The Pathology of the Rich: Disposable Citizens

[Moonglow]

bernie maddof is not worse than the icons you are worshiping. he just got caught. the others did not. YET.

please, oh please show me where and when I have worshiped these "icons" or stop thinking you know something you do not.

you icons of the big government nanny state

your or you? come on brainiac, surely you can figure it out.

 

[Katzndogz]

As if the poor aren't ruthless.

much more, for that matter, because of many factors involved.

They are also far more generous with each other than you would think possible with their limited resources. Matters of bare survival are somewhat removed from questions of morality, many simply do not have the luxury to think about such things because an empty belly makes up a person's mind for them pretty quick.

Oh please! The poor will murder one another for their shoes! And do quite frequently.

 

[Moonglow]

Everything is a kind of boat. The state is a boat. The banks are boats. The corporations are boats. Rather amphibious, but that's all there is. Boats.

Mine is a rather small dingy.

 

[Moonglow]

much more, for that matter, because of many factors involved.

They are also far more generous with each other than you would think possible with their limited resources. Matters of bare survival are somewhat removed from questions of morality, many simply do not have the luxury to think about such things because an empty belly makes up a person's mind for them pretty quick.

Oh please! The poor will murder one another for their shoes! And do quite frequently.

And the rich murder for fun and games.

 

[boedicca]

They are also far more generous with each other than you would think possible with their limited resources. Matters of bare survival are somewhat removed from questions of morality, many simply do not have the luxury to think about such things because an empty belly makes up a person's mind for them pretty quick.

Oh please! The poor will murder one another for their shoes! And do quite frequently.

And the rich murder for fun and games.

The Rich invented the Knock Out Game?

Who knew?

 

[Meister]

All the conservatives here just came in their pants at the thought that though hard work they too can become billionaires and treat people like worthless trash also.

If the rich treat you like worthless trash, there is no doubt in my mind that you gave them plenty of ammunition.

I can tell you honestly I have hung out with the best of the best, the richest, the biggest stars in my old days.

Burton Cummings playing on a piano not just any piano whilst someone asked me if I wanted any coke and as I replied "why would I want coke, I'm drinking champagne" YES I WAS THAT STUPID, but I've been there.

Maybe one in a million quizzillion treated staff like crap, but I can say to this day not that I saw or not that did it. And that bullshit got knocked out of the park on the spot.

One rich person that comes to mind regarding treating the staff like crap is Hilary Clinton, but the same people that are whining about this will indeed vote for her in 2016. Hypocrits

 

[georgephillip]

Would you agree with Hedges that greed is responsible for our current state of affairs, and that we need to rediscover the language of class warfare?

It is being done now and been done forever under various facades.

Hasn't worked yet

Reality is others are more successful, wealthy, _______ than you.

Maximize your potential rather than blaming others.

Reality is the Federal Reserve buying $85 million a month worth of junk bonds and giving Goldman Sachs money at virtually 0% interest; why would you confuse that with success? Every government yet invented has served its richest citizens at the expense of their majority, and those who benefit most from that arrangement have no doubt about class warfare since their lifestyle doesn't exist without it.

 

[boedicca]

Would you agree with Hedges that greed is responsible for our current state of affairs, and that we need to rediscover the language of class warfare?

It is being done now and been done forever under various facades.

Hasn't worked yet

Reality is others are more successful, wealthy, _______ than you.

Maximize your potential rather than blaming others.

Reality is the Federal Reserve buying $85 million a month worth of junk bonds and giving Goldman Sachs money at virtually 0% interest; why would you confuse that with success? Every government yet invented has served its richest citizens at the expense of their majority, and those who benefit most from that arrangement have no doubt about class warfare since their lifestyle doesn't exist without it.

The federal government has benefited from quantitative easing by over 6 times the level from which Big Banks have benefited. And savers have gotten screwed.

Of course, lower interest rates help borrowers pay less, while those who are receiving interest payments get less. Thus, the big winner from ultra-low interest rates is the U.S. government, which over the 2007-2012 period could owe $900 billion less in interest payments. Indeed, the McKinsey report also notes that central banks like the Federal Reserve have been buying assets as part of the "quantitative easing" policies in recent years, and funds earned by the Fed over and above operating expenses go to the U.S. Treasury. They estimate that the quantitative easing policies gained the U.S. government another $145 billion or so during this time period. So overall, the ultra-low interest rate policies have been worth about $1 trillion to the U.S. government.

Nonfinancial U.S. corporations have interest-bearing debt in the form of bonds and bank loans, so the low interest rate policies have been worth $310 billion to them. U.S. banks have also seen a rise in their net interest income--that is, the amount by which the interest they received from borrowers exceeded the interest they paid to depositors. (In contrast, banks in Europe as a group have been worse off as a result of the ultra-low interest rate policies.)

On the other side, those who were depending on receiving interest payments are worse off. For example, insurance and pension funds that were relying on interest payments for part of their returns are down $270 billion from 2007-2012. As the report points out, many of these companies hold bonds that they purchased before interest rates fell, and so they have been somewhat protected from the fall in interest rates. But as the period of ultra-low interest rates continues, insurance companies will either need to shift toward purchasing higher-risk products in search of higher returns, or they may become insolvent.

Household that were relying on interest payments also suffered. However, because younger households tend to be borrowers, while older households are more likely to be relying on interest income, these losses fall heavily on older households. They also fall heavily on households that have high levels of wealth--in particular, on the 10% or so of US households that have 90% of the financial wealth...


http://conversableeconomist.blogspot.com/2013/12/ultra-low-interest-rates-who-wins-who.html

 

[Pete7469]

The rich enable me.

Yup, you done got you a pickup truck, Cleetus....

Cleetus should be thankful for the rich snob.. He wouldn't done got him that pickup truck without that rich snob.

Someone had to fund the factory that Cletus works at, that builds the trucks Cletus wants.

Bed wetting fascist liberal pigs can't even spell Cletus' name, because they're the real snobs and aren't concerned with his needs or wants let alone his humanity.

 

[georgephillip]

Does anyone here doubt that billionaires control the bulk of economic activity in the world?
Does anyone here doubt that money equals power?
Does anyone here think the most powerful people in the world are responsibly using their power?
Why does anyone here still defend them when they do not need or even want your advocacy and can ruin you with little thought and there is nothing you can do about it?

Tyranny comes from more than just governments, quit defending it when it is in the form of a rich bastard cashing in at your expense just because he does not think his gigantic pile of cash is quite big enough.

"The inability to grasp the pathology of our oligarchic rulers is one of our gravest faults. We have been blinded to the depravity of our ruling elite by the relentless propaganda of public relations firms that work on behalf of corporations and the rich.

"Compliant politicians, clueless entertainers and our vapid, corporate-funded popular culture, which holds up the rich as leaders to emulate and assures us that through diligence and hard work we can join them, keep us from seeing the truth.

“'They were careless people, Tom and Daisy,' Fitzgerald wrote of the wealthy couple at the center of Gatsby’s life. 'They smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made.'”

The same sense of carelessness or whatever that gives the ultra rich their amorality, hedonism, selfishness, and callousness explains their willingness to believe it's an entitlement that other people's children should die in Iraq and Afghanistan in order to maintain their way of life.

Wouldn't it be much cheaper to send the rich and their families off to war?

Chris Hedges: Let?s Get This Class War Started - Chris Hedges - Truthdig

 

[georgephillip]

As if the poor aren't ruthless.

The poor don't decide who you are allowed to vote for in national elections.
The rich do.

 

[Book of Jeremiah]

"'The rich are different from us,' F. Scott Fitzgerald is said to have remarked to Ernest Hemingway, to which Hemingway allegedly replied, 'Yes, they have more money.'”

"The exchange, although it never actually took place, sums up a wisdom Fitzgerald had that eluded Hemingway.

"The rich are different.

"The cocoon of wealth and privilege permits the rich to turn those around them into compliant workers, hangers-on, servants, flatterers and sycophants. Wealth breeds, as Fitzgerald illustrated in 'The Great Gatsby' and his short story 'The Rich Boy,' a class of people for whom human beings are disposable commodities.

"Colleagues, associates, employees, kitchen staff, servants, gardeners, tutors, personal trainers, even friends and family, bend to the whims of the wealthy or disappear.

"Once oligarchs achieve unchecked economic and political power, as they have in the United States, the citizens too become disposable."

Like Fitzgerald, Chris Hedges spent his early years among the rich and famous. At age 10 Chris earned a scholarship to an exclusive New England boarding school, and he spent some of his vacation time in the homes of his classmates:

"I spent time in the homes of the ultra-rich and powerful, watching my classmates, who were children, callously order around men and women who worked as their chauffeurs, cooks, nannies and servants.

"When the sons and daughters of the rich get into serious trouble there are always lawyers, publicists and political personages to protect them—George W. Bush’s life is a case study in the insidious affirmative action for the rich.

"The rich have a snobbish disdain for the poor—despite well-publicized acts of philanthropy—and the middle class.

"These lower classes are viewed as uncouth parasites, annoyances that have to be endured, at times placated and always controlled in the quest to amass more power and money."

Chris Hedges: Let?s Get This Class War Started - Chris Hedges - Truthdig

"The inability to grasp the pathology of our oligarchic rulers is one of our gravest faults."

You've made an interesting point. I believe there is an insidious plan by the elites of this world to reduce the population. It was planned long ago. If anyone has ever researched the message on the Georgia Guidestones one cannot miss it. They would like to reduce the population to a fraction of what it is and are well on their way to doing it through avenues such as global warming ( now I hear they have changed it to climate change as their research was found to be seriously flawed ) abortion, wars planned by elitists who control nations and leaders through their wealth, power and schemes of blackmail. ( many are blackmailed by luring them into sex parties with children where they are they are secretly video taped - see the Regina Louf story as to how they get away with it - see the story of the Franklin cover up to see just how far they are willing to go ) They also use people such as yourself to turn the story around and cause the masses to target those they have plans to remove out of the way because unlike them, they are holding onto values such as capitolism, freedom to worship God, freedom to attain wealth which would be a threat to their ultimate goal.

The world in their eyes is divided between us and them. They have blurred the lines of truth by enlisting the help of those who are blinded by the god of this world and therein are willing to be used by these godless elitists who despise the very name of Jesus Christ. Perhaps those who have joined their cause believe they will somehow be spared when the "culling" begins but history proves otherwise.

Where to be begin? How about Margaret Sanger, the Mother of Planned Parenthood, who was married to the oil tycoon Noah Slee? That would be a good example of the agenda of elitists. Today there are over 50 million people missing in America due to abortion.

Here is the story on Sanger's agenda: The Mother of Planned Parenthood | TooManyAborted.com

A clip from the article:
“…we are paying for and even submitting to the dictates of an ever increasing, unceasingly spawning class of human beings who never should have been born at all.” –Margaret Sanger, “Pivot of Civilization” Chapter 8, pg 187

Could this wife of an oil tycoon ( Noel Slee ) make it any more clear for you? I think not. Let me continue.......

The truth is Sanger never cared about the poor. She was not interested in helping the poor, illiteracy, illegitimate births. She wanted to erase the "problem" with abortion. Other elitists such as Mr. Gamble from Proctor and Gamble helped her along. I remember a movie called "Cheaper by the Dozen" with Clifton Webb in which a woman shows up horrified at how many children he and his wife had. I was amazed at the thought of how old this movie was and that the plan to depopulate the earth was even in place back then. Now they have hastened their agenda through global warming, wars, the Arab Spring, the mass genocide in Rwanda, Sudan, Darfur, all these wars backed by elitists whose only desire is to remove those are not a part of their world. They are using those less fortunate than themselves to kill off those they don't want here and when they achieve their agenda they will do the very same thing all communists have done throughout history and put a bullet in the heads of those who helped them get there. Because if they left them here they would have to offer them something and they never had any intention of giving of themselves or sharing their power. It is against their very nature. Their own philianthropic works only serve to enrich themselves and their own charity front organizations not the poor. Take a look at where Rockafeller money is spent. The Gettys who control and hold onto ( through copyrights ) all the most valuable photographs of history, famous people, etc. The elitists who hold copyrights to music, art, they hold the copyrights to keep it from the rest of the world. These people by their very nature are greedy, selfish, and do not care about those who are not inside their inner circle. Which is why men such as Gore, Clinton and Obama have sold their very souls to get a seat at their table. Arranged marriages, seeking out positions of power. So that they can have the same privledges as men such as Strauss Kahn - head of the IMF - who raped a Muslim maid in a NYC hotel and didn't even bat an eyelash as to what the consequences of that crime would be. Now he is right back in his seat as head of IMF and never once did the man believe he would be held accountable because men such as these are above the law. They use those beneath themselves to make sure of it. You see? For instance, you probably were one of the people pleading his innocence. You are being used, even to write in their defense! How ironic is that? Let me continue..........

The truly rich and powerful keep themselves out of the spotlight for the most part but you will find their goal in Hollywood movies such as Elysium - the previews of the movie alone will tell you their agenda is a perfect world for themselves while the rest of the world kills itself off with them behind the scenes arranging it all. It is all covered under a very thin veil but the truth is there if you look hard enough for it. ( I have not seen the movie but the preview from a movie someone rented and it was very telling of their plans ) So the answer is not class warfare because if you participate in such a revolution you are only furthering their agenda and hastening your own demise.

Heed the warning because I can tell you now it will not end well for those who fail to. Hell is real and enlarging itself every day and these men and women who believe they can attain immortality, perfect health through technologies such as Project Bluebeam ( which is now claimed not to exist ) removing those who oppose their plans with lasers that can induce heart attacks....and those who help them? They are in for a very rude awakening when they die and face God because truly there is a day of reckoning for every human being upon this earth.

Thanks for the thread. It gave me an opportunity to point out who the real culprits are. Yes, George Soros, Henry Kissinger, Obama, Ayers, even Putin whose billions were stolen from someone else...... and others like them .....they are mere pawns on the board being used by the Solvays, Gettys, Rockafellers of the world and one day they will all pay a price they never fathomed possible. And if they are pawns what does that make you?

Have a nice day. - Jeri

 

[initforme]

Rich or poor or whatever...The whole thing is insane. We claim we're a nation founded on Christian principles. The bible preaches against worshipping money and it preaches about helping the poor. Yet a large percentage of people get incensed about the poor. Yet they call themselves Christians. Those evangelicals at the top have nothing good to say about the poor....sounds like they are the biggest hypocrites around. Makes one think.

 

[georgephillip]

"Do not waste your time on Social Questions. What is the matter with the poor is Poverty; what is the matter with the rich is Uselessness." George Bernard Shaw

Banned TED Talk: Nick Hanauer "Rich people don't create jobs" - YouTube

Worship of the rich on the right has reached religious fanaticism levels. If you feel like the rich are having trouble with their new Bentley payments why not help them out. You want to call Romney, he has money made here hidden off shore, he'll help the rich, you don't worry yourself now.

The rich get rich because of their merit.
Tax cuts spur economic growth
State of Working America preview: The rich get richer | Economic Policy Institute
Why the Rich Are Getting Richer | Foreign Affairs

"The U.S. economy appears to be coming apart at the seams.(2011)

"Unemployment remains at nearly ten percent, the highest level in almost 30 years; foreclosures have forced millions of Americans out of their homes; and real incomes have fallen faster and further than at any time since the Great Depression.

"Many of those laid off fear that the jobs they have lost -- the secure, often unionized, industrial jobs that provided wealth, security, and opportunity -- will never return.

"They are probably right.

"And yet a curious thing has happened in the midst of all this misery.

"The wealthiest Americans, among them presumably the very titans of global finance whose misadventures brought about the financial meltdown, got richer. And not just a little bit richer; a lot richer. In 2009, the average income of the top five percent of earners went up, while on average everyone else's income went down.

"This was not an anomaly but rather a continuation of a 40-year trend of ballooning incomes at the very top and stagnant incomes in the middle and at the bottom.

"The share of total income going to the top one percent has increased from roughly eight percent in the 1960s to more than 20 percent today."

Why the Rich Are Getting Richer | Foreign Affairs

 

[Book of Jeremiah]

Rich or poor or whatever...The whole thing is insane. We claim we're a nation founded on Christian principles. The bible preaches against worshipping money and it preaches about helping the poor. Yet a large percentage of people get incensed about the poor. Yet they call themselves Christians. Those evangelicals at the top have nothing good to say about the poor....sounds like they are the biggest hypocrites around. Makes one think.

Wake up. The Christians are not the people in power. The Communist / atheists are and they are doing the bidding of men such as Soros, Kissinger, Obama.....who are doing the bidding of elitists in Europe who are in control of our Federal Reserve, etc. You have no choice but to face the truth. You've been had. - Jeri

 

[B. Kidd]

Top 3 richest Americans are Democrats.

Out of the top 20 richest, 60% are Democrats.

Funny, whenever class warfare is brought up, the discussion always turns to 'those evil rich Republicans'.

 

[georgephillip]

All the conservatives here just came in their pants at the thought that though hard work they too can become billionaires and treat people like worthless trash also.

Conservatives sometimes find it hard to let go of old mistakes:

"Aristotle, Niccolò Machiavelli, Alexis de Tocqueville, Adam Smith and Karl Marx all began from the premise there is a natural antagonism between the rich and the masses. 'Those who have too much of the goods of fortune, strength, wealth, friends, and the like, are neither willing nor able to submit to authority,' Aristotle wrote in 'Politics.' 'The evil begins at home; for when they are boys, by reason of the luxury in which they are brought up, they never learn, even at school, the habit of obedience.'

"Oligarchs, these philosophers knew, are schooled in the mechanisms of manipulation, subtle and overt repression and exploitation to protect their wealth and power at our expense. Foremost among their mechanisms of control is the control of ideas."

Chris Hedges: Let?s Get This Class War Started - Chris Hedges - Truthdig

the person who in all seriousness puts Karl Marx as somebody, whose words he deems the ultimate truth, can not be considered bright enough.
Or sane.

p.s. neither of the others EVER was writing about the "natural antagonism" - that is the marx's premise, but certainly not Adam Smith's.

You're saying Aristotle, Machiavelli, and Smith weren't aware of the Masters of Mankind and their relationship to the 99%?

"We know a lot about poverty lines but there is no such thing as a wealth line and the word 'enough' is not part of the vocabulary of this class. You needn’t believe me. Listen to the expert who said 'All for ourselves and nothing for other people seems in every age of the world to have been the vile maxim of the masters of mankind.'

"That was not Karl Marx but Adam Smith, in his classic 1776 treatise on capitalism, the Wealth of Nations. Little has changed since then.”

Adam Smith's Lost Legacy: Adam Smith on 'the vile maxim of the masters of mankind'

 

[georgephillip]

The Robin hood mentality, never created jobs. It only make one seem pathetic, envious and apathetic to any responsibility to ones self.

Some people just need to put their big girl panties on

Worry more about the reverse Robin Hood mentality and less about fashion:

"The rich have been getting richer and the poor and middle have been getting poorer in the U.S. recently. Here are seven examples that show how the US is going through Robin Hood in Reverse.

"Between 1948 and 1979, the richest 10 percent of families in the US claimed 33 percent of average income growth. Between 2000 and 2007, the richest 10 percent claimed a full 100 percent of average income growth in the U.S., according to the Economic Policy Institute.

"Business taxes were cut from 46 to 34 percent 25 years ago, according to ProPublica. But today 115 of the big 500 companies listed on Standard and Poor's Stock Index paid federal and other taxes of less than 20 percent over the last 5 years according to David Leonhardt of the New York Times.

"General Electric's tax rate for last year was 7 percent, according to ProPublica."

Bill Quigley: Robin Hood in Reverse in US: Seven Examples

 

[Kosh]

If not for the white rich elitists in the DNC we would not have racism, sexism, etc.

So they make the government pay for them and the poor while they get rich, just ask AL Gore, Nancy Pelosi, Barrack Obama, etc.

 

[initforme]

"Wake up. The Christians are not the people in power. The Communist / atheists are and they are doing the bidding of men such as Soros, Kissinger, Obama.....who are doing the bidding of elitists in Europe who are in control of our Federal Reserve, etc. You have no choice but to face the truth. You've been had. - Jeri "

It crosses both party lines. Like the GOP is innocent. If you believe that then you've been had. I'm simply pointing out that party lines don't matter. If we say we are a nation founded on Christian principles we have lost our way. It is now a dog eat dog country. We don't resemble a country that lives by the bible at all. As a practicing Christian my whole life when I see some evangelical pastor who is worth a lot of money on tv, he isn't practicing what he is preaching. Hence, hypocrite.