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The Rich Can Stop Worrying About A Middle-Class Revolution
Yahoo - Finance ^ | 10-22-2014 | Rich Newman (^6-27-2014)

Posted on 10/22/2014 7:58:05 AM PDT by blam

Rich Newman
Wednesday, October 22, 2014

A stagnant economy has undoubtedly put a lot of financial stress on the middle class. And that is bumming out America’s 1 percenters. “Our country is rapidly becoming less a capitalist society and more a feudal society,” entrepreneur Nick Hanauer wrote recently in Politico, in an open letter to “my fellow zillionaires.”

Hanauer — an early investor in Amazon (AMZN) who says he has been involved with more than 30 startups — cites the well-documented rise in income inequality during the past 30 years as the ultimate cause of a Mad Maxian dystopia he envisions. "If we don’t do something to fix the glaring inequities in this economy, the pitchforks are going to come for us," he writes. "One day, somebody sets himself on fire, then thousands of people are in the streets, and before you know it, the country is burning. And then there's no time for us to get to the airport and jump on our Gulfstream Vs and fly to New Zealand."

He’s not the only wealthy worrier. Venture capitalist Tom Perkins complained earlier this year about the “persecution” of the rich through high taxes, while magnates such as Sam Zell, Wilbur Ross and John Mack have griped of late about the unschooled masses scapegoating America’s moneyed elite.

Chill out, rich folks

The rich ought to chill out. While the masses may envy their wealth, there’s no evidence of a revolution brewing, or even a well-behaved civil disturbance. Americans are clearly dismayed at the direction the country seems to be heading, but they are also docile in the face of decline and confused about possible solutions. Hanauer fears mobs heading for the castles of Greenwich and Palo Alto, but America’s disaffected these days

(snip)

(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: money; poor; revolution; rich
"If there’s a populist threat to the plutocrats, it’s years or even decades away."
1 posted on 10/22/2014 7:58:05 AM PDT by blam
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To: blam

There are solutions to our economic problems. Unfortunately, the folks in charge are destroying the middle class which has been there plan all along.


2 posted on 10/22/2014 8:02:48 AM PDT by upbeat5
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To: blam

Conservative rich people have no fear of middle class people joining their ranks.

It’s the leftist rich that attempt to suppress and destroy the middle class.


3 posted on 10/22/2014 8:03:40 AM PDT by MrB (The difference between a Humanist and a Satanist - the latter admits whom he's working for)
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To: MrB

I think we need to import more poverty from the 3rd world.


4 posted on 10/22/2014 8:04:54 AM PDT by headstamp 2
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To: blam

A violent revolution in a welfare state? The first thing that will happen, is that the benefits will no longer be paid. Everyone knows that, so they won’t rock the boat.


5 posted on 10/22/2014 8:10:40 AM PDT by proxy_user
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To: proxy_user

The progs who comprise the ultra-powerful and ultra-wealthy support the welfare state out of fear for their own precious skins. We are supposed to be grateful for crumbs while being denied the ability to bake our own cake. They have no intention of offering employment to those peons they are intent on importing, they simply want to create a majority of dependents who will be satisfied with the pittances doled out to them.


6 posted on 10/22/2014 8:16:29 AM PDT by reformedliberal
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To: blam

because there won’t be a middle class left


7 posted on 10/22/2014 8:22:07 AM PDT by bigbob (The best way to get a bad law repealed is to enforce it strictly. Abraham Lincoln)
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To: headstamp 2

Heck no...I want American poverty made right here in the good ole US of A.

We have to stop importing everything!

:]


8 posted on 10/22/2014 8:23:22 AM PDT by Adder (No, Mr. Franklin, we could NOT keep it.)
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To: blam
"The rich ought to chill out. While the masses may envy their wealth, there’s no evidence of a revolution brewing, or even a well-behaved civil disturbance. "

Really? Ignorance is bliss.

9 posted on 10/22/2014 8:42:42 AM PDT by The_Republic_Of_Maine (In an Oligarchy, the serfs don't count.)
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To: blam

The problem is not that there are a few billionaires, the problem is that middle-class jobs are disappearing.


10 posted on 10/22/2014 8:50:19 AM PDT by Steve_Seattle
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To: reformedliberal
"They have no intention of offering employment to those peons they are intent on importing, they simply want to create a majority of dependents who will be satisfied with the pittances doled out to them."

That's how I see it. In Seattle, all you need to do is look at the kind of housing they are creating - apartments and micro-apartments - to see the kind of future they have in mind for most of us. And the big economic push is increasing the minimum wage, not creating middle-class jobs.
11 posted on 10/22/2014 8:53:38 AM PDT by Steve_Seattle
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To: blam

Yahoo admitting the economy sucks, trying to sneak it by.


12 posted on 10/22/2014 8:57:44 AM PDT by going hot (Happiness is a momma deuce)
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To: proxy_user

None of the Ferguson rioters are “middle class”.

The middle class isn’t rioting - it is too busy working and getting by.

It is the welfare class, with SNAP, EITC, Social Security Disability for every other person, that is rioting regularly.


13 posted on 10/22/2014 9:59:14 AM PDT by tbw2
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To: blam

This biggest problem with the very rich is that US taxes are foolishly designed to force them into gambling, in a manner of speaking. Specifically it is “heads I win, tails you lose” gambling.

Other than that, they are “sterile” investments, in that they do not help the economy, create no jobs, do not innovate, etc.

The way around this is a two-fold revision to our tax laws, first, to discourage gambling in markets like derivatives and hedge funds. But to do this by offering a *better* deal for “fertile” investments.

Derivatives, especially, are both dangerous, dealing in trillions of imaginary dollars that are backed by nothing and are unregulated. Governments need to clamp down on such things.

Secondly, they need to restore a balance between risk and reward in investment. Hedge funds defeat much of this by creating close to pyramid schemes in which the wealthiest are guaranteed to never have losses.

But it all has to be in the context of the US withdrawing its open economy from much of the world. We have lost a huge amount of production in exchange for building China and getting cheap consumer goods. This has deeply wounded our economy.

We must recover most of our production, even if it impoverishes China.


14 posted on 10/22/2014 10:13:14 AM PDT by yefragetuwrabrumuy ("Don't compare me to the almighty, compare me to the alternative." -Obama, 09-24-11)
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