A study released by the Economic Policy Institute this month supports the argument I have been making here, contrariwise to the Mouthpiece pundits, quite well.. Among the findings:

• Among middle-class workers, the economic gains have been driven largely by an increase in working hours -- up six weeks annually for a typical family since 1989.
• While working longer hours, these employees find their jobs less secure and offering fewer benefits.
• Several groups of workers have experienced wage declines in the 1990s, including recent college graduates and many information-technology and other white-collar workers.
• Income inequality has continued to grow rapidly in the 1990s, albeit at a somewhat slower rate than in the 1980s.
• Jobs have grown more insecure in the 1990s as the share of workers in "long-term jobs" (those lasting at least 10 years) fell from 41 percent in 1979 to 35 percent in 1996.
• The typical middle-class family had nearly 3 percent less wealth in 1997 than in 1989, despite the stock market boom. This is because the richest 10 percent of households in the U.S. have reaped 86% of growth in the stock market since 1989.
• CEO pay continues to skyrocket, having more than doubled between 1989 and 1997, and rising to 116 times the pay of the average worker -- an almost eight-fold increase since 1965. The average CEO's salary, bonus and returns from stock plans grew 100 percent between 1989 and 1997.
• The highly publicized stock-market boom has had little impact on majority of Americans because most working families own little or no stock. In 1995, almost 60 percent of households owned no stock in any form, including mutual funds and pension plans. Less than one third of American households had stock holdings greater than $5,000 and 90 percent of the value of all stock was in the hands of the wealthiest 10 percent of households.
• The most recent poverty rate is 1% above the 1989 rate of 13%. percent. Child poverty is also higher.

So knowing what a wise-ass I am, you must know the question I need to ask one more time:

WHO is the economy booming for?

1. There are more millionaires in the legislative and executive branches of the U.S. government than at any time in history.
2. While you were drooling over the Starr Report, the Republican House of Representatives(which just happened to have released that report to you over the Internet) killed campaign finance reform ON THE VERY SAME DAY.
3. If the "wealth" of most middle-class people is represented by their homes, and those homes are NOT appreciating in value, what is happening to middle-class people?
4. Many of these same working people are being "down-sized" and "re-organized" and NAFTAized into the peonage of being independent contractors, thus moving them into the 28-30% tax bracket. Rich people are paying far less taxes. Meanwhile,
5. the essential services that working people need to live, from health insurance, to childcare, schools and infrastructure, continue to decline and deteriorate and the demagogues clamor that taxes need to be lowered further FOR THE RICH. HOW MANY WORKING PEOPLE WHOM YOU KNOW HAVE A WHISPER OF A CHANCE OF PAYING CAPITAL GAINS TAXES?

Please tell me I'm not the only one who sees this.

FREE SPEECH ALERT: Here's more of the sleaze, for your consideration. Our "responsible" legislators, who couldn't pass more than ONE appropriations bill this session of Congress, are trying to push through legislation being called "Son of CDA." Yep, that's right. The people who brought you the Starr Report claim they want to get the "offensive" sites like the one you are reading now off the Internet. Maybe G21 should spend more time talking about Bill Clinton's cigars.