How the failed billionaire experiment hoarded profits for shareholders and management, while price gouging the working class, in order to engineer scarcity, desperation, social collapse, and civil war, to evade prosecution for decades of organized crimes.

EPI's Josh Bivens and Jori Kandra found that the CEOs of the 350 largest publicly traded companies in the U.S. made 344 times more than a typical worker last year. In 1965, by contrast, the CEO-to-typical-worker pay gap was 21 to 1.

"Top CEO compensation grew roughly 28.1% faster than stock market growth during this period and far eclipsed the slow 15.3% growth in a typical worker’s annual compensation," Bivens and Kandra noted in their report, which was released late last week.

The analysis came as the UAW expanded its strikes against General Motors and Stellantis, accusing the auto giants of refusing to engage seriously with the union in contract negotiations.

UAW president Shawn Fain has repeatedly pointed to the exorbitant and rising compensation packages of GM CEO Mary Barra—who made $29 million last year—and other executives as evidence that the companies have chosen to prioritize enriching their leaders even as worker pay stagnates.

The UAW is demanding a 36% wage increase for autoworkers in the new four-year contract. Between 2013 and 2022, the CEOs of the Big Three U.S. car manufacturers received a 40% pay boost.

As The Associated Pressnoted earlier this month, "Fain's focus on CEO pay is part of a growing trend of emboldened labor unions citing the wealth gap between workers and the top bosses to bolster demand for better pay and working conditions."

"In June, Netflix shareholders rejected executive pay packages in a nonbinding vote, just days after the Writers Guild of America wrote letters urging investors to vote against the pay proposals, saying it would be inappropriate amid Hollywood's ongoing strike by writers," AP reported. "The WGA wrote similar letters targeting the executive pay at Comcast and NBCUniversal."

Bivens and Kandra stressed in their analysis that surging CEO pay "is not just a symbolic issue—it has contributed to rising inequality."

"CEOs are getting paid more because of their leverage over corporate boards, not because of contributions they make to their firms," they wrote. "Escalating CEO pay in recent decades has likely pulled up the pay of other top earners. This concentration of earnings at the top leaves fewer gains for ordinary workers."[2]

Similarly, since Jeffrey Epstein's and Russia's Trump's and GOP's failed insurrection, their failed billionaire experiment has exponentially increased prices and inflation at record rates.

Under the leadership of Trump's Jerome Powell, and under the leadership of the Republican Party in Congress, and due to what can only be described as an additional spoke in a broader ongoing conspiracy to overthrow the county, in order for Jeffrey Epstein's failed billionaire experiment, and Russia's GOP, who they have financed, to evade decades of ongoing organized crimes - the failed billionaire experiment is now evading paying taxes, while having our tax dollars diverted to them in the form of incentives, subsidies, contracts, and grants, while they price gouge us, while they keep our wages flat, and while attacking unions, so that we won't have legal representation to prevent the same, and to protect us when they engage in organized crimes against us, their clients, our government, society, but not limited to the same.

More simply, the failed billionaire experiment is engineering us into economic slaves, engineering scarcity and desperation, which engineers violence so that those they engineer into poverty and economic slavery attack the middle class trying to inform them of all of the same, because poverty and economic slavery class can't access the global criminal ruling elite, who are the ones engineering all of the same.

Furthermore, the global criminal ruling elite of Jeffrey Epstein own most of the communications and social media channels, emails, website builders, marketing organizations, and news organizations, and they are using the same as a weapon to deceive and incite those they engineer into poverty into "destroying" and "executing" U.S. law enforcement, the U.S. military, judges, prosecutors, witnesses, victims, university professors, journalists, and activists, or anyone trying to shed light on their crimes or hold them accountable for the same.

And why? Because almost every day their decades of ongoing organized crimes of the highest order and the greatest severity are revealed, and the law requires their investigation, their prosecution, the seizure of all of their assets, life in prison, damages to all of their victims, and/or the death penalty.

This is why they are engineering economic slavery and poverty, while destroying America's safety net, while calling for the execution and destruction of our military and law enforcement, including by civil war in calls to overthrow the government - for their treasonous and seditious organized crime syndicate to evade historical, criminal, and civil investigation, prosecution, liability, their destruction, and their execution - as required by law.

But obstructing justice for their decades of ongoing organized crimes isn't the only reason the failed billionaire experiments seeks to overthrow the United States and other democracies. 

Oxfam International specified during the Trump administration on 01/17/2017, that 8 men owned as much as half of all of humanity.

"Eight men own the same wealth as the 3.6 billion people who make up the poorest half of humanity, according to a new report published by Oxfam today to mark the annual meeting of political and business leaders in Davos.

Oxfam’s report, ‘An economy for the 99 percent’, shows that the gap between rich and poor is far greater than had been feared. It details how big business and the super-rich are fuelling the inequality crisis by dodging taxes, driving down wages and using their power to influence politics. It calls for a fundamental change in the way we manage our economies so that they work for all people, and not just a fortunate few. 

New and better data on the distribution of global wealth – particularly in India and China – indicates that the poorest half of the world has less wealth than had been previously thought.  Had this new data been available last year, it would have shown that nine billionaires owned the same wealth as the poorest half of the planet, and not 62, as Oxfam calculated at the time.
Winnie Byanyima, Executive Director of Oxfam International, said: 

“It is obscene for so much wealth to be held in the hands of so few when 1 in 10 people survive on less than $2 a day.  Inequality is trapping hundreds of millions in poverty; it is fracturing our societies and undermining democracy.  

“Across the world, people are being left behind. Their wages are stagnating yet corporate bosses take home million dollar bonuses; their health and education services are cut while corporations and the super-rich dodge their taxes; their voices are ignored as governments sing to the tune of big business and a wealthy elite.”
Oxfam’s report shows how our broken economies are funnelling wealth to a rich elite at the expense of the poorest in society, the majority of whom are women. The richest are accumulating wealth at such an astonishing rate that the world could see its first trillionaire in just 25 years.  To put this figure in perspective – you would need to spend $1 million every day for 2738 years to spend $1 trillion.   

Public anger with inequality is already creating political shockwaves across the globe. Inequality has been cited as a significant factor in the election of Donald Trump in the US, the election of President Duterte in the Philippines, and Brexit in the UK. 
Seven out of 10 people live in a country that has seen a rise in inequality in the last 30 years.  Between 1988 and 2011 the incomes of the poorest 10 percent increased by just $65 per person, while the incomes of the richest 1 percent grew by $11,800 per person – 182 times as much. 

Women, who are often employed in low pay sectors, face high levels of discrimination in the work place, and who take on a disproportionate amount of unpaid care work often find themselves at the bottom of the pile.  On current trends it will take 170 years for women to be paid the same as men.

‘An Economy for the 99 percent’ also reveals how big business and the super-rich are fuelling the inequality crisis.  It shows how, in order to maximize returns to their wealthy shareholders, big corporations are dodging taxes, driving down wages for their workers and the prices paid to producers, and investing less in their business.

Oxfam interviewed women working in a garment factory in Vietnam who work 12 hours a day, 6 days a week and still struggle to get by on the $1 an hour they earn producing clothes for some of the world’s biggest fashion brands. The CEOs of these companies are some of the highest paid people in the world.   Corporate tax dodging costs poor countries at least $100 billion every year. This is enough money to provide an education for the 124 million children who aren’t in school and fund healthcare interventions that could prevent the deaths of at least six million children every year.

The report outlines how the super-rich use a network of tax havens to avoid paying their fair share of tax and an army of wealth managers to secure returns on their investments that would not be available to ordinary savers.  Contrary to popular belief, many of the super-rich are not ‘self-made’. Oxfam analysis shows over half the world’s billionaires either inherited their wealth or accumulated it through industries which are prone to corruption and cronyism.
It also demonstrates how big business and the super-rich use their money and connections to ensure government policy works for them. For example, billionaires in Brazil have sought to influence elections and successfully lobbied for a reduction in tax bills while oil corporations in Nigeria have managed to secure generous tax breaks.

Byanyima said: “The millions of people who have been left behind by our broken economies need solutions, not scapegoats. That is why Oxfam is setting out a new common sense approach to managing our economies so that they work for the majority and not just the fortunate few.”
“Governments are not helpless in the face of technological change and market forces.  If politicians stop obsessing with GDP, and focus on delivering for all their citizens and not just a wealthy few, a better future is possible for everyone.”
Oxfam’s blueprint for a more human economy includes: 

Governments end the extreme concentration of wealth to end poverty. Governments should increase taxes on both wealth and high incomes to ensure a more level playing field, and to generate funds needed to invest in healthcare, education and job creation.

Governments cooperate rather than just compete. Governments should work together to ensure workers are paid a decent wage, and to put a stop to tax dodging and the race to the bottom on corporate tax. 

Governments support companies that benefit their workers and society rather than just their shareholders. The multi-billion Euro company Mondragon, is owned by its 74,000 strong workforce.  All employees receive a decent wage because its pay structure ensures that the highest paid member of staff earns no more than 9 times the amount of the lowest paid.

Governments ensure economies work for women. They must help to dismantle the barriers to women’s economic progress such as access to education and the unfair burden of unpaid care work.

Oxfam is also calling on business leaders to play their part in building a human economy. The World Economic Forum has responsive and responsible leadership as its key theme this year.  They can make a start by committing to pay their fair share of tax and by ensuring their businesses pay a living wage.  People around the global can also join the campaign at www.evenitup.org.

The report, summary and a document outlining the methodology behind the statistics in the report are here

VNR footage and shot list featuring the stories of people in Kenya, Vietnam and Brazil who face a daily struggle with inequality are here.

Oxfam spokespeople are available for interview – including with Winnie Byanyima, Executive Director of Oxfam International who will be attending the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland from the 17 – 20 January 2017 to highlight the urgent need for action to tackle inequality. More info here.

The world’s 8 richest people are, in order of net worth:

1. Bill Gates: America founder of Microsoft (net worth $75 billion)
2. Amancio Ortega: Spanish founder of Inditex which owns the Zara fashion chain (net worth $67 billion)
3. Warren Buffett: American CEO and largest shareholder in Berkshire Hathaway (net worth $60.8 billion)
4. Carlos Slim Helu: Mexican owner of Grupo Carso (net worth: $50 billion)
5. Jeff Bezos: American founder, chairman and chief executive of Amazon (net worth: $45.2 billion)
6. Mark Zuckerberg: American chairman, chief executive officer, and co-founder of Facebook (net worth $44.6 billion)
7. Larry Ellison: American co-founder and CEO of Oracle  (net worth $43.6 billion)
8. Michael Bloomberg: American founder, owner and CEO of Bloomberg LP (net worth: $40 billion)

More than half of these men, specifically Bill Gates, Warren Buffet's NetJets, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, and Michael Bloomberg are EACH named in Jeffrey Epstein's book of child kidnapping, child sex trafficking, and child raping clients, financiers, and/or associates, and/or met with him (some repeatedly) after he was convicted of prostituting a 14 year old girl.