when our founding fathers established this republic they created a political and economic system unique among nations a system which has led the united states to the bloody pinnacle in wealth and then little leadership  this series of programs is being presented to help all of us understand our advantages our american way of life for today's topic let's join the group of young people at the national education program workshop in search the arkansas at the classroom lector and as dr clifton and gayness junior noted young historian in order to have a proper appreciation of the american economic system we must know how the national income is divided in america in other words we must examine the distribution of the great wealth for those through the operation of american capitalism is the distribution widespread or is the wealth of america concentrated in the hands of the few as the socialist and communist say this is the central question for our discussion today the answer constitutes a tribute to our system for the wealth produced within american capitalism is why the distributed throughout our population as we shall see basically an economic system must fulfill to social needs of the population which it serves first an adequate production of goods and second and equitable distribution of those goods of course there are other measurements of value for an economic system and in our previous classroom sessions we have seen how well our own system measures up how it provides a high degree of economic freedom and great incentives for personal thus bringing about national progress we know that american capitalism is morally right because it's cheap elements of private ownership the profit motive and the competitive market are wholesome and good they are compatible with god's laws and the teachings of the bible and lastly we know that with her unique economic system the united states produces forty two percent of the wealth of the world although we have only seven percent of the world's population and six percent of the land area to sum it up our system is morally right it provides economic freedom and great incentives for development and its production of good design mesh and all of human history this brings us to the central question the question of distribution are these economic benefits under american capitalism being extended to american wage or salary earners would this big segment of the population be better off under socialism or communism a dramatic answer to this question came from an english socialist who visited america after great britain had experienced a socialist system for five years tell me who could possibly hope to find food in a place such as this this is just an ordinary food market most everybody in america shops and stores like this from another dramatic answer to the question of america's distribution of wealth was given by a russian communist who visited america who and so these automobiles the employees in the plant that cannot be countries the workers do not have cars a few of the lucky ones have bicycles and the bicycle is a trademark of english and european workers comparatively few own cars in america as we all know there are more automobiles than family is and this is only a hint of our productivity will risk a guess as to the total amount of the national income during this amazing productive era in america let's say for the last twenty five years yes i would say it really hundreds of data and actually it's up in the trillions for the twenty five year period just ended it was three trillion seven hundred eighty billion dollars in debt writers crammed with a figure like that you may be wondering who got all this money to see how this wealth was distributed let's look at this gra this represents the total national income to the employees of america the wage earners and salaried people want the biggest amount sixty five percent of the self employed professional people and small business operators got the next share nine and one half percent the farmers and their a man who supplied food markets and our processing plants with the raw foodstuffs received six and one half percent stockholders the people who could save a little money and invested in business and industry receive four percent and you will remember that this amount was why did it used since there are eighteen million stockholders america today their investments of their savings have built a new factories provide a new machines and other equipment to make new jobs in industry the corporations themselves received seven and one half percent before payment of taxes after taxes they retained only three and a fraction percent of the national income the people who had property for rent received four percent and lastly the bondholders who provided the cash for a new schools you paving home loans and so approximately fifty million families in the united states they received an income of approximately two hundred seventy two billion dollars before taxes how is this income distributed among these famil again is the majority of the families in the lower income brackets below three thousand dollars a year not at all john nearly twenty one million families are forty percent received an income of three to six thousand dollars fifteen million more families receive an income of six thousand dollars or more these two groups contain seventy percent of the population that leaves only these with an income of three thousand dollars or less to be overlooked a good sized group seven percent receive incomes of ten thousand dollars or more but only three percent were in the fifteen thousand and above bracket and from this bracket came the bigger portion of venture capital or investment money to build manufacturing plants and to start businesses that's creating new jobs and new products in the lower brackets go these figures of twelve and eight pence per cent received incomes from two to three thousand dollars ten and eight tenth's per cent received from one to two thousand dollars five and seven tenth's per cent receive less than one thousand dollars  must remember however that in these lower brackets are many farm families whose cash incomes do not strictly reflect their standard of living it's mary what can be learned from this graph that our national wealth is very widely distributed much more than i realized yes eighty five percent of all income goes to ninety three percent of the families while the other seven percent of our families receive the remaining fifteen percent that's it can be seen that the great bulk of income goes to the majority of families in the middle income range that a relatively small percentage of families receive less than three thousand dollars a year and a very small minority of families receive fifteen thousand dollars or more per year in fact if all the income left to those in the fifteen thousand dollar or above bracket after taxes are paid work to be distributed evenly among the hundred sixty million people in america each of us would receive only fifty five cents a day and if the net income of all those who earn twenty five thousand dollars or above work to be distributed evenly each of us would receive only fifteen cents a day above our present income it's so we wouldn't gain much by liquidating the upper income brackets about whom the socialist and communist ray of so loudly that it is to the benefit of all americans that incentives for ach constant in the upper income level as in all other brackets so that all americans may enjoy the benefits from the total brainpower and enterprise in our dynamic nation there is one additional yardstick  konami wellbeing in all walks of american life now that we have examined the distribution of national income let's take a brief look at the ownership of property the farms of america are owned by twenty five million people the houses of america worth two hundred thirty billion dollars are owned by one hundred thirteen million people fifty million automobiles are owned by nearly forty million families it's the factories and machinery that produce the material things of life have eighteen million stockholders in one way or another more than one hundred million of our people own the wealth of america and the remainder most of them children and use  some time in their lives own substantial wealth of the true facts about american capitalism distribution of wealth and its great wealth production overshadow anything the communist and socialist have to show the truth about the distribution of wealth under american capitalism makes karl marx the world's worst prophet marx the socialist founder of communism prophesied that under capitalism wealth would be concentrated in the hands of fewer and fewer while the great majority of people would suffer increasing poverty the fact is that american capitalism has set a new standard for human welfare and if we keep its basic principles strong and vigorous in the years ahead the opportunity of every american for a still better living standards will certainly be enhanced and perhaps even the disciples of socialism and communism will come out of their shadowy pipe dreams and join us in our march of human progress at our next session we will discuss the spirit of enterprise well then last this mess political and economic system which has made america great watch for the next presentation of the american adventure