THE DOW PASSES TEN THOUSAND -- HOORAY?

Wow!  The Dow-Jones average is over ten thousand!  And still, as of this
writing, rising.  Judging from the media celebration, here is proof positive
that America is thriving.

But who or what is actually thriving?

There are two ways to answer that question.  One is to travel around America --
all of it, the inner cities and the uptown penthouses, the trailers and the
trophy homes -- and see.  The other is to look at the statistics.  Either way
you find the same answer.  A small minority of Americans are thriving.  On
paper anyway.  For the moment.

How many American households, would you guess, own stock worth more than $5000
and thus care a fig about the Dow?  The number has been rising lately, but it's
still less than 30 percent of us.  The spectacular stock market gains from 1989
to 1997 went almost entirely (85.8 percent) to the richest 10 percent.  Over
forty percent of the gains went to the richest one percent.

What does it take these days to be in the richest one percent?  The answer
seems to surprise everyone, especially the richest one percent.  In income it
takes just over $200,000 a year.  In wealth it takes about $3 million.  Surveys
of people who fall into this category show that a majority, their eyes firmly
fixed on the few ahead of them instead of the 99 percent behind them, don't
even consider themselves rich.

As of 1997, before this latest stock market surge, the richest one percent of
American families held 40 percent of the wealth.  The concentration of wealth
hasn't been that high since, um, 1929.  It was at its lowest in 1976, when the
top one percent held just 20 percent of the wealth.

The media have a way of portraying the rich as normal, the middle class as
quaintly amusing, and the poor as criminal, when the poor are visible at all. 
Let's concentrate for a moment on what is happening to the amusing or invisible
majority.

In 1967 the average hourly wage for production workers (more than 80 percent of
all wage and salary workers) was $12.03 (in 1998 dollars).  In 1973 it was
$13.61.  In 1998 it was $12.77.

The bottom 40 percent of American households possess only 0.5 percent of
household-owned net worth.  The bottom 60 percent hold just 4.9 percent of
household net worth.  The net worth of the bottom 40 percent went down by
almost 80 percent between 1983 and 1995; the net worth of the middle 20 percent
went down by 11.5 percent; the net worth of 95 percent of all households
declined.  That of the top one percent went up by 17.4 percent.

Sixty percent of American households do not hold enough financial reserves to
carry them for even two months at their current level of consumption.

Household debt as a percent of annual income was about 30 percent in 1949.  It
was 57.6 percent in 1973 and 84.8 percent in 1997.  In 1997 almost 60 percent
of American households owed on their credit cards an average of $7000, which
meant they paid on average $1000 that year in interest.

In 1998 1.4 million Americans filed for personal bankruptcy, double the number
in 1990.

The average personal savings rate in the United States has plummeted from 8.6
percent in 1984 to 5.7 percent in 1992 to 0.5 percent in 1998.

Is this a thriving nation?

Well then, why is the stock market soaring?

Here are some reasons why it's not.  It's not because the values of the
companies represented there have gone up by 30 percent per year for the past
four years.  It's not because the economy is churning out that many more goods
and services.  It's not because profits and dividends are rising.  The ratio of
stock price to dividends is ridiculously high and climbing.

The real reason, which I think everyone quietly knows, is that the huge amounts
of money piling up in the hands of that top few percent have nowhere else to
go.  Nothing in the economy can absorb so much cash, much less make it
multiply.  Even at their trophy-house sports-utility best, the rich can't spend
it.  The middle class aren't actually better off, so their demand rises only
with their debt.  Companies don't need so much real investment.  The government
is borrowing less now that the deficit is shrinking.  Stock markets in much of
the world are crashed; no point in sending money out of the country.

So the excess of the rich floods into overpriced stocks, raising the price
still further, making the rich still richer.  On paper.  If everyone tried to
cash out at once, there would be a major musical-chairs scramble with few real
places to sit.

This is an economy of illusion.  It is a mean economy, as worker salaries
stagnate, worker benefits plummet, CEO compensation soars, and the rich extract
interest from the poor and throw tax burdens onto the middle class.  It is a
financially unstable economy in a socially unstable society.

As economist Lester Thurow says, "It is a stupid society that runs an
experiment to see where its breaking points are."

(The statistics in this column, and many more, can be found in "Shifting
Fortunes," available for $6.95 from United for a Fair Economy, 37 Temple Place,
2nd floor, Boston MA 02111, telephone 617-423-2148, e-mail .)

 (Donella H. Meadows is director of the Sustainability Institute and an adjunct
professor of environmental studies at Dartmouth College.)

MEGHIVO

az ELTE Genetika Tanszeke tisztelettel meghivja Ont

Dr. Pusztai Arpad:
(Skocia)
Genetikailag modositott burgonya hatasa az anyagcserere es az immunrendszerre

cimu eloadasara es az azt koveto vitara

A rendezvenye ideje es helye: 1999 aprilis 26. (hetfo) 16 ora, ELTE Novenyelett
ani eloado 
(Budapest, VIII, Muzeum krt. 4/a)


Dr. Pusztai eredmenyeit es az altaluk kavart tudomanyos es politikai vitakat a 
hazai szakmai 
kozonseg is ismerheti mar a Science februar 19.-i szamaban illetve a napisajtob
an 
megjelent 
hiradasokrol. A genetikailag modositott novenyek egeszsegugyi hatasainak proble
majat 
altalanossagban is felveto, meglepo eredmenyek vilagszerte nagy nyilvanossagot 
kaptak. 
Ez a rendezveny alkalmat te-remt arra, hogy a szakma idehaza is elso kezbol ism
erhesse 
meg dr. Pusztai adatait, es ezek alapjan alakithassa ki velemenyet, vonhasson l
e 
kovetkezteteseket.

Az eloadas nyelve: magyar.

Az eloadas nyilvanos, ezert kerjuk, hogy a fenti meghivast - lehetoseg szerint 
- tovabbitsa 
erdekelt kollegainak es hallgatoinak is.


Megjelenesere feltetlenul szamitunk!

Dr. Vida Gabor s.k.
tanszekvezeto
egyetemi tanar

--
M=<ra Veronika
Drkotb*rs Alap/0tvb*ny  /   ETK
1117 Budapest, M=<ricz Zs. krt 15
Tel/fax: +36-1-4668866    

> ============================================================
Pollution Online Newsletter
Volume 2   Issue 25
Wednesday, April 14, 1999
> ============================================================

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Sziasztok

Van egy ket hetes udulési jogunk a Gyulai Hőforrás Üdülőben, melyet most nem 
tudunk igenybe venni. Az udulesi lehetoseg majus 31-tol junius 13-ig tart.

Max. 3 fo reszere alkalmas, kenyelmes, berendezett appartmanrol van szo 
(kabel TV, felszerelt konyha, stb). A furdo sincs messze es igazan szep.

Mindezt 9800,-/het/appartman aron barkinek atadnank aki igenyt tart ra.

Udv:     --- Humi ---    
    mailto:   vagy     
    telefon este: (06-1-)284-9986

Budapesten keresek 1-1,5 szobas jo allapotu lakast, lehetoleg zold
ovezeti jo kozlekedesu reszen.
Iranyar: 2,7 mFt

Garázsban tartott, 5 éves, 1.4 központi injektoros, zöld Opel Corsa Swing,
5 ajtós, 50.000 kilóméterrel, megkímélt állapotban, első tulajdonostól
sürgősen eladó. Irányár: 1,4 mFt. Érdeklődni lehet: 20.00-21.00-ig a
26-26-946-os telefonszámon lehet.