AOC's Puppet Master, Corbin Trent, LIES...Again

Corbin Trent

.
.

(https://www.facebook.com/1808948309317651/posts/2290031671209310/)

This is an interesting video that shows how Alexandria Occasio-Cortez "came out of nowhere" to become a Congresswoman - she came through a casting call.

In short, she's a paid parrot for a hidden group of far Left loons.

Corbin Trent co-founder (along with Bernie Sanders) of the PAC "Brand New Congress" claims, "40% of Americans, like 60 million Americans earn less than $20,000/year."

He's wrong about that.

In fact, he's BLATANTLY wrong about that. (https://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2016/02/07/ludicrous-economic-numbers-40-of-americans-make-less-than-the-1968-minimum-wage/#4d653ba84d8a)

He's also an idiot...just not quite as much of an idiot as Alexandria Occasio-Cortez, who couldn't even get her lines right. She parroted that mistaken factoid as, "200 million Americans make less than $20,000/year. That's 40% of Americans!"

Just how STUPID was Alexandria's goof? Well, 200 million Americans would be appx 65% of all Americans (there are 310 million Americans)...and NO, 40% of America's workers (which would be appx 61 million workers) DO NOT earn less than $20,000/year.

HOW do I know?

Thanks for asking.

Turns out, there aren't even 200 million workers in America! "In 2017, around 153.34 million people were employed in the United States." (https://www.statista.com/statistics/269959/employment-in-the-united-states/)

So, 40% of American workers would be appx 60 million U.S. workers, as Trent says. It's just that his number is about double the number of those actually earning $20,000/year or less. Where AOC got "200 million Americans" from...is anyone's guess.

As to what Americans earn, "The Census counted 114.6 million households in 2010, the most recent year for which it has published data. Some takeaways: Almost one household out of every four (24.9 percent) makes less than $25,000 a year. About one in three households (30.1 percent) made between $50,000 and $100,000.Jul 16, 2012 (https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/24/how-much-americans-earn-at-every-age.html)

That 114.6 million U.S. households includes those completely dependent upon government assistance. (appx 12%). OK, so according to the above census figures appx 28 million, (including, presumably the appx 25 million [12%] fully dependent on government assistance) households earn less than $25,000/year, another appx 34.5 million earn between $50,000 & $100,000/year, and another 25% or 28.5 million households earn between $25,000 and $49,999/year. That accounts for appx 80% of U.S. households earning under $100,000/year, leaving over 23 million U.S. households (appx 20%), or 1 in every 5 American households earning over $100,000/year.

What's the average income in the U.S.?

"The median household income in the United States is $59,039, according to 2015 data from the U.S. Census." Aug 24, 2017 (IBID)

That average includes part time and per diem workers.

So, how much does an American have to earn, in order to be considered "rich"?

"This group of earners  ("the rich") makes at least two times the national median household income: $59,039 in 2016, according to the latest data from the US Census Bureau's 2016 American Community Survey. Nationally, the threshold for "rich" is $118,080, but that figure varies from city to city depending on the local median income." March 6th, 2018 (https://www.businessinsider.com/how-much-money-rich-people-earn-in-america-san-francisco-new-york-2018-2)

THIS is why "tax the rich," really means YOU, all you NY, NJ, CA & D.C. workers!

Moreover, given that the average income of all U.S. workers is just over $59,000/year, and almost a quarter of Americans (24.9%) earn less than $25,000/year, the bulk of this income data is impacted by the fact that widely varying costs-of-living and, by extension, wages across the country make direct wage comparisons between places like NY, NY and Des Moines, Iowa impossible.

As an example, in DesMoines, $73,800/year = $100,000/year in NYC. Seeing that, should make it more obvious how dishonest and flat out wrong the "think tank" behind AOC really is.

So WHO is Corbin Trent?

Well, he's THIS guy; (https://campaignforamericasfuture.org/signer/corbin-trent/)
.

I Stand Corrected...

I've been saying for years...actually decades that "Democratic Socialism"  is Venezuela NOT Sweden, but while Bernie Sanders and others have lauded Chavez, Castro and other Marxist tyrants, even saying, "Food lines are good! In Capitalist countries the rich can by all the food they want, leaving little for anyone else," recently Alexandria Occasio-Cortez (AOC) DID say, "I mean Sweden, Finland and Norway, NOT Venezuela."

Whoops!

OK....I really DON'T stand corrected.
(https://www.investors.com/politics/editorials/ocasio-cortez-socialism-norway-sweden-venezuela/)

This is especially for Carlos

Because IF AOC really supports the policies Sweden, Finland and Norway, then she supports policies that are even MORE market-based than our own!

Policies like LOWERING our Corporate tax rates. While Ms. Ocasio-Cortez claims to want to raise the federal corporate tax rate from 21% to 28%, the corporate income tax rate in Finland, it's 20%. The rate is 22% in Sweden and 23% in Norway. When you count state corporate income taxes, the average tax on corporate profits in the U.S.  is currently 25.7%, according to the Tax Foundation.

IF she supports the Nordic model, she's also supporting the privatization of Social Security. Sweden partially privatized its social security program in the mid-1990s.

How about eradicating the minimum wage? She's apparently unaware that neither Sweden nor Norway have any minimum wage laws at all, nor that Finland's is 83% LOWER than the current U.S. minimum.

Moreover, none of these countries would dream of something as radical as a "federal jobs guarantee." Finland, in fact, just abandoned its experiment in a related idea called "universal basic income" because of its costs and its adverse economic impacts.

So, while those misguided folks who use Sweden as an excuse to move the U.S. toward "democratic socialism," the Nordic countries she cites have been steadily moving in the opposite direction — cutting taxes, reining in government benefits and freeing up their economies.

In fact, all those countries have become more economically free over the years, according to the Heritage Foundation's Index of Economic Freedom.

How about LESS Diversity and MORE School Choice?

Some more inconvenient facts about these so-called socialist paradises that AOC would never endorse:

Sweden, Norway and Finland are among the least diverse nations in the world. Out of a list of 159 countries ranked by ethnic and cultural diversity, Sweden, Norway and Finland rank in the bottom fifth. The U.S. ranks 85.

Sweden also has a school choice program, in effect since 1992, that lets parents take vouchers to public or private schools.

So, it seems I KNOW what Socialism is and it's AOC and those who espouse "Nordic Socialism," who...DON'T.