Posted on 10/05/2016 11:42:24 AM PDT by Lorianne
Combine financialization, neoliberalism and moral bankruptcy, and you end up with self-serving parasitic elites.
When did our financial and political elites become self-serving parasites? Some will answer that elites have always been self-serving parasites; as tempting as it may be to offer a blanket denunciation of elites, this overlooks the eras in which elites rose to meet existential crises.
Following in Ancient Rome's Footsteps: Moral Decay, Rising Wealth Inequality(September 30, 2015)
As historian Peter Turchin explained in his book War and Peace and War: The Rise and Fall of Empires, the value of sacrifice was a core characteristic of the early Republic's elite:
"Unlike the selfish elites of the later periods, the aristocracy of the early Republic did not spare its blood or treasure in the service of the common interest. When 50,000 Romans, a staggering one fifth of Rome’s total manpower, perished in the battle of Cannae, as mentioned previously, the senate lost almost one third of its membership. This suggests that the senatorial aristocracy was more likely to be killed in wars than the average citizen….
The wealthy classes were also the first to volunteer extra taxes when they were needed… A graduated scale was used in which the senators paid the most, followed by the knights, and then other citizens. In addition, officers and centurions (but not common soldiers!) served without pay, saving the state 20 percent of the legion’s payroll.
The richest 1 percent of the Romans during the early Republic was only 10 to 20 times as wealthy as an average Roman citizen."
Now compare that to the situation in Late Antiquity Rome when
"an average Roman noble of senatorial class had property valued in the neighborhood of 20,000 Roman pounds of gold. There was no “middle class” comparable to the small landholders of the third century B.C.; the huge majority of the population was made up of landless peasants working land that belonged to nobles. These peasants had hardly any property at all, but if we estimate it (very generously) at one tenth of a pound of gold, the wealth differential would be 200,000! Inequality grew both as a result of the rich getting richer (late imperial senators were 100 times wealthier than their Republican predecessors) and those of the middling wealth becoming poor."
Do you see any similarities with the present-day realities depicted in these charts?
SNIP (there is more at the source article)
The EXEMPT made themselves above all Law.
Then above the Constitution.
Then above all others,
as ObamaCARE and ObamaTRADE
and the support of al Qaeda
by the White House and the COMPLICIT GOP has shown.
When we began calling them elites.
They have always been, but we could truely say we’ve seen new heights achieved all over the place since the Clinton’s got their lifetime get-out-of-jail card from Whitewater on.
The rule of law was broken and non-political organizations like the FBI, CIA, IRS and so on all started to not prosecute seemingly preferred politically connected people of power.
Parasites. That’s all they are.
Heinlein was right - service in the military should be required in order to vote or hold any position in the government, elected or otherwise.
If someone isn’t willing to serve their country, why should they get a cent from it.
Disclosure - I tried to join several times, turned down for being nearly deaf.
At birth!
Yeah, but the organization’s that are responsible for law and order were compromised decades ago.
In my lifetime I’ve seen politicization of branches of government that should never have been political.
Major purging needed.
From the very beginning, unfortunately. Fortunately, our forefathers had the foresight to write into the Constitution the means to deal with these tyrannical shits.
It all depends on if we have the will to utilize the tools that our forefathers blessed us with so long ago,
Elites ALWAYS become self-serving parasites.
Take a quick look at your history book.
When we allowed them to be “elites” in the first place...
The basic idea of LIMITED government is that your politicians will almost always turn out to be scum. So give them as little power as possible.
But We The People kept asking government to solve this problem, and that problem, and that other problem. Now we have trillion dollar governments and politicians who are treated like royalty and dispense favors like kings.
The federal budget should be cut in half. For a start. Then we can gauge how deep the further cuts should be. But we need LIMITED government.
When we began to have elites.
That in itself is not what America was founded on and is the problem.
This is stupid.
As Mark Twain said “There are lies, damnable lies, and statistics”
And now there is a new low, Liberal Talking Points.
Lets say I have a house worth 1000 and you have a house worth 10,000. You might say I am 10 times as rich. I have $9,000 more wealth.
After 20 years or so, just through mild inflation alone, all our houses are worth double.
Now my house is worth $2000, and yours is worth $20,000.
I still have 10 times the value as you do, we are in the exact same relative positions.
But while your value increased by $1000, mine increased by $10,000. The libtards would say the rich get richer. While you “made” $1000 I “made” $10,000 or 10 times as much as you did. Instead of $9,000, I have $18,000 more than you, that I didn’t ‘earn’.
That’s not fair...
Never mind that neither of us actually ‘made’ anything. We all have the exact same inflated value,... I ‘received’ ten times as much ‘income’ from my house as you did.
So they probably should tax it away from me to make it fair.
That’s an excellent explanation of their thinking!
May I steal this from you?
BE SURE TO TAKE OUT THE REST OF THE TRASH IN NOVEMBER!!
See Wikipedia: 1996 United States campaign finance controversy and LAT: Chinagate Is a Figment of Imaginations and NYT: Clinton Says Chinese Money Did Not Influence US Policy.
After that, everyone wanted in on the scam.
-PJ
Sorry but to paint all "elites" as self serving parasites is wrong.
In the city I used to live there were plenty of "elites" but while they had lots of money they also tended to make their children work.
It might be in the family business or in some other business but they would work.
And while some dabble in politics it is not considered "work". It is something you do after you retire or as a hobby.
The "Self-Serving Parasites" are not people with wealth but professional politicians.
When we began to elevate the idea that getting a paycheck from "public service" or "non-profit" was somehow noble and income earned by selling can goods was "money-grubbing" then we took a wrong turn.
They have always been self serving parasites.
The difference now... they are in charge.
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