Income Gap expands in U.S.

Recession rips at US marriages, expands income gap
To read full business news article click on "expands income gap" above.
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WASHINGTON (AP) -- The recession seems to be socking Americans in the heart as well as the wallet: Marriages have hit an all-time low while pleas for food stamps have reached a record high and the gap between rich and poor has grown to its widest ever.
The long recession technically ended in mid-2009, economists say, but U.S. Census data released Tuesday show the painful, lingering effects. The annual survey covers all of last year, when unemployment skyrocketed to 10 percent, and the jobless rate is still a stubbornly high 9.6 percent. end quote.

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The income gap between the richest and poorest Americans grew last year to its largest margin ever, a stark divide as Democrats and Republicans spar over whether to extend Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthy.
The top-earning 20 percent of Americans -- those making more than $100,000 each year -- received 49.4 percent of all income generated in the U.S., compared with the 3.4 percent made by the bottom 20 percent of earners, those who fell below the poverty line, according to the new figures. That ratio of 14.5-to-1 was an increase from 13.6 in 2008 and nearly double a low of 7.69 in 1968.


What is the number one cause of divorce?

This is a trick  question because most people don't know this answer and assume something else.
The actual answer is MONEY is he number one cause of divorce.
The reason is either not enough money, or one person having all the control of the money and the other feeling so disempowered that they have affairs to get back their feeling of control in their lives. And this often just ends the marriage. And most of the time the person wasn't trying to end the marriage with an affair in the first place.

So, this money thing is very tricky. Most people don't stop loving each other that break up unless they are unfaithful. But unfaithfulness doesn't end most marriages. Money does.

The thing with money is that it often has nothing to do with how hard you work. It has more to do with how smart you are about the decisions you make in regard to what you do for money. So as a young man I realized the rule of being successful is: Always work smarter not harder.

Yes. There are times when working your butt off is the only way to get through some tough times. However, one needs to be aware of opportunities when they arise. Don't be so busy working your butt off that you miss the opportunity or opportunities of a lifetime and are left working yourself to death for nothing at all. Work Smarter not just harder.

Many of the best decisions in my life were when I was angry and down and out. I found sometimes I was angry enough to make the RIGHT decision. Whenever you get angry look for the opportunity in life. Often the best opportunities arrive just when you are often the angriest or most depressed. I'm not sure why life is like this but it often is. Necessity is often the mother of invention.