marketable wealth, while the bottom 80% of the population
got only 1%" (Edward N. Wolff, "How the Pie is Sliced," 1995).

- "The combined wealth of the top 1 percent of U.S. families is about the
same as that of the entire bottom 95 percent" (Holly Sklar, Jobs, Income,
and Work: Ruinous Trends, Urgent Alternatives, 1995, p. 9).

- "The top 0.5% of wealth holders still own 32% of stocks - double the 16%
share held by the bottom 90%.  Bond ownership is even more top-heavy.  The
top 0.5% holds 46% of the total, while the bottom 90% holds just 10%"
(Unpublished Federal Reserve technical paper, analyzed by Left Business
Observer, July 17, 1997).

- "The United States is the richest country on the planet yet it has the
greatest income disparity.... Sixty percent of all U.S. jobs created since
1979 pay less than $7,000 a year" (Fian Fact Sheet, Welfare by
Corporations is Corporate Welfare, http://www.foodfirst.org/corpwell.htm).

- "Over one in nine persons in the labor force during 1993 were living
below the poverty line.  Of these nearly 12 million workers, 70 percent
(8.22 million workers) fit the category of working poor" (Denny Braun, The
Rich Get Richer, 2nd ed. 1997, p. 238.  Based on BLS data).

- "The wages of the average non-college-educated male fell 10.1% from 1979
to 1989 and another 7.2% between 1989 and 1995" (The State of Working
America 1996-97, Economic Policy Institute, 1996).

- "The wages of a young male high school graduate dropped 21.8% in the
1980s and another 6.9% in the 1989-95 period" (Ibid).

- "A young female high school graduate earned 18.9% less in 1995 than in
1979" (Ibid).

- "While 10.3% of Hispanic families were unemployed in 1996, 19.0% were
under-employed" (J. Bernstein, "The Challenge of Moving from Welfare to
Work," Economic Policy Institute, 1997).

- "Among blacks 16-25, about 35% were under-employed in 1996"
(Ibid).

- "For most families, increases in net income have come from more hours of
work, not increases in hourly pay" (Congressional Study: "Families on a
Treadmill: Work and Income in the 1980s," January 17, 1992).

- "Real hourly pay of wives increased for most families, but for 60
percent of families, the decline in hourly pay of husbands was greater
than the increase in wives' hourly pay" (Ibid).

- The total wages of all people who earned less than $50,000 a year -
about 85% of Americans - increased an average of 2 percent a year from
1980 to 1989, which did not even keep pace with inflation.  By contrast,
the total wages of all millionaires shot up 243 percent a year (Internal
Revenue Service).

- "The cost of a college education rose more than 70% for private schools
between the years 1977-1993, and more than 50% for public schools" (U.S.
Center for Educational Staistics; Figures are inflation-adjusted).

- "Of the 82 women serving in statewide elective executive positions, 3
(3.7%) are women of color" (Center for the American Woman and Politics,
1998).

- Percent of revenues for public elementary and secondary schools
from the federal level averaged 7.0% between 1970-71 and 1994-95 (NCES,
"Mini-Digest of Education Statistics," 1997, p.51).

- More than 50% of today's college students will graduate in debt
(National Association of Graduate-Professional Students).

- Rate of tuition increases before 1978 was 1% below the inflation rate;
since 1978 the rate has been more than twice the inflation rate (Ibid).

- The student loan default rate in 1977 was 11%; in 1992 it was 22%
(Ibid).

- American students since 1990 have borrowed as much as the total volume
for all of the 1960s, '70s and 80s combined (The Education Resources
Institute, "College Debt and the American Family," 1995).

- "Gaps in the academic performance of black and white students appear as
early as age 9 and persist through age 17" (National Center for Education
Statistics, "The Educational Progress of Black Students," 1995, p. 3>.

- "Hispanic children start elementary school with less preschool
experience than white children, and this gap has widened over time" (NCES,
"The Educational Progress of Hispanic Students," 1995, p. 2).

- "Bankruptcies increased by 19 percent in 1997 to a record high of 1.4
million filings" (American Bankruptcy Institute, 1998).

- "11.3 million children age 18 and under are uninsured - the largest
number ever reported by the Census Bureau" (Children's Defense Fund, March
14, 1998).

- "Approximately 13.6 million children under age 12 in the United States -
29 percent - live in families that must cope with hunger or the risk of
hunger during some part of one or more months of the previous year"
(Community Childhood Hunger Identification Project).

- "33.1% of all African Americans, 30.6% of Latinos and 18.8% of other
non-whites live in poverty, as compared to 9.9% of White residents"
(Cynthia Taeber, The Statistical Handbook on Women in America, 1996, p.
145).

- Hunger in the U.S. has increased by 50% since 1985 (Center on Hunger,
Poverty and Nutrition Policy, Tufts University, 1993).

- Between 20 and 30 million Americans suffer from hunger (Congressional
Hunger Center, 1995).

- Approximately 20% of American adults do not have a high school diploma
(U.S. Census Bureau, 1990).

- "Each year, almost 5,000 young people, ages 15 to 24, kill themselves.
The rate of suicide for this age group has nearly tripled since 1960"
(National Mental Health Association, 1997).

- Over 1.4 billion people in the world live in abject poverty, surviving
on less than $1 US a day.  Another 3.3 billion people live in extreme
poverty (United Nations Human Development Report, 1997).

- By 1996, 36.5 million Americans lived in poverty (U.S. Bureau of the
Census, 1997a).

- Despite its recent increase, the minimum wage remains 15% below
its average purchasing power in the 1970s, after adjusting for inflation
(Kaufman, 1997).

- In 1996, approximately 41.7 million Americans had no health insurance
(U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1997b).  Another 40 million had only limited
coverage.

- The average income of families in the middle fifth of the income
distribution fell in 25 states between the late 1970s and the mid-1990s"
(Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Pulling Apart: A State-by-State
Analysis of Income Trends, December 16, 1997, http://www.cbpp.org/pa-1test.htm).

- White, black and Latina women, respectively, earn 75, 65 and 56 percent
of white male wages (The International Association of Machinists and
Aerospace Workers, 1996).

- Ninety-six percent of top executives are men (Ibid).

- "Women make up nearly 70% of the world's poor and more than 65% of the
illiterate" (International Labour Organization, "Women Swell Ranks of
Working Poor," 1996).

- "In industrialized countries, much of the growth in women's labour force
participation has been in part-time jobs.  Women make up between 65% and
90% of all part-timers in OECD countries" (Ibid).

- "Everywhere, women are paid less than men, and there is no indication
that this will change soon.  The majority of women continue to earn on
average about three-fourths of the male wage outside of the agricultural
sector" (Ibid).

- "In 1978, corporate CEOs, or chief executive officers, were paid
60 times what the average worker earned.  By 1995, CEOs had increased
their pay to 173 times the average worker's income" (Abid Aslam, U.S. Rich
Benefit at the Expense of the Poor, Third World Network).

- Percentage of persons below the poverty level was 12.6% in 1970, 13.0%
in 1980, 13.5% in 1990, and 14.5% in 1994 (U.S. Census Bureau, Current
Population Reports, Series P-60, No. 188, 1995).

- "In the United States, where overall violent crime against women has
been growing for the past two decades, a woman is physically abused by her
intimate partner every nine seconds" (UNICEF, The Progress of Nations,
1997).

- "The US, with just 5 times the population of Italy, has 150 times more
children in detention" (Ibid).

- Share of global income going to richest 20% and poorest 20% of world's
population:

year    share of richest 20%    share of poorest 20%    ratio rich/poor
----    --------------------    -------------------     ---------------
1960    70.2%                   2.3%                    30 to 1
1970    73.9%                   2.3%                    32 to 1
1980    76.3%                   1.7%                    45 to 1
1989    82.7%                   1.4%                    59 to 1

[UN, Human Development Report, 1992]

- The U.S. has the highest infant mortality, AIDS, road accident,
pesticide consumption, homicide, reported rapes, imprisonment and
hazardous waste production rates among Switzerland, Japan, Sweden,
Denmark, Norway, Germany, Austria, France, Finland and Canada
(The World Bank, World Development Report, 1994 and UN, Human Development
Report, 1994).

- Military Budgets, 1996/97 ($billions)

U.S.            $260    Germany         $42
Russia          $82     U.K.            $34
Japan           $50     China           $32
France          $48     Italy           $20

[The International Institute for Strategic Studies: The Military Balance,
1996/97]

- "Between 1979 and 1994, the total number of unemployed in the G7 -
Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, United Kingdom and the United
States - rose from 13 million to almost 24 million, along with 4 million
unemployed who have stopped looking for work, and 15 million who work
part-time but would rather work full-time" (International labour
Organization, 1996).

- "Since 1990, an additional 300 million people are making do without
decent sanitation" (UNICEF, The Progress of Nations, 1997).

        It is essential to recognize that income inequality, wealth
inequality, poverty, unemployment, under-employment, hunger, job
insecurity, suicides, homelessness, student debt, violence, etc. are
inter-related problems which continue to worsen here and worldwide.
        All this and more is happening as a result of the international
financial oligarchy's demand that its narrow and self-serving claims
be put in first place.  If this means to hell with everyone else, then so
be it.
        These facts only further underscore the urgent need for moving
society  forward.
        The key to solving these interconnected problems is taking up
the politics of empowerment.  This means consciously rejecting the Old and
thinking and acting in an entirely New way.  It means abandoning the
status quo and taking up discussion on ending the political
marginalization of the working class and people in an extremely serious
and honest way.
        All illusions about capitalism overcoming its ills must be
dispensed with and replaced by fresh, modern and progressive ideas.
Modern definitions, up-to-date information and enlightened views need to
be put forward to help guide the people in their struggles for a better
society.
        No-one can remain aloof at this time.  No-one can pretend
that their daily life is unaffected by political and economic realities.
        The anti-social agenda of the world bourgeoisie and reaction only
obstructs the creation of a society fit for humans.  Without taking up the
practical task of vesting supreme decision-making power in the broad
masses of the people absolutely nothing will be solved.

Shawgi Tell
Niagara County Community College
tell@net.bluemoon.net