Image of the Day

On the fifth day a financial advisor introduced me to his FIVE richest
investors, who were the only ones out of 100 Americans to increase [12]
their wealth over the past 25 years, by the impressive rate of almost 20%
[13]. It's like that throughout the entire country, the advisor said: only 5%
took almost all the gains. Five golden rings, indeed.
On the sixth day, as the traditional 12-day song started to get
annoying, Santa appeared to take me by the hand to the U.S. corporate
offices, where the tax lawyers gave to me SIX cents [14] for the national
treasury. "Hey," I said, "this used to be twenty-five cents. You've doubled
your profits [15] in the last ten years, but individual and payroll taxes have
to pay 94 cents out of every dollar!" The lawyers just smiled. Santa shook
his head in frustration.
On the seventh day a guidance counselor informed me that one out of
SEVEN [16] Americans between the ages of 16 and 24 is neither working
nor in school.
On the eighth day an IRS agent gave me these matching facts [17]:
Over EIGHT percent of the GDP (8.4%) goes for tax expenditures
(subsidies provided through the tax code, mostly to the very rich). That's
almost exactly the same amount (8.4% of the GDP) that goes to Social
Security and Medicare.
On the ninth day an unemployed dietitian told me that the average
male has increased his weight by NINE percent [18] over the past 20 years
(180 to 196), and the average female by TWELVE percent (142 to 160).
As a NINE dollar per hour [19] food-service worker gave me and Santa
our burgers and fries and shakes, my jolly old partner chortled, "Ho Ho
Ho, soon you'll all look like me!"
On the 10th day a Forbes article confirmed that the TEN richest
Americans [20] made more than our entire national housing budget [21] in
just one year [22]. That's over $50 billion. The twenty richest Americans
made more than our entire education budget. Santa assured me that the
transfer of wealth from society's needs to a few individuals was not the
norm around the world.