The Facts on Gas Prices: Infographic

Matt Compton
March 12, 2012
04:55 PM EDT
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Here are the facts: The United States produced more than 2 billion barrels of crude oil in 2011. Domestic oil production has climbed every year since President Obama took office, and our dependence on foreign oil is at its lowest level since the 1990s. But even as we drill more, gas prices continue to rise.

If you want to know why President Obama says that pursuing an all-of-the-above strategy is only way to secure our energy future, check out our infographic that explains the President's plan and its relationship to gas prices.

Check out Job & Economy at the Whitehouse.gov

President Obama will not be satisfied until every American who wants work can find a job. That’s why he is working to grow our economy, so middle class families feel confident in their futures and their children’s futures.

Creating Jobs

President Obama’s vision for the future? Billions of dollars of products sold around the world stamped: “Made in America.” Here’s what he has done to make that happen.

Reform and Responsibility

The Obama Administration is committed to saving you money. We are hunting down misspent tax dollars through the Campaign to Cut Waste.

Security for the Middle Class

Getting back to pre-recession status is not enough; we’ve got to fully restore America’s middle class

Business in America

America’s small businesses are essential to strengthening our national economy and President Obama is committed to helping them grow and prosper

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• "It's Just Not Right": The Failures of Alabama's Self-Deportation ExperimentWhat happens when outside agitators work with state politicians to pass the nation's most draconian anti-immigrant law yet? The Cotton State learned the hard way.
  

  By Paul Reyes
• 
  164 Anti-Immigration Laws Passed Since 2010? A MoJo Analysis.We crunched the data behind the self-deportation crowd's spate of state laws, the private-prison industry's campaign spending, and more.
  

  By Ian Gordon and Tasneem Raja
• 
  Kris Kobach, Nativist SonThe legal mastermind behind the wave of anti-immigration laws sweeping the country.
  

  By Suzy Khimm
• 
  How Did Harsh Immigration Laws Spread to Your Statehouse?Hint: The conservative American Legislative Exchange Council and legal experts like Kris Kobach had a lot to do with it.
  

  By Ian Gordon
• 
  The Immigration Hardliner Family TreeA guide to the funders, think tanks, lawyers, and politicians behind harsh Arizona-style legislation.
  

  By Ian Gordon
• 
  The Effects of Self-Deportation in AlabamaPhotos from Birmingham, Alabama, where residents are experiencing the downside of anti-immigration bill HB 56
  

  Photographs by David Walter Banks/Luceo Images

Overworked America: 12 Charts That Will Make Your Blood Boil

Why "efficiency" and "productivity" really mean more profits for corporations and less sanity for you.

—By Dave Gilson

| July/August 2011 Issue

Illustration: Mark Matcho; Chart Artwork: Jeff Berlin

Want more rage? 
In the past 20 years, the US economy has grown nearly 60 percent. This huge increase in productivity is partly due to automation, the internet, and other improvements in efficiency. But it's also the result of Americans working harder—often without a big boost to their bottom lines. Oh, and meanwhile, corporate profits are up 20 percent. (Also read our essay on the great speedup and harrowing first-person tales of overwork.)

You have nothing to lose but your gains

Productivity has surged, but income and wages have stagnated for most Americans. If the median household income had kept pace with the economy since 1970, it would now be nearly $92,000, not $50,000.

Growth is back...

...But jobs aren't

Sorry, not hiring

The sectors that have contributed the most to the country's overall economic growth have lagged when it comes to creating jobs.

The wage freeze

Increase in real value of the minimum wage since 1990: 21%
Increase in cost of living since 1990: 67%
One year's earnings at the minimum wage: $15,080
Income required for a single worker to have real economic security: $30,000

Working 9 to 7

For Americans as a whole, the length of a typical workweek hasn't changed much in years. But for many middle-class workers, job obligations are creeping into free time and family time. For low-income workers, hours have declined due to a shrinking job market, causing underemployment.

Labor pains

Median yearly earnings of:

Union workers: $47,684
Non-union workers: $37,284

Dude, Where's My Job?

More and more, US multinationals are laying off workers at home and hiring overseas.

Proud to be an American

The US is part of a very small club of nations that don't require...

Digital overtime

A survey of employed email users finds:

22% are expected to respond to work email when they're not at work.
50% check work email on the weekends.
46% check work email on sick days.
34% check work email while on vacation.

The second shift

Working moms pick up more child care and household duties than working dads—about 80 minutes more every day. Meanwhile, dads enjoy nearly 50 more minutes of watching TV and other leisure activities on a daily basis.

Chore wars

Thanks, guys—you're pitching in more than twice as much as you did in the '70s. But women still get stuck with the majority of work around the house.

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Sources

Productivity/income: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Congressional Budget Office (PDF), Economic Policy Institute, Census Bureau (Excel)

GDP/jobs: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development; Stephen Gordon, Université Laval

Sector growth: Bureau of Labor Statistics

Minimum Wage: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Economic Policy Institute, Wider Opportunities for Women (PDF)

50 hours: Center for American Progress (PDF)

Unions: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Economic Policy Institute

Benefits maps: McGill Institute for Health and Social Policy

Email: Pew Internet & American Life Project (PDF)

Second shift: Bureau of Labor Statistics (PDF)

Housework: Michigan Institute for Social Research

Also read: First-person stories from the front lines of overworked America and The Speedup: Corporate profits are booming. So why are you being worked to the bone?
More Mother Jones charty goodness: It's the inequality, stupid; Only little people pay taxes; How the rich get richer; how the poor get poorer; who owns Congress?




All Work and No Pay: The Great Speedup
You: doing more with less. Corporate profits: up 22 percent. The dirty secret of the jobless recovery.

Harrowing, Heartbreaking Tales of Overworked Americans
First person stories of doing more with less, from warehouses and classrooms to operating rooms and air-traffic control towers.

The 10 Craziest Job Perks
With bennies like these, why would any worker want to, you know, go home?

Federal Campaign Cash From Financial Sector

January/February 2010 Issue

  See More Charts  

To see more charts and stories click the hands.

This chart is part of Mother Jones' coverage of the financial crisis, one year later.-

Learn more about Wall Street's accountability deficit.

What Else Could 14 Trillion Buy?

9 Wall Street Execs Who Cashed In On The Crisis

The Real Size of the Bailout

We're paying WHOM to Fix Mortgages?

How Banks Got Too Big To Fail

The Bonus Boom

Big Finance's 10 Favorite Lawmakers

The Bankers On Obama's Team

Charts: Who Are the 1 Percent?

I know this is back in 2011 but what these articles say and the charts show still pertain

today.  Republicans are for the 1%, and what happens to the 99%, who cares.

 

—By Dave Gilson

| Mon Oct. 10, 2011 3:39 PM PDT

159
• 
  

Ian Munnings/Flickr

Occupy Wall Street has focused national attention on the vast majority of Americans who have been left behind by the economic growth of the past few decades. But if OWS is the voice of the 99 percent, who exactly are the 1 percent?

A quick look at the numbers reveals that they aren't all bailed-out Wall Street execs or brokers pulling down fat bonuses. That's just some of them:

Even though the richest 1 percent of Americans don't all work on Wall Street, they do control a disproportionate amount of its wealth, including nearly half of all stocks and mutual funds and more than 60 percent of securities.

But you can't beat this chart for the most dramatic measure of just how wide the gap between the tippy-top and the 99 percent has become. While incomes for the superrich have skyrocketed in the past three decades, most Americans' have flatlined. 

ALSO: Check out our charts on income inequality, overworked America, and six common economic myths.

Sources: Occupations of top 1 percent: John Bakija, Williams College(PDF); asset ownership: Edward N. Wolff, Bard College (PDF); income growth: The World Top Incomes Database

It's the Inequality, Stupid

 Call it what you may, there is disadvantage for those in the middle class, poor and below poverty.  It is out of balance...

 Eleven charts that explain what's wrong with America.

—By Dave Gilson and Carolyn Perot

 March/April 2011 Issue

Want more charts like these? See our charts on the secrets of the jobless recovery, the richest 1 percent of Americans, and how the superwealthy beat the IRS.
More Mother Jones charty goodness: How the rich get richer; how the poor get poorer; who owns Congress?

How Rich Are the Superrich?

A huge share of the nation's economic growth over the past 30 years has gone to the top one-hundredth of one percent, who now make an average of $27 million per household. The average income for the bottom 90 percent of us? $31,244.

Note: The 2007 data (the most current) doesn't reflect the impact of the housing market crash. In 2007, the bottom 60% of Americans had 65% of their net worth tied up in their homes. The top 1%, in contrast, had just 10%. The housing crisis has no doubt further swelled the share of total net worth held by the superrich.

Winners Take All

The superrich have grabbed the bulk of the past three decades' gains.

Download: PDF chart 1 (large) PDF chart 2 (large) | JPG chart 1 (smaller)  JPG chart 2 (smaller)

Out of Balance

A Harvard business prof and a behavioral economist recently asked more than 5,000 Americans how they thought wealth is distributed in the United States. Most thought that it’s more balanced than it actually is. Asked to choose their ideal distribution of wealth, 92% picked one that was even more equitable.

Download: PDF (large) | JPG (smaller)

Capitol Gain

Why Washington is closer to Wall Street than Main Street.

member	max. est. net worth
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.)	$451.1 million
Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.)	$435.4 million
Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-Fla.)	$366.2 million
Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.)	$294.9 million
Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.)	$285.1 million
Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.)	$283.1 million
Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wisc.)	$231.2 million
Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas)	$201.5 million
Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.)	$136.2 million
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.)	$108.1 million
combined net worth:	$2.8 billion

Congressional data from 2009. Family net worth data from 2007. Sources: Center for Responsive Politics; US Census; Edward Wolff, Bard College.

Download: PDF (large) | JPG (smaller) 

Who's Winning?

For a healthy few, it's getting better all the time.

Download: PDF (large) | JPG (smaller)

Download: PDF (large) | JPG (smaller)

YOUR LOSS,THEIR GAIN

How much income have you given up for the top 1 percent?

 

Download: PDF (large) | JPG (smaller)

WANT MORE CHARTS LIKE THESE?

See our charts on the secrets of the jobless recovery, the richest 1 percent of Americans, and how the superwealthy beat the IRS. Some samples:

YOU HAVE NOTHING TO LOSE BUT YOUR GAINS

Productivity has surged, but income and wages have stagnated for most Americans. If the median household income had kept pace with the economy since 1970, it would now be nearly $92,000, not $50,000.

MEET THE ELITE

ONLY LITTLE PEOPLE PAY TAXES

Sources

Income distribution: Emmanuel Saez (Excel)

Net worth: Edward Wolff (PDF)

Household income/income share: Congressional Budget Office

Real vs. desired distribution of wealth: Michael I. Norton and Dan Ariely (PDF)

Net worth of Americans vs. Congress: Federal Reserve (average); Center for Responsive Politics (Congress)

Your chances of being a millionaire: Calculation based on data from Wolff (PDF); US Census (household and population data)  

Member of Congress' chances: Center for Responsive Politics

Wealthiest members of Congress: Center for Responsive Politics

Tax cut votes: New York Times (Senate; House)

Wall street profits, 2007-2009: New York State Comptroller (PDF)

Unemployment rate, 2007-2009: Bureau of Labor Statistics

Home equity, 2007-2009: Federal Reserve, Flow of Funds data, 1995-2004 and 2005-2009 (PDFs)

CEO vs. worker pay: Economic Policy Institute

Historic tax rates: Calculations based on data from The Tax Foundation

Federal tax revenue: Joint Committee on Taxation (PDF)

Read also: Kevin Drum on the decline of Big Labor, the rise of Big Business, and why the Obama era fizzled so soon.