Well…read an interesting article in “The Guardian” this afternoon about all of the crowing the 1%’ers do that they create jobs and earn the ridiculous money they make and the politicians that still believe that nonsense…and I am going to keep pointing this stuff out until I can’t write anymore or things change. But, the first point on productivity that I touched on briefly last week is that from the late 40′s until the late 70′s, productivity and real wages of the middle class were basically a 1:1 ratio; that is that as productivity rose 118% in that time, real wages rose about 122%. Since then, though, from 1979 through 2009, productivity has risen almost 80% but the real wages of the middle class has fallen by 4% and the rich have taken all of that additional production for themselves in the form of bonuses and higher pay to the tune of a 279% increase. Can anyone see that from a pure economic standpoint, this concentration has stripped huge amounts of demand out of the economy since the the middle class has less and less of the pie to spend? It is something I have been saying for quite some time now…as the rich and corporations have been squeezing every last penny out of you and me, who is going to be able to buy the goods and services that make any economic growth sustainable? We are seeing these effects now in sluggish growth and stagnation that have become the hallmarks of this type of wealth concentration…and I finally hope someone cares….other than me, that is.