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The Pope Sent a Letter to the World's Most Powerful People. This is What He Said In It.
Benjamin Cosman's avatar image By Benjamin Cosman  7 hours ago 614 SHARES
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The news: Pope Francis is at it again. After a string of weeks that saw Francis take on capitalism, the pope is now appealing to the world’s richest individuals directly.

In a letter to the attendees of the 2014 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Francis called on the world’s richest to use their wealth to help the poor instead of simply padding their bank accounts.



"I ask you to ensure that humanity is served by wealth and not ruled by it,” the letter read. Francis called for “decisions, mechanisms and processes directed to a better distribution of wealth, the creation of sources of employment and an integral promotion of the poor which goes beyond a simple welfare mentality."

If there’s one surefire way to cause a commotion at the WEF, it’s calling for a redistribution of wealth and a "promotion of the poor" in front of the richest people on Earth.

Of course, this is familiar territory for Francis. Just last month, the pope tackled income inequality — or, as he referred to it, one of the "grave financial and economic crises of our time." And before that, Francis released an apostolic exhortation, in which he criticized the current capitalist structure that "expresses a crude and naïve trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power" and lets the "powerful feed upon the powerless."

And now, Francis is taking his message and waving it right in front of the faces of the people "wielding economic power."

The guest list at the WEF in Davos features some of the richest and most powerful people in the world, including the CEOs of JP Morgan Chase and Goldman Sachs, and Walmart’s CEO of global eCommerce. All told, there are over 700 "chief executives" attending, 13 members of the United States Congress, and representatives of 20 central banks from around the world. It’s the world’s global elite all in one place.

Which is why Francis is taking advantage of the opportunity. He’s the pope, after all, and isn’t intimidated by the excessive wealth and power gathered in Switzerland this week. If he has a captive audience, he’s going to take advantage of it.

He’s right, too. The world is seeing extraordinary levels of inequality: the world’s richest 85 people have as much wealth as the poorest 3.5 billion, according to a new Oxfam report. That’s staggering. So if Francis wants to speak directly to the richest people in the world and call for a “better distribution of wealth” and a “promotion of the poor,” I say we let him.

Quoted from Box A Rox

75% Favor Raising Minimum Wage To $10.10 Hr

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75% call it a raise without realizing that the cost of living went up as will their healthcare contribution....just learned this at work
as did multiple other folks from other places of employment....

what goes in GETS F'EN TAKEN OUT....it's NOT a raise,,,,it's called robbing peter to pay paul and a lie....

it's still the bottom...more money in is more money out.....

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the leaders waited to talk about minimum wage and raise it now because they KNEW the cost of national health insurance....

it's fodder for fools....

it's an insurance premium subsidy and it's STILL the bottom.....

extortion has it's relatives

Quoted from CICERO

You would think the logical solution to low income Americans would be to lower the amount they pay throughout the year in taxes.  It would have the same affect, more money in their pockets, and lawmakers could do that with the stroke of a pen.  BUT THEY DONT.

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Here's How Rich Every U.S. State Really is — In One Eye-Opening Map
Tom McKay's avatar image By Tom McKay  11 hours ago 5 COMMENTS  |  1508 SHARES
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You knew the U.S. was rich, but did you know just how rich?

From Redditor Phaenthi, the moderator of the subreddit /r/DataisBeautiful, comes this map showing us which countries each states' GDP overtakes. The result is compelling and oddly troubling when you mull the results.

For example, this map is not adjusted for population size. That means that "Minnesota has a population of ~5.5 million and Nigeria has a population of ~175 million," or in other words, that the statistically average Minnesotan has at least the same wealth as around 32 statistically average Nigerians.

Texas' 2012 GDP of $1.4 trillion is considerably bigger than Mexico's $1.18 trillion. But Texas had an estimated 25,145,561 people in 2012 to Mexico's roughly 116,900,000. New York's 2012 GDP was $1.2 trillion (turns out hosting the world's center of finance has its benefits), beating out the entire nation of South Korea's $1.12 trillion.

Some other surprises: The tiny state of Maine is more wealthy than Uzbekistan, while California beats out the entire nation of Canada. California's $2 trillion in in 2012 far exceeded our neighbor to the north's 2012 total of roughly $1.82 trillion. Illinois ranks very highly, beating out oil-rich Saudi Arabia, but that's because Chicago happens to be one of the richest cities on earth.

Looking farther South and in the Southwest, though, the comparisons are a little less impressive. Utah beats Angola, while Mississippi beats Oman and Louisiana overtakes Pakistan. And Florida's GDP per capita is $40,231, while Switzerland's GDP per capita is $78,925 (seventh in the world), meaning that it's actually not a very impressive showing.

What you can take from this map is that the U.S. remains very, very wealthy, and its productive capacity outranks much of the world put together. But at the same time, this map doesn't track more useful statistics like Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) — a measure that is essentially an adjusted cost of living measurement. Alternatively, median household income would be a more telling measure. While this map shows us just how much wealth each state is capable of generating relative to the rest of the world, it doesn't tell us very much about how the people in those states are faring.