The ultra-wealthy, those that work for their system, and those that they call "useless eaters"

Poverty in Egypt and America
Wed Feb 2, 2011 6:44PM
The American Dream
http://www.presstv.ir/usdetail/163293.html

<<snip>>

The days when the United States was a relatively egalitarian society are over. Now our society is made up of the ultra-wealthy, those that work for their system and those that the ultra-wealthy consider to be "useless eaters".


By any measure, the gap between the wealthy and the rest of us is rapidly growing in this country.


According to a joint House and Senate report entitled "Income Inequality and the Great Recession", the top one percent of income earners in the United States brought in a total of 10.0 percent of all income in 1980, but by the time 2008 had rolled around that figure had skyrocketed to 21.0 percent.


In a previous article, I detailed some more statistics which show how the middle class is being systematically wiped out....


*According to Harvard Magazine, 66% of the income growth between 2001 and 2007 went to the top 1% of all Americans.


*The bottom 40 percent of income earners in the United States now collectively own less than 1 percent of the nation's wealth.


*For the first time in U.S. history, banks own a greater share of residential housing net worth in the United States than all individual Americans put together.


*According to Professor Emmanuel Saez of the University of California at Berkeley, the gap between what the top 10 percent of Americans earn per year and what the rest of us earn has been widening sharply for the last 30 years. His measurements show that the top 10% percent of Americans now take in approximately 50% of the income.


But it is not just in the United States where the gap between the rich and the poor is growing. This is truly a worldwide phenomenon....


*A study by the World Institute for Development Economics Research discovered that the bottom half of the world population owns approximately 1 percent of all global wealth.


*More than 3 billion people, close to half the world's population, live on less than 2 dollar a day.


*Average income per person in the poorest countries on the continent of Africa has fallen by one-fourth over the past twenty years.


*Approximately 1 billion people throughout the world go to bed hungry each night.


*Every 3.6 seconds someone starves to death and three-quarters of them are children under the age of 5.


*It is estimated that the entire continent of Africa only owns approximately 1 percent of the total wealth of the world.


*According to the most recent "Global Wealth Report" by Credit Suisse, the wealthiest 0.5% control over 35% of the wealth of the world.


Are you starting to get the picture?


This is all about the ultra-wealthy globalists having it all and the rest of us having next to nothing.


<<snip>>


Many of these ultra-wealthy globalists have most of their assets well out of the reach of conventional taxation. In fact, it is now estimated that a third of all the wealth in the world is held in "offshore" tax havens.


So if you think that you can just "tax" these guys and even everything out you are dreaming. They are playing a whole different ballgame than you and I are playing.


If the IMF, the World Bank and the globalists get their hooks deep into the new Egyptian government, things are not going to be getting better for the Egyptian people. The "global economic system" is not designed to benefit the average man or woman on the street.


Hopefully the Egyptian people will wake up and realize this.


Hopefully the American people will wake up and realize this.


ARA/SM/MMN

Thank you, dajoki! :hi:

The French Revolution, for example, was a good idea until the oppressed became the oppressors. It's just in our nature.

it has to be true in all cultures across the globe.

This isn't.

Says who? You? I think that discussing a concept like human nature, that one must compare apples to apples. I am not talking about the comparison of say the US culture and aboriginal culture. (Although I think even aboriginal culture shows markers of what I was talking about)

When you do the snark, that's where I quit reading.

thinking. They simply leech off the working people.

End World Hunger. Eat The Rich.

at least the vast majority of poor want to work.

The way I look at it is - we all continually use things that are the products of other people's labor, so in a way the needs and comforts of our lives are provided by the work of others. In a healthy society, we work and produce ourselves, and return an equitable amount to society for what we use. There lies balance, purpose, self esteem, and health.

In a sick society, too many people have no role whatsoever but to consume the pittance they are allowed, enough to survive - the "poor". In a sick society also too many consume vast quantities and don't work at all or give anything back. Typically they imagine themselves as superior to society as a whole and hold it in some contempt, never imagining that they should have any useful role to play to return what they continually take away from others.

They don't work...they don't produce anything...they just live on the endeavors of others.

The OP has the whole thing in a nutshell.

Where is the really big nutcracker?

It might be another twenty five years before it happens here.

People here who have been screwed over so badly they should be in a total froth still have parties where they frown on anyone talking politics.

Far better to talk about the latest deal you got at CostCo.

However, we can watch Cairo, (and the rest of the dominoes) and wait all we want to. Things are different here. We are spread out and dominated by a media that divides us. We have, for instance a supposed, grass-roots party that was manufactured to diffuse real dissent and create a circus show out of any possible transformation.

I would emphasize that an outright, serious public dialog about peaceful revolution here in the States is where our indicator about the potential of a massive move for change and its potential stands. So, how much fear of that discussion is there? How is it perceived? Who is paying attention? What would be the reaction, considering what is already in place to diminish, break and squash any revolutionary emergence in the US? What value is there in finally pushing back with integrity and intensity?

Perhaps the first steps that will create any viable impetus at all will be the litmus of just how vocal growing numbers of people can and will be and how willing they are to overlook divisive issues and come to initial, collective agreements about the necessity of charting a new course of liberty and throwing off the tightening corporate stronghold on our government, lives, planet and future.

One thing seems certain, the way things have been going, the ground is being made fertile for a strong movement here because people who have nothing, (or are close to losing what hey have left) have very little to lose.

Egypt is having a 1776 moment now. The wealthy run the country, politics, media and business. If this revolutionary moment doesn't change the government to meet the needs of Egyptians, there will come another.

Americans now live in a country where lobbyists control the house and senate. Their campaign donations are the life's blood for the professional politicians who govern our country. Exxon Mobil, like countless other mega-corporations receives government money (subsidies) and pay less taxes than a single-parent dishwasher. The ultra wealthy own and control the media. It is only a matter of time until enough of us learn the truth and begin our own million person protests in DC. The ultra-wealthy fund their own tea party organization of disgruntled tax payers wanting less government restriction of pollution, health protections, less lawsuits against these corporations. The wealthy love to hear the chants of "Smaller government" because it really means billions of savings for them not having to meet federal limits for pollution, destruction of the enviornment, interest rates, lawsuit settlement caps. Our new revolution will eliminate lobbyists, campaign donations, tax loopholes for corporations and the ultra-wealthy, overseas headquarters tax dodges, bank monopolies that are too big to fail, all monopolies, wall street profit schemes and corporate rights.

Our declaration of independence states that when any government becomes destructive of these rights (life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness)that it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it; instituting new government, laying it's foundations on such principles, that seem most effective to effect their safety and happiness. We have to take America back from the ultra-wealthy and from corporations that own everything and keep most americans poor and powerless.

It isn't just the Rich.

It is Dems who WANT to consort with the rich!

"We can't begrudge them their wealth."
I know these guys, and they "are just savvy businessmen."
"Its the Free Market."
"Look at all the baseball players."

:hi:

inflated egos. Sit down and see how many of them can build and clean and produces the widgets. A freaking world wide work stoppage.

to see a naitionwide strike.

i am saving this one. recommend.

My wife and I went On Strike in 2006.
We cashed out, sold everything, and bought inexpensive property in The Woods.
We buy almost nothing NEW.
We build it ourselves, or buy 2nd hand or salvage and make it work, or do without.
We produce a good percentage of our own food.
Wall Street and Corporate America and their bough politicians can live or die without our money or concern.

Next year, we will CONSUME even LESS.

:thumbsup: i would love to be self sufficient and off the grid.

Wouldn't they owe more to people who populate the countries where we get our oil, which makes our economy run? Or the Chinese/Pakistanis/Koreans/Vietnamese who are slaving away in the worst conditions for hours on end to produce the crap we buy?

Aren't there other people who deserve a bigger cut of the revenue they help produce more than the average American who simply resides in the same country as those who exploit the world?

That's the point. They are international. The exploitation knows no boundaries.

Right wingers think the rich are entitled to this wealth. (Why? Because they're rich!) Why should we play off the working classes?

--imm

Not to oversimplify. :shrug:

--imm

I had to address that first sentence in that article you posted.

I think once Americans fully realize & internalize this truth, then this place will be looking a lot more like Egypt is right now.
Every nation conjures its mythology & I believe once people recognize that this place just represents one set of aristocrats being traded out for another set, that mythology will be rightfully named as such.

"Relatively egalitarian society"
HA!
That doesn't exist in any nation in the world. Today or yesterday. And maybe not tomorrow.
John Lucas

Great charts of the variation in income inequality over the years in the USA in this article:

http://www.businessinsider.com/plutocracy-reborn

the "Modern Economics for Dummies"

WE've been had.


But it's a lot more fun to blame each other....

That's the goddamn truth!

For decades we've been told:
Work hard and you'll succeed...
"Welfare" is for slackers...
The wealthy provide the jobs...
If you're savvy, you'll succeed; if not, you'll fail...

All goddamned lies!!!

any day now.


I keep waiting and waiting on the sound of a trickle...


has anyone seen a job trickle down?

...while the wealthy ripped us off.

Whatever made us think (believe) that giving more money in the form of tax cuts to the wealthy would encourage them to invest in America?

We did and they didn't...

For those interested in how the banksters' owners moved the loot offshore:

Phil Gramm, the Meyer Lansky of the War Party, Set-Up the Biggest Bank Heist Ever.

Let's not be "useless eaters" anymore, let's do some useful eating and EAT THE RICH!! :evilgrin:

is awakening, globally.

I suspect, much to my dismay, that those who've posted hereinabove have not read Naomi Klein's Shock Doctrine. This should be required reading for ANY human being interested in ending this radical income inequity that has been crammed down our throats by a miniscule number of uber wealthy sociopaths.

Globally, we are witnessing an historic revision of our species' economic behavior. And, in no small measure, we have the corporate megalomaniacs to thank for waking us up.

and many want to bury their heads and clutch their pearls over what Sarah's doing instead. It's too painful for so many Americans to face the truth about what's happening, so they do anything to divert the discussion.

If Democrats spoke to those who have been completely broken by deregulation, they might learn what's ahead for them. But no Democrat wants to speak to these people. Another party interviewed them:

http://wsws.org/articles/2010/jul2010/int3-j27.shtml

“This has always been a booming town, with coal and the railroad, and we have two hospitals.” Other residents pointed out that the Hubbard Motor Company was just across the street, and noted that the town once had nightclubs, and a tea room. “We had four theaters, and a drive-in theater.”

“After they built the mall on the Kentucky side, all the businesses moved over there,” Ronald said. “There is no theater now. A lot of us do not have transportation—I don’t have a car. You have to call the night before for the bus, which runs twice a week. You can walk for miles down the highway, or you can make an appointment for the one transportation service available and pay $1 each way. You just do the best you can.”

Juanita Barker, gesturing to another resident, told the WSWS, “This old man out here, he’s had a bad car wreck, brother Harry, and he’s real crippled, and he tries to get a ride to his doctor’s appointment. He sits out there on that bench, and waits, and waits, and waits. Can’t go.”

“There’s a lot of old, old money still in this town,” Ronald said, “but it’s sitting there. They’re not putting any of it back into the community. See this building right there,” he said, pointed behind him. “Now, years and years ago that used to be an opera house.”

And then there's Welch, WV, now a booming prison town.

http://wsws.org/articles/2010/aug2010/welc-a03.shtml

"Prisons are invariably presented as “economic diversification” to the job-starved population, although a small proportion of employees are hired locally, and few economic returns are gained in the broader economy. Instead, the local community is subjected to the noxious influence of lockdown police measures around prisons, desperate regional applicants are hired on only because of grossly depressed local wages, and residents themselves are counted increasingly among the incarcerated."


Some folks are speaking up for Appalachia:
http://scalinggreen.com/2010/09/will-coals-appalachian-legacy-be-repeated-in-developing-nations/


but they don't get a lot of backup from Americans at large.





:kick:

That more than 40% of our population is functionally illiterate is relevant.

That almost 70% of our adult population functions morally and ethically on a par with 12 year olds is key.

That change now happens exponentially is crucial.

I often have to remind myself to really SEE the forest and not the trees, because the historic events unfolding even as I type this are often painful and frightening. I realize that our species is facing an evolutionary fork in the road, and it doesn't surprise me that so many of us are in denial, or manifesting some dystopic coping strategy.

The brave souls in Tunisia and Egypt give me hope. The Mike Moores and Naomi Kleins of this nation give me hope. My fellow activists give me hope.

May we live in interesting times, indeed.

with what you have


where you are

Everything else is just mental masturbation.

There's also a movie about it that was pretty good and faithful to the book. But the book, of course, is MUCH more detailed.

It really opened my eyes. I think everyone should read it too.

"Specializing in diseases of the rich."

all of them could just about fit into Canada. Or California.

And they control more than one-third of the wealth in the entire world. :wow:

people don't even think like most people, they are on a power trip of epic proportion.

What if you just want the beer and travel money that is due to you, and they keep shoveling power to you.

What can a person do?

:shrug:

public health doctor in 2002 the US was tied for 24th place. In eight short years we have fallen to 47th. Is this progress? Within OECD nations the US ranks 21st out of 30. Is this progress? As the income gap widens life expectancy shortens. I suggest that interested people go to the link below and then surf the site. You are not going to like what you find. Take note how well those cheese eating surrender monkeys are doing in France. Those commie pinko socialists are doing extremely well but we have more fighter planes, bombers and guns, so there.

http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/hea_lif_exp_at_bir_tot_pop-life-expectancy-birth-total-population

Sums it up quite nicely.

Do people believe that it was just coincidental that when 36% of the work force was unionized that the Middle Class was born? The Republican Party went from a pro-union Eisenhower administration to a Reagan enemy of unions and the workers sucked it up that unions were the working classes enemy. Throw in the fact the Democrats in congress are totally bought and paid for by the corporations and don't give a damn about the unions except to get a handout at election time. When the workers are destitute they will finally wake up and realized they fucked themselves.

. . .

Group 1 The politicians, Corporations and Bankers who are doing VERY well. The Dow is up over 12,000, politicians who do basically nothing for the voters while collecting handsome profits, and the Bankers who are offered free money which they use to speculate in venture capital scams over the entire globe.

Group 2 is the workers..whose children are sent into useless "meat grinder" wars in the mid east to benefit the oil companies. These workers ( whose productivity is up over 20% this year alone), are working harder for less pay and no benefits. On top of that.. the politicians are coming to take what's left of their savings and will gut Social Security and medicare until these old geezers die on a cold factory floor .. penniless with no health care and not even a hint of basic dignity.

BTW.. the flogging of the workers will continue until the moral improves.

I really shouldn't have to say this over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again, shouldn't I???

George Carlin said it best...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acLW1vFO-2Q