This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.
The Chart That Scares The "1%" The Most
Capitalists have been gripped by 'systemic fear' making them worry not about the day-to-day movements of growth, employment, and profit, but about 'losing their grip'. An interesting recent article by the Real-World Economics Review on the Asymptotes of Power focuses on the fact that the capitalists are forced to realize that their system may not be eternal, and that it may not survive in its current form. The authors fear that, peering into the future, the '1%' realize that in order to maintain (or further increase) their distributional power (their net profit share of national income - which hovers at record highs) they will have to unleash even greater doses of social 'violence' on the lower classes. The high level of force already being applied makes them increasingly fearful of the backlash they are about to receive (think Europe to a lesser extent) and nowhere is this relationship between the wealthy capitalists and social upheaval more evident than in the incredible correlation between the Top 10% share of wealth and the percent of the labor force in prison. In order to have reached the peak level of power it currently enjoys, the ruling class has had to inflict growing threats, sabotage and pain on the underlying population.
During the 1930s and 1940s, this level proved to be the asymptote of capitalist power: it triggered a systemic crisis, the complete reordering of the U.S. political economy, and a sharp decline in capitalist power, as indicated by the large drop in inequality.
As we can see, since the 1940s this ratio has been tightly and positively correlated with the distributional power of the ruling class: the greater the power indicated by the income share of the top 10 per cent of the population, the larger the dose of violence proxied by the correctional population. Presently, the number of ‘corrected’ adults is equivalent to nearly 5 per cent of the U.S. labour force. This is the largest proportion in the world, as well as in the history of the United States.
Nowadays, the notions of systemic fear and systemic crisis are no longer farfetched.
In fact, they seem to have become commonplace. Public figures – from dominant capitalists and corporate executives, to Nobel laureates and finance ministers, to journalists and TV hosts – know to warn us that the ‘system is at risk’, and that if we fail to do something about it, we may face the ‘end of the world as we know it’.
There is, of course, much disagreement on why the system is at risk. The explanations span the full ideological spectrum – from the far right, to the liberal, to the Keynesian, to the far left. Some blame the crisis on too much government and over-regulation, while others say we don’t have enough of those things. There are those who speak of speculation and bubbles, while others point to faltering fundamentals. Some blame the excessive increase in debt, while others quote credit shortages and a seized-up financial system. There are those who single out weaknesses in particular sectors or countries, while others emphasize the role of global mismatches and imbalances. Some analysts see the root cause in insufficient demand, whereas others feel that demand is excessive. While for some the curse of our time is greedy capitalists, for others it is the entitlements of the underlying population. The list goes on.
But the disagreement is mostly on the surface. Stripped of their technical details and political inclinations, all existing explanations share two common foundations: (1) they all adhere to the two dualities of political economy: the duality of ‘politics vs. economics’ and the duality within economics of ‘real vs. nominal’; and (2) they all look backward, not forward.
As a consequence of these common foundations, all existing explanations, regardless of their orientation, seem to agree on the following three points:
- The essence of the current crisis is ‘economic’: politics certainly plays a role (good or bad, depending on the particular ideological viewpoint), but the root cause lies in the economy.
- The crisis is amplified by a mismatch between the ‘real’ and ‘nominal’ aspects of the economy: the real processes of production and consumption point in the negative direction, and these negative developments are further aggravated by the undue inflation and deflation of nominal financial bubbles whose unsynchronized expansion and contraction make a bad situation worse.
- The crisis is rooted in our past sins. For a long time now, we have allowed things to deteriorate: we’ve let the ‘real economy’ weaken, the ‘bubbles of finance’ inflate and the ‘distortions of politics’ pile up; in doing so, we have committed the cardinal sin of undermining the growth of the economy and the accumulation of capital; and since, according to the priests of economics, sinners must pay for their evil deeds, there is no way for us to escape the punishment we justly deserve – the systemic crisis.
Although there are no hard and fast rules here, it is doubtful that this massive punishment can be increased much further without highly destabilizing consequences. With the underlying magma visibly shifting, the shadow of the asymptote cannot be clearer.
»
- 58844 reads
- Printer-friendly version
- Send to friend
- advertisements -
Waterboard, obv
The classics work for me ... why change?
How about we feed them super-sized McDonald's meals for three meals a day for a month?
We are civilized and thus, we no longer torture. So I say we should waterboard them for like what? 10 years, with 3 lunch breaks per day?
Whada ya mean, I think building Guillotines might be a "Growth" Industry in the very near future!
Bullish!!
Why replace it? I like the classics.
True capitalists shouldn't take or get bailouts
Right on.
The problem is they are still in Power of the People.
They extend and pretend that there is nothing wrong with what they do.
Lloyd Blankfien got his 100 million dollar bonus because of the bailouts. Afterall, he was doing God's work.
Jamie Diamon gets 22 million this year. Excluding perks and bonuses.
dimon is a loser. montag at bac get 25 mill - an he's not even the ceo
:) he's ex-goldmine.
but they did toss jamie a bone and let him be on the fed board. where ny fed head is ex-goldmine. bill smudley
.338 Lapua
That graph scares us 1 percenters? Ha, we don't even know what that graph is trying to plot!
Don't worry, wealth will trickle down.
Something will trickle down eventually. Blood, sweat, tears, urine, diarrhea...
Lockdown
Looks like the chart has topped out. Up next... The drone wars.
I am drunk ATM.. is this ZH? What about gold, silver, automated wealth creation and crap? Strange days.
this Monopoly game has gone on for too long.....time to start over and everyone back to GO
+ 1 - But it's always "advance" to GO (collect $200).
Maybe instead, go directly to jail, do not pass GO ...
Asymptotes, bitchez!
Tyler, I thought you were going to put up the daily chart of Sturm Ruger and Co, RGR.
Several years ago, I bought a Ruger .22 semi-automatic. Should have brought the stock.
We should remember that in world history the current state is the norm. The period between WWII and 1980 is the aberration. During that period we had strong unions, high top end marginal tax rates, and real regulation of the banks (i.e. Glass Steagall, etc). It will take everything we've got to get the middle class back. There is nothing that ensures it will ever come back. It starts with Medicare for all.
Back then people worked for a living they didn't start by asking for the free stuff. Can I get you a free car to go with that free Medicare ?
Social Security, Medicare, the GI Bill. Interstate Highways, the moon landing - it all came from "back then"
People are willing to pay for Medicare for all. It's not a handout, but it is less expensive and more effective than private insurance.
Social security was a scam to buy votes. The odds of collecting when social security was first passed was almost nil. The government expected people to kick off before they got a chance to collect. They didn't count on people living into their 80s and 90s.
Not a scam. Multiple generations of my family have relied on it as senior citizens and its finances are among the strongest in our government.
Bull. In 1937 when SSI first paid out the retirement age was 65. The average life expectancy of a male was 58 and a female was 62. Even if you were one of the lucky ones who didn't die in infancy or some war you only had a 53% chance of living to age 65. It was a gimmick to get votes. They never expected it to devolve into what it is today.
I don't want SSI...I don't care how long I live, I want out, and I want every penny I've paid in back. I'll even take it without interest. Just give it back to me, I'll sign the opt out forever paper, and move on.
They can keep what they've taken from me already, I don't give a shit. I just want the option to stop contributing so I can take that money and invest it in something that will give me an actual retirement. As it stands now, I will contribute my whole working life and I won't receive a dime when I retire.
Bullshit Stimulati. You are a raging dumbshit if I have ever seen one. You don't think its a scam to buy votes? THEN WHY IS THE TRUST FUND LOADED WITH IOU'S? Its because the politicians SPENT THAT MONEY ALREADY!! My gosh!! Its so fricking OBVIOUS!!
The 1% put Reagan in office and spent the social security trust fund while lowering their own taxes. They think they'll win this fight and make those IOUs (also known as US Treasuries) disappear. I've got news for them. They'll be paying.
Oh, you mean the Democrats who controlled the House of Representatives during the 8 years of Reagans presidency? The House of Reps where spending bills are(were) created? The Dems took the Senate too the last 2 years of his term. Back then, the House actually produced spending bills, unlike today. Go get a job u lazy peice of trash.
Yes, the Democrats. Many Southern Democrats - now Republicans
It was LBJ (The Great Society, War on Poverty, Vietnam War etc.)
That is to say, JFK's veep...you're going to have to reconcile a few facts with nannyism first and try again ;-)
Did you get lost on your way to DemocraticUnderground or something? Your hyper-partisan bullshit is old and you've only been here one freaking month.
What trust fund? There is no trust fund. That was a lie, and still is a lie.
Did you know that?
[I]n a curious yet revealing one-liner in the Supreme Court opinion upholding the constitutionality of Social Security, even the court recognized that there would be no trust fund in the traditional sense when it found that the tax dollars collected and supposedly designated for Social Security were "not earmarked in any way."
Did you know that?
Eventually, the government would acknowledge that what it first called a savings account and then called old-age insurance and then said would be fortified by a trust fund did not even establish a contractual obligation to those who have paid the Social Security tax -- which would be all of us. Thus, the feds have conceded and the courts have agreed that the money you have involuntarily contributed to the so-called trust fund is not yours and can be spent by the government as it pleases, just like any other revenue that the feds collect.
Did you know that?
The trust fund is not money that the government "holds" for you, as FDR promised. It is not money to which you have a lawful claim, as he claimed. It is not a guarantee for you, as he led the public to believe. The so-called trust fund is merely the difference between what is collected and what is paid out. And the feds just acknowledged that in 21 years, they are likely to pay out more than they will collect.
http://reason.com/archives/2012/04/26/rick-perry-was-right-about-social-...
True.
Its a ponzi...if it were not a ponzi you could walk into any SSI office anywhere in the country and ask where you can see the mountains of "trust fund" cash extracted from peoples checks every payday.
To those tempted to do so...you will get a blank stare from a barely literate government employee.
nmewn said:
Well sure, whaddaya expect when you go in there tossing around polysyllabic words?
.
A distrust fund?
Taxes is taxes. SS included.
.
If you mean paying via massively devalued currency coupled with a complete removal of COLA, then sure, they'll be "paying."
If you mean "they'll be paying" as some sort of internet tough guy talk, then thanks for the laugh. You'll stand in your "free speech zone" as directed by the police, hold your placards, chant your nonsense, and bend over and continue to take it just like every other member of the Free Shit Army.
The politicians also spent the trillions of $$$ that treasury bills, notes, and bonds represent. So fucking what? Are you claiming that the US Gov't is going to renege on its treasuries as long as it can print?
Printing is reneging on a debt because you are paying pack with devalued dollars. It is a technical default because the original amount is not paid back.
But social security is inflation adjusted. And no politician can win election while trying to get rid of it.
Who defines the inflation index for SSI dipshit?
That's right the government! So the govt under estimates CPI and is essentially ripping people off. So the govt pays less, which is a default. QED.
Go sell crazy somewhere else.
That's just crazy talk. They skew the inflation numbers Through tricks like hedonic regression so you don't actually get a raise reflecting the true cost of living. If it was trully adjusted for inflation you would be getting an 8% raise.
So for anyone that is retiring 20+ years from now, they will get back far less than they put in. So they should have kept the money buried in a mayonnaise jar in the back yard to have done better (aka mattress). Social Security is a Ponzi Scam.
You need to go to economics 101. Printing is reneging. Every time they fire up the printers they reduce the value of the dollar and that is a technical default because they are paying the bond holder back with something that isn't as valuable as it was when the bond was issued.
It's less expensive alright. Because the care isn't as good.
Wrong again.
Wrong because I do the math? I'm not playing your word game.
Stimulati
When Medicare came to be every other form of private insurance for those over 65 vanished. Now the government effectively runs our entire healthcare system even if a few big companies (Wellpoint, BC/BS, United etc) appear to own part. The increasing costs can in part be traced to some pretty amazing advances (biologicals for autoimmune diseases at 15k/yr) but most of these cost run ups are due to government regulation, compliance and inefficiency.
I hope I live to see the day when medicine returns to a private only, truly competitive system. The government cannot do ANYTHING well. Do not it BS you. Get it out of pensions, healthcare, mail delivery, EVERYTHING but killing foreigners (or whatever the stated mission of the military is) and paying for a few judges for federal level cases.
Remember politicians are not our best and brightest. They are average at best and most do not know how to do anything. They invariably interfere with good businesses and try to insert themselves into the revenue stream. When the dollar collapses it will be a good time to re-examine the role of government. It will be a good time to castrate the beast and return to original constitutional intent. Commerce Clause my ass...
There are many kinds of private and public health insurance programs around the world and the evidence is overwhelmingly on my side on the issue.
C'mon! Any minute now you're going to break into that thing about the shoes or swimsuits or bridesmaid dresses, right?
Or are you a new troll that gets paid by the downticks?
Why is there Medicare? Well, I'll tell you why. It's because it would cost the private insurance companies too much money to look after old people. So they off loaded it on the tax payers. There is no way in hell they are going there. Just another example of corporate greed run a muck.
That's not fair, the government is excellent at:
its not free its what our taxes should be paying for, instead of 000's of nuclear warheads and the protection racket we got going in the ME
Ding ding ding! Healthcare, education, infrastructure. I like those things. Those feel like a reasonable use of my tax dollars.
Drones and telecoms spying on me? Oppressive jackbooted thugs at airports. Third world death squads, torture chambers, 100,000% inflated military budget items, prison industrial complex, the SEC's masturbation costs...yeah...not so much. For whatever strange reason I kinda hate paying to make my country into hell, call me crazy.
Back then, there were high quality jobs that hadn't been outsourced, a domestic oil source, an internationally recognized gold backed dollar, the worlds best manufacturing base and equipment and many other anomalies of American existance from 1945 to 1970ish. Saying people dont' want to work is bullshit. People don't want to work FOR SLAVE WAGES. Unless they are in a chinese prison, or have had their rice paddie owned for 20 generations taken by the Chinese government forcing them into the cities or other forceful measures economic or militarized to give them NO CHOICE but to accept slave labor. I find it amusing that you refer to back then and then forget all the context of post-WW II America the bad AND the good.
Yes, I work for a living, pay off my student loans etc. etc. However, I know I will never have the opportunity my father or grandfather had despite having a FAR better education than either of my grandfathers did. If people have a choice between breaking their back and *barely* getting by (or sinking into debt working two jobs as is the case for many) or taking a handout is it any shock they take the handout?
If the government took your money in return for a promise, then medicare isn't free - you paid for it.
Here's a thought.
Real money, no fractional reserve fraud, no inflation.
You could start work at 20 - work for 40 years and save half of what you make, knowing it won't be eaten by fraud or inflation - at that point you could retire knowing you were good for another 40 years of similar lifestyle.
Who'd need the government if that were possible.
Real money scares the shit out of the currrent PTB
First of all you don't pay near as much into the system as you will take out. So yes it is free, unless you include the interest on the money future generations will pay and the devaluation of the dollar for the "free stuff " in the calculation.
Second of all I am all for sound money, and leave me alone to save and invest for my own "old age fund". If I want to opt out I should be allowed and my wages should not be confiscated to pay for somebody else.
I don't pay near as much in as I stand to get out??
I've been taxed, if you include consumption taxes to about 50% of my income all my working life - likely about 47 years - I'm in a world of hurt if I have to 'get back' what I've put in. Add in inflation and I think you may be off a bit in your thinking.
You don't seriously think all those taxes you just named pay for Medicare do you? I certainly hope not.
Breaking in new trolls?
And back then lot's of other countries lived in mud huts and had no medical care other than a witch doctor or magic herb's. Now they have the same technology as US and somehow provide the entire population with medical care at 1/2 the US cost with better outcome.
Yep, they certainly didn't fly private jets to mommy government and beg for handouts like businessclowns today. Aren't you just a bit insulted to be told, over and over, that you can't succeed unless mommy government suspends all of the rules and robs the taxpayers blind to bail you out? We keep telling blacks that the Democrats treat them like incompetent children, but what how about Republicans treat businesses? There's fundamentally no difference. The message is as clear as day.
Good that the 1% buy only American cars and not German cars, because they are made by heavily unionized workers.
The period between WWII and 1980 is the aberration.
______________
Maybe. Unsustainable for sure. But the continuation of the trend set by the US through US citizenism.
Headsa gonna roooooolll
Yes, a changing of the guard at a global level should unfold over the next few years.
Wave 2 up is just about complete.
http://bullandbearmash.com/index/sp-500/daily/
"we have committed the cardinal sin of undermining the growth of the economy and the accumulation of capital"
Based on the chart, it would appear that capital has been accumulating just fine.
if correlation were causation, frogs wouldn't have wings!
And would bump their asses on the ground a lot.
Please explain how incarceration enriches the 1%, particularly bankers.
fear keeps the plebes in line, and force where fear isn't enough
Look I believe we are in an oligarchy--business and political elites run the country for their own benefit. Liberals want control, and Republicans play into that by being pro-business (as opposed to pro-market). Blah, blah...
I bitch here because awareness is not enhanced via specious arguments.
Its funny, but apparently by putting two and two together one can mathematically arrive at four.
Just to belabour the obvious ...
He is arguing that the enrichment creates social instability, the percentage of the population in incarceration is a symptom.
The war on Drugs -like the war on terror and the war on poverty -- are just phony wars to prevent us from the real war we should be engaged in -the war on banksters and the criminal, degenerate elites.
If you need an explanation, forget it- you need to spend about 500 hours on reputable websites deprogramming yourseld and learning a little truth. --
'THE TRUTH SHALL SET YOU FREE -from the shackles and manacles of your ignorance.
CXW, EWO, corporate slave labor of prisoners.
My twitter feed has become an excellent predictor of near-future Zero Hedge articles
https://twitter.com/icanhasbailout/status/215281385303310336
Nice. Love it.
To infinity and beyond!!!
I'm pretty sure we ain't seen nothin' yet when it comes to the unleashing of social violence upon the downtrodden, and soon to be downtrodden masses.
short ropes and tall trees are all around. Let the games begin.
Takes a war to knock sense into the degenerative elite. Since they have kept themselves out of natural evolution with inherited money the elite have become the deletarious segment of human society that must be purged.
What the productive 99% and the productive 1% don't understand is that, if there is a sensible reset, the resulting economy will have been restructured in a way that puts a stop to ponzi finance and puts it back on a sustainable growth path. In this new economy the productive (1% and 99%) will benefit greatly in REAL terms, even if the nominal result seems catastrophic using current metrics. The productive will have use of and control of more resources (which as we know do not appear and disappear based on nominal, digitized $'s) while the unproductive/parasitic (1% and 99%) will either see their power and lifestyle decline or quickly learn how to be more productive economic participants.
Yeap all for Profit and More. Pain coming
Wells Fargo May Send Some Jobs to India, Philippines
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-06-20/wells-fargo-may-send-some-jobs-...
How? The ponzi is largely based on the omission that to produce, one has to consume.
Setting back on a sustainable growth path will be through a decrease in production.
Self indiction being that problematic in US citizenism, it is no surprise US citizens cling to memes like producing more than consuming.
AnAnonymousitizenism: monolizing the speeching means by engaging in denialistic algebraic coconut hobnobbery and barehanded roadside asswipery while pretending to be wording one's mind.
"Me AnAnonymous. Me hate Americans much much! Me wok the dog. Me then shit out yumyum dog on side of road, just like dog. Me jump in automatic obedience to orders of Communist masters, again like dog. Me foam at mouth and bark at moon and howl about 'US Citizenism', just like mad dog. Me deserve to be put down."
Much brilliance constituting your observing assessment.
Dangdang the firmly AnAnonymousism meme clingery, fermenting the blobbing up strawsmans.
AnAnonymousitizenism at work, all for handful of rice and opium smoke pufff.
Free Tibet!
Let's not forget that imprisonment has now been made into a business, not a way for society to enforce acceptable norms of behavior. Because it is now a business, rehabilitation is no longer an objective, and actual punishment for actual criminal behavior isn't even the point of being sent to prison. . Prisons are now on the same level as school lunches - a way to squeeze the maximum profit out of the masses with the lowest possible CapEx. And there's where the smart guys who have designed this little game have made their mistake. They are assuming that they can keep doing this forever, over and over, more and more, without consequences. But unless they can keep every one of the people who they lock up for profit from getting out and going after their goodies, they have simply created the largest possible mob of people with nothing to lose that the world has ever seen.
We often see comments here on ZH and elsewhere wondering why people who have been foreclosed on don't simply go shoot as many bankers as they can before the SWAT teams get them. Well, that's probably because they are for the most part decent people who still believe they have something to lose. Why are people all over Southern Europe killing themselves rather than the bankers because they can't handle the crushing debt that has been manacled upon their shoulders. Again, probably because they are fundamentally decent people who blame themselves for not being able to take care of their family.
But - what do you think 99% of the people locked up in America's prisons think they have to lose once they find themselves on the outside? And do you think they blame themselves for their imprisonment? I am just surprised that the mass attacks haven't started yet. Maybe that's because nobody has really explained to the people in prison what their options are once they get out. For example, if enough people attack enough country clubs in a thousand different places on Saturday night all at the same time, how many do you think would get shot and/or arrested, and how many do you think would get away with the goodies. I'm referring to some kind of mass uprising, which I believe is inevitable. But it will have to be triggered by the right idea. Somebody is going to do that, and I think it will happen sooner rather than later. After all, the French Revolution was nothing more than the right idea at the right time expressed in a few right words. At that point there was no stopping it.
The only mass uprisings that occur will be FBI sponsored.
wrong -for the short term you are correct - in the medium to long term -watch out. In the age of the internet, popular awareness can occur almost as fast as the self-awareness of Skynet. People are not as dumb as we think they are -especially when they are hungry and desparate-and their numbers begin to grow-- .
Just, who's deepest in bed with the NSA? Can't be Google, Tweeter, Facebook and the other internet giants, so luckily there's no chance they'll send them rioters straight to the gate of the nearest FEMA camp.
People ARE lazy, and (the majority) will always follow the path of least resistance. The 1% know this.
Check how many google searches there are for Kim Kardashian vs Federal Reserve.
This is one excellant post! Kudos to you. I could comment on this for pages, but I will keep it brief. I was a prosecutor for 7 years from 1988-1995-in Dallas and New orleans -the whole system is geared toward imprisoning people for drug usage -laregly victimless crimes - federal grants assure this -yet they never, ever get the real dope profiteers -they don't even try. It is racist to the core -yet when these race based prison gangs get beyond their controlled, manipulated race based biases-and focus on who is really at fault -the profiteers of the criminal-Industrial complex- the revolution will begin.
Then there are the hoards of debt slaves, lest we forget, who will become self aware of the nature of money and its progenitor debt and the ludicrous handing over control of this system to the vampyr elite.
sick thing is everyone in prison can become an informant for the FBI setting up the mentally ill for a quick Press release (of course mentally ill will never appear until the prison shrink sees them at a much later date)
Hi Savvyindallas - you sure are. I lived in Dallas too - for way too long. The sense of lese majeste that the guys at the top of those glass buildings feel is beyond belief. The funny thing about them - speaking as someone who has been in those buildings more often than I care to remember - is how bad they smell. You can actually smell the greed, egos, hatred, and yes, the fear that drives those people. Riding up in those 60-90 story elevators in the morning with those suits is like being in a karmic gas chamber. They kid themselves that they can live in gated 'communities', drive armored vehicles, dine in exclusive surroundings, and be immune to the vengence of those whose lives they have destroyed. You are right - the revolution is coming, but it won't be about politics - replacing an evil system with something better - it will be about revenge, pure and simple. I hope that those who set out to collect that revenge have clear roadmaps in their minds. I would do anything I could to draw those maps for them.
The real dope profiteers are the CIA. They use it to fund their dirty little jobs and keep the middle class good and scared so that they will support the police state which will ultimately destroy them.
Meanwhile, private companies own the prisons and pimp out drug users for pennies an hour to cronies selling consumer goods. The prison companies took over hip-hop 20 years ago so they could keep their prisons full.
"The Secret Meeting that Changed Rap Music and Destroyed a Generation": http://www.hiphopisread.com/2012/04/secret-meeting-that-changed-rap-music.html
These are the sort of people who should be in prison, but it will never happen because your former colleagues are either corrupted sociopaths or soulless robots who dutifully "uphold the Law" that the real crimminals have created.
Among prosecutors, what percentages would you say are sadistic, bought off, indifferent, and merely clueless?
How will they organize with all mass means of communication tapped and controlled? With drones ready to take out leaders?
Running a police state has never been easier or cheaper.
don't forget prison houses the serverely mentally ill, they cannot function rationally. The ones who do belong to gangs and rob locally since they know the police are everywhere around the country clubs. Anyone not is a gang will rob someone defenseless.
My brother has been in prison for 4+ years and getting out this month (massively mentally ill - 4 different shrinks in the Fed system andmany crazy pills), first they go to a half way house for a few months then on your own. He told me months ago about the new prisoners minds being gone - probably bath salt, also said never an empty cell.
It would be a good thing if the liberals, the conservatives, and the libretarians would agree that we should tax enough to provide decent care for the mentally ill. It's a crime that jails / prisons is where we warehouse them. I'm not sure libretarians would be in favor of it though and I'm pretty sure conservatives would lie about being in favor of it. Liberals would at least try, and then probably do something wrong, and then the conservatives would force them to shut the program down.
Sold out
Wells Fargo May Send Some Jobs to India, Philippines
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-06-20/wells-fargo-may-send-some-jobs-...
I would better characterize the “capitalists” in this alarming piece as Global Capitalists: the (supposed) Free Trade Transnational Corporatists with little allegiance to homelands or continental populations.
In my view, these unhealthy concentrations (cartels) of non-aligned “Globalists” are among the numerous transnational corporations (big business) Lobby’s and Special Interest Groups that are entrenched and partnered with corrupt governments all around the globe.
I dont want the system to be at risk. I want it to die.
We'll have to drive the stake through its heart though and not one of us can do this alone.
Americanspirit above has grokked this pretty well.
Lizzie Warren can't even understand the math. Nor Thereza Heinz Kerry. How can they be scared?
- Ned
Weapons sales charts...
Who wrote this socialist nonsense? You might as well just sign yourself "FDR"...this is economic envy writ large.
I'm a "capitalist" too! I want free markets - as unregulated as possible - but I'm sensible enough to allow that some will become wealthy.
And desperately trying to compare prison populations with income?? Why not ice cream consumption or flat earth beliefs with income...?
hey genius, in america, not sure if you ever have pulled your head out your ass to notice, but the rich currently dont go to prison, even while they steal billions, the poor meanwhile go to jail in record numbers for petty non violent shit. so income and jail? yeah the two go hand in hand douche.
It's a religion superstition to these folks. The're searching for utopia. Just got to wonder how many people are they willing to kill this time around?
Mubarek, had billions, had an army, had a super power on his side, had a country, he now is dying alone, hated and in prison. Look into the future .01%, and see you are all Mubareks in waitin.
Wrong. Mubarek had US backing then he didn't. Same with Gadafi.
That is the ONE detail that changed.
Payable on Death
Please explain how incarceration enriches the 1%, particularly bankers.
ZH Massive you surprise me with no answer.
The growing trend of arresting US citizens for petty crimes, marijuana, misdemeanors etc is because the prison population is the only one doing manufacturing production in the US & at $0.50 an hour - less than China pays. I read that it accounts for something like 30-40% of all white goods produced in the US and other areas etc
Any official involved in meting out justice knows it can be career-ending not to be "tougher on crime" than the next guy. Even a whisper about maybe lightening up a bit on the minor offenses, will get a candidate "Willie Horton'd" in a new york minute, a sheeple gimme for the opponent.
Because of this, draconian sentencing for these minor offenses continues, even those almost everyone would like to see reduced.
History teaches us that those in power - be they Kings or Presidents or Dictators - think they are in control right up until the moment the mob smashes down the gates of the presidential palace and even when they are being led up the steps of the guillotine.
It happened with Charles I in England & Wales, it happened with the French Aristrocrats in 1792, it happened in 1917 with the Tsar and the rich of Tsarist Russia. It has happened numerous times to petty dictators in the 20th Century and now, as we have seen in the last year, it has been happening across the Arab World.
This will not end well.
I doubt the Anglo-Saxon Protestants of the UK, Northern Europe and the US are so predisposed to revolution but Greece, Spain, Portugal and Italy have all histories of sudden shifts between extreme Right and extreme Left. Then again, those Anglo-Saxon Protestants in England & Wales did cut of a King's head at a time when people believed in the Divine Right of Kings - a King appointed by God.
The politicians think they are in control because they have all the trappings of power - fly to important meetings, being photographed and interviewed, fawned over by a compliant meeja, eat nice, expensive meals with other World leaders and feel that they are making important decisions for millions and billions. But it can all turn on a sixpence, or dime, when the People simply reach the end of their tether - when the People finally have enough.
Plenty of those who felt they were too important, too powerful and too rich to be bothered by 'the little people' have found their wealth and then their lives taken by 'the little people'.
This can get out of control very quckly.
History teaches us that those in power - be they Kings or Presidents or Dictators - think they are in control right up until the moment the mob smashes down the gates of the presidential palace and even when they are getting poked with a stick up the bum.
Yes, as Corporal Jones in 'Dad's Army' says - "They don't like it up them!"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhWlAKdlQp4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0V3SqxUomwk
Or a road flare?
Hoo raa!
and quickly it must without a name or leader if at all.
History teaches us that those in power...think they are in control...
The jewish leader Nehemiah successfully diffused the situation recorded in the 5th chapter of his history book. He was acting with the authority of the sovereign over his countrymen, but had to put the wealthy in their place when they “legally” took advantage of the own brothers. Interesting dynamics involved in the historical narrative, but it took the abolishing of current interest payments and past interest debt, a change in the law to prevent its recurrence, a healthy reminder of the historic reason for their being there in the first place, a fear of loss for their not complying and a glimpse of the future pleasure and thankfulness by following through.
Seems every generation has to find out for themselves.
Just listen to your twaddle. The English Civil War, French Revolution, and Russian Revolution were popular uprisings? Instigated by the mob? For the good of the people? What a load of tosh. The Kings were worse than the Lords Protector? More French aristocrats were guillotined than French peasants? Russia didn't experience a bloody civil war with millions of the supposedly oppressed flocking to the ranks of the WHite Russians? Seriously, from where do you get this complete and utter rubbish?
If anything from the latter to the former, as with Mussolini and Franco, and not the reverse as you would imply. But then again, both Mussolini and Franco were as much socialists as the murderous, rampaging, nun-raping Communists that they overthrew.
By a bunch of religious fanatics in return for an authoritarian theocracy that made King Charles's reign look like a golden age of enlightenment in comparison. Your surprise at the beheading of a King without abandoning the belief in Monarchy, sir, only goes to show that you do not understand England and its constitutional monarchy or just how much the reign of the elected monarch depends by custom upon the consent of the English people. And those puritanical roundheads with their dogmatic ideology and violent fanaticism stand in as much contradiction to the reserved, reasonable and practical spirit of the English people as one can could come.
You mean the financiers who inhabit the one square mile in London and speculate until the cows come home, in their HFT managed plays on derivatives rehypothecated beyond Moby Dick's very own lethal tail, are not suffering from puritanical financial dogmatic ideology?
Which is forever placed at the complacent service of each and every non domiciled Oligarch, be he Arab oil pisser or Russian gas farter, and remain since Thatcherian era the quintessential expression of the reasonable and practical spirit of the English people...those whose blood she did bleed dry, ask Ken Loach on that!
A one square mile that is ye olde NOrman territory of Plantangenet days and the rest of England, nay UK!, which is Saxon territory for the local sheeple, with a debt slavery serfhood ring "Wambad" around their necks which would make even the Sheriff of Nottingham blush with envy. Where is Ivanhoe? I forget he was a Scot!
English financiers are they? People who have their racial origins on the easternmost shores of the Mediterranean are not English by virtue of holding citizenship of the state of the United Kingdom, any more than I would be a Zulu for being born and bred on the slopes of the green hills Natal, or, while I'm about it, a Hebrew for slinking off to some watering hole in the Levant's desert to peddle my wares.
And I must tell you that your unreadably jumbled and verbose prose is beginning to try me, just so you know it.
forget the prose and concentrate on logic. Since when is racial origin a criteria for nationality and since when is racial origin a sign of civilization. Don't dilute you stupidity in racial slurs, you are not helping your cause. The financial ideology of the City is a legacy of THatcherism and TOny Blair days. And don't tell me Tony and Brown were Scots!
As for your philosophical ability its more like unedible porridge than simple cuisine of steak and kidney pie skill.
Grow a brain and drain your stiff upper lip contemptuous stain from our collective eyes.
racial heredity can never ever be a valid measure of one's nationality.
On the bright side Mr. 1%'er you still have 184 more shopping days left until the Mayan Calendar ends on Dec. 21st 2012
more Mayan calendar was found, it doesn't actually end ever.
"Capitalists have been gripped by 'systemic fear' making them worry not about the day-to-day movements of growth, employment, and profit, but about 'losing their grip'. An interesting recent article by the Real-World Economics Review on the Asymptotes of Power focuses on the fact that the capitalists are forced to realize that their system may not be eternal, and that it may not survive in its current form.
Capitalists? As opposed to what? Chipmunks?
Its all about prohibition:
http://www.albany.edu/~wm731882/future1_final.html
This is the fundamental problem with free market capitalism that people pretend doesn't happen; in the end you have a small group that owns everything.
You'd think that the countless hours of playing monopoly would sink in, but people are dumb. They think you can have a different outcome than one person owning everything.
What slowed the inevitable were unions and socialism baked in. And more importantly BORROWING to the 99% that artificially floated a standard of living that was unsustainable.
So this isn't surprising. It's capitalist free markets at work. The US now has the same gini coefficient as China. It doesn't matter much any more how smart or ambitious you are, the odds are stacked against you improving your lot in life above your parents. Being wealthy is a ticket on it's own.
Without 99 weeks of unemployment and food stamps, and cheap credit, we'd already be in a revolution and Mitt Romney would be hanging from a tree and not running as the GOP canidate for president.
lfmao!
- Ned
Damn. Where to start?
I hate just posting a link and telling people to read, but I'm tired and I've got an Entenmann's Cherry Cheese Danish I've been wanting to dig into.
Oh well. Read and learn chargerboy:
http://mises.org/books/newliberty.pdf
438 pages? fuckoff, ive got shit to do. Isnt there just a wikipedia page instead?
Sorry i was given a Gideon's by some dude at the airport, I should probably read that first.
Agree largely but Americans are the laziest, most complacent people on earth. They sit at home watching TV and maybe polishing their guns but they haven't protested significantly since Viet Nam war and even that didn't end it faster than the losses did.
americans have long been groomed for such a life.
Television is poison, 24x7 since the last real war, Vietnam.
Obese,illiterate,and with the attention span of a gnat and all the social pressures a false reality can create and you've got a population of apathetic overweight drones from coast to coast.
Complacency is a learned rsponse from the idiot boxes, the drones have been conditioned to beleive the electronic box, instead of their own senses.
I agree. Sound money is important and many markets must remain free of government interference, but to think that laissez-faire capitalism and sound money constitute the sum total of natural law governing human behavior is a gross oversimplification. Pure laissez-faire capitalism results in bloody revolution and war as a handful collect most of the money and the masses starve.
Dogmatic belief in libertarian laissez-faire or anarchy is on a par with Marxism in its attempt to cram all human behavior into a simplistic model. What the world really needs are fewer economic and political theories or models and much more wisdom and good sense.
idiot. 99 weeks unemployment + trillions in bailouts is the CAUSE of the problem and at the same time makes the eventual collapse BIGGER.
Without those things the collapse would be tiny, regular, distributed evenly & able to be ignored in day to day life for most people. It would induce companies to fail & stay dead and induce workers to re-train on their own time and own dime - NO DEBT, no central control.
You have much to learn.
great post ZH
I am past the fear as I am living with the consequences as I amagine many are or starting to.
Folks, none of this makes a difference any more. For those still comfortable and earning coin or think they have it all together, protect yourselves.
For the rest of us, it comes down to one word, "survival".
It is surprising how the mindset changes when the fear is gone and the work in trying to get the "basics", food, shelter and clothing begins.
What they do up there in political never land and regulations or anything they impose do not concern me. I will follow my own moral code, I won't steal or hurt anther human being, but there are plenty of things I will do to provide for me and my loved ones, Republicans, Democrate and Fed be damned.....
I call bullshit. We are all capitalist of some sort or another. If you trade at the local grocer you are a capitalist. I am, you are, he, she is. All this crap about the 1% - we just wish we were the 1%.
The fallacy of course is that the "1%" own virtually none of the skill, talent in the world.
Its in quotes because I am not referring to those in the ~$250k income set. I am referring to those who've somehow ended up with the fucking deed on the planet, and our wages in particular. This includes my friends in the 1% who actually work for it.
It is not by their skill, talent, that these owners have their station in life and they would rely on an army of police and soldiers they've duly abused for some time to stop rightful divestiture of there titles...
The pendulum swings.
Think about it.
The union/government trolls seem to be out in force, tonight.
I just had someone tell me, on another blog, that if you tax the rich more, it will give them more incentive to earn. I said, so will a whip. Fucking slavers.
There are people like you that trust people are good naturally, that left alone they will act with the best interests of everyone. You're what I like to call a sucker. One's born every minute.
I remember a certain Fed agent that believed the same thing, he was supposed to be a genius. Boy was he wrong, wasn't he?
Now we have Jamie Dimon stepping up to congress and saying "if you don't let me work unregulated, I'll make less money". And that threatens our whole economy.
The moral of this story is that people are always self-interested. The job creators don't give a fuck about creating jobs. They don't deserve tax breaks, they don't deserve to pay a lower tax rate than a schmuck working at McDonalds.
Libeterianism is like the Bible, it's blind faith that keeps its followers going.
I'm all for capitalism and incentives to be productive. You just have to realize that like the game of Monopoly, at some point you have to share the wealth or the game ends.
The complete ignorance of just basic reality baffles me. People really think giving rich people tax cuts creates jobs?? Really? Or that getting rid of important regulation dimishes risk and problems?
I have stated my non-gov't solution, force companies to pay 50% of profits to workers.