The unemployment rate in the United States is at 8.6%. The poverty rate is climbing each year and 20% of all Americans are working at a job that pays them a poverty-level rate. Americans coast to coast are struggling and many of them are living paycheck to paycheck just hoping that nothing serious happens. With these numbers and the reality of life it's amazing to know that not everyone is feeling the pain of an economy that has been on a downward spiral for three decades.
According to a report from newbottomline.com, seven of the biggest banks in the United States are set to pay out $156 billion in bonuses for 2011. In 2010, total compensation hit $151 billion and with the 2011 increase those numbers will increase by nearly 4%. The banks included in the seven are Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, US Bank, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase. Just as an example of the greed of the people working in the banking industry, Bank of America had one of its worst years in some time, but still managed to set aside compensation for its executives that was 7% higher than in 2012. Bank of America is projected to set aside nearly $40 billion for bonuses in 2011, a number that is nothing less than mind-boggling. Bank of Americas CEO, Brian Moynihan, will receive nearly $10 million in 2011 on just bonuses alone, compare that to the average hourly pay of a bank teller at just over $11 an hour, and you seem to understand why people are upset at the income gap in the United States.
These numbers, though outrages, shouldn't come as a surprise. The United States has been on an economic slide since Ronald Reagan came into office in January of 1981 and set into action supply side economics, aka "Reaganomics." As the tax breaks have continued to go to the most wealthy, average Americans have felt the weight on their shoulders becoming heavier and it doesn't look like it will be easing up any time soon.
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