the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
Sep 8, 2008
Residents of the state of Maryland once again are ranked the richest in the United States and overall income went up. The area around Washington D.C. boasts six of the ten wealthiest counties in the entire U.S., with three in the suburbs of Maryland and three in the suburbs of Virginia.
Yet poverty was also UP. It went from 7.8% in the state as a whole to 8.3%. And in Baltimore City, where poverty was already 19%, it went up to 20%. More than 250,000 people in Maryland had no health insurance.
This apparent confusion reflects how much money a few people make off the impoverishment of the rest of the population.
The greater Washington and Baltimore areas are home to dozens of wealthy executives, the top 100 of whose salaries averaged more than six million dollars apiece in 2007.
The chief executive and the president of Marriott Hotels, located in Maryland, together got 12 million dollars. Yet hotel workers make $12 to $14 an hour. The five top officers of Constellation Energy gained 54 million dollars last year. The rest of the people in Maryland helped pay for those salaries with a 75% increase in the price of gas and electricity. The chiefs of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, who got 14 million and 12 million, made it while presiding over the foreclosures of thousands of home mortgages.
These wealthy people took their money out of everyone else’s pockets.