When will Americans wake up and smell the coffee of Plutocracy?

Kudos to commondreams.org for a great article.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Published on Monday, November 21, 2005 by CommonDreams.org
Economic Apartheid in America
by Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman

Top executives now make more in a day than the average worker makes in a year.

You can have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, or democracy. But you cannot have both.
-- Louis Brandeis
How wealthy the wealthy are does matter. If we allow great wealth to accumulate in the pockets of a few, then great wealth can set our political agenda and shape our political culture -- and the agenda and the culture that emerge will not welcome efforts to make American work for all Americans.
-- Sam Pizzigati

Plutocracy: 1. The rule or power of wealth or the wealthy; 2. A government or state in which the wealthy class rules. 3. A class for group ruling, or exercising power or influence, by virtue of its wealth.
-- Webster's Unabridged Dictionary

Of the world's 100 largest economies, 47 are nations, and 53 are corporations.

Seventy-five percent of major corporations hire a consultant to stop employees from forming a union.


The alarming development and aggressiveness of great capitalists and corporations, unless checked, will inevitably lead to the pauperization and hopeless degradation of the toiling masses. It is imperative, if we desire to enjoy the full blessings of life, that a check be placed upon unjust accumulations and the power for evil of aggravated wealth. -- Constitution of the Knights of Labor, 1869.
The Washington monument is 555 feet tall. Say it signifies the 2003 average compensation for CEOs in the Fortune 500. The average worker salary would be only 16 inches tall, representing a ratio of 419 to one. In 1965, the worker's monument was 13 feet six inches tall, representing a ratio of 41 to 1.


Inherited economic power is as inconsistent with the ideals of this generation as inherited political power was inconsistent with the ideals of the generation which established our government. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Born on home plate -- Forty-two percent of those listed inherited sufficient wealth to rank among the Forbes 400.

Examples:

J. Paul Getty Jr. inherited the oil fortune from his father.

David Rockefeller Sr. ($2.5 billion) is the grandson of the Standard Oil founder John D. Rockefeller.

S.I. and Donald Newhouse ($7 billion each) inherited the nation's largest private newspaper chain, plus Conde Nast publications, from their father in 1979.

Samuel Curtis Johnson ($1.5 billion) is the great grandson of the flooring salesman who founded the floor wax giant S.C. Johnson and Sons.

The United Nations Development Program reported in 1999 that the world's 225 richest people now have a combined wealth of $1 trillion. That's equal to the combined annual income of the world's 2.5 billion poorest people.

The richest 10 percent of the world's population receives 49.6 percent of the total world income.

The bottom 60 percent receives 13.9 percent of the world's income.

The wealth of the world's three most well-to-do individuals now exceeds the combined gross domestic product of the 48 least developed countries.

Half of the world's population of six billion live on less than $2 a day, while 1.3 billion get by on less than $1 a day.

These are some of things you learn from a new book, just out, titled Economic Apartheid in America: A Primer on Economic Inequality & Insecurity by Chuck Collins and Felice Yeskel with United for a Fair Economy (The New Press, 2005).

The book is filled with photos, and charts, and graphs -- that make it a great home schooling tool, for young and old alike.

It puts things in perspective.

It keeps you on your toes.

Read it.

Then listen to a little Bill O'Reilly.

Then read it some more.

Contrast is good.

Stretch limousines are longer, yet more people are homeless.

Thirty zip codes in America have become fabulously wealthy.

Meanwhile, whole urban and rural communities are languishing in unemployment, crumbling infrastructure, growing insecurity and fear.

It makes the perfect gift for the holidays.

And you probably won't find it Wal-Mart.

Or Costco, for that matter.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Will the appathy of many Americans regarding these issues die when they discover these truths?
If it does, I'm curious as to how they would respond.

to go with the eggs and bacon of economic determinism for the third world...

the cup of Post Partum Depression with eggs benedict of economic colonialism for the third world we currently serve?

that can only be relieved with the Tums of the Democratic party...

Do they even still make Postum any more? (For young folks, it was a coffee substitute that I think was made out of peanut hulls)

I am going to go order the book -- it sounds great! Thanks!

:applause: Kicked & recommended!!! :loveya:


:kick::kick::kick::kick:

That's one of the major problems in America is that people judge you on how you're doing monetarily.

line of BS. It works every time. :rofl:

My ultra wealthy ex-boss (married an heir to the Seagram's fortune. His father-in-law is the 5th wealthiest person in Canada and somewhere in the top 100 in the world.) was shocked when he was told the statistics for the current distribution of wealth. At first he was appalled but I think later it was a shot in the arm and further inflated his already out-of-control ego.

I will ask Santa for a copy. Of course this plutocracy could not exist without our Mickey Mouse Media.

Church backed the royals and the churches did not have to pay taxes and the poor gave their children to fight the wars so the royals and church could keep every one in line. Worked well for lots of countries. 300 years in Russia alone.

or should it be "Democracy, seen any lately?"

Reclaim Democracy has a plan
check out http://www.reclaimdemocracy.org/

Also, Ralph Nader is great on these issues, his latest article in the Nation was a very practicle approach to winning in these issues!

When there are food riots?
When there are gas riots?
When their over consuming,
instantly gratifying, non-stop
infotainment lifestyles can't be
sustained due to either an enviromental collapse,
a world wide depression, industrial collapse or world wide plague.

Until then....our world will become more and more Orwellian.

Makes me glad to be over 50 sometimes.
I lived near the peak of what is seen now as the "nostalgic" America
of Normal Rockwell.
Before technology becomes all pervasive and capitalism became
a predatory winner take all, anything for a price system.

It sounds like the kind of book Regnery would publish for the righties. The chances that people will somehow awaken from their election slumbers is slim probably because of the choices with which we are presented. In 2004, we had the choice of the scion of a wealthy New England family, educated in private prep schools and the Ivy League and married to a wealthy widow running against the scion of a wealthy New England family, educated in private prep schools and the Ivy League who was propped up in business by his Dad's cronies.
That is the kind of choice we are going to be faced with until more people take it into their heads to rid themselves, on a frequent basis, of incumbents. The people of Mass. ,for example, insist on re-electing two senators who have become caricatures. Are Kerry and Kennedy the best this party can come up with? If so, it will be a long dark stretch of time for the Democratic party.
Want to make a difference, vote against the incumbent no matter what party they are; what's to lose? Could it be any worse?

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

Make mine a double; thanks

My spell check is too naive to recognize the word.....How convenient.
You can read about it in Jared Diamond's excellent work titled: "Guns, Germs & Steel"

And THAT is what we currently have, only few in the US have caught on yet.