This is a very chilling testament to the world that has been âcreatedâ for us by the corporations, the banks, the lawyersâŚetc, etc.
Read it and weep, people, for itâs real.
Damn, I wish this was a script for a screenplayâŚexcept in this story, everybody dies at the end anyway! The only plot point missing is the mandatory little white pills youâve got to take every day to stay âhappyââŚ
Oops, I just realized that my computer plus the internet = âlittle white âhappy-pillsâââŚ
Itâs turned out to be a full-time addiction! And now I carry it around in my pocket and use it all the timeâŚIf I get online, I wonât feel the pain⌠I wonder whoâs online now???
Really? This is what passes as âbrilliantâ nowadays? I canât read the whole thing since I donât do facebook, but what you have here is just mostly ârich people suckâ surrounded by easily refutable hyperbole and generalizations, at best.
Iâm looking at the Forbes 400 richest people in the US. I got bored after the first 30 or so, but most of them seem to be self made. How does that jive with the quote you decided to highlight about inheriting money âthe old fashioned, Medieval wayâ?
Can we see some hard evidence that for most rich people âa lot of our income is derived from tax incentives and taxpayer-financed bailoutsâ?
so your rich?
Mark Twain said it best (from A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthurâs Court):
In half an hour we came upon a group of ragged poor creatures who had assembled to mend the thing which was regarded as a road. They were as humble as animals to me; and when I proposed to breakfast with them, they were so flattered, so overwhelmed by this extraordinary condescension of mine that at first they were not able to believe that I was in earnest. My lady put up her scornful lip and withdrew to one side; she said in their hearing that she would as soon think of eating with the other cattleâa remark which embarrassed these poor devils merely because it referred to them, and not because it insulted or offended them, for it didnât. And yet they were not slaves, not chattels. By a sarcasm of law and phrase they were freemen. Seven-tenths of the free population of the country were of just their class and degree: small âindependentâ farmers, artisans, etc.; which is to say, they were the nation, the actual Nation; they were about all of it that was useful, or worth saving, or really respect-worthy, and to subtract them would have been to subtract the Nation and leave behind some dregs, some refuse, in the shape of a king, nobility and gentry, idle, unproductive, acquainted mainly with the arts of wasting and destroying, and of no sort of use or value in any rationally constructed world.
And yet, by ingenious contrivance, this gilded minority, instead of being in the tail of the procession where it belonged, was marching head up and banners flying, at the other end of it; had elected itself to be the Nation, and these innumerable clams had permitted it so long that they had come at last to accept it as a truth; and not only that, but to believe it right and as it should be. The priests had told their fathers and themselves that this ironical state of things was ordained of God; and so, not reflecting upon how unlike God it would be to amuse himself with sarcasms, and especially such poor transparent ones as this, they had dropped the matter there and become respectfully quiet.
The talk of these meek people had a strange enough sound in a formerly American ear. They were freemen, but they could not leave the estates of their lord or their bishop without his permission; they could not prepare their own bread, but must have their corn ground and their bread baked at his mill and his bakery, and pay roundly for the same; they could not sell a piece of their own property without paying him a handsome percentage of the proceeds, nor buy a piece of somebody elseâs without remembering him in cash for the privilege; they had to harvest his grain for him gratis, and be ready to come at a momentâs notice, leaving their own crop to destruction by the threatened storm; they had to let him plant fruit trees in their fields, and then keep their indignation to themselves when his heedless fruit-gatherers trampled the grain around the trees; they had to smother their anger when his hunting parties galloped through their fields laying waste the result of their patient toil; they were not allowed to keep doves themselves, and when the swarms from my lordâs dovecote settled on their crops they must not lose their temper and kill a bird, for awful would the penalty be; when the harvest was at last gathered, then came the procession of robbers to levy their blackmail upon it: first the Church carted off its fat tenth, then the kingâs commissioner took his twentieth, then my lordâs people made a mighty inroad upon the remainder; after which, the skinned freeman had liberty to bestow the remnant in his barn, in case it was worth the trouble; there were taxes, and taxes, and taxes, and more taxes, and taxes again, and yet other taxesâupon this free and independent pauper, but none upon his lord the baron or the bishop, none upon the wasteful nobility or the all-devouring Church; if the baron would sleep unvexed, the freeman must sit up all night after his dayâs work and whip the ponds to keep the frogs quiet; if the freemanâs daughterâbut no, that last infamy of monarchical government is unprintable; and finally, if the freeman, grown desperate with his tortures, found his life unendurable under such conditions, and sacrificed it and fled to death for mercy and refuge, the gentle Church condemned him to eternal fire, the gentle law buried him at midnight at the cross-roads with a stake through his back, and his master the baron or the bishop confiscated all his property and turned his widow and his orphans out of doors.
And here were these freemen assembled in the early morning to work on their lord the bishopâs road three days eachâgratis; every head of a family, and every son of a family, three days each, gratis, and a day or so added for their servants. Why, it was like reading about France and the French, before the ever memorable and blessed Revolution, which swept a thousand years of such villany away in one swift tidal-wave of bloodâone: a settlement of that hoary debt in the proportion of half a drop of blood for each hogshead of it that had been pressed by slow tortures out of that people in the weary stretch of ten centuries of wrong and shame and misery the like of which was not to be mated but in hell. There were two âReigns of Terror,â if we would but remember it and consider it; the one wrought murder in hot passion, the other in heartless cold blood; the one lasted mere months, the other had lasted a thousand years; the one inflicted death upon ten thousand persons, the other upon a hundred millions; but our shudders are all for the âhorrorsâ of the minor Terror, the momentary Terror, so to speak; whereas, what is the horror of swift death by the axe, compared with lifelong death from hunger, cold, insult, cruelty, and heart-break? What is swift death by lightning compared with death by slow fire at the stake? A city cemetery could contain the coffins filled by that brief Terror which we have all been so diligently taught to shiver at and mourn over; but all France could hardly contain the coffins filled by that older and real Terrorâthat unspeakably bitter and awful Terror which none of us has been taught to see in its vastness or pity as it deserves.
These poor ostensible freemen who were sharing their breakfast and their talk with me, were as full of humble reverence for their king and Church and nobility as their worst enemy could desire. There was something pitifully ludicrous about it. I asked them if they supposed a nation of people ever existed, who, with a free vote in every manâs hand, would elect that a single family and its descendants should reign over it forever, whether gifted or boobies, to the exclusion of all other familiesâincluding the voterâs; and would also elect that a certain hundred families should be raised to dizzy summits of rank, and clothed on with offensive transmissible glories and privileges to the exclusion of the rest of the nationâs familiesâincluding his own .
They all looked unhit, and said they didnât know; that they had never thought about it before, and it hadnât ever occurred to them that a nation could be so situated that every man could have a say in the government. I said I had seen oneâand that it would last until it had an Established Church. Again they were all unhitâat first. But presently one man looked up and asked me to state that proposition again; and state it slowly, so it could soak into his understanding. I did it; and after a little he had the idea, and he brought his fist down and said he didnât believe a nation where every man had a vote would voluntarily get down in the mud and dirt in any such way; and that to steal from a nation its will and preference must be a crime and the first of all crimes. I said to myself:
âThis oneâs a man. If I were backed by enough of his sort, I would make a strike for the welfare of this country, and try to prove myself its loyalest citizen by making a wholesome change in its system of government.â
You see my kind of loyalty was loyalty to oneâs country, not to its institutions or its office-holders. The country is the real thing, the substantial thing, the eternal thing; it is the thing to watch over, and care for, and be loyal to; institutions are extraneous, they are its mere clothing, and clothing can wear out, become ragged, cease to be comfortable, cease to protect the body from winter, disease, and death. To be loyal to rags, to shout for rags, to worship rags, to die for ragsâthat is a loyalty of unreason, it is pure animal; it belongs to monarchy, was invented by monarchy; let monarchy keep it. I was from Connecticut, whose Constitution declares âthat all political power is inherent in the people, and all free governments are founded on their authority and instituted for their benefit; and that they have at all times an undeniable and indefeasible right to alter their form of government in such a manner as they may think expedient.â
The rich sure are lucky that people like you are ready to defend them free of charge. I mean, what would they do without your free assistance?
It was either droit du seigneur or this.
I assume youâre resorting to ad hominem because you canât actually address any of the points I made.
It is all Bread & Circuses until someone steals the bread then there is hell to pay.
Itâs not an entirely accurate description of our current situation - itâs too black and white. We still have some mobility between income brackets. There are still people socking away money for retirement without making a ton of money, people starting businesses, etc. But itâs a pretty good summary of what it looks like weâre heading for.
No hard data, butâŚ
The bailouts part would be that they likely saved some investments from being lost, and some of those investments would be held by 1%ers. Still, there were good reasons to save those companies/banks⌠(And no good reason not to break them into smaller pieces). Still, hyperbolic.
Tax incentives probably mean things like farm and oil subsidies, which once again go in part to businesses which have no need of them.
Guys, guys, I have been kinda a dick recently. So in order for me to make it up allow me to take this one.
@rigs I think you see my point.
Yes, I believe things are pretty much this bad. But the essential truth remains: there are more of us than there are of them, and the only reason these people get to live on top of us, is that we continue to accept their money. Itâs a lot of bother to invent ways to not have to take their money, and reinvent ways of governing ourselves that donât involve the government theyâve bought and payed for. As well as being intrinsically difficult, there are plenty of folks whoâll take their money in exchange for making it even more difficult.
Far more convenient to go ahead and let things be as they are. Maybe youâll get lucky and be hired on in time to avoid the flood. Maybe your Horatio Algiers fantasy will somehow come true, and you too can do to everyone whatâs being done to you right nowâŚ
âŚand then again, maybe eventually youâll feel inspired to turn off the glowing glass screen, step outside into the light, and compare notes face to face with another human being, and work out the how and the why of changing things. because the revolution will not be blogged on facebook or boingboing or anyplace else. The revolution happens out in the real world where people can actually take risks and get hurt and make change.
Then youâre deluding yourself. Even the âself-madeâ billionaires on that list almost always started out with huge social and economic advantages.
Starting with #1: Bill Gates wasnât the son of billionaires, but he was the son of a prominent lawyer and the grandson of a bank presidentâfirmly placing him in the top 1% from the get-go. He had talent and ambition and he worked hard to make the best of his opportunities, but he was hardly a ârags to richesâ storyâmore like a âriches to almost unfathomable richesâ story. Youâll see similar patterns for most of the âself-madeâ billionaires on that list.
Yeah â the stuff about there being no difference between the Democratic and Republican parties is boring libertarian nonsense. Iâm often disappointed by the lack of real progressive policy in the modern Democratic party, but that doesnât mean they are the same as the reactionaries who dominate the modern Republican party.
The new feudalism, Lawrence Lessig has been the only voice for change that I have been able to hear that even begins to address the true issue. So if LL and maybe John Stewart can lead something peaceful there is hope to restore the balance, or there can be a terrible civil war. But we have seen that in Europe feudalism and a decaying Roman empire pretty much continued through until WW-I with many places missing the enlightenment, some not getting free until the 1990s or even now.
Rep/Dem gives you a few non-fiscal social choices like LGBT liberation, gun control, abortion, race issues, etc; you will not get to vote anytime soon on candidates with opposing views on banking or political campaign corruption except perhaps regulating in a way that entrenches further these corruptions, even the idealist finds out that these topics will gain no traction and waste effort that can be otherwise be used effectively toward social change. Greek and Roman citizens once had franchise but eventually fell to the apparently human default system of feudalism.
Feudalism puts resources into the hands of few, those resources and the inertia of social position helps entrench generational status. Rare random events like disaster and war can change fortunes in such an environment but are so terrible overall they are not to be wished for.
Not sure if i want to out myself as a Libertarian or not⌠oh damn, I think I just did.
Curious, what progressive policies do you think are missing from the Democratic Party?
Canât read the whole thing since you donât âdo Facebookâ? No. You canât read the whole thing because you didnât bother to try. (You donât need to login to Facebook for access to the post.)
Saying that they âarenât the sameâ is daming Dems with faint praise. Yes, the Dems are not âas crazyâ as the Republicans on social issues, but on economic issues which are the foundation upon which all else is built, the Dems essentially worship at the same âfree marketâ alter. If you think the Dems are on your side, youâre as wrong as the people who think that of the Republicans.
- Support for a real single-payer health system like everybody else in the first world
- Elimination of the corrupt âfor-profitâ prison system
- A reduction of the bloated military budget; this would 1) discourage invasions of whatever country we dislike this week 2) free up billions for additional funding of the NIH and NSF to retain Americaâs scientific primacy and as a side effect generate technical advances leading to new companies and fields being developed here.
- A serious commitment to environmental issues.
@Romberry I have facebook blocked by noscripts and ghostery (otherwise facebook tracks you even if youâre not logged in), but thanks for calling me a liar on the basis of nothing whatsoever. Iâm sorry, I take that back, it was based on your not liking what I said so you felt a need for an ad hominem.
@BobbaBoosh Thanks, but I was aware of the bailout. Now the missing piece of the puzzle is something that shows that âtheyâ get âa lotâ of their income from it.
If I can opine:
- Sounds good on paper- Im skeptical.
- The thought that a company can profit from crime and that there is such a thing as an âoccupancy guaranteeâ makes my blood boil.
- I agree.
- Well⌠not so much. We should certainly be good stewards of the Earth. But in many cases environmental problems are presented as a way to fleece the plebes. CO2 is 0.036% of the atmosphere.
Now, does not the lack of strong support of these things in the Democratic Party refute your thesis that there is not difference between the Democratc and Republicans?
