A review written by an American expat Business Librarian who holds an MBA degree in marketing and A 2nd Masters degree in Library and information Science who

as a business information professional lives and works in the European Union.

My email is: democratsramshield@yahoo.com



As an American expat living in the European Union, I have come to see that mainstream European media outlets provide an insight which I have found to be unavailable in the for-profit American media which is owned by the Oligarchy. As such this diary provides a review of the German mainstream magazine Der Spiegel which is unavailable in America. The English translation has only recently become available. This diary offers a review that I invite you to give a close read to. Also let's please remember that the European Union has a larger Economy than the U.S. and has a larger population than does the U.S. and it's currency the Euro rivals the U.S. Dollar.

DEATH OF THE WORKING CLASS AMERICAN DREAM marked by a 2nd GILDED AGE IN AMERICA!

Der Spiegle quote:

The Occupy Wall Street movement is just one example of the sudden outbreak of tension between America's super-rich and the "other 99 percent." Experts now say the US has entered a second Gilded Age, but one in which hedge fund managers have replaced oil barons -- and are killing the American dream.

Der Spiegle quote:

Nearly two-thirds of net private assets are concentrated in the hands of 5 percent of Americans. In comparison, the upper 5 percent of Germany hold less than half of net assets. In 2009 alone, at the same time as the US was being convulsed by mass layoffs, the number of millionaires in the country skyrocketed.

Please remember that though this is the German mainstream publication from Der Spiegel has made an English version of this available, it was nonetheless published originally for a European audience. Where in countries like Germany in the European Union it goes without saying that the chart above refers to a division of wealth in addition to the strong social safety net available in Germany and throughout the European Union, wherein German workers by law unlike their American counterparts are given 30 days paid vacation, paid sick leave, paid maternity leave and medical insurance and dental insurance that is so comprehensive that it is in fact by comparison commercially unavailable to be purchased in the American market.

All of this is to say nothing of subsidized day care and subsidized elder care and university tuition that is so low, that American students actually spend more on textbooks than German students pay for tuition for an entire school year. So when they graduate, they (and their parents) don't graduate into indentured student loan servitude for many years and sometimes in certain cases even decades. This gives new meaning to the phrase only in America!



Der Spiegle quote:

Still, that's nothing compared to the trend in executives' salaries. In 1980, American CEOs earned 42 times more than the average employee. Today, that figure has skyrocketed to more than 300 times. Last year, 25 of the country's highest-paid CEOs earned more than their companies paid in taxes. By way of comparison, top executives at the 30 blue-chip companies making up Germany's DAX stock market index rarely earn over 100 times the salaries of their low-level employees, and that figure is often around 30 or 40 times.

Now you may ask is it really that simple? The short answer is yes it really is thatsimple. But then the truth usually is rather simple and straight forward. It's theAmerican CEO's lies about what it is that they do to justify their compensation packages that is rather complex because they are lying!!

Here's another simple truth. If you're poor in America your chances of making it out of poverty and in to the middle class is only about 4%



Der Spiegle quote:

Differences between rich and poor are tolerated as long as the rags-to-riches story of the dishwasher-turned-millionaire remains theoretically possible. But studies show that increasing inequality and political control concentrated in the hands of the wealthy elite have drastically reduced economic mobility and that the US has long since fallen far behind Europe on this issue. Indeed, only 4 percent of less-well-off Americans ever successfully make the leap into the upper-middle class.

Geezzzz if you're poor in America and you only have a 4% chance of getting in to the upper-middle class!! Would you like to guess what the chances are of you ever getting rich in America if you come from the poor? That is unless (smile) you can sing or play sports really well!!! (humor)

To read the full Spiegle article please click on the link below! Thanks

http://www.spiegel.de/...



Look it is like this you can't win if you are a working class person in America unless

you have a union backing you. Because in American capitalism they play with marked cards. If you sit at the table by yourself in their crooked game you will lose. That is why we need more unions in America today. We have to stick together!!

As a business information professional I had to explain to a friend back home.

For example that it was not that his house was worth more money it was

instead that the U.S. Dollar was worth less. If you don't believe that just look at this chart. If that isn't enough then they will put your mortgage under water. They control the rules and can change them on you at anytime. If you play with these crooks on your own you will lose. That's why we in America need more unions.



August 6, 2011 –

America in Decline by Noam Chomsky Not even discussed is that the deficit would be eliminated if, as economist Dean Baker has shown, the dysfunctional privatized health care system in the U.S. were replaced by one similar to other industrial societies, which have half the per capita costs and health outcomes that are comparable or better.

We can all be proud Americans but we don't have to be proud of the broken Americansocial safety net. There we can, should and must do better. The working classAmerican dream needs a European style social safety net with universal health care access at it's center in support of the working class American dream.

To win in America all we have to do is to care about each other & stick together!

If we are looking for change we must look to the Occupy movement to provide that peaceful nonviolent approach to change to help elect better progressive politicians to public office. The Occupy movement and the American unions are the last great hope of the American working class dream!!