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The Annihilation Of The Middle Class: The Beginning Of The End For Modern America
Submitted by Daniel Drew via Dark-Bid.com,
"America’s like a beacon in the world. But I feel like I’m watching it go down the toilet in front of my eyes. I’m fairly certain that this country is going to have pockets of Third World poverty within 50 to 60 years."
- Neill Blomkamp, director of Elysium, a dystopian science fiction movie where the rich leave the depleted earth to the poor and create a space station paradise for themselves.
Blomkamp doesn't have to wait 50 or 60 years. America already has pockets of Third World poverty.
Wealth inequality isn't just a political issue - it's a survival issue. When a society hits a certain level of economic disparity, it is set on a path towards destruction. It happened to the Roman Empire, and it will happen to the United States.
If you look at the events leading up to the downfall of the Roman Empire, you would have a hard time not noticing the similarities to the United States. Members of the wealthy classes in ancient Rome fled to the countryside to set up independent fiefdoms for tax evasion purposes. Just before the Facebook IPO in 2012, Eduardo Saverin, the billionaire co-founder of Facebook, renounced his American citizenship and headed to Singapore. This was part of a not so elaborate scheme to avoid capital gains taxes on the sale of Facebook stock. And he's not the only one. In 2004, 158 people renounced their citizenship every 3 months. In 2014, 789 people were leaving every 3 months.
In the fifth century, the Vandals claimed North Africa and began disrupting the Roman Empire’s trade by engaging in piracy in the Mediterranean Sea. In modern America, piracy has gone digital. We may be able to incinerate entire cities with nuclear reactions, but we can't stop someone from hacking into your bank account - someone who can take your money without actually having to deal with the hassle of guns, masks, and high speed police chases. This electronic piracy poses just as large of a threat to the country as the Vandals did to the ancient Romans. And just like the ancient Romans, we probably won't be able to stop the pirates from overtaking us.
Rome’s economy depended on slaves to till its fields and work as craftsmen. Similarly, the modern American economy depends on the wage slave labor of Starbucks baristas with master's degrees, middle-aged McDonald's workers who can't feed their families without food stamps, and Walmart greeters with AARP memberships who can't live on their social security income. The American consumer drives the economy, and the retail slaves grease the wheels. American society has already far exceeded ancient Rome in its wealth inequality. Historians Walter Schiedel and Steven Friesen estimate that the 1% in ancient Rome controlled 16% of the wealth. In modern America, the 1% control 40% of the nation's wealth.
Sylvia Allegretto, a labor economist, said the top 20% control 87.2% of wealth, and the bottom 80% control 12.8% of wealth. But this doesn't begin to tell you the full picture of the disparity. The combined wealth of the 6 children of the Walmart founders was $69.7 billion in 2007, which was equal to the total wealth of the entire bottom 30% of the country. However, that was in 2007 when Walmart stock was at $40. Now it's at $87. So that means that 6 people have over $140 billion and more than twice the wealth of the bottom 30%. Ironically, they have a charity called the Walton Family Foundation, but they don't seem interested in contributing to their own foundation. The contributions have been relatively small, and two of them haven't contributed 1 cent.
An Oxfam International report listed some stunning data: Nearly 50% of global wealth is owned by 1% of the population. They control $110 trillion. The richest 85 people in the world control as much wealth as the bottom half of the population. That means 85 individuals have the same wealth as 3.6 billion people. In the United States, the 1% have captured 95% of growth from the "recovery" since 2009, while the bottom 90% became poorer. That's called trickle down your leg economics.
In 2006, Warren Buffett said, "There’s class warfare, all right, but it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning."
NASA funded a study to analyze risk factors of a societal collapse. In November 2012, the results were published. The first factor was not really that groundbreaking: resource depletion. The second factor was more political: high economic stratification. Wealth inequality is right up there in priority with environmental risks.
The Gini Index (named after Corrado Gini) measures income inequality, and the CIA keeps track of it for countries around the world. There are good reasons why they keep track of the data: Countries with higher Gini coefficients (more inequality) have lower life expectancy and higher rates of violent crime. The CIA ranks 141 countries by their Gini coefficient. Lesotho and South Africa are the most unequal countries on the list. Elysium director Neill Blomkamp is from South Africa, and his experiences there influenced his films about inequality.
More inequality is correlated with lower life expectancy.
More inequality is correlated with higher theft.
More inequality is correlated with higher homicide rates.
Sweden has the lowest Gini coefficient on the list (highest equality). The Economist described the Nordic countries as the best-governed in the world. They are less cynical about government. Americans with Nordic roots are 10% more likely than the average American to believe that "most people can be trusted." At the National Bureau of Economic Research, the Nordic form of government has been called "cuddly capitalism," as opposed to "cutthroat capitalism." Think less Gangs of New York and more Ferris Bueller's Day Off. The Swedes enjoy a range of government benefits Americans can only dream of: 480 days of paid parental leave for child care, unemployment benefits for 80% of your salary, guaranteed state pensions, and elder care, which includes meal delivery, cleaning and shopping assistance, and transportation services. While the billionaires run to Singapore, the average American may eventually run to Sweden. What would the reason be? Refugee status? Seeking asylum from the cutthroat capitalists, the modern gangs of New York?
The United States is #41, which means it is a more unequal society than 71% of the other countries on the list. America is more unequal than Iran, Uganda, Russia, Venezuela, Cambodia, Bangladesh, and Pakistan. Yes that's right - Pakistan - the country that sheltered Osama bin Laden and that features child massacres by the Taliban. Pakistan's rank is #119, which means it is in the top 16%. Remember, the Gini Index measures economic stratification - not total wealth of the country. So theoretically, you could have a country with widespread starvation, but if everyone suffers equally, the Gini coefficient could be near zero. You could argue that the Gini coefficient should be considered in context with other data. Obviously, it's preferable to live in the United States and not in Pakistan, but the Gini index still matters because equality and fairness are the foundations of democratic ideals.
In 1975, the American economist Arthur Okun published a book called Equality and Efficiency: The Big Tradeoff. He argued that pursuing equality can reduce efficiency because it reduces incentives to work hard, and any type of redistribution efforts would have prohibitively costly administrative expenses. Okun was wrong. A report by the International Monetary Fund found that economic equality is important for sustaining long-term growth.
I have previously discussed the downside of efficiency and why it shouldn't be the ultimate goal to strive towards. Not everything that is efficient is good. The guillotine was a huge advance in efficiency. Even if Okun had been correct about the alleged tradeoff between equality and efficiency, it would have been a tradeoff worth making. Too many economic thinkers view society as a machine which must be optimized for maximum output. Society is not a machine. It is a collection of valuable human lives.
Another study by the London School of Economics and Political Science showed a correlation between innovation and economic equality. Countries with more inequality experienced less innovation.
The Nordic model of cuddly capitalism shows that it's pointless to be an extremist - on the left or on the right. Whenever you have extremists in control, you end up with absurdity. The Swedes seek a middle ground, and their success shows it is a worthwhile effort. What will surprise some hard line capitalists is that Adam Smith would probably endorse the Nordic model if he were alive today.
Adam Smith was a critical proponent of capitalism, and his concept of "The Invisible Hand" is a perpetual rallying call for the parishioners of the Church of Capitalism. The Invisible Hand says what is good for me is good for everybody. The Invisible Hand will allow the market to self-regulate without the need for government intervention. Anyone with half a brain can see that reality is obviously much more complicated than this, but the hard line capitalists are always ready to punch you in the face with their Invisible Hand. Adam Smith wasn't as stupid or dogmatic as his followers. In his defining work, The Wealth of Nations, he said,
"When the regulation, therefore, is in support of the workman, it is always just and equitable; but it is sometimes otherwise when in favour of the masters...No society can surely be flourishing and happy, of which the far greater part of the members are poor and miserable. It is but equity, besides, that they who feed, clothe and lodge the whole body of the people, should have such a share of the produce of their own labour as to be themselves tolerably well fed, clothed and lodged.''
This sounds like a pro-labor quote from Karl Marx, but it's actually straight from the original capitalist himself.
The parallels of ancient Rome and modern America are startling and undeniable. The middle class is truly the life source of society. Without it, nothing is left but kings among slaves. These are the conditions that lead to uprisings. One day, there will be a new American Revolution, and it could be quite violent. US Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis said,
"We may have democracy, or we may have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both."
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http://www.cnet.com/news/secret-patent-review-system-raises-innovation-concerns/
Patents have long been a valuable tool for tech companies, providing protection for innovations and extracting royalties. But a new report charges that the US Patent and Trademark Office has a secret program it uses to delay patents it views as controversial or inconvenient.
The Sensitive Application Warning System (SAWS) is the Patent Office's "information gathering system" that triggers additional reviews for applications "that include sensitive subject matter," according to USPTO documentation. But a San Francisco-based law firm has documents it believes show the program can stifle innovation, ultimately hurting consumers, according to a Yahoo Tech report Wednesday.
"If a startup is getting sued by an established player, sometimes their only hope is to get a patent very quickly," said Thomas Franklin, a partner at Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton, adding that SAWS keeps that from happening. The system favors an entrenched incumbent over an innovator who might have breakthrough technology, he said.
SAWS has been around for at least a decade, a USPTO spokesman said, but details about the program are not readily available. In fact, Franklin, whose firm often represents major tech companies like Apple, Google, Twitter and Oracle, said he only found out about it by accident from someone reviewing one of his client's application. The reviewer told him the program is "secret," Franklin said, "so we got very alarmed at what this program was about." ----------- http://www.courthousenews.com/2014/12/19/weapons-inventor-says-u-s-ripped-him-off.htm
WASHINGTON (CN) - A man whose stealth technology and weapons inventions put him on the road to a Nobel Prize says the government declassified his patents to reap the rewards.
Physicist and engineer Frank Trunk made the allegations in a federal complaint, originally filed under seal, against U.S. Navy Secretary Raymond Mabus, Energy Secretary Dr. Ernest Moniz, Defense Secretary Charles Hagel and Michelle Lee, the deputy director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
Trunk says he made his breakthroughs in 1993, filing for patents for inventions involving aircraft and ship stealth technology, submarine stealth technology and nuclear-weapon designs.
"Those applications describe fundamental breakthroughs in physics and material science that according to one senior Navy scientist 'are the sort of thing Nobel prizes are made of,'" the Dec. 8 complaint states.
Though the Office of Naval Research (ONR) classified the patents in 2000 because exposure posed a potential threat to national security, Trunk says the Navy has begun declassifying the patents and doling the information out to military contractors, all while intimidating and threatening Trunk to keep him away from the rights to his inventions - and the profits.
Trunk says the government has told him that his own inventions are now classified and that his knowledge of the very technology he conceived is a criminal offense.
"Mr. Trunk has been told that as a matter of law, technically he cannot even 'think about' or discuss with myself' the subject matter of the patent applications because of the lack of security clearance," the complaint states. "The DOE [Department of Energy] General Counsel's Office has even asked (presumably in jest) whether Mr. Trunk is now required to 'shoot himself' since he is in possession of classified information without a security clearance." (Brackets added, parentheses in original.)...
According to the rules of Monopoly, the bank can NEVER run out of money. If necessary, numbers can be scribded down on any piece of paper, in order to avert chaos....
But the Fed just has to push a few keys on a keyboard and TA-DAAA, a new trillion is born.....
Yep. And more inequality == greater corruption.
The solution to the neo-feudal greed of the banksters who control this society isn't Swedish style socialism.
What a crap article. Was it commissioned by the powers that be?
writer is one of them; trickle down fucks. their mindset prevails and they annoint themselves experts which apparently we allow...
Now does everybody got it? When you have amazing patent x,y or z just make it public and post everywhere.. Its the greatest theft of the elite you can produce that is the prevention of your own robbery.. Its like screwing uncle Sam of future tax revenue by everybody wearing a condom.. Eventually the beast is robbed to death by our own exclusion from the system..
Banks only produce debt and the following should be kept in mind:
"constant prosperity through credit is no more possible than constant peace through heroin."
So even though your statement seems reasonable you and I know that it will ultimately fail as we can see from the worsening state of economic affairs.
how about 150 year mortgages?
That's coming. First, the 50-year mortgage. Anything to keep RE prices rising.
The answer isn't rampant to the wall socialism as that is shown in France kills all growth in your GDP . the answer is make income tax rate equal market share for all corporations.. Thus Walmart would cease being the dollar store death star..
In Soviet Russia many pioneers in areas of aerodynamics, rocket propulsion and chemistry, whose discoveries in 20's and 30's paved way for many modern age advancements were thrown into gulags or executed by Stalin's regime, accused of being enemies of the empire. Wrap your melon around that one.
Full credit goes to the Bolsheviks for that one: they were NOT going to let anyone smarter than them help drive or run the country.
Stalin was a Georgian thug.
If they did not realize that true intellect is always the enemy of the state, then how smart could they have been?
my roomate's half-sister makes $65 /hr on the computer . She has been without work for 7 months but last month her pay check was $14940 just working on the computer for a few hours. you could try this out... www.works3.com
Mathematically impossible.
Rossi and a whole slew of people working on Cold Fusion would concure.
If a patent mentions palladium it is automatically rejected.
Gotta protect the Petro-dolla. Bugger the consequences.
land of freedom
What is this socialist claptrap? We have the worst of both worlds- no regulations for the wealthy, instead for them, licenses to steal, and onerous, profit-stealing regulations for the little guy.
Just leave me the fuck aone, and I'll figure out how to make a living. But we are bothered and annoyed for a reason- to steal from us; by the banks, by government, by the insurance companies, by big business...
If this realy was a free country, and the game wasn't completely rigged, I would have a fighting chance. I'm smart enough, capable enough, creative enough... but the PTB have ensured that none of that matters.
If this really was a free country, I wouldn't begrudge the rich what they have. No, you know what? I DON'T begrudge the rich. Good on 'em, that they have billions in stolen treasure. I don;t want what they have, i just want what I've GOT, and I resent people trying to steal it from me. As long as I am a free man, I bow to no-one. But when you come around trying to steal what I have made, and I cannot do anything about it, I just might go all William Wallace.
Leave me alone and I'll leave you alone. Start fucking with me, and you might not like the consequenses.
land of missapportionment
Share of Global Defense Spending
US 37%
China 11%
Russia 5%
Saudi 3.8%
France 3.5%
UK 3.5%
Germany 2.8%
Japan 2.8%
(SIPRI)
"Three letters, J O B S"
VP Biden
The consumption-saturated and aging West, cannot longer contribute to the rise of profits of the global economic elite and therefore, through the economic crisis, the middle class is systematically eliminated so that its consuming power to be "aligned" with that of the majority of the huge populations of developing countries.
IN Amerika there are only 2 classes...
Us and them and them is winning....
The progressive elites and us
Look the Free Market will take care of it all. When demand for middle class people goes up, then the number of middle class people rises. Right now nobody wants them. Minimum and black market wage? In demand! There's also demand for serfs, indentured servants and, yes, slaves.
Hell yes.
There's a high Pussification Factor on the Hedge lately.
When you outlaw something you create outlaws and since they are outlawing the middle class.....
The middle class have always been the fulcrum between the upper and lower levels of society, a sort of transit lounge and the mean which kept society in some sort of balance.
But the capture and the focus of the judiciary, the central banks and the police by the 0.01% has resulted in a destabilization which may eventually morph into an extremely ugly society where the 0.01% retreat behind their castles, moats and their standing armies and the peasants are forever banging on their doors.
Unfortunately, the great destroyer and enslaver is a level of debt that magnifies all the other issues of demography, geopolitics etc. And the problem with the debt is that it makes up a great deal of the enrichment that the top 0.01% have experienced.
The world is not just becoming flat it is actually being flattened.
First, who the frick cares about income inequality other than jealous leftists who don't want to work for a living? If you don't like what you earn improve your situation and get a higher paying job. If you hate it that others make more than you that's your mental problem.
Wealth inequality always goes up the most under leftist regimes such as the Dear Leader Obama regime. If the government would stop strangling businesses and people with over burdensome regulations businesses and people could actually prosper and increase everyone's wealth. But, under the socialist utopia plan only people connected with the government do well (see Solyndra, Clinton speaking fees, multimillion dollar equivalent government pensions, etc.). Shrink the government, bring back a capitalist system with a moral foundation and there will be no reason to fret over wealth and/or income inequality. OK... some brain dead liberals will still fret over it but it won't be as bad as income inequality under leftist regimes.
Could be Fiscal Policy is keeping this baby afloat.
- Stock Market & Economy based on .Gov Transfer Payments
2014 Department of Defense Outlays = 580.13 Billion
2014 Homeland Security Outlays 2014 = $53,812 Billion
2014 VA Compensation and Pensions = $69.82 Billion
2014 Total Social Security Admin = $908.76 Billion
2014 Total Medicare/Medicaid = $1,19 Trillion
2014 Total Department of Education = $99.31 Billion
2014 Total Department of Agriculture = $159.61 Billion
2014 Health and Human Services = $1.032 Trillion
2014 HHS Refugee and Entrant Assistance = $1.278 Billion
2014 HHS Child Care Entitlement to States = $2.839 Billion
2014 HHS Temporary Assistance TANF outlays = $16.267 Billion
2014 HHS Low Income Home Energy Assist = $3.537 Billion
2014 HHS Children and families services = $9.373 Billion
2014 Department of Labor Outlays = $62.98 Billion
2014 DOL Unemployment, Outlays = $42.18 Billion
2014 IRS, Payment where earned income credit exceeds liability for tax Outlays = $60.09 Billion
2014 IRS, Payment Where Child Tax Credit Exceeds Liability for Tax Outlays = $21,49 Billion
Note: YOUR CORPORATE Welfare =
- $1 Trillion MIC (see David Stockman's Book)
- $1 Trillion MEDICARE/MEDICAID
Federal Budget is so full of corporate fat they call America the "Fat Country".
Yes, like I said, and your numbers indicate: "...under the socialist utopia plan only people connected with the government do well."
Income inequality is driven by oppressive government and the crack cocaine of government welfare. Get the government out of the income redistribution business.
Saying we should get the government out of the redistribution business is like having a 100 foot redwood growing out of the middle of your house and saying, "We should pull up this weed and get rid of it."
The house goes with it. You'd have to burn the entire country down to get rid of it.
First, who the frick cares about income inequality other than jealous leftists who don't want to work for a living?
I think history will answer that question for you. The article is spot on IMO: with wealth inequality taken to hese extremes, the US will face turmoil in a not too distant future. You talk about those who don't want to work for a living, but you should also talk about those who stole billions and got away with it because the US legal system has chosen to take an extended vacation, while the politicians preferred to look the other way.
Billions is small change compared to the government numbers that TeethVillage88s posted, above. If people broke the law - like the NJ Gov Corzine (D) - yes they should be prosecuted. What is holding people down is oppressive government.
Yeah, thinking $10 Trillion in 12 Years after Iraqi War Started. We don't know the Black Budget for NSA & CIA and all other secret agencies... then there are retirement benefits, health insurance payments... facilities built on foreign soil, gifts of technology, training, money to bribe foreign officials.
Total—Department of Veterans Affairs Outlays 2014 = $154.05 Billion
Total—Department of Veterans Affairs Outlays 2013 = $143.6 Billion
Total—Department of Veterans Affairs Outlays 2000 = $50.1 Billion
Total—Department of Veterans Affairs Outlays 1998 = $45.6 Billion
----
Total—International Assistance Program Outlays 2014 = $49.37 Billion
Total—International Assistance Program Outlays 2013 = $48 Billion
Total—International Assistance Program Outlays 2000 = $25.7 Billion
Total—International Assistance Program Outlays 1998 = $26 Billion
----
Total--Department of Homeland Security Outlays 2014 = $53,812 Billion
Total--Department of Homeland Security Outlays 2013 = $66.5 Billion
Total--Department of Homeland Security Outlays 2000 (FEMA) = $3.9 Billion
Total--Department of Homeland Security Outlays 1998 (FEMA) = $2.9 Billion
----
Total—Department of Defense—Military Outlays 2014 = 580.13 Billion
Total—Department of Defense—Military Outlays 2013 = $609.4 Billion (Down from $650 B)
Total—Department of Defense—Military Outlays 2000 = $283 Billion
Total—Department of Defense—Military Outlays 1998 = $257.9 Billion
Income inequality, like greed, is good.
You get a net increase in jobs for those who entertain and pleasure the rich!
Plus there always is a rise in jobs for hangmen, axmen and rack-operators so that the poor don't get any ideas. It's a bright future for those that understand this.
Here is your time line of inequality. But have to heap blame on G.W Bush & Ronald Reagan for MIC Corporate Spending Increases (See David Stockman's Book).
Deregulation Plans, Transportation, Energy, Communication, Finance, Free Trade, Campaign Finance
1964 - Gulf of Tonkin, Congress gives up War Powers, Legislative Powers, and Budget Powers
1978 - Bankruptcy Reform Act of 1978,
1980 - Depository Institutions (J. Carter, followed by S&L Crisis, 5000 convictions, RTC)
1981 - Executive Order 12287, (R. Reagan, removed price controls on Petrol)
1984 - Caribbean Basin Initiative (Free Imports to USA)
1992 - Energy Policy Act (H.W. Bush)
1994 - NAFTA, Deregulation of Trade, 3 Nations (W. Clinton)
1995 - Community Reinvestment Act, the Clinton Admin urged flexibility,
1995 - HUD advocated greater involvement of state and local organizations
1996 - Energy (W. Clinton, followed by ENRON Scandal)
1996 - Telecommunications Act (W. Clinton, cross ownership)
1996 - Start of a Period of Accounting Fraud in USA which continues today
1997 - M2 Money Velocity Top
1998 - Clinton's Kosovo War
1998 - Brooksly Born Rejected on her concerns on OTC Derivatives
1998 - Derivatives expanded and were not regulated
1998 - Citicorp & Travelers Insurance Merger
1999 - Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act (Phil Gramm, W. Clinton, followed by 2008 Financial Crisis)
1999 - bombing campaign in Kosovo (W. Clinton, over 60 days)
2000 - Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000 (P. Gramm, W. Clinton, derivatives)
2002 - McCain–Feingold Act (G.W. Bush, Campaign Finance, soft money unlimited)
2005 - Energy Policy Act (G.W. Bush, subsidies, excluded clean air Water acts)
2005 - Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 (BAPCPA).
2005 - CAFTA-DR Ratified, 2006 El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala
2009 - 2014 Continuing Resolutions in which Congress gives up Budget Powers
2010 - Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (money is free speech for corps)
2011 - US combat in Libya (B Obama, over 60 days)
- (Laissez-faire economic policies)
It goes back a lot farther than that.
Many times in many places......
1913...Illegal federal Reserve Act. Wilson puts actual sheep on the White House Lawn as a middle finger to all Americans.
1963...Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclaimation, an illegal solution to a dying problem. It wasn;t about freeing black people, it was about enslaving everyone else.
1861...Albert Pike instigates the Civil War, in order to subjugate the Southern States and destroy the republic. Pike ran the US until his death in 1891.
1788... US Constitution ratified. Sovereign States were replaced by "we the People", ie a corporate federated system of slavery. The US is a British Crown Corporation. You are a slave owned by the Queen of England, under maritime law, and you have been bought and sold as a bond based on your estimated lifetime earnings.
I heard about people becoming slaves, incorporation of people, and being a slave to British Crown. I still can't find the final piece there. Admiralty Law. Pennsylvania. And not sure what date they say we became a US Corporation. Seems like after 1812 English Bankers and Lords would want to place Agents in the USA.
If you look at English Speaking countries it seems they move in sync in Legislation like Domestic Spying, cutting privacy, terror legislation.
Will have to look at what you are saying.
Here's a silly video that covers the basics of Admiralty Law.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJtMnYTRleE
Here is an article on the illegality, and the perfidious nature, of the US Constitution. Skip down about a third of the way to get to what Patrick Henry thought of the entire fiasco of a Constitution. The guy who wrote this is South African, so it may be assumed he does nnot suffer from the standard American brainwashing.
http://www.rense.com/general79/patri.htm
Yeah, I've been hoping for some new entries on my Time Line.
It started out as Deregulation List, so I'm missing points people want added. But the Corruption of Congress & the US Constitution fit very well on a list of Deregulation.
Is that an 8N?
A 1976 Ford 3600.
Very nice. Thanks for more farm machinery avatars.
I have two 8N's. One is restored one is not. Both run great. And the 8N engine is also used in some peoples rebuilds of studebakers. My favorite tractor I have is my McCormick W9.
Very nice. I love the older models.
I got the 3600 for a steal, although I had to put some work into it. The grandson of the owner who passed away thought it had a cracked block. I wasn't sure but it sure dumped a lot of antifreeze into the crankcase whenever you started it. I bought it for almost nothing, tore it apart, and found that it was simply a freeze plug that had popped out of the cylinder head under the valve cover where you can't see it. Now it runs great and works all day long. I always thought that freeze (casting) plugs were in the blocks. I never heard of them in the cylinder head until this one.
I think more than jealous leftists care about income disperity gone amuck.
There are people who worked to improve their situation by going to college and are now, as graduates, working minimum wage jobs, unrelated to what they trained for, to improve their situation. Get a better paying job, is not the simple prescription you want to imagine it to be. The middle class is shrinking, so there are not enough better paying jobs to get. 95% of the gains in this economic expansion went to the top percentile. There isn't enough left to go around to everyne else.
My recent comment here:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-12-30/things-do-2015-when-you%E2%80%9...
applies to this article above, as it does to most other Zero Hedge articles, because the same basic change in frame of reference should be applied to all these sorts of similar problems, which are presented by numerous similar statements published on Zero Hedge:
"One day, there will be a new American Revolution, and it could be quite violent."
The only way that a new American Revolution could end up becoming more successful, rather than more destructive, is IF and ONLY IF, it was based on intellectual scientific revolutions, which radically changed the paradigms of the ways we perceive politics.
Currently, We the People are thoroughly trapped inside of a Bizarro Mirror World, where everything appears proportionately backwards, INCLUDING THE SOLUTIONS!
The mainstream moron middle class has been too brainwashed to believe in the banksters' bullshit to be able to better understand their situation. They have mostly become incompetent political idiots, who are being exhorted to "wake up" by people who still want to lead them backwards, instead of forwards ...
I think that as a society we have just have let our standards slip and with a slip in standards comes a loss of virtue. A loss of virtue then brings behaviours and consumption patterns that further immerse humanity in a mire. It then becomes a no brainer that we are headed for the drain until something happens to bring us back from oblivion.
RM and Peter Pan, I think I'm of a similar vein of thought on this one. When articles like this shout down wealth inequality, they play into the rhetoric given to us by the political elite. It deflects blame and misdirects subsequent thought on the problems. There is a big fucking Z in those XY plots that drives what we are calling wealth inequality as well as the murder rates, robbery rates, other moral degredation, and a general collapse in economic growth. Wealth inequality isn't a cause, its an effect, and the causes are multiple. To RM's post that was linked, the nature of fiat money is certainly one of them. Immoral money leads to immoral behavior and allows for immoral gains gotten at the expense of the general public through no fault of their own other than accepting the dollar or whatever other fiat currency they might use. *That* is what people feel when they express anger towards "wealth inequality", the rightly felt sense that a portion of what the rich have was gained through immoral means and political connection rather than serving others at market. Of course there is a lot of envy and laziness in there too. Differentiating between that and the natural inequality present in any system is why deflecting blame on "wealth inequality" in general is so easy. I don't think that all forms of money would lead to this though, but money which has no cost of production certainly does. The second facet is access to government, which is often the first and most direct beneficiary of debt money. If there were a way to graph the relationship between wealth inequality and the production cost of money, I think things would become a little more clear. Not everyone thinks so abstractly though, so until that can be represented more concretely the problem continues and thought on the nature of money will stagnate in the general public.
"There is a big fucking Z in those XY plots."
A good way to make the point, BolanosGhost!
- AMNESTY: Farmers brace for labor shortage...
- MORNING AFTER: Christmas returns hit new high...
- Online retailers not equipped to cope...
- Purchases Boomerang Back to Retailers...
- Gold Held In NY Fed Vault Drops To Lowest In 21st Century...
- Government to start collecting health law fines;
- GRUBER: Obamacare WON'T Be Affordable...
- penalties set to rise in 2015
- But US Health Insurance does nothing for Long term Care or Bankruptcy
- Box Office: Movie Admissions Lowest Since 1995...
When do the pull the plug
Not soon enough.
Maybe, with the US Domestic economy not "quite" living up to the MSM hype, it might NOT be a very good time to be planning for a major war in Europe.
Especially against a Country already rather aggrieved by past US actions (such as many, many broken agreements) and a Country that is very able (and whose population are very willing) to defend its borders .. . . .
Don't forget Filial Responsibility laws.
Once every asset is sucked out of one's parents via the nursing home death camps, one's assets will be next to be sucked dry if one lives in any of the 29 states with such laws on the books, plus Puerto Rico.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/northwesternmutual/2014/02/03/who-will-pay-f...
And as a bonus, in Pennsylvania, it is a two way street, affecting multiple generations:
http://www.post-gazette.com/business/2014/10/26/Elder-Law-A-new-twist-on...
Wow, I didn't know about this. I know if you want benefits for yourself, sometimes you have to wait to become a candidate for ward of the state. I saw where AARP says you can't apply for some benefits unless you only have $3,000 dollars or less... of course this means you have blown all retirement funds by that time.
I think... or I guess this is how EBT/SNAP works. And if you have Medical Bills... I guess you have to give up all retirement benefits, become a future ward of the state, before you get relief.
Not sure the answer on these things. I've never had unemployment payment or welfare.
A Big thank you from Scranton Area, on the bonus link. Much appreciated.
In Pittas, Maryann Pittas of Schwenksville was injured with her husband, Andrew, in a head-on collision. After being in a coma and suffering a stroke, eventually, after a lengthy rehabilitation, she was moved to Greece to be with other relatives, leaving her son, a local restaurant owner behind.
The nursing home owned by HCR Manor Care brought suit for the bill against her son under the filial responsibility law. Mr. Pittas won in arbitration in 2008 but lost in Common Pleas Court when the nursing home appealed. In May, a three-judge panel affirmed the lower court decision and let the judgment against the son for almost $93,000 stand. They found that he should be able to pay the bill based on the joint income of himself and his wife of $85,000.
This was a local event and completely fucked for a number of reasons.... the First one being HCR Manorcare is huge, but not widespread in PA,, http://tinyurl.com/6tdvaqv , and had the most politically well connected law firm in Montgomery County handle it. The legal fight cost Pittas $25K before he had to start coughing up the $93K. He was dead the minute it was appealed from what appeared to be a fair and sensible arbitration.
Next- it is an appellate court decision. It was allowed to stand by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court and is the law of the land.
-There was no indication that the son had received any funds or taken anything from the elder Pittas. Which is more than true, as a first generation immigrated Greek family. Pittas' son got the help from his wife to start the restaurant.
-The judgment was against one son even though he had other siblings and Mrs. Pittas’ husband was also living, although they "were not as readily available" as filed. Bullshit. They were plenty available. They just didn't have the assets, he did.
-Indigent was interpreted to mean that Mrs. Pittas did not have enough to pay the bill. Which is a rather broad definition to invoke the Filial Responsibility laws.
Creditors won huge in the Financial Disaster. They didn't have to share in any of the losses.
Now they are using their political power to close up any of the small leaks in PA. Leaks which they have used for decades to justify exhorbitant charges. (It's cheaper to retire to a Holiday Inn, with better service)
I can't wait until the Student Loans start to go Tits up, and get sold to Recovery companies. For retirement you can go to Debtors Prison.
Speaking of Debtors Prisons......
http://www.thenation.com/article/178845/town-turned-poverty-prison-sentence
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/as-economy-flails-debtors-prisons-thrive/
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/12/28/local-courts-reviving-debtors...
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/return-debtors-prison/
Since I oppose the very concept of government-imposed 'shared responsibility', this presents a conundrum. Should we go full socialist and take from producers to provide for those in need, under force of law? Or should we instead rely on consensual arrangements, devoid of government's heavy hand? I strongly resent being taxed to pay for others, legal or illegal tho they may be. At the same time, I have no problems contributing to charities that help the indigent. Letting the government pass these sorts of laws simply reinforces the notion that we are all slaves to the will of TPTB.
I'm sure the fix is more tax cuts for the wealthy and more free trade agreements.
My guess is that in the next 2 years "the fix" will be in abundance as never seen before. More so, than even the 6 years of a One Party government from 2000-2006. If that is even imagineable.
We will be able to tell, the same way we know of their lips. If any legislation moves, we'll know somewhere within it, the fix is in.
At issue is Obama’s support for the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which would establish the world’s largest free-trade zone. The administration has touted the deal as a way to boost U.S. exports to Asia at a time when the United States faces increasing competition from China.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/obama-hopes-to-enlist-gop-in-push...
The dynamic, as the White House plots strategy for the new year when the GOP has full control of Congress, has scrambled traditional political alliances. In recent weeks, Obama has rallied the business community behind his trade agenda, while leading Capitol Hill progressives, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), have raised objections and labor and environmental groups have mounted a public relations campaign against it.
The administration is moving aggressively in hopes of wrapping up negotiations by the middle of next year on a 12-nation free-trade pact in the Asia-Pacific region before the politics become even more daunting ahead of the 2016 presidential campaign.
"Taxes are for the little people." -- Leona Helmsley
Lollolololol no mention of race or immigration? OF COURSE the consequence of importing colonies of ineducable, irredentist third worlders will increase inequality! Duh!
Wage Suppression combined with shipping Jobs off-shore with no Protectionism = Inequality
Open Borders Facilitates the Monopoly of the Wealthy.
Nothing like another socialist calling for moar fucking regulation. Does anybody really believe that we aren't currently over regulated? If you do then try to open a small business and you'll soon find out how giant corporations with fleets of accountants and lawyers stifle competition by capturing the regulatory process. We need more free market capitalism and less cronyism.
- 75,000 Pages of New Regs in '14...
- 70,000 Pages in the US Tax Code...
.gov system = Monster = System Monster = Black Swan Candidate
Yeah, who needs a middle class... after all the middle class are the ones who die on the battlefield often leading the working classes to charge into machine gun nests. They are generally the ones who create, build, manage, design, fix, and keep the society functioning.
Fuck the middle class and fuck pidgeon holing people in "classes" oh yeah and fuck capitalism "You reap what you sow" and thats that.
Most "middle class" assholes are fucking useless eaters on a great scale ie: drug pushing docs who push the big pharm agenda, filthy lawyers who scam scraps from .govs even bigger oppressive scam, realators who scam a commission from what should be just another "everyday" normal business deal, fucking brokers squeezing more cents off the average idiots craving to "get rich quick" without producing anything of worth nor merit (see the previously mentioned fuck heads) and the list goes on. Skills earn wages hence you reap what you sow. stock markets were and always will be "rigged" it's a suckers game the grand bullshit lottery just another banker scam along with capitalism.. The communist lie of capitalism is why we're where we're at. The whole system was is and always will be set up for what you keep calling wealth in-equallity. You only get out of your life what you put into it, ya wanna keep playing with "scratch off" lottery tickets and complain they don't pay enough, thats the mentallity out there on the street. The lazy ones show themselves here and on every other blog screaming "something for nothing" well you fucks had it for a while now it's blowwing up LOL. like the song said "hey bob get a haircut and get a real job" I hate sponges and thats what 99% of the middle class is so yeah fuck em.
Reallity sux get used to it better yet get some real skills then maybe just maybe ya can have the "free market" ya keep whining about until then well A merry Fuck off to ya and another miserable whiny new year ;)
Please, don't hold back. Tell us how you really feel. ;-)
That was a nice one, CD, made me chuckle. If I ever need counseling, I'll know who to turn to.
Sorry, double post. This is the second time in a couple of days - guess I'm getting old.
I just did LOL and there's more further down the page was typing while ya posted this above ;)
Servants often take on the characteristics of the ruling class, including becoming reactionary to resist change.
When you only have a stick to hold onto after a shipwreck, you idolize that stick
The US is is worse than Pakistan?
What is the capitalistic clothing equivalent of a Burka?
Just want to be the well dressed serf....
What day does he give for it happening?
Wealth inequality, right! America’s brain-dead masses do NOT care! They care about a new I-phone and who won ‘Dancing with The Stars”, and how much are the payments on a new SUV? Get used to it.
The Fed has invested Five Trillion $’s to prevent a meltdown and ensure a ‘recovery’. So far, even the most ardent bear has to admit the bankers are successful beyond anyone’s wildest dreams. They have created wealth out of thin air with no downside. They removed all risk from markets. Millions could lose their jobs and still get rich by buying stocks. The loose credit policies have millions more buying cars, SUVs, HDTVs, boats, and i-Toys by the zillions. Long lines in the rain to get the latest I-Phone, even with 3 other ones at home. A complete mania generated by adhering to Bernay’s principles of behavioral economics. Give the masses what they want. Easy, risk free wealth creation. Make sure the lemmings are told over and over how last year’s model is now a POS and they must own this year’s newest vehicle, phone, TV, etc. Offer them “Nothing down”, easy low payments for eight years…debt is your ticket from work to play! Carpe diem!
The bankers are traveling the world patting themselves on the back. If things turn down, more QE is assured, “Whatever it takes!”, so only a fool would sell stocks. The Fed believes the wealthy are all that matters to keep the economy going; the rest is ‘trickle-down’. Fund managers are elated, and the top 10% can sell some of their ever-expanding stock wealth and buy more houses, apartment buildings, and hotels. Creating jobs, demand and driving those prices higher too. Win-win.
Bears keep saying it is all phony, unsustainable, and doomed to fail. They have said this for seven years now, and will likely be saying it for at least seven more. The Fed wants Dow 20k and 30K and 40k, and they can get it. They have the printing power to keep moving the markets higher. Weak earnings and no growth are no longer reasons to sell; the Fed will print even more and rescue the markets. We now have “five percent growth”. You don’t have to believe it, millions all over the world do. Engineered earnings through massive buybacks are still legitimate.
There has been huge job creation. No, it doesn’t matter if most pay little. For those, or people without jobs, there are EBT cards, welfare, and other assistance. The government will continue deficit spending forever, they have too, and the Fed will enable it.
Limitless debt is now possible. Inflation is non-existent and there is not one solid argument for a meltdown in the next few years, other than total war with Russia. Inequality…not an issue.
Awesome post. I love the framing - cuddly capitalism, not the dreaded S word. But as sure as the entrail-gazing soothsayer may be, I refuse to accept a certain decline of civil society and suggest that instead, we construct a socio-economic system that by design constricts the wealth gap. There are other pressing domestic problems, but attacking this one would aid in solving others (e.g. if you collect more revenue from the wealthy, you could increase spending on education, etc.). Cuddly capitalism beats the snot out of socio-economic collapse.
Heres a better idea bust up ALL conglomerates bring back our mills and factories bring back corner grociers and hardware shops turn all these fucking methanol corn feilds into food producing crop feilds, does anyone remember when main street wasn't tattoo shops and rent-a-center stores sandwhiched between lawyers and tax preparers?? LMAO tax the "wealthy" for education??? what the fuck are you talking about your whole post stinks of common core... get the fucking .gov out of education PERIOD stop funding their bullshit with my "money" or anyone elses!! Stop funding their bullshit buddies at asplundh, the myriad of state D.O.T. cronies blah blah blah etc. etc. The "house that is the US is condemned and needs torn down, and the squatters need expelled ...no paint, additions or re-shingling/siding is gonna save it" Keep thinking it can be "fixed" It CAN"T BE get outside the "box" quit breathing the mold.
Anyone trying to salvage this shit house of cards rather than tear it down and build a better one is a terrorist you are aiding and abetting the fuckers who run this shit show. Time for a new paradigm this ones dead a fucking corpse on life support face facts pull the plug and bury it already FFS, the "experiment failed"
/rant
I'm not fully sure if it all needs to come down. But if we plan the phases of deconstruction or reorganization... we can convince people along the way.
The big problem I see are MEDICARE/MEDICAID, welfare programs, and Social Security.
No one wants to see old people starving, put on the street, wards of the state... they will be bankrupt as David Stockman says since the Health Care System is a kind of Bubble.
So let's discuss the phases of implementation.
- First would be maybe cutting Defense & Black Budget Spending
- Second or maybe first would be getting money out of crony capitalism... money in politics
- Third or maybe first would be getting pork barrel spending out of the budget... agriculture budget, HHS Budget, etc.
- Then Medicaid?
- then Outlaw US Medical Insurance except MEDICARE
- then Federal Education Spending
- then subsidies for Energy
I'd want to let the Economy settle and stabilize for a while before looking at Social Security & MEDICARE... the reason being there should be an Economic Surge before kicking old people on the street.
"In 1975, the American economist Arthur Okun published a book called Equality and Efficiency: The Big Tradeoff. He argued that pursuing equality can reduce efficiency because it reduces incentives to work hard…"
How was Okun wrong? I see lazy people everywhere living off the government, and they don't want to or need to work.
Get a damn job!
I couldn't give a rat's ass if "income inequality" means some have massive wealth if they truly earned it through hard work, persicacity, shrewd speculation, accurate investing, keeping customers satisifed or even just plain luck.
The problem is government, government cronyism - rigging interest rates, counterfeiting money and credit, suppressing competition, fixing markets, pumping up asset "values", playing with wage rates, regulating markets to death, granting natural resource monopolies to their friends.
The rich are more terrified of true free markets - sink or swim - than they are of any shade of socialism...
A whole generation of dumbed down Amercians have contributed mightily to the FSA.
A sense of entitlement fills both the haves and the have nots. The haves feel that there are no rules for them and that they are above the law. The have nots feel they don't have to work to make a living or to contribute to society.
Meanwhile, the rest of us who work because we are not rich, and contribute our tax money to the FSA, Bankster bailouts and corporate welfare, would like to kill both sides so we can keep our hard earned money, retain our sanity and just be left alone.
Both sides of the coin are parasites and leeches. They need to be smote down and driven off the face of the earth.
"Both sides of the coin are parasites and leeches."
Exactly. All too often I see people respond to criticism of the FSA or the banksters by saying 'what about the other (FSA/banksters)?' As you say, both sides of the coin are parasites and leeches.
sweden has serious immigration issues. another country with way too high entitlements for the natives shipping in low paid workers to keep the game going? and didn't the mob almost burn down a city not so long ago?
get back to us in 20 years and we'll see how rosy that picture is.
Many middle class workers who's retirement savings (on which they absolutely depend for survival) were totally wiped out during the financial crisis of 2008 and subsequent turmoil. These were smart people who lived below their income and saved for 40 years. They just did not know they were saving in a criminally rigged system. They were ensured that there was rule of law and acted accordingly. When fraud can be proven (and in this case has been given the record fines paid by the global financial institutions) restitution is justified. The trillions in damages (millions of savers who lost millions of Dollars) are not recovered by mere billions in fines. Not even close. When fines are one tenth of a percent of the profits, this is not justice. When the damaged parties are not made whole (not even close) this is not justice. Justice requires dissolution of the criminal Network of Global Corporate Control and distribution of their assets to the persons whose life savings were (not lost, not destroyed, but) stolen.
"These were smart people who lived below their income and saved for 40 years."
Had they been "smart" maybe they would have learned from their parents previous "butt raping" by the banksters and the gov goons (one in the same far as I'm concerned) just saying but hey kids rebel right ? Ah history teaches us nothing as usual LOL I don't feel sorry for dupes.
Thanks for pointing that out. In the future I will refer to them as "hard working" and "law abiding", rather than "smart".
Predators and parasites do not "feel sorry" for their prey. A predator must kill to survive. Some parasites have learned they benefit by not killing their host.
Well they were smart enough to pay their way in society but obviously not as smart as the crooks who were lying in wait to rob them. I'm smart enough to have a PhD in Computer Science but still managed to have about 40% of my retirement funds looted by the parasites entrusted to look after it. Guess there are different definitions of smart.
I'm lucky enough to still have plenty but my heart bleeds for the poor stiffs who worked diligently and saved for their retirement only to see their money robbed by the crooks in financial 'services'.
If it was possible to get a real lawsuit against them, we could get our money back.
No court would hear our case.
We need to setup our own court. A court that represents the working people, rather than the Network of Global Corporate Control..
All true but you could have added that the individual perpetrators got clean away. The shareholders in effect paid the fines.
If articles like this don't make you an alcoholic your dead.
Feels like panic in here.
Embarrassing, it is.
Income inequality is a symptom, not a cause.
Exactly. Nailed it in one.
It is a symptom of moral collapse.
America is a cesspool: Money and material goods for thine self, and it doesn't matter if you've gotta steal from your neighbor to get it.
It's really sad. The rot is so deep that it cannot be undone. It goes right to the top. And, there is no Mr. Smith goes to Washington situation. This country WILL collapse.
I love posts like this that discuss income inequality but don't give any suggestions into the solutions. Are they suggesting transfer payments from these hyper rich to the masses? Are we suggesting that we are going to limit income or wealth because we deem it too much at some point? Who decides how much is too much? If I am a politician, I am obviously going to vote to take as much as possible. I won't have to be disciplined in my financial decisions because I can just take more from others and it keeps me in office. If I don't pay any taxes and get more in government payments, I am going to support this because it costs me nothing and I get free money. Neither of these solve the problem of the structural decline of the middle class.
Limiting anyone's ability to make money limits Everyone from making more money.
Despite the Founding Father's best efforts, due to banking structure, the corporations became the bosses and used us to mine the resources, and communities to support the workers grew up around the mines, including factories, schools, shops and hospitals and now they are draining the last droplets and chipping off the remnants of valuable ore left after a century so...it's over....they are packing up and moving on to the next continent and leaving America a pile of debt as a thanks. That's how it appears to me.
http://mrdata.usgs.gov/mineral-resources/active-mines.html
The elites drain comfort and ease from our backs, the backs of the America people.
Their employees and mangers, governmnet, leech their prosperity from our efforts and sweat as well
Soon, like a farm animal not properly cared for, we, their draft animals, and beasts of burden, falter, and can no longer carry them and pull their loads. We are spent, and the farmers now only desire to kill and eat what remains of us.
Though, unlike draft animals or beasts of burden, we have teeth of steel and lead, head and shoulder separating blades, and voices that can bellow "No more!"--"No more will we effort for ourselves only to see you enjoy the fruits. No more will we suffer your tortures, kidnappings and bullets. No more will we bear you, and endure you, and no more will we think we must."
We have the ability to take back the farm. To burn down the fiat-silos and tyranny complex, and Restore the American people in our country--The American country.
Think Restoration. Achieve Restored.
The banksters need to repay us.
The Four Rs
Rejection: Stop Paying. Stop Playing. Stop Obeying.
Revolution: It is inevitable, so prepare, as they are.
Retribution: The guilty must answer for their crimes against the American people and the Constitution.
Restoration: Restore the American people, country and Constitutional republic.
Wow. Wonder if Natural Law could supplant other US Laws...
- Issued in 1215 the Magna Carta seems a prime document.
Magna Carta Libertatum (Latin: "the Great Charter of the Liberties" [of England]), was a charter issued by King John of England at Runnymede, near Windsor, on 15 June 1215.[a] First drafted by the Archbishop of Canterbury to make peace between the unpopular King and a group of rebel barons, it promised the protection of church rights, protection for the barons from illegal imprisonment, access to swift justice and limitations on feudal payments to the Crown, to be implemented through a council of 25 barons. Neither side stood behind their commitments and it was annulled by Pope Innocent III, leading to the First Barons' War. After John's death, the regency government of John's young son, Henry III, reissued the document in 1216, stripped of some of the more radical content, in an unsuccessful bid to build political support for their cause. At the end of the war in 1217, it formed part of the peace treaty agreed at Lambeth, where it acquired its name Magna Carta, referring to its considerable size. Short of funds, Henry reissued the charter again in 1225 in exchange for a grant of new taxes, and his son, Edward I repeated the exercise in 1297, this time confirming it as part of England's statute law.
"Soon, like a farm animal not properly cared for, we, their draft animals, and beasts of burden, falter, and can no longer carry them and pull their loads. We are spent, and the farmers now only desire to kill and eat what remains of us."
Brilliant analogy. So apt.
Truly, this signifies our case indeed. It is difficult for people to understand why they are willing to kill the golden goose class. On the way up they were useful but now its ZIRP and a government for the corps, by the corps. The power brokers will wring the goose neck until no response then take the money and try to run.
At my modern American college they pay me to study novels from the early 19rh century. I don't know why. I never ask them why because I'm convinced I wouldn't understand their answer. I suspect it has something to do with Loyd Blankfein.
Here is an interesting article to read:
key points
In my view, the American dream of striking it rich is merely a well-marketed fantasy that keeps the bottom 99.5% hoping for better and prevents social and political instability,”
The manager, who asked to remain anonymous to protect his relationship with wealthy clients, expresses his frustration with a financial system that is rigged to help the elites at the cost of everyone else
The odds of getting into that top 0.5% are very slim and the door is kept firmly shut by those within it.
I could go on and on, but the bottom line is this: A highly complex set of laws and exemptions from laws and taxes has been put in place by those in the uppermost reaches of the U.S. financial system. It allows them to protect and increase their wealth and significantly affect the U.S. political and legislative processes. They have real power and real wealth. Ordinary citizens in the bottom 99.9% are largely not aware of these systems, do not understand how they work, are unlikely to participate in them, and have little likelihood of entering the top 0.5%, much less the top 0.1%. Moreover, those at the very top have no incentive whatsoever for revealing or changing the rules. I am not optimistic.
Wall Street created the investment products that produced gross economic imbalances and the 2008 credit crisis. It wasn’t the hard-working 99.5%. Average people could only destroy themselves financially, not the economic system. There’s plenty of blame to go around, but the collapse was primarily due to the failure of complex mortgage derivatives, CDS credit swaps, cheap Fed money, lax regulation, compromised ratings agencies, government involvement in the mortgage market, the end of the Glass-Steagall Act in 1999, and insufficient bank capital. Only Wall Street could put the economy at risk and it had an excellent reason to do so: profit. It made huge profits in the build-up to the credit crisis and huge profits when it sold itself as “too big to fail” and received massive government and Federal Reserve bailouts. Most of the serious economic damage the U.S. is struggling with today was done by the top 0.1% and they benefited greatly from it.
http://www.businessinsider.com.au/an-investment-managers-view-2013-11
Amen, brother.
Sweden is currently collapsing due to the SHITSKIN and MUD invasion.
Hardly a good comaprison
But America is collapsing too!!
I doubt that Sweden will see the rioting, murders, and other things that are now slowly happening in USA. And I believe things in 2015 will get much worse. When USA government openly starts stealing from their public you know that the collapse is imminent.
I doubt that Sweden will see the rioting, murders, and other things that are now slowly happening in USA. And I believe things in 2015 will get much worse. When USA government openly starts stealing from their public you know that the collapse is imminent.
We have rioting and murders every single day in Sweden but mainstream media is doing everything in it's power to deny that it even exists.
Yesterday there was a "Swedish man" who drove his car under the influence of drugs down in Germany. He killed a person and awaited prosecution.
The Swedish man was called Mohammed...
Sweden was a socialist country period. Not a member of NATO nor EEC. Socialist, Soviet friendly, party was in power, Trade (breaking western embargo) with Soviets dominated economy.
Socialist policies and tax system was implemented, such as 110% income tax at highest bracket (%55, 75%,85% in lower brackets) for earnings over $1,000,000 which means that for earnings of $2 millions CEO pay he took home about $125,000 in late eighties. That's why from late eighties scores of rich swedes moved to US and established their companies. I worked in one.
Free car or gas money, free cell phone,flexible work time,6 weeks paid vacation, every quarter company a week of training, Honolulu,Mazatlan,Aspen,Lake Tahoe etc. All types of best health, life insurances with no cost to employee, they could buy in US market. 3 months sick leave/year + 3 years disability. 3 year paid pregnancy leave. Permanent contract and discharge by states cause,a year worth severance package. They paid 150% of the market salary or better. And still were happy to make tons of money in the US. To explain the context it was non-financial company and at least 50% of employees were transfers from Sweden.
And then in nineties it was sold to US firm. Swedes left so all the benefits and 50% percent of salary, all in the name of capitalism.
So let's stop this silly talk about Sweden being capitalist country.
The article makes it seem that Americanos are leaving to avoid paying taxes. That is usually NOT the case. Most Americanos are leaving because they do not see hope for USA or light at the end of the tunnel. Period.
We were permanent residents in USA for 20 years and even we left. We were (and are) anything but rich and taxes were in no way reasons for why we left. We left because we did not like the direction of the nation, not only economy-wise but also society-wise and culture-wise. USA today is on a very SHARP DECLINE. Zero Hedge often writes articles on other nations in Asia and Japan but Asia and Japan are doing much better than you like to believe.
USA, on the other hand, is becoming one big ca-ca hole and that is a shame. Yes, middle class is being wiped out and once USA government can no longer afford to keep up the pretense of affluence and the food stamps and welfare checks stop going out, there is going to be rioting like you would never believe. Of course rich Americanos know this and are hence leaving. Saverin, who was mentioned, spent more on his exit taxes then he wold have paying taxes and remaining a citizen. He decided to cut his ties as he knew that USA was a sinking ship. It is only a matter of time before USA starts raising the taxes of its citizens abroad as well as other things. He was right to get out, as we were.
BTW we are not the only Indians who left. MANY INDIANS and Indian Americans have left USA for good. There are over a million such people in India alone. Many more are coming here to Singapore. Many have gone to Japan, Canada, etc. Both our boys plan to renounce their citizenship once they reach 21 (but the choice is theirs of course). Today a USA passport is a liability and not an asset and living in USA is NOT great. In fact, unless you are of extreme wealth life there STINKS.
So lets stop this thinking that those Americanos who are leaving are leaving because of taxes. Most are leaving becacuse they know they are on the Titanic and that things in USA are only going to get worse. If you are still in USA I strongly suggest you start to make it for the exits as well. As more leave, the doors are not always going to remain open.
No, don't want to live a "better" lifestyle in Pakistan or Venezuela because they don't have their fair share of rich Walton's there. UNCLE Nanny Sammy has taught us how not to be hungry for success. AND the Public Fool System has ill equipped a sizeable portion of American students to do anything that requires literacy. No rugged individualism so no self employment, no innovation.
I'll have to be brief as the quaalude is kicking in and I don't want to miss the tide.
The American middle class became world class middle class after WWll.
The American richies opened their hearts and wallets to them and America prospered. But it wasn't just a matter of the generosity of richies. There was method in their madness. Anti-communist fear flourished after the war and when Russia exploded the bomb in 1949, many panties were soiled.
The American middle class thrived because the richies were afraid of the violent overthrow of their corrupt government and figured that the best way to prevent it was by having a well-to-do middle class that believed they had a share in America and its prosperity.
Skip ahead past the 50's (Korea & McCarthy), the 60's (Vietnam), the 70's (Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty =MAD), and by the 80's, the USSR wasn't looking like a threat any more. Reagan was elected and the US began its policy of 'beggar thy enemy' defense spending and before the decade was over the two sides were talking peace.
But a funny thing happened on the way to START. The fabled American middle class began to fall apart as the Communist threat diminished. Powerful and rich middle class had become de trop. Starting with the air traffic controllers....
Oh oh, here comes a jumbo quaalude cloud to take me to Never Never Land. You'll have to finish this yourselves.
Woo hoo.
de trop. too many.
That is as true as anything. Middle Class doesn't need the Uber Rich as much. They are a spending force all their own.
The best places in Europe or Asia... respected money. People from the lower classes didn't know the rules, didn't tip right, didn't act in a quiet, classy, and mature way.
Having many middle class - means that upper class was not getting the highest service in the 1970s. Although wages would be reduced along with worker benefits... it would take some time to balance retail stores that attended to the very rich.
Today ...again the best places in Europe & Asia attend only to the Very Rich. The Order has been preserved.
It is an Old World Order,... by the very rich.
Toothtown,
You realize that my flight of fancy about the American middle class was just the whimsy of a weird but harmless senior.
To continue this dippy notion one step further, by providing the American middle class with this extra wealth, the richies were also providing a market for much of our allies' worthless exports (i.e. pet rocks) from Europe and Japan, which increased those countries' wealth and provided their governments with the tax revenues necessary to import expensive weapons from our MIC..
SToday these countries are forced to buy our weapons because their membership in NATO demands it. So we no longer need a prosperous middle class to defend against a defunct USSR, but we no longer need an affluent middle class to act as a conduit to channel money from filthy rich American corporations to allied economies.
Of course, all this has nothing to do with my pièce de résistance, which you may be familiar with. I have had no success with it what-so-ever here at ZH. However, it will take much more booing and hissing from the regulars to get me to change my my mind. (Besides they're all in DENIAL and you can't be too tough on them for that.)
A thumbnail before I have to put on my pointy hat for tonight.
The US government itself devised the subprime bubble some time in the last quarter of the 20th century. It did so because they knew no mater how many decades until 'peak oil', it was going to hurt. As the Pentagon was the largest consumer of oil on the planet, it was going to be hit hardest by 'peak oil'. It didn't matter whether PO hit in 2020 or 2050, 'PO' was an American nightmare worse than 911 and Pearl Harbor put together.
"Peak Oil delenda est."
So Greenspan began building up the inventory of subprime mortgages after Congress authorized Freddie and Fannie to increase the percentage of worthless mortgages they held. Congressmen who objected were threatened with the exposure of past tax discrepancies and/or blow jobs that the FBI had been sitting on. And the inventory began to burgeon.
In 1999 Glass-Steagall was repealed Res ipsa loquitur.
The object of the subprime bubble and the recession that followed was the choking off of the DEMAND for oil
TA DA. 2015.
Good to hear from you have a Happy and Healthy.
GOOd comment bit I would like more proof against Dems just being dumb'shortsighted, and pandering for votes through "giveaways. " Don't give them too much credit.
The fabled American middle class began to fall apart as the Communist threat diminished.
You are completely right, but it was not accidental. So called fall of Soviet Union was a planed merger of interests between western oligarchs, red oligarchs running U.S.S.R during its last years and and yellow oligarchs of Deng Xiaoping, started in mid sixties of last century. Attempts to implement socialism failed and were abandoned by political oligarchs in fifties/sixties in Eastern Europe and in late seventies in Soviet Union and China.
In US they started to slowly revoke privileges bestowed on Americans, fooled to believe they belong middle class by their right of greatness of freedom loving America.
US oligarchs bribed "greatest generation" to sell out their children into debt slavery.
The Nordic model was successful but it will collapse as the demographics change from Nordic to African/Muslim. About two more generations will do nicely.
Actually it was NOT successful. Do a little research and you'll see that in the 1990's they were privatizing government like mad because their socialism was bankrupting the country.
Don't make Sweden your poster child for how to run a country. Their importation of thousands of non-compatible people will destroy their society just the same as income inequality would.
worth repeating in it's entire structure:
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"Adam Smith was a critical proponent of capitalism, and his concept of "The Invisible Hand" is a perpetual rallying call for the parishioners of the Church of Capitalism. The Invisible Hand says what is good for me is good for everybody. The Invisible Hand will allow the market to self-regulate without the need for government intervention. Anyone with half a brain can see that reality is obviously much more complicated than this, but the hard line capitalists are always ready to punch you in the face with their Invisible Hand. Adam Smith wasn't as stupid or dogmatic as his followers. In his defining work, The Wealth of Nations, he said,
"When the regulation, therefore, is in support of the workman, it is always just and equitable; but it is sometimes otherwise when in favour of the masters...No society can surely be flourishing and happy, of which the far greater part of the members are poor and miserable. It is but equity, besides, that they who feed, clothe and lodge the whole body of the people, should have such a share of the produce of their own labour as to be themselves tolerably well fed, clothed and lodged.''
This sounds like a pro-labor quote from Karl Marx, but it's actually straight from the original capitalist himself."
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Adam Smith supported equitable, just, fair regulation. Adam Smith called for the markets to provide self-regulation... in the matter of prices, free from state regulation... in the matter of prices
Adam Smith did not support the complete lack of regulation per se. Adam Smith would scoff at today's anarcho-capitalists. He would probably call them patsies of oligarchs
Today, Adam Smith would probably in return be called a lunatic leftist/statist by them
I visited the US in the 1980s and was amazed at the wealth and squalor co-existing right next to each other.
The US has always had more than a touch of third world about it.
The same holds true today excpet that there is a lot more squalor and the top 1% are richer.
1980's Britain wasn't much better.
You could walk out of one of the main London stations (Waterloo) towards Waterloo Bridge and into the under-pass where the iMax cimema now stands, there used to be a cardboard city where many of the newly homeless used to live.
Strangely it did not exist in the 1970s and was gone by the end of the !990s - the dark under belly of Thatcher's Britain.
In 2006, Warren Buffett said, "There’s class warfare, all right, but it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning."
The rich are always a small minority and the masses always rise up aginst them once conditions get bad enough.
The rich are hastening their own demise and it won't be pretty.
as long as it is politically correct and racism can be pinned on any other option, full speed ahead.
F*ck it all, Im moving to Panama...
Correction: In Sweden we don't get 80% of our salary if we get unemployed. We get 80% of a fixed amount (Not more than SEK 18 700), which roughly translates to USD 1300/month (after 30% tax) up 300 days. The amount is the same for everyone, CEO or teacher, it doesn't matter).
Most people are paying externally for a salary compensation insurance so the amount will be a bit higher with insurance but only for a certain time period.
Slightly off topic: Sweden runs the most insane immigration policies on earth, which means we are importing 100 000 - 150 000 lowly skilled people from Africa each year. This will destroy the once great nation of Sweden in the coming future so don't look at us as a country to imitate.