General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsMost of Us Will Not Have a Better Life Unless We Turn the Tables on the Super Rich
http://www.alternet.org/books/most-us-will-not-have-better-life-unless-we-turn-tables-super-richThe following is an excerpt from 99 to 1: How Wealth Inequality Is Wrecking the World and What We Can Do About It , by Chuck Collins (Berrett-Koehler, 2012).
An economy so dependent on the spending of a few is also prone to great booms and busts. The rich splurge and speculate when their savings are doing well. But when the values of their assets tumble, they pull back. That can lead to wild gyrations. Sound familiar? Its no mere coincidence that over the last century the top earners share of the nations total income peaked in 1928 and 2007the two years just preceding the biggest downturns. Robert Reich (b. 1946)
There are many theories about what triggered the 2008 economic meltdown. These explanations focus on bad actors such as the large banks and financial firms, the unregulated shadow financial sector, and unethical subprime mortgage pushers.
But there is a missing lens to the story, one that shows how the economic meltdown was caused by excessive income and wealth inequality. The two triggers were consumption by the 99 percent based on borrowing rather than real wage growth, and reckless financial speculation by the 1 percent.
Ingredient 1: Consumption Based on Borrowing, Not Real Wage Growth
Real wages for the bottom 80 percent of households have remained relatively stagnant since the late 1970s. People survived these stagnant wages by working more hours, bringing more family members into the paid labor force, and borrowing more, thanks to easy access to credit. This put enormous stresses on many working families as they got caught on a work-consume-borrow treadmill. But for many, this was the only way to attain or maintain a middle-class standard of living.
*** i know there are DUers who are uncomfortable w/ wage growth.
xchrom
(108,903 posts)Brickbat
(19,339 posts)raouldukelives
(5,178 posts)You can't go out and buy a new ecosystem. All the games they play are only robbing everything of a future. Even in the face of all the new reports of dwindling arctic ice all they can see is dollar signs. New areas to mine, new wells to drill.
Go ahead, leave your heirs your billions. I have a suspicion there is a good chance they would trade it all for a few trees and a stream full of fish.
99Forever
(14,524 posts)Waiting For Everyman
(9,385 posts)Bring down top compensation and bottom wages have room to go up. The top is bleeding the economy dry and it has to stop. It won't stop by itself.
HughBeaumont
(24,461 posts)Stop suppressing wages, stop reaping the gains of our productivity and stop lying about it.
Loudestlib
(980 posts)This is the only way we will ever see real growth.
NRaleighLiberal
(60,015 posts)Tom_x
(41 posts)Read your Plato, Disraeli or Kevin Philips.
They all tell you that class war is a fact of life in every country and you had better start fighting for your side.
The rich are your enemy. Not some poor person in the middle-east.
One of the main tasks of conservatism is to get you caught up in a diversion so that you will not fight your true enemy ( the rich).
pampango
(24,692 posts)I would expand your "The rich are your enemy. Not some poor person in the middle-east" a little to include poor people in any part of the world.
porphyrian
(18,530 posts)Tom_x
(41 posts)There are dozens of thread in general discussion this morning but this is probably the most important and it should be bumped.
People have to give up on the idea that these rich parasites are the source of all good things.
They are a big drag on any country that has the misfortune of having them.
>> They (the rich) are a big drag on any country that has the misfortune of having them.
Please read Jared Diamonds book "Collapse". He gives you clear historical examples of how the rich have driven their respective societies into collapse.
Or you can just look at what the parasitic 1% did to the economy in 2008.
flamingdem
(39,313 posts)Laelth
(32,017 posts)-Laelth
coalition_unwilling
(14,180 posts)Romulox
(25,960 posts)woo me with science
(32,139 posts)bvar22
(39,909 posts)When the Working Class & The Poor realize WE have more in common with each other
than we have in common with the 1% and their Wannabe Rich employees in Washington,
THEN we can have "change".
Our neighbors in Latin America have given us a Blue Print for this "change".
They have successfully wrested their governments back from the hands of the 1%.
----Bolivian Reform President Evo Morales
FDR said much the same thing in his SOTU of 1944 (Economic Bill of Rights),
so there IS precedent for this in the USA.
Unfortunately, FDR and that "Democratic Party" are long dead,
so we have some WORK to do.
It CAN happen here.
Spread the WORD.
VIVA Democracy!
I pray we get some here soon!
Note: Democratic Socialist President Hugo Chavez was successfully re-elected in Venezuela over the weekend
despite an extremely well funded (by Predatory Global Corporations and the SuperRICH) challenge from a "NeoLiberal".
[font color=firebrick][center]The Democratic Party is a BIG TENT, but there is NO ROOM for those
who advance the agenda of THE RICH (Corporate Owners) at the EXPENSE of LABOR and the POOR. [/font][/center]
[font size=5 color=firebrick]Solidarity![/font]