Key reasons behind OWS

There are some terrific graphs on Alternet.com that "shows exactly what motivates the Occupy Movement.

Some of the summary of the graphs:

1. "The productivity/wage chart says it all. From 1947 until the mid-1970s real wages and productivity (economic output per worker hour) danced together. Both climbed year after year as did our real standard of living. If you’re old enough, you will remember seeing your parents doing just a bit better each year, year after year. Then, our nation embarked on a grand economic experiment. Taxes were cut especially on the super-rich. Finance was deregulated and unions were crushed. Lo and behold, the two lines broke apart. Productivity continued to climb, but wages stalled and declined. So where did all that productivity money go? To the rich and to the super-rich, especially to those in finance."

2. "In 1970 the top 100 CEOs earned $45 for every $1 earned by the average worker. By 2006, the ratio climbed to an obscene 1,723 to one. (Not a misprint!)"

3. "To add financial insult to injury, the richest of the rich pay less and less each year as a percentage of their monstrous incomes. The top 400 taxpayers during the 1950s faced a 90 percent federal tax rate. By 1995 their effective tax rate – what they really paid after all deductions as a percent of all their income – fell to 30 percent. Now it’s barely 16 percent."

4. "Right now the number of unemployed for 26 weeks or more is at record levels. Many of the long-term unemployed will never work again."

These are just a few of what the graphs indicate. Most of us know about all this, but it's really discouraging to see it all in one fell swoop. Hopefully, Occupy Wall Street and the other Occupiers around the world can shake up the status quo enough that the people can regain control of our governments and have them work for us instead of the very, very few.