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The Pitchforks Are Coming… For Us Plutocrats
Politico ^ | July/August 2014 | Nick Hanauer

Posted on 12/10/2021 4:14:17 AM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks

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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

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21 posted on 12/10/2021 5:43:16 AM PST by sauropod (Meanie Butt Daddy - No you can't)
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To: Uncle Miltie

An extremely reliable method of reconciliation


22 posted on 12/10/2021 5:46:00 AM PST by no-to-illegals ( The enemy has US surrounded. May God have mercy on them)
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To: varyouga
Very well said. I'll add that, Generations x, y, z etc are now the largest bag holders in the history of the world. All these entitlements and spending will be let behind by the prior generations as financial bombs.
23 posted on 12/10/2021 5:49:40 AM PST by Theoria
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To: varyouga

The single biggest barrier is not plutocracy, but NIMBY-ism. We are far, far short (at least 5M) of the number of houses we need because local zoning laws and city/state regulations make it utterly unprofitable for builders to put up anything but luxury homes. We are far short of the number of manufacturing jobs we need because Federal and state regulations make it very difficult to build industrial properties anywhere near residential areas. California is the microcosm - millions living in nice, quiet, expensive areas with few neighbors and no real idea where their food and energy comes from. The little people take care of all that for them - somewhere else.


24 posted on 12/10/2021 5:58:36 AM PST by Mr. Jeeves ([CTRL]-[GALT]-[DELETE])
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks
The amount of absolute, staggering, Leftist idiocy in that one article is astonishing.

There was not a single constructive thing I saw in that article. It is all socialist clap-trap.

"...The most ironic thing about rising inequality is how completely unnecessary and self-defeating it is. If we do something about it, if we adjust our policies in the way that, say, Franklin D. Roosevelt did during the Great Depression—so that we help the 99 percent and preempt the revolutionaries and crazies, the ones with the pitchforks—that will be the best thing possible for us rich folks, too. It’s not just that we’ll escape with our lives; it’s that we’ll most certainly get even richer..."

That is one example. It is jackasses like this guy who decides he has enough money and wants to get involved in politics that is more of a problem.

Good God.

25 posted on 12/10/2021 6:19:00 AM PST by rlmorel (If the Biden Administration was only stupid or incompetent, some actions would benefit the USA.)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

I should say-I was in error saying there wasn’t a single constructive thing there. There was: Reduce the size of government.

But that isn’t what he is advocating. That is just blather.

He advocates more government oversight, intrusion, and involvement.

But yeah. His blather about reducing government is fine in itself. He just doesn’t mean it.


26 posted on 12/10/2021 6:26:54 AM PST by rlmorel (If the Biden Administration was only stupid or incompetent, some actions would benefit the USA.)
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To: no-to-illegals

I happen to agree. An endless stream of migrants will drive wages down.


27 posted on 12/10/2021 6:32:11 AM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks (Florida: America's new free zone.)
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To: rlmorel

I don’t agree with his FDR assertion. Whatever help FDR gave to people, it unfortunately was done with policies that actually prolonged the depression.

I simply posted it because I found it interesting, but I don’t agree with everything that he says.

Hopefully, this author is living out his word and paying his workers at least $15/hr.


28 posted on 12/10/2021 6:37:14 AM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks (Florida: America's new free zone.)
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To: rlmorel

Of course, reduce government. Over-regulation helped get us here.


29 posted on 12/10/2021 6:37:55 AM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks (Florida: America's new free zone.)
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To: Uncle Miltie

And the right ear.


30 posted on 12/10/2021 6:39:07 AM PST by SandwicheGuy ("Man is the only pack animal that will follow an unstable leader." Cesar Chavez)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

Any government enforced minimum wage is textbook fascism. I’m against it all. If people think their wages are too low they can unionize.


31 posted on 12/10/2021 6:40:41 AM PST by cuban leaf (My prediction: Harris is Spiro Agnew. We'll soon see who becomes Gerald Ford, and our next prez.)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

Yes. I didn’t mean to be so harsh in my reply. It just irritated me, the tone of the article.


32 posted on 12/10/2021 6:40:58 AM PST by rlmorel (If the Biden Administration was only stupid or incompetent, some actions would benefit the USA.)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

Heh, I think we agree. That was what set me off.

I am all for people paying their workers whatever they want to, as I would guess you are.

I just don’t want government mandating it.


33 posted on 12/10/2021 6:42:16 AM PST by rlmorel (If the Biden Administration was only stupid or incompetent, some actions would benefit the USA.)
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To: Flick Lives

The movie, Freejack, comes to mind, but without the time travel element.


34 posted on 12/10/2021 6:43:42 AM PST by cuban leaf (My prediction: Harris is Spiro Agnew. We'll soon see who becomes Gerald Ford, and our next prez.)
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To: rlmorel

My own father, who is more conservative than I am, actually believed in a minimum wage — not necessarily some $15-dollar-an-hour advocated-by-the-automation-industry-lobbying-group wage — but something representing people’s dignity in work. He figured the federal government would have the authority under the Constitution’s weights and measures clause (Article I, Section 8).

I can still understand what this author’s saying, though. Can people tell me that some of the CEO’s, making millions upon millions, are actually worth what they’re paid, given how they run their companies? Look at Ken Lay (scam artist) or Bill Gates (preferring forgeign VISA workers over Americans). He also has a point, regarding Henry Ford — companies can do well paying their workers enough to buy their products, when they can.


35 posted on 12/10/2021 6:54:21 AM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks (Florida: America's new free zone.)
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To: cuban leaf

I tend to agree. Government setting wages is economic fascism.


36 posted on 12/10/2021 6:54:51 AM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks (Florida: America's new free zone.)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks; rlmorel

My father WAS more conservative than I am. He passed in 2017.


37 posted on 12/10/2021 6:55:48 AM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks (Florida: America's new free zone.)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

I have a much better idea. Rather than simply paying low skilled workers more out of munificence or noblesse oblige.

That is to lower the cost of regulatory compliance for business by slashing the morass of burdensome regulation, and by cutting taxes on business, and by reducing energy costs for the entire economy by slashing burdensome regulation against drilling and fracking. At the same time we can raise tariffs steadily on chronic cheats like China. We can also secure the border and stop the flood of cheap labor from constantly pouring in.

With reduced business costs, businesses can then afford to pay American level wages to American workers as they bring a lot of production back home. This in turn lifts a lot of people out of poverty and helps put working class people struggling to pay their bills firmly in the middle class. It also reduces the deaths of despair such as drug overdoses and suicides caused by hopelessness among people formerly in the working/middle class. It also enhances national security by bolstering our manufacturing capability and restoring our energy independence.

Y’know......the Trump plan. That’s what works. Do that.


38 posted on 12/10/2021 7:08:49 AM PST by FLT-bird
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To: Levy78

“Almost all the plutocrats are far left transnational communists.”

Exactly! They have repeatedly subverted the middle class, union workers, and skilled labor in America. They, and they alone, have supported every politician that has helped to destroy small business and middle class Americans. Trump was the only ‘stop’ button on this since GWB took office in Jan. 1989. They know what they did, and are scared of an armed public, so they want to take guns away and depopulate.


39 posted on 12/10/2021 7:21:25 AM PST by Pete Dovgan
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To: FLT-bird
That is to lower the cost of regulatory compliance for business by slashing the morass of burdensome regulation, and by cutting taxes on business, and by reducing energy costs for the entire economy by slashing burdensome regulation against drilling and fracking. At the same time we can raise tariffs steadily on chronic cheats like China. We can also secure the border and stop the flood of cheap labor from constantly pouring in.

BINGO!

But that would involve actual work without increasing government power, and the political class would rather dangle the $15/hour shiny object instead.

40 posted on 12/10/2021 7:40:05 AM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks (Florida: America's new free zone.)
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