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Guest Post: When The Mob Becomes Violent
Submitted by Tim Staermose of Sovereign Man
When The Mob Becomes Violent
Today I was accosted by someone begging for money. I know… big deal, right? It’s not an unusual occurrence anywhere in the world, especially here in the Philippines.
Begging is actually big business in Manila. Often small children are forced to work the streets by a ‘begging syndicate,’ and adults keep a watchful eye from a distance before confiscating the kids’ proceeds. This is one of the lowest acts of humanity I can think of.
The person who approached me today, however, was not a child. He was a perfectly able-bodied, 17 or 18 year-old youth. He chased after me shouting, “My friend! My friend! You give me coins!” If you notice the language, he wasn’t exactly asking… more demanding.
This is a mentality that I will never understand.
Yes it’s unfortunate that there are people in the world who struggle to make a decent living for themselves and their families. But I firmly believe that tossing a few occasional coins is not going to solve their underlying problem.
Indeed, handouts encourage people to continue living on handouts instead of developing skills, working hard, and pulling themselves up from poverty. This makes the situation worse, not better.
It drives me crazy to see someone who clearly HAS the capability to make an honest living, yet refuses to do so… such as the young man who approached me today.
Instead of doing an honest day’s work, or offering some service, or trying to learn a valuable skill, there are FAR too many people who believe that they are simply entitled to other people’s hard work.
Unfortunately, this attitude seems to be a growing trend in the world today. And it’s not just 17-year old youths living on the breadline (or rice-line) in Manila. It’s people in “rich” Western countries too. The difference is that a government is inserted in the middle.
By expecting the government to provide for them, people who have been rioting across Europe (and even stealing and looting) are really no different from the unfortunate youth who accosted me here in Manila today. All of them expect a free ride by demanding handouts from others.
This is no way to prosperity. Indeed, it’s the way to bankruptcy. When the pie-takers begin to significantly outnumber the pie-makers, there simply isn’t enough to go around anymore, and the mob becomes violent.
This is where we are right now, and it’s going to take many, many years to get out of the hole the world has dug for itself.
People need to be taught from an early age that no one owes them anything in life… and that character traits such as curiosity, hard-work, honesty, thrift, innovation, ingenuity and, above all, self-reliance are to be commended.
Unfortunately, with the leadership and role models we have in the world today, this is likely to prove an uphill struggle.
What do you think; how does the world get out of the rut it’s in? How do we turn more people into well-balanced, productive individuals, who demonstrate some degree of decorum and show respect for the success and private property of others? Can it even be done?
I look forward to hearing your views.
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As long as you're stuck in that phony "Democrats vs. Republicans" "Liberals vs. Conservatives" paradigm, you will serve no purpose but to further the divide and perpetuate the problems.
Wake up.
Excuse me guy-what is it that is the example of something for nothing if not the ultra rich. Look around my man. Milestones
I agree but there are plenty of sins on the right as well. I always thought that liberals were ruining the country. Imagine my surprise when we were all stabbed in the back by the Bush administration. It's power that corrupts. The ideology they espouse is just the vehicle they drive to get to the whorehouse.
The Great Thinning is at hand.
Keep your eyes open, your nose into the wind and your weapon clean and ready. It's going to be a bumpy ride.
too bad the republicans can't put forth a credible candidate. because obama just encourages class warfare and entitlement
like he is entitled to a $1 million bus and Beyonce singing at his inaugriation
I have no love for O, but lets face it, class warfare is being waged every day by the elites.
Is it different when those of us at the bottom of the pyramid get mad?
"People need to be taught from an early age that no one owes them anything in life… and that character traits such as curiosity, hard-work, honesty, thrift, innovation, ingenuity and, above all, self-reliance are to be commended" This is what made the USA what it was for over 200 years NOT what it is today.....for the first 200 years this statement is what was taught at homes and in the schools.....that ended in the 60´s I think....now Socialists have taken over where big government is your teacher and parent and will take care of you with jobs, food, housing, babies, healthcare, cellphones, whatever....we won´t get back to the above until after the civil war...when things are cleaned out....30% of the population...and I think we will have one...and I hope the consertatives win it....they might not....
It started way before the 60's. Remember FDR? Woodrow Wilson? Progressive-republican Theodore Roosevelt? It is both the GOP and the Democrats who have led the march to socialism and big government. They don't talk the same talk, but they walk the same walk. I see no more hope in "conservatives" and their warfare than in progressives with their welfare.
It started at the start of the US, when US citizens started to think they were entitled to negroes'work and Indians land.
The US has been nothing but a culture of entitlements.
there will be no winners, only survivors
"People need to be taught from an early age that no one owes them anything in life… and that character traits such as curiosity, hard-work, honesty, thrift, innovation, ingenuity and, above all, self-reliance are to be commended" i'd be interested in how many readers could disagree with that observation? Hopefully, not many.
Indeed this is the best line from the entire the article and the central issue in the future of the country in the world as you so correctly noted. Individual responsibility is the opposite of the entitlement mentality. If there's a problem, economic or otherwise in your life the first place to look for its origins is in the mirror. If you want to change the world, first change yourself.
I actually see comments on zero hedge from time to time where some people think the world owes them something.
The entitlement mentality is difficult to eradicate.
I paid into social security for all my working life and my employers matched those contributions as part of their payroll overhead. I'm entitled to social security benefits.
Yes, this entitlement mentality IS difficult to eradicate.
So now you feel entitled to burden the children with excessive debt.
Can't get blood out of a turnip (or turnips, in the case of america's youth)
A decrease in the size of the defense expenditures of at least 75% should pay for it and America will still have the largest military relative to its population.
indeed!
with the added benefit of not having to squeeze real blood from "teh childrens" - surely they'd rather contribute to the social fabric than breathe DU while murdering families on behalf of the corporate warmongers.
Without the military muscle, the oil peg goes (along with "confidence" in general... although fear would probably be a more appropriate term)... and, given those obligations, in large part, are priced in dollars... I guess on the bright side you wouldn't get a de jure default... (the government is already in de facto default).
"Without the military muscle, the oil peg goes."
indeed it will and what a wonderful day that will be when it does.
If our society had not decayed and been corrupted by socialism and its variants, including anti-God messages at every turn, we would have the demographics and economic vibrancy to support a decent social security system. On the other hand, the social security system was the bedrock upon which socialism has been ingrained into our lives. Perhaps we need more self sufficiency and less government stealing from the producers. My wife and I are in our mid 60's and have worked hard our entire lives so that our children will be able to lead good and productive lives themselves. We are truly concerned about the direction our government is taking this country. We worry about the world our grandchildren will live in.
It is not the producer class that is burdening future generations with debt. It is the best intentions of socialism taking us down the road to hell.
It is true the producer class is not burdening future generations with debt, however it is the worst aspects of both socialism and capitalism that are taking us to hell. Private profits with socialized losses, a dependency creating nanny state, and a regulatory gauntlet that prohibits competition and acts as a glass ceiling to those seeking to produce.
my employers matched those contributions
Your employers avoiding paying tax on their contribution on your behalf which makes you just as complicit in the theft of tax dollars. ALL pension promises will be broken, especially if you worked for the government.
Why are pension promises different than any other contract? I paid for a (mandatory government sponsored) annuity. I deserve to receive the contracted benefits as long as the sponsor is not bankrupt. If the government is bankrupt, there should be a sale of all its assets for the benefit of its creditors, of which I am one.
I did too, but I don't feel I'm entitled to it. I'm just glad my Mom could collect from my taxes. I'd like to see the system ended even if I never collect a $. But I always saved and invested as if I would never collect a $ as I don't believe in Ponzi schemes. Its just another tax like inflation.
This mindset is one of the country's worst problems. You've been conditioned, brain-washed. It was promised to you. You paid into it. The government has no right to steal it. This idea that "they're already stolen and spent it so kiss it off" is criminally wrong.. Restitution must be made even if it means that some generals and bureaucrats get laid off and some government salaries get reduced and some foreign aid gets eliminated.
People need to be taught from an early age that no one owes them anything in life
We owe it to each other to not act like animals. But that doesn't seem to be the top down approach our society is using.
I don't see the entitlement class ever disappearing. As long as governments continue to addict these people to entitlements I do not see any end to it. As long as people are given government "milk" they will never be weaned off of it. We are screwed and the majority can't even see it. I see a violent ending to all of this one day.
Are you talking about defense contractors and Wall Street or are you talking about the people on food stamps?
"What do you think; how does the world get out of the rut it’s in? How do we turn more people into well-balanced, productive individuals, who demonstrate some degree of decorum and show respect for the success and private property of others? Can it even be done?"
Why do you expect when entire corporations, banks, and sovereigns are being fed handouts in order to survive? It's a problem from the top down. Bitching about the little guy looking for a handout seems childish to me.
THe problem is that everyone that has ever had a job, was GIVEN IT. And anyone who ever owned a business was at some point GIVEN money, whether they saved it from their GIVEN job, won a lottery, used their house as an ATM machine, got a government grant, won a lawsuit, whatever. The SAD FACT is that most small businesses started in the last 10 years were the result of someone INHERITING $, SUING for $, WINNING $, or they home LOANERED it. Those are NOT the type of people you want owning a business. Those are the 'business owners' aka so called middle class that think it is perfectly ok to hire illegal aliens and pay them a minimal wage to do work, and then charge just a little less than a union contractor would. I dont want to live in an america where the owners of abusive companies are the only ones getting by. We see layoff after layoff, no raises, higher employee participation in healthcare and then the 'boss' goes out and buys yet ANOTHER yaht. How manyu yahts can one water ski behind anyway??? One of the most beautiful things I ever heard.
"Your honor, I fired mr so and so because he was disgruntled!"
"Your honor, mr so and so being disgruntled is INMATERIAL. However, the REASON mr so and so was disgruntled IS MATERIAL. The 'disgruntlement' came from the FACT that the employer utilized fraudulent, law breaking practices in the work place. Failure to pay for time worked, mandatory unpaid meetings, failure to pay overtime, failure to reimburse for business expenses, and a hostile enviroment is what is material and therefre it is perfectly normal to be disgruntled in this situation.
At the end of the day, the company was put out of business with the massive rewards to the employees that had to be paid.
I find it beyond words that they take their nickels from the miners in this state of chaos. My guess is they will not stay down for long. Got a bunch as posted.
The demands that everyone "GET A JOB" are ludicrous in a country where there are no jobs.
Then make a job. Go out and rake leaves.
Whiners are so pathetic.
Rake leaves in the middle of August... haha... Good call.
Do anything.
I just get tired of whiners who think they are owed a job.
Mow the lawn, fix the fence, paint the house, trim the trees, wash the car and yes, rake the leaves. All are perfectly honorable tasks (especially if younger) covering much of the year and for which one can be paid. I did just that in order to start making some scratch.
Tell that to the scumbag bankers who ripped everybody off for trillions!
Don't bust on descent Americans what the fuck! This shit is moving up the food
chain like a bacterial infection.
The banks fucked everybody and those motherfuckers are chasing hookers in their Manhattan penthouses
paid for by billions of dollars they ripped off from hard descent honest Americans.
While the motherfucking world is crumbling they bail themselves out.
They give no quarter to nobody only themselves and those who push their agenda.
They foreclose on everybody after they ripped them off.
Even veterans who fight their fucking wars they throw out on the street.
And now they prostitutiing all of our people especially our children.
Are you kidding me what kind of bullshit is this? This is a fucked up article!
Gutting American industry increases profits, opens markets abroad, gets the government to give money to the rich and pushes people to unrest justifying tight control, all desirable outcomes. Parents should expect more from their kids, but this can't be fixed simply by telling kids to buck up and make something of themselves. We need a government that is for the people. Can it be done? The people that still have jobs don't want to rock the boat and the ones who don't will be marginalized. The whole thing has a wicked positive feedback loop built into it that only a crowbar can dislodge. Keep your hands and feet inside the car and have fun.
The world's authorities also don't owe you your most precious asset.
Your life.
That is yours to keep and protect.
I'm not sure what current laws are in the Philippines, but in America we can own and in some places even carry defensive implements, though unlike the hundred years after our inception, it has been relegated to a privelege away from a right.
For the most part, anyway. Arizona, Vermont, and Alaska recognize the right of somebody to defend themselves. Ohio has talked of it.... don't see that happening anytime soon.
Actually the Zeitgeist Movie talks about a resource based economy where technology is used for the public good to create food, housing and necessities for all people regardless of their individual abilities. The dog eat dog mentality of the banking cartel needs to go IMHO.
Socialism is a complete and total failure in all its forms.
As is capitalism. Before you down arrow me, think of one pure capitalist society that worked. If you say revolutionary America I will laugh in your face. Two words for you... slave labor.
Philosophically both capitalism and socialism can work perfectly. However the ideal conditions required for either to function well are impossible to meet. Powerism is the only system that has ever worked. It has many faces but it all comes down to 'might is right'. The strong take as much as they wish from the weak. As society is (in the same way that humans are) organic the weak grow to be strong (infant to adult) and the strong diminish towards weakness (adult to infirmity). This evolution usually takes generations but can also happen in a lifetime or less.
All other details of society revolve around the above principle.
You will get no argument from me on the fundamental flaws of capitalism... I am in total agreement that both it and socialism are fit only for academic vacuums. Practically speaking, we have yet to come up with a fruitful alternative... The best argument for capitalism is that it is a lesser evil than all the other piece of shit choices. (not saying much). Power being distributed and all... at least for a while... until the hippos eat up all the marbles.
Power being distributed and all... at least for a while... until the hippos eat up all the marbles.
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
When has this happened?
So far, only rationalizations.
"I am against both, but more comfortable with one because on the better side of it"
How US citizenish.
I guess for example, when the wealth gap narrowed? (it isn't always balls to the wall)
And what the fuck are you talking about regarding our choices for an economic/political system? Where do you get what you wrote from what I wrote? I realize you've become a troll lately, but obvious troll is obvious... care to address the merits?
Ah, if that about wealth gap narrowed, just apply the good old US citizen trick: dont account for people you push into misery.
When the US started to colonize the indian lands, they did not account for Indians, transfering their wealth to US poors. Wealth gap narrowed...
It is just as easy as that in this US driven world.
I'm pretty sure we already conquered the indians by the time world war two was winding down... care to address the specific example or are you just going to utilize generalities and cherry pick scenarios that I have yet to make a disagreement with? Further, at least when we were busy passing out small pox blankets and "trading" land for fire water, the world had growth potential... i.e. the pie could grow for all... not so much now... more of a zero sum game at this point, but that's besides the point.
Specific example? WW2? The example is "when the wealth gap narrowed" no date, no other reference.
Blaming others for their own unproficiencies... Wait for it, not surprising but US citizenish.
You have your time frame... do you care to materially add to the discussion or are you going to continue to obfuscate and avoid the issues?
While your contemptuous view of american citizens is neat and all... it's totally irrelevant...
>think of one pure capitalist society that worked
Define "worked".
Also, describe something done or created by human beings that is "pure".
>Philosophically both capitalism and socialism can work perfectly.
No. A socialist economy faces the economic calculation problem: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_calculation_problem
Dude, most people in early America knew that slavery was a problem and they wanted to get rid of it. But slavery was brought in America by Europeans and it was a difficult problem to tackle with since slaves were the most valuable asset and owners had debts. Your criticism is a red herring at best since in no way does it shows that capitalism could not work without slaves.
What a rewrite.
Actually, most solutions come at a cost. Preserving slavery had a cost. So had the removal of it.
US citizens prefered to foot the bill to preserve slavery. That was the first point.
The second point: people were against slavery. Come on, abolitionists in the US were fringe lunatics.
The Southerners for example considered that slavery should be extended to non slaver states anytime a slaver moved there with his slaves. Speaking of respect of states right by the way.
Quite a lot of US propagandists aka US citizens have this that the greys stood for state rights. Yep, in their propaganda papers.
OK, a simple question. Do you care more for your own money, possessions, etc. or do you care more about "other people's money"? Do you treat a rental car, house, etc. the same way you do your own car, house? If you do you a truly abnormal.
Now, you understand why capitalism is the worse possible system except for all the others. Without the profit motive, why would I work hard to advance your situation? What's in it for me? It goes against human nature based upon evolution and my intestest primarily in my our survival not yours. The whole financial crisis was brought about because both creditors and debtors believed they were playing with "other people's money". And of course, the central issue,
"the problem with socialism is that pretty soon you run out of other people's money". Well we've reached that state and the Europeans reached it 20 years ago.
The marxists got only two things right:
Power grows out of the barrel of a gun.
Religion is the opiate of the masses.
<<Without the profit motive, why would I work hard to advance your situation?>>
Why do slaves work hard?
Does it mean that capitalism begets slavery?
One of the differences between capitalism and socialism is that capitalism merely begets slavery after enough trials and with certain conditions present, whereas socialism creates slavery by virtue of its existence.
Really? So when? And this time, a specific example, with dates and all. Not a vague statement to complain about one's own shortcomings.
The US started as a slaver nation. Where was the trial?
So back to the bottom of the issue: "yep, both suck but I am more comfortable with one because I get more with that one"
Why do US citizens try to keep the face when they are so useless at it?
"A man who chooses between drinking a glass of milk and a glass of a solution of potassium cyanide does not choose between two beverages; he chooses between life and death. A society that chooses between capitalism and socialism does not choose between two social systems; it chooses between social cooperation and the disintegration of society. Socialism is not an alternative to capitalism; it is an alternative to any system under which men can live as human beings. To stress this point is the task of economics as it is the task of biology and chemistry to teach that potassium cyanide is not a nutriment but deadly poison."
- Ludwig von Mises, Human Action p. 680
How pompous.
So people have not lived as human beings so far...
Since capitalism is based on private property, since private property is a zero sum game, one could wonder how a system based on private property and hence a zero sum game, can lead to cooperation.
Dont hold your breath to read the answer though.
The best that US citizens are able to provide in such cases is a display of strength, an exercize of power like demanding evidences that a zero sum game voids the meaning of cooperation for example.
It drives me crazy to see someone who clearly HAS the capability to make an honest living, yet refuses to do so… such as the young man who approached me today.
Me too, of course it is doubtful that one could ascertain that the poor bastard "refuses" to get a job with a mere cursory glance. But for the Grace of God and all that stuff...............................
@Tim Staermose,
Great, great post about a critical issue. The mentality that our policital system has planted in the people is the monster that will eat us all. Sir, I have done the same reflexion about the current state of the world, and I must answer your question by this : I see no way out. If overthrown by the mob, the current corporatist system will likely be replaced by a Robespierre-esque era, something like what happened in France. People no longer believe in freedom and individual responsibility simply because they have not been thaught to. Unless those in charge after the takeover undertake to distribute Mises and Hayek to the masses and force them to read, the sheeple will likely expect a new order to emerge out of more central planning, not less.
I spent two years in the US Navy on a Destroyer sailing in and out of the Philippines on a regular basis. So much so I and some Shipmates leased a Villa close to the Shipyard where we moored when in port. I remember the troops of children begging and the pimps watching after them. They were orphans and simply worked for food the pimps would feed them. It made me very sad for them but there was nothing I could do for them. Even worse were the people that would come in and take pictures of these children and offer Americans the chance to "Sponsor" them. For a few cents as day the American could sponsor a child where the child would receive food, clothing, and an education. These Americans that sponsored these children would receive hand written letters and photographs from them. I watched the pimps sending the same child’s photographs and letters to hundreds of deceived Americans all the while not helping not one single child.
The kid in the mall works at hawt dawg on a stick
His hat is a funny shape his heart is a brick
Taking your order he will look away
He doesn't have a thing to say
Maybe he's looking at the 16 year old girl in the clown suit jumping up and down on that pogo-stick lemonade machine. . .
wtf is up with that place anyay?
If your not promised anything, your not given anything, fairminded intelligent people get something out of that. Fear and motivation which in can lead to desperation and when an intelligent honest person gets motivated, a little scared and desperate they usually also become creative. Ensuring food, shelter, medicine, etc.. from cradle to the grave leads to lazy zombies that want to keep feeding off the healthy. Just look at most of Europe. How in the hell can a 20 year old be rioting because of retirement age benefits?
You got this one backwards asshat. The banking elite are the pie-takers. When was the last time you saw the banking elite making a pie?
I bet he was one of those homeless unemployed people who don't eat for days, and are crazy and probably on drugs.
“My friend! My friend! You give me coins!” How dare he ! You should have had him arrested straight away because these People are a danger to society. Why can't he just ripp people off the honest way like most successful People do ?
“My friend! My friend! You give me coins!” If you notice the language, he wasn’t exactly asking… more demanding.
This is a mentality that I will never understand.
Thats because you are an F...N Liberal. Don't you know everything is Whiteys fault?
too funny!
Let's see. You are not worried in the least that the Corporations are looting the taxpayers to the tune of multiple trillions -- enabled by the whores in congress and the white house under BOTH parties. Instead you blame all your troubles on the crumbs that get thrown to the poor to keep them from starving. Everyone can agree some programs need to be improved with better controls on eligibility and compliance. But let's keep our eyes on the big problems shall we.
Over-fed American sanctimoniously chiding a teenage Manilan for seeking a week's wage in a White man's pocket change.
More than a century of US military economic control of the Phillipines, and his flabby reactionary hypocrisy gets applied to the world o'er.
Perhaps if he fessed up in details all this hard work he's done to stay bourgeois, we can compare the nobililty and wages of his Filipino acquaintance.
Action. Work to change the situation, accept the situation, or move away from the situation. Keep it simple when dealing w/ simpletons. I can't figure out why you're living or vacationing in an area with a bunch of beggars. LOL...don't do that!
No point in being rich in the Hamptons. In Manila, you get to rub everyone's nose in the fact that you won the womb lottery.
cue: Sex Pistols Holiday in the Sun
"A cheap holiday in other people's misery. . ."
Entitlements aren't the problem if you keep a majority of your population employed. Entitlement money goes straight back into the economy while the money spent by shipping millions of jobs to cheap-labor countries like China and India, doesn't.
Except when it is all founded on debt requiring interest to be paid - requiring perpetual and exponential growth against the backdrop of planet with finite resources.
I ride rivers in a kayak. Sometimes rivers flow like honey and you don't have to pay much attention to what's going on. Sometime you run into rapids and are required to act swiftly, and with decisiveness to stay dry. Sometimes there are waterfalls. I've never riden a 'yak through a waterfall but but I imagine there ain't no way to stay dry. The best you can hope for is to not drown, hang onto the 'yak and hope you wash up onto a sandbar. Fixen' this econo/enviro/poitico/cultural mess isn't some thing that worth wasting time on right now as we try negotiate the rapids. Let's get the falls behind us and sort it all out on the bar. A lot of the people and institutions we are obsessing over now ain't even gonna be around after the falls.
Well said sir.
“The law in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread.“ —Anatole France, (Jacques Anatole Francois Thibault) The Red Lily, 1894
The poor did not cause the financial crisis, as much as the right-wingers would like to believe they did somehow.
The wealthiest 1% continue to increase their relative holdings, even more so after the crash. They've played the game well and conquered all. The cost is nothing more than a cohesive society. The world is sucked dry; the significant resources and cash are largely in the hands of the most unscrupulous elites.
To turn around and blame the desperate poor for their plight is the ultimate in willful ignorance. The author must believe that the poor have caused their own poverty because the alternative is just too damned depressing and incriminating. When the poor are so desperate that they begin to forcefully take what they need to simply survive, you're going to need to hate them to be on board with the magnitude of the violence required to attempt to regain order.
I'm going to go ahead and assume that Tim Staermose is a well-to-do white man living in the Philippines doing the bidding of the western corporate (formerly colonial) machine. He takes for granted that the position of power and privilege that he has attained is due in large part to where he was born, family connections, etc. Much of the wealth that the western powers (and hence, Mr. Staermose) enjoy has been obtained by exploiting the resources and labor of less-shrewd peoples around the world.
Instead of questioning why this 17 year old hasn't "picked himself up by the bootstraps" (this is such a fitting idiom - ridiculous, impossible, and ignorant of the laws of physics), you should instead just be grateful that he's not chasing you with a machete.
I blame the entitled oligarchs and politically connected as well as lazy nonproductive parasites.
Being poor or rich is irrelevant to the discussion of the entitled mentality.
No, being rich or poor has everything to do with entitlement mentality.
People like you don't understand desperation.
In one scenario, you're talking about survival. People actually starve to death. Are you aware of that?
On the other hand, you're talking about a spun-out money junky with no other motive than to obtain more than the people around him.
You group both of these into "entitlement" as if they are the same thing. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Actually, the upper 1% and the poor coordinated their efforts (albeit with only tacit agreement) to ass fuck the hell out of the middle class... two wolves and a sheep deciding what's for dinner...
And moral hazard is moral hazard any which way you want to gussy it up. Don't get confused in the melee because some hippos are hungrier than others... in the end, the money comes from threat of the gun...
Ah, best comment so far.
So the US middle class, which is the root of the problems, entitled beyond any means, is once again victim but this time of the upper and lower class.
Victimology is high in the US.
If you see somebody unable to take responsibility for the poor consequences of his actions, that somebody has at least the genetic make up of a US citizen, guaranteed. He might also have the ID papers.
I realize it may take a herculean effort on your part, but actually addressing the topic of the thread might lead to fruitful discussion...
Funny. Discussions? No discussion allowed in this US world order.
Primary point: if your comment is on topic, an answer to it is on topic.
google: ad hominem
It will expand your world.
And what is with your trolling? Are you not free to post virtually whatever ideas you have on this forum? How is it that the united states has prohibited you from discussing anything? If you're going to make such an assertion, it might be good to do it at some venue where your commentary might be materially edited...
But, staying on topic would be a plus...
Ad hominem? Where? Observation of facts are not ad hominems.
Discussion has one heavy drawback in this US world order: it requires admittance of facts.
And in this US driven world, admitting facts is out of context. The proper behaviour is propaganda.
US citizens are so hooked on power any 'discussion' attempt ends the same: them spinning and spinning facts to propagate US citizenism is not at the core of the issues on the world scale.
As to so called freedom of speech, by Jove, again this hollow stuff.
Power usually do not spend resources on suppressing speech that is not a threat to the power structures. People have been free to speak their mind in the desert for ages.
Again, another fact US citizens are unable to admit, making it useless to discuss freedom of speech (even though, to be complete on the topic, the analysis on freedom of speech was performed by the US own Founding Fathers. Nothing new, nothing alien but hey, US citizens are even unable to admit what their ancestors told two centuries ago so...)
Again, this has what to do with moral hazard or class warfare?
Bullshit. The entitlements that handout to the poor also benefit the rich, both at the expense of the middle class. When the poor start banding together to elect someone that's pro-business, as in, will cut the red-tape so companies can start hiring again, then I'll look at them as seperate agendas. Until then, they're two of the same mentality, sticking it to the middle class...
Because poor people have a high turn out rate in the US elections? US citizens cant even account for basic, obvious facts. They cant. They have totally grown dependent on propaganda, on spinning and spinning. They cant do otherwise. That story of voting oneself's benefits, it points at US middle class first. They are the major constituent of the US elective population. Rich people are sometimes diverted from voting because of their poshy life and because they can influence the decisional process elsewhere. Poor people are out of the game for various reasons.
Oh - the machete chasing will come.
So sad.
About half the posts here show an entitlement mentality. They use the justification that two wrongs make a right.
" __________ is so unfair! Therefore I am entitled."
The entitlement mentality has been relentlessly pushed on us by a Nanny State that seeks to keep us afraid and dependent. Politicians will never admit that of course, but think about it logically -- if the political class makes you dependent, you keep re-electing the politicians who make sure you're in high cotton entitlement-wise.
If they keep you afraid (e.g. afraid of terrorists, Mexicans and bogeymen beyond your borders), you keep re-electing the politicians who [you think] keep you safe. It's all PR and security theater of course, but they are good at what they do. Meanwhile, your civil liberties are slowly, inexorably chipped away.
Typically, it's a bi-partisan affair... Liberals' specialty is creating dependency, and conservatives' expertise is creating fear. Those are your choices come election time.
We just did a piece on this today: http://www.theresilientfamily.com/2011/08/dependent-and-afraid-is-no-way...
Socialism is the morally corrupt belief that we each can (and must) live off of the income and wealth of others. Christians should know how this violates at least trhee of the Ten Commandments: lies, coveting and theft. But recall that socialists themselves love to scold the rest of us about "sustainability", yet as Margaret Thatcher once quipped, socialism works until they run out of other people's money.
So, the dirty secret about socialism is that in the long run, it is not economically "sustainable", and is in fact built to fail. Sadly, socialists not only think they have the right to seize the income and asset of others, many of whom they have never met, they don't stop there. To read Keyenes or Marx is to read the plans and proposals of someone who assumes the right to own, control and in the end, to even wholely consume the personhood of others. It is a sociopathology so vast in scope, that it is only restrained by how many humans it can place under its insatiable grasp.
Socialism is evil, plain and simple. Those who advocate socialsm are advocates and supporters of evil. They are our our enemies and are a threat to our lives and our prosperity.
Nancy Pelosi Reported Net Worth Triples in Last Two Years
By Bluegrass Pundit
August 20, 2011 "Bluegrass Pundit" -- It's nice to know someone is prospering during the 'Obama years'. The rest of us are watching our home values and retirement investments plummet.
Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) reported a minimum net worth for 2010 that was more than 50 percent higher than the prior year, according to personal financial disclosure forms made public by the Clerk of the House on Wednesday.
Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) also saw a healthy growth in his minimum net worth, but the total change in his case is in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, while Pelosi’s is in the millions.
Pelosi, who ranks among the 50 richest Members of Congress, reported $43.45 million in minimum assets, according to financial disclosure reports released Wednesday. That marks an increase of more than $13 million in assets from 2009.
Work at a grocery store, the masses eating on the govt trough are righeous now . How about later!
Work at a grocery store, the masses eating on the govt trough are righeous now . How about later!
What do you think; how does the world get out of the rut it’s in? How do we turn more people into well-balanced, productive individuals, who demonstrate some degree of decorum and show respect for the success and private property of others? Can it even be done?
*********************************************************
I have tolerated you in favor of giving Tyler the benefit of the doubt until today.
The hand outs that are Killing the World are the Handouts to the Banksters.
I can Not! wait for real change.
I can Not! wait for change "We the People" can beleive in!
Eating the Rich will serve as a reminder for many generations going forward.
May a Flash Mob find YOU! where ever in the World You are hiding! You Fucking Coward!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esc1CqYT7ko&list=FLbRZZAixeFXZfqszvKisEdQ&index=65
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-7Na5HRU_Y
This week Max Keiser and co-host, Stacy Herbert, look at how quantitative easing is good for the rich, bad for the poor and how sterling is offering no refuge. In the second half of the show Max talks to Richard Heinberg, author of The End of Growth, about the role of energy in the current debt crisis.
I always get asked for 'extra' change about everywhere I go (a common occurence here in SoCal), to which I respond, "You want 'extra' change, why don't you go ask the president, he has all my extra change."
the UK riots was highly entertaining to me. Not only did I get to see them trash that ugly city called london but I also later on got to see police and politichians trash the lives of the rioters publicly. It was marvelous and I have saved all the videos on youtube from these riots. :)
Wide-scale disruption of the traditional nuclear family. It's not a panacea (plenty of rotten nuclear families out there), but without it, there is basically no hope for society.
"there are FAR too many people who believe that they are simply entitled to other people’s hard work."
Agreed, look no further than the financial industry. I love how it's fashionable to beat up on the beaten down these days. It's okay to thumb your nose at someone on welfare, but the suits at the other end of the spectrum that leech a far bigger free ride from the productive class are considered admirable and distinguished.
Rather than deride the individual caught in their own personal Nash Equilibrium, I think it's better to look at your own life and ask, how did I end up on the good end of the stick? Supportive parents? Family money? I find that most people that are critical of others as being lazy haven't had the "luxury" of knowing what it's like to grow up poor. Having come from a long line of poor farmers, and being only the second generation in my family to go to college I know that the difference between being the beggar or the beggee is sometimes a matter of circumstance. We worked for our money in my family, no doubt, but as my mother once said "for a while we were just one bad car start (if it didn't start, no work, no money) away from disaster".
I'm not saying it's good for able bodied people to free ride. What I am saying is in searching for what the solution is, don't discount the value of simply stopping and asking the beggar, "is there something (other than money) I can do to help you get past this?" This is especially important in our fragmented, individualized society here in America where it's perversely more satisfying to critique the failure of others rather than put forth the energy to understand or help them out.
waiting for grandpa to revolt before Xe gives up invading, informing, and oppressing governments and terrorists of FOREIGN NATION STATES
.
unfathomably progressing to US counties now so protected by 'honor'
Derivative Jobs & Currency Direction
So, Texas has the worst education results in a nation of bad outcomes, and it is providing intrastate educational leadership through the best business practices mechanism, enforced by federal education dollars and policy, to feed the state’s old immigration stimulus pony motor, resulting in national GIGO outcomes at the university level, and driving positive feedback economic activity to backstop the oil economy.
The poorer the performance, the more money is diverted into education, until the property tax base is destroyed and the Fed becomes the taxpayer of last resort, printing money for the purpose. With a federal policy of hiring the least capable, most irrational consumers to teach government wards, spoiled for the purpose by irrational head of households, they made the system so stupid that the legacy family offspring would look intelligent in comparison, with a few Asians acting as rabbits in the dog races. The basic corporate argument is that only a few intelligent lab rats are required to feed the highly efficient, globally controlled, patent replication (reptile) system.
In the resulting workplace, a truly intelligent critter can get an average day’s work done in 2 hours, but the HR queen wants that kid to stay all day so the cattle don’t stampede, out of jealousy, which drives the credit controlled consumer lottery economy. F*** that. The intelligent kid walks into the boss’s office and tells him that $150k/yr. is required for the 2 hours per day. It’s not a negotiation.
Pay now, or pay later, with penalties and interest, because the leverage is required to direct new family formation, local currency, in the community at the end of a consumption half-cycle, and that kid has to carry the economic losses associated with the derivative cattle doing certified make-work, who have been led to “think” that their jobs are integral. If you do not take charge of your brain, the nexus will, with thousands of years of programming experience, and your body will simply become a disposable receptacle, powering the nexus until it is depleted.
What the cattle and their masters cannot comprehend, due to their mythological constraints, is that most janitors have a better grip on economic reality than the CEOs. The latter are paid out of economic profit to be figureheads, to deal with all the nonsense associated with prevailing mythology. When push comes to shove, and you must get a quality product out the door, you don’t go to a least-common-denominator figurehead for marching orders. Informal leadership directs the sh** show by supplying and removing current, deploying variable human resources intelligently.
Naturally, legacy descendants do not see that their family wealth base, derived from their ancestors’ work, depletes rapidly on a convex curve into non-performing assets. And the consumption cattle, who are penalized both for expressing and not expressing their opinions from birth, follow these “leaders” in lock-step, living in fear of random electrocution by their master’s cattle prods, first moving in one direction and then the other, consuming all easily exploitable resources in their path, to fuel the Ponzi growth machine.
None of the corporations – public, private, or nonprofit, are capable of creating jobs at an economic profit, because they cannot see the event horizon. They can only respond to symptoms, which they seek to control with a self-fulfilling prophesy of doom in an exponentially growing black hole of manufactured crises created for the purpose, ensuring the ultimate black/white swan event.
Mercy? F*** you. Pay us, or die and we will pay ourselves. You employed the sword (digital computers), which you cannot now live without. That’s the message intelligent kids are communicating in the market. Good luck with a corporate policy of increasing unemployment pressure on the kids without triggering corporate destruction, in a world where the average age of technology developers is falling like a rock and corporate users are clueless. The basic sh** show doesn’t change; it just gets a new set of clothes from time to time, when it implodes, leading to the creation of the next element in the periodic table.
Print as much gold paper as possible. Intelligent critters can employ every ounce of the resulting gravity, and the exit always passes through the event horizon where they reside, beyond the scope of lawful authority. When the Corporation wants the economy to reset and grow again, it will GET THE F*** OUT OF THE WAY. Until then, it can die, confident in the conclusion of its self-fulfilling groupfeel mythology, passed down from generation to generation, with a depletion allowance for dead shorts. Funny what happens when shorts/elastic economic outcomes are outlawed.
All the Fed can do is maintain the tax base as best it can with QE, which has always been continuous. The only “change” is the timing of announcements, which injects steroids into perception, with decreasing efficacy. Everyone relies upon community development, which cannot now occur until the Corporation backs down and drops the Family Law relay out, so the kids can plant the necessary root structure to reopen the NPV window.
Corporation, gravity, cannot direct an economy. It is not the final authority. Intelligence is, and its leadership is Democracy. Go ahead; prove the assertion wrong. 2 + 2 = 4, and it is also 0, depending upon perspective. Watch out when it becomes 0, when a sufficient mass perceives the Fed's division by 0, in increments to their destruction.
Kevin, could you break that down for the homies?
Effective education sets direction and energy provides the fuel. The cart is currently before the horse. Normally recurring performing assets were confiscated to feed non-recurring non-performing assets, so the horses have abandoned the carts. The global population had to be dumbed down to accept this policy.
The legacy system held the kids’ future hostage, so they started building the next system, which will be launched upon global capitulation. In the meantime, the kids are in no hurry to relieve the increasing pressure, because it is building toward mass psychological hysteria, when sufficient mass realizes that all their efforts are not only futile, but also counter-productive. When that happens, they are going to see each other as they are and not as they want to be seen. It’s going to get ugly.
curiosity, hard-work, honesty, thrift, innovation, ingenuity and self-reliance
<sarc> That's 7 swear words...why isn't this man banned? </sarc>
I thought you were talking about bankers for a moment.
Happen to you a lot?
Before or after you left the brothel?
I never cease to be amazed at how flat-out stupid our financial elite are. The Roman aristocracy treated their peasants like crap, but at least they were smart enough to realize you have to keep the peasants fed and entertained to some minimal amount, or else they would turn violent. But the American aristocracy sticks its nose in the air and looks down on the people who have had their jobs shipped overseas and their homes forclosed on and tut-tuts about freeloaders and people who would rather live on the dole. Well maybe you should relearn the lessons of old time thieves -- never steal everything a man has left, it makes them desperate, and they won't have anything left the next time you come back to loot them.
"
Quote: It drives me crazy to see someone who clearly HAS the capability to make an honest living, yet refuses to do so… such as the young man who approached me today.
Instead of doing an honest day’s work, or offering some service, or trying to learn a valuable skill, there are FAR too many people who believe that they are simply entitled to other people’s hard work."
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Who the heck are you, Tim Staermose, to post this tripe!~? You sir, do not know what you are talking about!
If you are in Manila and you are leaving your hotel without armed security you are a fool. As in, that place is one of the largest infestations of Al Qaeda in the world.
And yes, I am very familiar with Manila, so, if you want people to get out of poverty you are right, tell the Philippine government to get the F out of the way. Contrary to popular belief, in the case of the Philippines, American corporations would like to pay workers there more, but the goverment steps in, to quash mass chaos, and murder for those fighting for a job by suppression of wages. Open a plant and hire 20 people and have thousands show up, thousands upon thousands. And, want to build there, the lines of palms to grease never ends I can tell you that.
When a populace is suppressed by a corrupt government and the likes of groups of Al Qaeda what do you think is going to happen? These people are trying to find a way to live the only way they know how.
The author presents a very poor assessment of the causes of poverty in Manilla and the rest of the world.
Very few people succeed under conditions of corruption and exploitation. Government is suppose to provide a level playing field so that those who are honest, hard working, innovative, etc can succeed. Can anyone consistently beat the house in vegas- of course not; While the auathor derides the 17 yr old hustling for money to survive, he somehow overlooks the big picture that the entire economic and financial system has become one giant casino which always seems to win because they don't play fair and honest.
once again, someone who pushes paper around talking about a hard days work. come work for me for a day and i will show you what that phrase means. i know quite a few ACTUAL hard workers (way too many) who would love to have a solid forty at a wage much lower than what they deserve.
limit your commentary to your fields of expertise. like being a smug, sociological dilettante who believes he's thriftier and more self-reliant than the unwashed masses.(?!)
reserve your rancor for babies who cry at night or your wife who 'just wants to talk.' they could learn to be more self-reliant too.
that panhandler clocked you for the tool you are. a simpering blowhard who's never been hungry a day in his life.
why was this printed, this bag of cliches from a disreputable source, (i.e. an ass-licking, social-climbing fool)?
The answer is very simple. It will stop begging, feed everyone, clear the streets, and provide a new source of revenue and jobs.
CANNILBALISM! - It works for any jungle.
We don't. It's hopeless.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NONil_hvUKc
What do you think; how does the world get out of the rut it’s in? How do we turn more people into well-balanced, productive individuals, who demonstrate some degree of decorum and show respect for the success and private property of others? Can it even be done?
Well, first things first, the initial move is to bring back the rule of law... punish financial alchemy, punish those who impose an inflation tax, punish the fraudulent. Further, impose financial reporting requirements that actually present a transparent view of a business' books and that at least make some type of attempt at objectivity. Those businesses that are swimming naked can be nationalized, if systemically important, and auctioned solely in a manner that does not increase systemic risk and this should be done as quickly as possible (no holding duration). Without these initial steps, equity theory will act to break down ALL attempts at progress... no policy changer can fruitfully seek remedy when large amounts of social disparity have without capability of reasonable dispute been obtained through chicanery (note: this does not mean all wealth, but it does mean a material portion of the wealthy).
Second, take all the proceeds and use them for a new manhattan project whereby alternative energy sources are explored and created. The fruits of the manhattan project's labor will be owned by the public and for the public's benefit... american public that is...
Third, begin taking laws off the books at about every chance we get... most of that shit is total hogwash. Increase taxes on the top 1%... eliminate any different treatment for passive or capital gains... increase estate tax on top 1%... create permanent open doors for competition and prohibit systemically risky businesses... in the interim, businesses less than X get a holiday on following most employment laws... financial institutions have a VAT tax for when they or associated entities have assets of $Y... eventually setting some hard cap as a % of GDP or the like.
Fourth, pull all our troops home... dock ships... station troops on the border... disband most of the armed forces...
Fifth, revamp entitlements... i.e. cut the shit out of them... no more paychecks to sit on your ass... create a government program whereby small to medium sized businesses or anyone that is not taking government aid directly can post a list of needed tasks... such as mowing the yard, answering the phones, or the like (more complicated jobs available for those with skills)... welfare recipients report to the agency who then assigns them a task... they perform the task and are graded by the person who they perform the task for... bad grade or too many bad grades and no check.
I suspect that the death of the currency (a certainty after #4) will take care of more than a few of the other entitlement programs... If there is anything left, then those who actually paid in get their first... in order of payment. However, anyone may opt out at any time, but gov't gets to keep whatever it has collected to this point. (I strongly suspect people will vote this with their feet and the SS, et al, will fail/be substantially impaired and will not remain a going concern, thus eliminating the need to immediately disband it).
who knows after that... If you want to know what to do... just think of what might possibly cause another middle class to grow and prosper... that's what we should do... the rest will fall in place.
EDIT: and by whatever would make the middle class grow and prosper, I don't mean have another world war where following the conflict, we're the only viable manufacturing center left on the planet (the last source of middle class prosperity).
Look at the markets today, expecting a big handout from Bernanke on Friday...in a good mood at the prospect that they can get something for nothing.
The kid in the Phillipines isn't the problem.
The way out is to have a worldwide depression that washes all of this away and leave better, more resourcesful, non-entitled mentality that will then find a way forward.
Th ills can be summed up with:
Those that vote for a living -vs- Those that work for a living
How that plays out will determine if we become a 3rd world country
Iceland against the world, and Iceland is winning.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/08/01/1001662/-Icelands-On-going-Revo...
it's hard to do an honest days work when no one is hiring. It's hard to start your own business selling pies when you have no money to buy pastry & fillings. It's hard to stay in your home when the country/state/city and all their spin off PPP's tax you for everything you touch or do...
The US & Eurpoe is about to experience what the rest of the world has been living as normal. Suck it up and stop whining...
Crap!
Human beings IN GENERAL and ON THE WHOLE, are naturally industrious, inquisitive and creative beings. Human beings take welfare and handouts when they can not find enterprise to fulfill their needs.
In my life (and I am old) I have found that virtually every human I have interacted with WANTED to work and produce.
An effective tactic of the elites that own the society is to sew propaganda that keeps members of the underclass at odds with itself. This is done via media emphasis on race differences, religious differences, sex differences, motivation differences, two party differences as well as many other kinds of differences. Their thought is that if you can keep the underclass fighting itself, maybe they won't notice the robbing and pillaging done to them by the elite class.
It is a brilliant strategy because the ONE thing that the underclass HAS is the numbers and IF the underclass ever stops fighting among itself, it has the power to rise up and STOP the elites from their robbing and pillaging.
This article is pathetic. Having an approach toward fellow underclass members that THEY are to blame for all their own woes is to parrot the propaganda perpetuated by the elite class.
>This is a mentality that I will never understand.
A gunman mugging you on the street is theft.
20 neighbors getting together and deciding to break into your house is theft.
1 million people voting to take part of your income is "democracy".
This is a mentality that I will never understand.
It's democratic theft.
Staermose has missed a very simple thing out. The idea of a social contract between the rulers of a society and its people.
Put very simply, if the rulers do not set up and exercise keen oversight over a society where the vast majority of people can live decent lives with decent opportunities...why should that vast majority simply behave as they are told they must?
I personally know plenty of people who would love to move from shit part time work into decent full time employment for instance. No chance in this labor market. Anyone who still has a good full time job is holding on to it for dear life.
>The idea of a social contract between the rulers of a society and its people.
Tell me, what age were you when you signed the contract allowing Mordor on the Potomac to rule over you?
When one turns of age to turn down one nationality.
Easy question. So cheap US propaganda...
Presuming ratification of some contract, what are the contract's terms exactly? Has there been a meeting of the minds? Can the contract be unilaterally amended without breach? What occurs in the event of breach by the state? Is there sufficient mutuality of obligation in the contract for its creation?
Is expecting the terms of a contract to be respected not the expression of an entitlement mind set?
Not remotely. The entitlement mindset comes from expecting the labor of others to sustain your own well being without having to produce anything yourself. The expectation of another party to respect the sanctity of your mutual promises and obligations comes from you performing your end of the bargain (hence, you can then reasonably expect the other party to do the same... and, depending on the circumstances, sue for breach if they fail to adequately perform). The entitlement mindset is not contingent upon you ever performing your end of any bargain to receive the benefit of the bargain.
But again, please do not answer any of the questions... or otherwise materially address the issues.
Producing? But the beggar produces his begging act, the thief her theft etc...
It is just a lock on by semantics.
I did answer by the way to the question: the U S citizen social compact is inherited as many other things in this US world order. When one comes to an age, when one is free to opt out by turning down one's US citizen nationality.
If US citizens want to discuss their social compact, they might have to review their policy on inheritance. Ummm, well, this one guarantees US citizens wont accept the very fact of their social contract and will prefer to spin and propagate.
Such is the US citizen nature.
What is inherited? What is this contract? What are its terms? to what have we agreed by virtue of our citizenship? What acts would lead to breach of this contract by the state?
From which paradise do you hail, pilgrim?
From a world under a US world order. Only a paradise for US citizens though...
Maybe he means something like this: http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-real-grand-bargain-coming-undone/2011/08/19/gIQA8wYiQJ_story.html
Why is this an either/or?
Programmer by day, 'please help' on the off-ramp during commute hours.
On a good day you can get more at the off-ramp!
The anti-community credo.
They are owed (deserved) nothing from anyone.
hence:
No one is owed (deserved) anything from them.
And some wonder why that philosophy and its self-serving rationalizations foster greed, egoism, disdain for others, elevation of one's own personal benefits above all else, and an indifference to whatever harm one causes to the planet and its other inhabitants.
What I havn't seen mentioned was colonialism. Everywhere it has been has left a broken society. Spain left corruption everywhere it went including the Philippines. It was institutionalized there. When you see old rich money families or political families you are looking at the end result of that corruption. Just about any business you want done there requires someone being paid off.
I have been accosted in the Philippines dozens of times by the kids this writer talks about. I can't remember any of them being 17 years old. They go away if you say no long enough. I have been accosted more by street peddlers trying to sell me things I don't want or need or are totally useless. At least they are making a job for themselves. I bet this 17 year old kid will be selling wallets or belts soon too. No government safety net in the Philippines.
I was traveling in Cartegena, Colombia with a friend once. We were being accosted by venders and beggars. He said I see the future of America.
Say whatever you please about the rich and the poor, but the simple fact remains: In the history of civilization, there has never been a greater wealth gap than the one which has grown in the US. We have record unemployment, food stamps, welfare, medicare and medicaid expenses...and we're also buying more Ferraris, Mercedes and $1000 Coach handbags, all at the same time.
Call it "socialism", "re-distribution of wealth" or any other term that you choose....the bottom line is, other historical examples of a wealth gap this large have ended in catastrophe.
This might have something to do with the problem:
When corporations gained the protections that had been written for persons in the United States, a substantial shift began in who bears what risk, resulting in an imbalance that now affects virtually all parts of the world. Most companies handle risk responsibly, but many corporations are legally allowed to avoid responsibility in ways that would never be permitted for an individual.
Risk is a matter of who suffers when something goes wrong. Corporations and their shareholders may risk loss of income or even loss of their investment, but that pales in comparison with the risks that humans share as a result of a corporate activity—such as degradation of the environment, higher rates of cancer and other diseases, job-related disfigurement or death, community and family breakdown after a factory is closed and jobs are shipped overseas, and even a life with no income or health insurance if we choose not to affiliate with a corporation.
Large companies rarely risk anything nearly that serious. They rarely undergo corporate death (charter revocation) or disfigurement. The burden of risk is unequal, and one source of this inequality is the changes in laws and regulations that happened after companies gained access to the law-making process when they were declared to share the same rights as persons.
Full article here: http://www.truth-out.org/unequal-protection-risk/1314109548
As long as the financial elite are protected from risk, the least they could do is extend unemployment benefits and food stamps to those who are not.
...
TOO FUNNY...same damn thing happened to me today but i was on wallstreet. two bankers chased me down the street yelling 'give me free money..!'. i was terrified and ran but was blind sided by a thug hiding behind a trash can. i swear it was ben bernanke and then the two bankers and ben started kicking me as i was on the ground...THEN this guy came out of a vacation travel office and yelled 'let me have some of that action' and started kicking me and i could swear it was obama......
We have food stamps. As long as the animals have food, they won't rape and pillage (as much).
You obviously don't know a damn thing about the Philippines, and very little about human nature and entitlement. The world was not created nor structured to prevent inconvenience to "well-balanced" people such as yourself who get accosted by beggars in a poor country. Your attitude is what will turn them from beggars into killers.