We are taught through media, the limiting distorted views of teachers and family, and addictive programming to hold discrimination based on demographics. People who would acquire what we are materially attached to are the people you should fear most. Regardless of how much your religious texts tell you to have compassion, love and help those who need it most. So the next time a person approaches you wanting money or items, don't be alarmed for as far as numbers go, they are minimal threats compared to the bigger sources.
FBI estimates that the nation's total loss from robbery, burglary, larceny-theft and motor vehicle theft in 2001 was $17.2 billion -- less than a third of what Enron alone cost investors, pensioners and employees that year."
The Government Accounting Office (GAO) estimated the cost of healthcare fraud to be between 3 and 10 percent of all health care expenditures -- as much as $100 billion each year."
17 minutes ago
The U.S. national murder rate reported by the FBI is about 16,000 each year.
- 5,000 workers are killed on the job each year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics
- the Consumer Product Safety Commission estimates that "there remain 27,100 deaths each year" related to consumer products ... Read More
- thousands of annual deaths caused by cancer and other diseases linked to corporate pollution, defective products, tainted food and addictive substances
Besides the 2.3 trillion went missing Sept.10th 2001, there are more numbers.
1 million jobs were lost between November
and December of 2008.1 One of every five
mortgage holders now has a home worth less
than
the mortgage on it.2 There were 2.25 million
home foreclosures in 2008.3 Home foreclosures
increased more than 71 percent in the third
quarter of 2008 compared to the previous year
and
it is estimated that 8 million homes,
representing 16 percent of all mortgages, will
be in
foreclosure in the next 4 years
It is also well-known that the government’s
first response to the crisis was to pass the
Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008
(EESA), better known as the “bailout.” The act
authorized the Treasury Department to spend
$700 billion, in two allocations (the second
only
if necessary) to stabilize the financial
system in
a way that would protect homes and family
savings, preserve homeownership, and provide
public accountability.5 The program was called
the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) as
the Treasury’s original strategy was to use
that
money to buy troubled mortgage-related assets.
In the following two months, however, the
Department changed course to instead invest
the money directly in financial institutions
by
purchasing preferred stock.6 As of January 30,
in addition to the $40 billion granted to AIG
and
$20 billion to Citigroup in separate
transactions,
the Treasury had
Don’t forget the bonuses...
The management of these
companies also spent the money
paying themselves end-of-theyear
bonuses. Financial
companies rewarded themselves
for their 2008 performances to
the tune of $18.4 billion, the sixth
biggest amount in history. Merrill
Lynch alone, right before it was
acquired by Bank of America
distributed between 4 and 5
billion dollars in bonuses, a
matter that is now being
investigated by the New York
State Attorney General.20
Citigroup rewarded its executives
with $4 billion in bonuses, despite
the fact that the company lost $18
billion in 2008 and the
government – the American
people – had to come to its
rescue.21 And not only did
executives get bonuses despite
the wreckage they had helped create, the
average performance-based bonuses for top
executives at the biggest companies increased
by 14% over the year before to $265,594.22 In
a
speech on the Senate floor, Senator Claire
McCaskill (D-MO) said an average of $2.6
million
dollars was paid in bonuses to executives from
the first 116 banks that got TARP money.23
As the country sank further into an economic
crisis the likes of which has not been seen
since
the Great Depression, the CEO of Merrill
Lynch, John Thain, spent $1.2 million in
company
money to redecorate his office. Citigroup
arranged to acquire a $50 million corporate
jet, and
later balked.24 Wells Fargo, which received
$25 billion in federal funds, was planning a
series of
“employee recognition outings” in Las Vegas
luxury hotels.25
