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The Class War Has Already Started
Submitted by Charles Hugh-Smith of OfTwoMinds blog,
Here's what's obvious, but unacceptable: we need a new system.
Pundits and apologists are quick to chastise anyone who even speaks of class war, as if the words alone might spark what the pundits and apologists fear.
The pundits and apologists dread the words because they know the Class War has already started. The mainstream media's hope is that denial will somehow suppress the broader recognition that the fault lines in American society are cracking wide open.
Last week's entries explained why increasing wealth/income inequality is the only possible output of the current social- political -economic order. All the proposed "fixes"--more regulations, more taxes, more bureaucracies, etc.-- will fail because they are merely extensions of a failed system that optimizes inequality, monopoly, cronyism, stagnation, low social mobility and systemic instability.
Here is my delineation of America's nine socio-economic classes:
The Changing World of Work I: America's Nine Classes: Eight of the nine classes are hidebound by backward-looking conventions, neofeudal arrangements and a spectrum of perverse incentives and false choices.
A few commentators see the fault lines and understand the Class War is already rumbling. Correspondent Mark G. submitted these two articles as examples of the widening divides between various classes in the U.S.:
Are We Heading for an Economic Civil War?
How the widening urban-rural divide threatens America
In the first piece, Joel Kotkin describes the political capture of the Status Quo Imperial Democrats by the Left Coast media and tech culture of Silicon Valley and Hollywood, both of which have thrived in our hyper-financialized economy of 95% losers and 5% winners, and the Right Coast financiers, lobbyists, government bureaucrats and Wall Streeters who have benefited so handsomely from the hyper-financialization of the U.S. economy, politics, media and zeitgeist.
This Class War is illustrated by this chart: a tiny financial-political Elite (the top 1/10th of 1%) now own as much wealth as the bottom 90%:
The second piece describes the widening gulf between the wealthy cities vacuuming up global capital (NYC, San Francisco, West LA, Seattle, etc.) and opportunity-impoverished rural America.
But these gaping divides do not fully explain the many fronts of the Class War. We can add another fault line--the one between those exploiting institutions to validate their indignation and victimhood, and those far from the feeding troughs of universities and state bureaucracies.
The divide between those using the media and institutions to reward their indignation and victimhood crosses a variety of ethnic, religious and income lines, and as such it is a Cultural Divide with financial ramifications: one camp sees the Central State as the infinite feeding trough of benefits, lifetime employment, and power, while the other camp sees the Central State's limitless power as the primary threat to the well-being of the economy, nation and culture.
The first camp revels in Bread and Circuses, and demands more; the second camp reviles Bread and Circuses and sees the demanding crowd in the Coliseum as proof the nation is fracturing/falling apart.
Then there's the demographic divide between entitled retirees and the younger workers with stagnant incomes who must support the retirees "pay as you go" social programs (Social Security and Medicare).
As I have tirelessly explained for years, the Social Security/Medicare "Trust Fund" is a fiction, a ledger entry of non-marketable securities. When Social Security runs a deficit, the deficit is filled by selling Treasury bonds-- the same way any other program deficit is filled. The only way to pay for these programs is to increase the national debt. The "Trust Fund" is nothing but a propaganda Big Lie.
The younger workers are chained to a system that is completely out of whack with the real-world demographics of an enormous generation of retirees who are living decades longer than the population the system was designed to serve, with medical care costs that are the financial equivalent of a runaway train.
As painful as it might be to retiring Boomers, here's the perspective of those facing decades of taxes to pay for programs that can't possibly fund their retirement in the same fashion:
All of these fault lines result from one basic truth: the system is broken and cannot be reformed/fixed. As the pressures of a system that optimizes inequality, monopoly, cronyism, stagnation, low social mobility and systemic instability build, the fissures in our economy and society will widen.
Here's what's obvious, but unacceptable: we need a new system. Not a system modified with tiny tweaks and a feeding trough filled with borrowed money--an entirely new system designed from scratch to be sustainable and with opportunities to build capital for all.
This is why I wrote A Radically Beneficial World--to start the discussion of what a new system could accomplish, not just for the top .01% or top 10%, but for all of us.
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funny how the author decries the wealth divide but wants the exact same things the 0.01% want.
Not a word about the globalist bankers and our corrupted politicians... but hey at least he found someone to blame...
Baby boomers are what’s wrong with America’s economy: They chewed up resources, ran up the debt and escaped responsibility.
Every hyperinflation has hit those on fixed incomes the hardest. You can blame boomers but they will be the victims and are really just falling into the problems that have confounded savers for centuries...the medium of exchange fails as a store of value.
Ultimately the solution is to allow a fiat currency to act as a medium of exchange but not as a store of value. Savings should be done in another medium (we say gold). When savers hoard a currency it forces the creation of more to continue the 'lubrication' of commerce. This is the best function of a currency, not having it hoarded. Gold can act as a bank reserve and as an individuals store of value. This returns the currency to the market place and to its right role.
Is the fault of 535 dickheads who pissed the nation's wealth away.
Get it straight Charles
Pissed it away right into their pockets, you mean? Add to that the can't refuse bonuses from Tel Aviv, and we are talking some serious wampum here.
World War 3 already started...
http://motivationdose.com/alive-after-the-fall/
< Class warfare is over. The 1% won.
< We are the 99%! We have not yet begun to fight!
There's still way to much to be lost.
Even in Greece, they still have to much to lose to even think about rebelling.
And revolutions start when there's nothing more to lose.
And we aren't there by a longshot.
Maybe with the next economic crisis when every bank does bail ins and when the wellfare system grinds to a hold.
A roof and food. Those are the basics, it's when those go away that people get angry as a group.
And a roof can be a cardboard box and food can be a very simple thing.
Look to India for example, people don't rebel their either. If we had to live like that... I can't even imagine.
Relax mon and roll yurself a fattie, spliff thee life away in blissful joy. Da simple tings in life is wats important brah.
*Plus it might help with your imagination, you're gonna need it.
Ah yes, the soma solution.
I don't think Greeks will ever rebel - nobody trusts anyone else enough to meaningfully aggregate.
They are made into mental slaves early in primary school where they are forced to pray and cross themselves before entering (public) schools every morning (I've seen it a few months ago as I was droping my friends' kids off).
Even atheist (and educated) parents have no balls to complain.
You need balls to rebel
IMO the biggest inflection point reflected in the chart was Carter vs. Reagan.
Carter = austerity, responsibility, conservation
Reagan = big tax cuts/deficit boom + the flood of free trade/offshoring really ramped up
So boomers who voted for Reagan definitely have some responsibility.
I was too young to vote at the time, but was reading newspapers and had adult family on both sides.
Looking back it is really interesting how it was ants vs. grasshoppers. Grasshopper won.
"...an entirely new system designed from scratch to be sustainable and with opportunities to build capital for all."
A brand new system of capitalism? I think the author is missing his own point.
ABOLI$H
the stupid people are always getting in the way of the bankers goals
"the New System" was Constitutional Government of the United States.
The bankers have spent the last 200 years trying to put in a can. They almost have it there.
Any new system that still allows private individuals and their banking corporations to create our money supply out of thin air as debt will be doom us all yet once again.
Not always. The problem with out current system is a lack of regulation of the creators of credit. There is little reason not to just create more...ditto for base money. A future system that had gold as a reserve would limit future money creation as the price of gold in that currency would rise....for the whole world to see.
The Euro is already structured this way with gold on its balance sheet (over 50% of its reserves) marked to market. Should the dollar fail (ie the rest of its balance sheet go to zero) gold will rise to be 100% of its assets and gold would find a much higher price (its purchasing power would be much more than now).
Yes always.
As for the much touted monetary base (that like Paul Krugman you must believe is multiplied up in a fractional (and fictional) reserve system)... there is simply no need for it.
http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/2014-03-20/bank-england-admits-loan...
Regulation? As long as there is greed and corruption there will be no effective regulation.
As for a gold reserve? Who will verify the presence of this reserve and even if it was there once economic conditions yet again deteriorate what are the chances that you will be allowed to claim that gold?
Right. None.
It's a "show" money fraud if it isn't in your hands.
Let me create the money supply and your children will be turning tricks just to buy bread in 20 years. I can drain the lifeblood out of any economy by creating massive public or private debt just as easily as I can dispossess any nation of their real assets through the creation of trillions more used to buy them.
100% reserve banking only... and the power over creation of the nations currency must revert to back to it's citizens. Debt based Ponzinomic financial schemes must go
P.S. The Globalist banker's Euro experiment is doomed in case you haven't noticed...
Fofoa has been writing about this for years.
First he has recognized the 'classes', not as Marx did but as debtors and savers.
http://fofoa.blogspot.com/2010/07/debtors-and-savers.html
Next he sees the evolving system ('freegold') , not as one that should be forced upon the world but one which will evolve as the current one fails. Gold becomes the reserve of central banks and the best way for savers to save. Currencies become just mediums of exchange. Sounds simple but he has kept a conversation going for 7 years.
That is precisely the financial system that the members of the Council on Foreign Relations/Trilateral Commission/Bilderbergs/ UN/IMF-SRDs are cooking up for the planet to replace national sovereign currencies btw...
And as for Marx why don't you do some research into who financed both him and Adam Weishaupt and for what reason. Maybe even check out Jacob Schiff and the Sino-Russian war plus the Bolshevik revolution while you are at it.
How did Marx define classes?
The classes are: "bureaucrats and theocrats in the Asiatic mode of production; freemen, slaves, plebeians, and patricians under slavery; lord, serf, guild master and journeyman under feudalism; industrial capitalists, financial capitalists, landlords, peasantry, petty bourgeoisie, and wage laborers under capitalism." Jon Elster, An Introduction to Karl Marx, (Cambridge University Press, 1986), p. 124.
Why dont we just bring back the rule of law and what is right?
When ever this has been done in history, things worked out very well.
I believe that efforts have been made to 'do what is right, to have a currency system that works. Bretton Woods was initially thought to be a good system. Nixon probably did not see the far reaching effects of his actions on Aug 15, 1971.
The world needs a currency system that facilitates international commerce AND gives savers a way to put aside for their futures. These things do not come about without some major forcing events though as any current system has its winners. Eventually systems stop working for enough people however and change is welcomed when it arrives.
Of course, but where I am at with it is it would be nice if the Bankers, corporations and the government wouldn't rob people blind in their persuit of money and power.
side note, failed Ideoligies as well.
What about letting people decide the value of money instead of central bankers, or letting consumers decide what they want to buy instead of regulators and government agencies.
Your Quote: "Bankers, corporations and the government wouldn't rob people blind in their persuit of money and power."
I agree, but thats what Bankers do.. Its GREED. Greed insists on taking everything to the point of no return. Greed insists on taking it all and always will thats why we call it GREED. Human Nature never changes in History we should start to realize it. Its why Im not a banker or why I wouldnt make a good one, Im not Greedy and its not in my genetic make-up!
"The world needs a currency system that facilitates international commerce AND gives savers a way to put aside for their futures"
The world does not need A single currency system in order to faciltate international commerce.
Globalists want A single currency system in order to enslave the planet.
By having one currency, it is easier to hide the differences in the speed in which individual fiat currencies are debased.
Here's what's obvious, but unacceptable: we need a new system. Not a system modified with tiny tweaks and a feeding trough filled with borrowed money--an entirely new system designed from scratch to be sustainable and with opportunities to build capital for all.
Good Luck with that.
Screw the class war. What about the let's fund and arm the islamists so they kill a bunch of civilians so we can start ww3 war???
It's the same war.
This new system should be based on Cooperatives.
m.
How about this idea for a system: freedom.
Freedom is not a system. It is the result of a system that produces it.
"Here's what's obvious, but unacceptable: we need a new system."
We don't need a new system.
We just need to take back the system. ZIRP is very tentatively benefitting corrupt, insolvent banking institutions, but killing the economy. The death of the economy is killing the middle class.
The FED is loaning ZIRP money to banks, which are in turn buying Treasuries to fund the war, Obamacare and the welfare state, all at a massive profit!
Interest rates on our deposits in the bank should be very close to 20% if not 30% Cash money is in great demand. This whole thing can be turned around on a dime. But, ZIRP has to go, which for a short period of a few months, is going to cause a whirlwind of pain -wordlwide-.
The TBTF banks are going to go bankrupt either way, because more and more, disgusted consumers are walking away from the TBTF banks.
"and those far from the feeding troughs of universities and state bureaucracies."
Personal anecdote time. I've mentioned the collapse of my brother's business here before, and after several years of struggling, he all but closed his doors (dumped his office, literally works out of the back of a truck.) Business is still collapsing and his earnings are measured in thousands now. He refused any aid out of pride, but would ask to borrow from me from time to time.
A couple months ago I pointed out that as someone that was paying taxes in the six figures, he should help me get some of my money back, fuck pride, and absolutely soak the system for as much as possible before it collapses.
The experience has been eye opening. They've completely rigged those "feeding troughs" to make sure no one that's middle-class or responsible ever sees a dime. One example: struggling to pay his credit card debt (incurred when he had a business and had no idea 2008 was going to pull the rug out), he ended up working with his creditors and managed about a 50% debt forgiveness; his pride and work ethic drove him to do something with the debt rather than just walk away and be a deadbeat. That forgiveness turned into 1099s that disqualified him from O-care subsidies and medicaid. Literally every path he's taken to get something the FSA gets, he's shut down. It's insane. I guess the FSA doesn't like to share with middle-aged white guys that worked full time for 30 years...
It's as if they want everyone to be on their knees in a state of dependancy. (That's by design)
Never read "protocols"... or read about the Fabian Society... you'll shit.
Good one seek.
I've wondered myself about the very situation you pointed out with your brother - i.e., what would (will) happen when those with pride & ethics either dump them out of frustration or urgent need...? Yes, the system is designed to float the FSA (already planned & factored in), but not those who have scratched for decades to stay afloat without a government life jacket. This will prove to be the inflection point of societal break down. And needless to say, the central planners have that scenario war-gamed too.
It really is fascinating just how engineered it all is. The system is truly set up to make you commit to being poor.
I learned just today that there's a thing called a "look back" provision, so if you are elderly, sold or transferred a major asset in the past five years (say, to cover medical bills) you won't get nursing home assistance from medicaid. But if you didn't have a home and didn't pay your bills... well, you already know the answer to that one.
Seriously, all the government promises of a safety net aren't for people who have fallen and need one to catch them.
If you were self-supprting at any time in the past five years, you are fucked. To win support, you have to be a deadbeat as deabeat can be: for god's sake, never pay any debts you incurr and make sure any asset you have is either in another's name or is untracable and/or stolen.
The government does not want to reward single failures.
They want to reward Serial Failures who have failed at everything they have ever accomplished.
With rewards comes accomplishments.
Started? It never stopped. Classes come and go, but class warfare never stops.
What if there was a war and nobody came?
Money can't buy class any more than it can fix stupid.
Bartering is the best economic system of all, which is why governments and their managers don't allow it - they can't control or profit from us when we barter amongst ourselves.
Enegy backed coin seems to be the way to go. It is a barter form. It is a measurable deal.
There's no saving savers who still save in fiat, theyve had ample education/warning fuckem
Hey Charles, we need MOAR laws, MOAR taxes, MOAR surveilence, MOAR open / unsecured borders, MOAR turning a blind eye to corruption, MOAR TBTF and TBTJail entities....
That should fix shit up in a jiffy.
....and if it doesn't then we need MOAR fucking war.
Moar hot pussy, moar drugs, moar rock and roll plz....
If by "system" you mean yet another top-down centrally planned method of slavery, no.
The problem with so many of these commentators in the "alternative media" is that they take an emerging viewpoint (here, that we have a problem with the system) and then limited-hangout it into a safe viewpoint for the current paradigm and those who benefit from it. Whether this is naivete or one of these online efforts of the US Establishment shill mills, it is not helpful.
Too many people are still mired in the idea that order must be imposed by the guns of the largest criminal gang. Too many people still think that the alternative to slavery is death rather than freedom.
What we need are more people who look past the indoctrination we all have grown up with, and see a future beyond the manacles around our wrists. We don't need ideas for a new "system" which, for all practical purposes, is synonmous with slavery.
Lack of a New system isn't the problem. Humans are. What are you going to do...........weed out all the psychopaths with some super test and genocide them? Good luck with that. And anything new with the same group of clowns that we have now in charge will be the sos.
While something new and great might not materialize in my life, just seeing the status quo get their fucking nut sacks kicked in would be enough to put a smile on my face when i'm on my deathbed. Fuck 'em all!
Agree.
Lack of a new system is not the problem.
Lack of a new planet is.
I've been saying this a long time.
The class war is real, and the bad guys are winning.
When total victory is theirs, there will be no place in this world for most of the vanquished even as slaves. That includes you, if you're reading this, and everyone you love.
The only proles they'll need to keep around will be the sex slaves they'll breed so they can amuse themselves raping, torturing and finally murdering them when their toys get big enough to fight back---except the few kept to breed their replacements.
Everything else they ever needed the lower orders for will be automated soon enough. Robots will make far better New Socialist Men than humans ever have.
Yeah yeah yeah. I heard it many times. Striking fear in the hearts of the mindless.
See the history, this is not the first empire.
In the end, all empires collapse and the elite has to run.
The elites are today in power only because they claim to be able to feed millions without need to work. And provide social care. It allows common people to live happier with their family, even if poor.
Only when that is broken will the system start collapsing.
Nothing else matters.
Those
This time is a bit different. Once machines were invented that could do all the work horses could do, most of the horses disappeared.
The reason horses were kept around at all were as rich women's pets. We live too long, we're too intelligent, and we're not the least bit cute after the age of twelve.
Want to fix that chart? Raise interest rates. If the non-.01%ers undestand its going to happen sooner or later they can prepare not to lose money on the move or even make money on the rate adjustment. Or they can sit in their self-induced stupor as they assume blaming others for their plight is an action plan.
How many people have an action plan? Because when the 'adjustment' comes value is simply going to vaporize. The non-.01%ers -will cheer when it happens only to suddenly realize their 'cheese' has disappeared, too.
There's a pandemic of blame forming.
https://thinkpatriot.wordpress.com/2015/11/11/dynamics-of-national-colla...
https://thinkpatriot.wordpress.com/2015/11/14/in-reality-everything-is-c...
If we closed down the money wasting programs that prop up our MIC, banksters and other sources of votes and power bought with our tax $ and inflated away wealth, our country would be able to produce goods and services for at least 25% less than currently.
A 25% cost advantage relative to the world would provide all of us jobs.
Our system is the fault, the crony capitalism that buys votes and the money flows that go to voters and purchase votes and the rules and regulations and polices making it all possible.
Also, I just finished CHSmith's book, highly recommend it. When I get time I will do a review, there are a lot of good thoughts about how to move to a system that is more just for the 99%. Engineering-quality thoughts, not hand-waving moralizing thoughts of a literary intellectual disconnected from reality. His is a book by someone who has done real work with hands as well as brain.
http://www.amazon.com/Radically-Beneficial-World-Automation-Technology-e...
There's another ZH article concerning the Congress and opening up space to privatization. So now you can keep whatever you mine from space. That got me to thinking about the whole system in light of CHS talking class war. The class war started a long time ago, but it isn't a direct conflict. The ruling class side controls all of the assets, controls the future, controls how individuals and societies will develop. The war has been going on for long enough that real wars and conflicts are manipulated in the class wars for the benefit of the ruling class, never for the ruled class.
Space will be the final frontier because if you aren't part of the ruling class you'll NEVER get there. All of the uncomfortable and archeaic notions like equality, God, freedom, etc. will be left behind for the masses. If you can't afford your own spaceship and plant to sustain it then you won't be actively discriminated against, but by default you'll lose the space war. Congress passes a law that you can now own the moon, but you can only own it if you can get there to mine it. Who do you think is going to get there first? (Hint: it's not you). How man ventures in to space is going to tell us a lot about how things really work here on earth.
"Killing Humanity?"
On bookshelves NOW.
The "Big Picture" blog has turned into just another Grubercrat sheep echo chamber.
This VennData dude is dumber than paint.
http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2015/11/10-weekend-reads-11/#comments
How about just increasing interest rates to incent people to actually save money in a bank. Instead of just droping it from a Helecopter yeah thats the ticket
tiny mistake
That should read yet another World War has already started.
Fixed it 4U
excellent post/article. This is exactly what is happening right now in America and much of the world. The wealth hoarders continue hoarding and society continues sinking into fragmentation and disarray.
"Here's what's obvious, but unacceptable: we need a new system. Not a system modified with tiny tweaks and a feeding trough filled with borrowed money--an entirely new system designed from scratch to be sustainable and with opportunities to build capital for all."
Looking historically, we'll get a new system alleging to correct the abuses of the old system, while perpetuating those same abuses in a new and innovative way. The window dressing will change, but the fundamental injustice will remain. After all, "society" wouldn't exist without someone perched on top of everyone else.
The ONLY solution is NO SYSTEM. No matter what system is created, human predators will gain control and the result will be the same... the 99% will be dominated by the 1%, and the 1% will live the fancy life on the backs of the 99%.
The ONLY solution is NO SYSTEM... which means ANARCHY.
ANARCHY does not mean chaos or bombs or destruction.
ANARCHY means "no rulers".
ANARCHY means liberty, freedom, individualism, responsibility.
ANARCHY means everyone enjoys/bares/suffers all the consequences of their own actions, and everyone enjoys/bares/suffers no consequences of actions taken by others.
ANARCHY means justice.
ANARCHY means diversity, as everyone tries their own way.
ANARCHY means progress, as everyone is free to adopt and try ways that others tried and seemed to have great results and consequences.
ANARCHY means individualism AND voluntary collaboration... in whatever proportion each individual chooses.
-----
Every SYSTEM is inherently defective, because it requires force.
NO SYSTEM, which mean ANARCHY is the only state of being that is civilized or civilization. Every SYSTEM is inherently predatory and unjust, because by its nature requires involuntary participation.
Don't let predators-that-be and paid hacks (educators and media liars) mislead you into thinking anarchy is chaos, violence and destruction. Because in fact, anarchy is the exact opposite.