The Pathology of the Rich: Disposable Citizens

[Darkwind]

Wow they make more today than in 1980.

Fuck me.

Yes, the richest one percent have seen their income tripled since 1980...tripled

By shifting their share of the tax burden onto labor instead of capital.

"39.6 percent: Top tax rate in 2000
31 percent: Top tax rate in 1991
50 percent: Top tax rate in 1986
70 percent: Top tax rate in 1980"

Historical top federal income tax rates, 1915-2010: Sunday's Numbers | cleveland.com

This is so misleading it would take abook to correct it.

 

[Pete7469]

You may have noticed it wasn't communists or Nazis who crashed the global economy five years ago with subprime mortgage fraud; it was your pals the capitalists. And they are at it again in the car and truck market:

"Rates are low, credit is easy, underwriting is shoddy, and sales are booming.

"There’s your thumbnail sketch of today’s 'surging' auto market.

"It’s a carbon copy of the subprime mortgage fiasco that plunged the economy into recession 5 years ago. Now the same nightmare is unfolding in Cartopia, the emerging credit Shangri-la where anyone who can transport himself onto a carlot in an upright position can drive away in a shiny new vehicle no-strings-attached."

How will you brain-dead slaves blame "government" this time?

Easy Lending to Risky Borrowers Makes a Comeback » CounterPunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names

I was going to spend the time and effort to correct you, but it would be pointless. You're just too stupid. You're consumed with the politics of envy and hate. Capitalism is the vehicle that allowed people to enjoy incredible standards of living. The Statist bullshit you regurgitate has caused the deaths of untold millions, and kept many more millions of people stranded in sqaulor and poverty.

Take your dumbass to North Korea. They have everything they way you want it.

Why would I move to North Korea when I can read collectivist propaganda like yours without leaving home? Are you too brainwashed to notice the statist resemblance between
North Korea's "Brilliant Comrade" and Boeing CEO Raymond Conner?

"Some months ago, the Boeing Corporation dropped a bombshell by declaring that unless it got substantial tax breaks (and by “substantial” it clearly meant “unprecedented”), it would be forced to begin looking for another site on which to build its much anticipated 777X airliner.

"To say Boeing is big is an understatement. Its influence is enormous. While the Boeing Corporation may not be as critical to Washington’s economy as, say, the textile industry is to Bangladesh, it is vitally important.

"Consider: In 2012, Boeing was responsible for $70 billion of the state’s $76 billion aerospace industry revenue..."

"Accordingly, in early November, at the urging of state Governor Jay Inslee (generally regarded as a “liberal Democrat”), the Washington state assembly, in a special session of the legislature, voted to give Boeing a huge tax break.

"The 'Los Angles Times' (December 9), reported the package to be worth $8.7 billion, making it the largest corporate tax subsidy in U.S. history."

Sure you are, Comrade.

America Soon to Become a Corporate North Korea? » CounterPunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fx7Z5B3wWmE&feature=player_embedded]Just when I think you've said the stupidest thing ever, you keep talkin' - YouTube[/ame]

 

[auditor0007]

"'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."

I think much of this is true, especially with the wealthy who hold "old money", but I do not believe it to be quite so true for those who are self-made rich.

 

[georgephillip]

So, what is your endgame? Do away with inherited wealth and let the 'state' raise children?

No.
Raise a wall between the state and the influence of private wealth.
Tax the rich instead of borrowing from them.
Raise you own children with the state providing free education (K-GS) and health care (Medicare for all ages).

Where do you people come up with this notion that it is free?

The same reason you people seem confused about the cost of corporate premiums, mismanagement, and fraud.

"Medical costs would be offset in part by replacing insurance premiums with taxes.

"Hundreds of billions of dollars of immediate savings would be realized from the elimination of insurance company overhead and hospital billing costs, but offsetting immediate expenses would include training and paying for the much larger number of general practitioners and other physicians necessary to provide coverage to several million formerly uninsured.

"Long term savings due to lower treatment and emergency room costs from preventative health care would be far greater.[4][5]

"An analysis of the bill by Physicians for a National Health Program estimated the immediate savings at $350 billion per year.[3]

"Others have estimated a larger long-term savings amounting to 40% of all national health care expenditures due to preventative care in addition to elimination of insurance company overhead costs.[4]

"Preventative health care expenditures can save several hundreds more billions of dollars per year because, for example, cancer patients are more likely to be diagnosed at Stage I where curative treatment is typically a few outpatient visits, instead of at Stage III or later in an emergency room where treatment can involve years of hospitalization and is often terminal.[5]

"Paul Krugman described savings from elimination of insurance company overhead and hospital billing costs in 2005 as follows:[2]

"The great advantage of universal, government-provided health insurance is lower costs.

"Canada's government-run insurance system has much less bureaucracy and much lower administrative costs than our largely private system. Medicare has much lower administrative costs than private insurance.

"The reason is that single-payer systems do not devote large resources to screening out high-risk clients or charging them higher fees. The savings from a single-payer system would probably exceed $200 billion a year, far more than the cost of covering all of those now uninsured."

United States National Health Care Act - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[georgephillip]

"'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."

I think much of this is true, especially with the wealthy who hold "old money", but I do not believe it to be quite so true for those who are self-made rich.

You may be correct when saying most of those who earn, rather than inherit, their first fortune are not as likely to view the non-rich as parasites or annoyances; however, the rise of an oligarchic state has been viewed as enemy of democracy for thousands of years. In fundamental ways, the US began with a population of elites who were deeply suspicious of direct democracy.

"The oligarchs are turning us—as they did in the 19th century steel and textile factories—into disposable human beings.

"They are building the most pervasive security and surveillance apparatus in human history to keep us submissive.

"This imbalance would not have disturbed most of our Founding Fathers.

"The Founding Fathers, largely wealthy slaveholders, feared direct democracy. They rigged our political process to thwart popular rule and protect the property rights of the native aristocracy.

"The masses were to be kept at bay.

"The Electoral College, the original power of the states to appoint senators, the disenfranchisement of women, Native Americans, African-Americans and men without property locked most people out of the democratic process at the beginning of the republic."

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