This is the Millennium that is

Here's how the new millennium began: In 2000, the average CEO was paid more for one day's work than the average wage earner got all year.

What about those above-average CEOs? Well, the CEOs of 23 of the larger companies the SEC and other government agencies are investigating for various skullduggeries were above average in pay by about 70%. Which is about the same percentage that their companies' market value dropped in the year and a half after January 2001. But so far they haven't had to give any of their money back. Which, by the way, added up to $1.4 billion between 1999 and 2001.

Thanks to these above-average CEOs, some 160,000 wage earners no longer earn any wages in these companies.

Those average CEOs saw their pay go up by 571% in the 1990s. So the average CEO made almost six times as much in 2000 as in 1990. Average workers' pay rose by about a third.

But fortunately, Americans are no longer dependent on mere wages—we have become a nation of capitalists, earning from investments in the stock market. Or so we're told. We heard a lot about how average Americans became stock market investors in this new millennium, proving how robust American capitalism is in spreading the wealth. Turns out that the bottom 80% of stock owners hold less than five percent of all stocks. The top one percent owns nearly half. That's consistent with the lopsided statistics on wealth in general.

So much for statistics. How about some damn lies? You've seen those lovely Wal-Mart commercials—the bouncy old folks, the smiling minorities talking about how great it is to work at Wal-Mart. After all, it's the biggest damn company on the planet! It employs more people than the U.S. military!

It's also a defendant in thirty states—that's 30 out of 50—because some of those happy employees say their managers force them to punch out after their 8 hour work day, but continue to work—not for overtime, not even for the same rate of pay (which itself would be illegal), but for NOTHING. Which is real illegal. Wage slaves? Nah. These are your old-fashioned kind. No-wage slaves.

Most of this information comes from a column by Arianna Huffington. She used to be the female Henry Kissinger—on every talk show with her relentlessly annoying yet hypnotic voice, talking the conservative line. She should have spelled her name Air-ianna. Her former husband, multimillionaire Michael H., ran for governor in California. He preferred to let his millions (and Arianna) speak for him, since it seemed he had nothing much to say. He lost, and Arianna promptly divorced him. In recent years she's become a persistent voice for that lower 80%. What happened to her? That could be quite a story.