of Socialism.

We have a Capitalistic and Socialist government.

The Republicans and many Democratic politicians want to have a solely Capitalistic government.

The powers that be will get their wish.

All branches of government are protecting Wall Street, the big banks, corporations, torturers, war profiteers, and an array of white collar criminals.

Corruption and greed have infested every nook and cranny in the U.S.

very, very true

And they're getting it.

Citizens United was the final coffin nail. We have no access to the means to change this system peaceably; access had been sold and paid for by the wealthy and corporate interests. The only way it will change is in the streets.

"The time to make money is when blood is running in the streets."

Lot's of really wealthy people (the kind that make $500,000 a minute) clamor to be the one that saying is attributed to, because it is one of the true constants throughout their career.

I always hear wing nuts blaming welfare cheats and moochers, but never obscene CEO pay, which they are enabling. And welfare cheating is a drop in the bucket compared to the rich getting richer Part of this is the point Bill Maher made again last night, that a huge chunk of the people in the US are fairly ignorant. Only 42% can name all three branches of government. 20 something per cent can't even name one branch. Not shocking for anyone who remembers Jay Leno's "Jaywalking" bit he did.

Fox News has to share the blame for this, passing lies and innuendo off as truth and fair and balanced.

We need a critical mass of people to figure out the big con that's going on.

Someone started to undercut economic and education opportunity. Someones across the corporate and university worlds joined them.

The downward spiral of inequality -- the slow sucking sound of job loss, union destruction, skyrocketing pricing of higher education -- didn't become apparent for at least a decade, what with the louder media distractions of wars, the "War on X," social scapegoating and political scandal mongering during those decades.

But some ONE did start it. A group supported that someone.

There is no collective "we" to blame for it. Americans didn't just walk away from jobs and education.

Instead of reinvesting in training and jobs companies are reinvesting in driving up short term gain.

The 99.99% are screwed.

He did say in his book that as long as it was possible to make more money by investing in equities than you can make producing things, inequality of wealth will continue to grow. He also said that now that it was harder for people to become wealthy through their own labor, old wealth would take on more meaning and families that are rich now would over generations become a new aristocracy.

then discounts it, and says, basically, the financial sector knows all these ways of screwing people and the people don't, or aren't trained enough to recognize how they are being used?

Problem is, even if you re-instate the financial regulations the author mentions, and bring us back to 1980, that leaves untouched all the education, building, and growth which we lost during those 34 years.

To rebuild all that would take $40-50 trillion - over and above the changes mentioned - and about 25 years to even get us close to where we should be today, and that isn't gonna happen.

And even if it did, too many things have been permanently lost, along with many lives that have been used up and thrown away during that time.

And if we don't, the hundred million we now have in poverty and near poverty will be joined by scores of millions of others over the next few years, the legacy of this experiment in democracy.