We will have the melding of the teanparty with occupy wall street, two groups closer than their publicists think.
Both despise crony capitalism, and when the one side figures out that the government isnt the solution, but the instigator, the torchlit marches will proceed.
Income must not be taxed, wealth needs to be taxed more adequately... Yes i understand the tax structures and the rich paying their fair share, more so, but the destruction of the middle class has come because of the tax the ri h mentality and the redining down of the definition of rich.
Excaserbated by the quest of those in government to be the new rich overlords.
Rise up. End the connectivity of the rulers of government and corporations.
Flame away.
“If we do something about it, if we adjust our policies in the way that, say, Franklin D. Roosevelt did during the Great Depression—”
Such contempt for the little people-a small bribe is all that’s needed to keep these losers happy.
Ok, I have a comment and I know it won’t be received well, but here goes.
He says:
But the problem isn’t that we have inequality. Some inequality is intrinsic to any high-functioning capitalist economy. The problem is that inequality is at historically high levels and getting worse every day. Our country is rapidly becoming less a capitalist society and more a feudal society. Unless our policies change dramatically, the middle class will disappear, and we will be back to late 18th-century France. Before the revolution.
I agree for the most part with what he says. But I have to add this, I believe that most humans prefer a feudal type society at a local level. Most humans are taught and are ‘comfortable’ with someone being ‘in charge’. They just want to drift from day to day in a happy “I know what I need to do” sort of haze. What they don’t like or want is change especially disruptive change.
If the vast majority of people are kept fed, entertained and safe from worry then they are just ducky in their lives.
The problem of course is that there are those born in every generation that are NOT happy with the status-quo because they want to be at the top and a feudal system is designed to prevent that. Our republican style government allows for movement status wise up and down the social ladder plus a quasi-feudal system at the local and state level where there are people who want or need to lead and ‘rule’.
As long as the excesses of those who want to lead and rule are kept at a ‘reasonable level’ the masses are happy as long as they are still ‘fed, entertained and made to feel reasonably comfortable’.
What has upset that ‘apple cart’ is that we now have some VERY power hungry people in government and by judicious manipulation of international tensions and internal to the nation tensions they are about to change the entire system so as to bring about that true Feudal system that they admire so much because that system allows for maximum freedom to indulge in their passions for power over the people.
The end result is going to be chaos and a bunch of people who remember the days of ‘good food, entertainment and a general feeling of well-being’ who are going to listen and gravitate to the one who promises a return to that.
And to get there all they have to do is tear down all of the things that allowed those things to exist in the first place. So yes the pitchforks are coming... Where, when and who they get stuck into has yet to be fully determined.
One thing never mentioned in any of these inequality discussions is immigration.
I cannot take anyone taking about inequality seriously if they do not discuss the effect of the massive levels of immigration into the United States and other Western European countries. How can labor (and that includes anyone who works for a wage) capture a larger slice of economic growth if employers have a bottomless pool of workers?
If we want to talk about taxes, inequality, and fairness we should focus on taxes on wealth not taxes on high income (which tend to fall most heavily on the middle and upper-middle class). A lot of those ‘investment’ expenditure will find their way into the pockets of the wealthy anyway. Instead of taxing the rich to pay for government ‘investments’ why not tax to the rich to lower rates for the middle class (if that is what you are worried about).
The issue is government regulation and taxation. The rich can get past all that but the rest cannot.
And another thing, you cannot push a radical environmentalist agenda while claiming to care about “inequality”.
Cheap food and cheap energy for the public are products of a more or less free market in energy and land use. Environmental laws will turn us all into subsistence farmers—feudal vassals.
This guy deserves what ever he gets and I hope he
gets it good and hard.