Del and the boys perform "Moneyland."
The record is all about the decline of the American dream. Del wants us all to turn it around, starting Tuesday.
Get out and vote.
Our Culture: October 2008 Archives
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development -- formed by the industrialized countries of the world, including the United States -- has released a report on income disparity in developed nations.
The good news? The United States isn't the worst when it comes to the gap between the rich and the poor.
We're better than Turkey and Mexico.
The report says:
"The United States is the country with the highest inequality level and poverty rate across the OECD, Mexico and Turkey excepted. Since 2000, income inequality has increased rapidly, continuing a long-term trend that goes back to the 1970s.
"Rich households in America have been leaving both middle and poorer income groups behind. This has happened in many countries, but nowhere has this trend been so stark as in the United States. The average income of the richest 10% is US$93,000 in purchasing power parities, the highest level in the OECD. However, the poorest 10% of the US citizens have an income of US$5,800 per year -- about 20% lower than the average for OECD countries."
Those figures seem odd because the group uses an index called "purchasing power parities" that allow it to compare economies of different nations with varied economic systems.
Still, take that Mexico. And Turkey.
Check out the report here.
In honor of the stock market and the economy, here's some Tom Petty.
CNN just ran a commercial where Dennis Hopper is offering retirement advice.
Considering the way the stock market is heading, what the hell? Hopper makes as much sense as anybody.
He's got to be a lot better than that screaming bald guy on CNBC.
John McCain, just 10 days ago, said the economy is doing peachy. I guess it is if your wife is a rich beer heiress.
But not so much for the 159,000 who lost jobs in September, according to the U.S. Labor Department report released this morning. So far this year, 760,000 jobs have disappeared from the economy.
The report contains a lot of dismal news. Unemployment is up to 6.1 percent. The real unemployment figure, which includes those who have given up looking for jobs is 11 percent.
The number of people working part-time jobs because they can't find full-time work has jumped. Wages, this year, have increased by 3.4 percent, but prices rose by 6 percent.
The Labor Department reported that the hurricanes in the Gulf Coast had little to do with the news.
Good news, though, is while the stock market plummets, the only company in the S&P 500 to see its stock rise is Campbell Soup. We're all going to be living on tomato soup in the future.
Have a nice day!
Read the government report here.
