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Title: The Perfect Storm
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Published: Oct 24, 2010
Author: rr
Post Date: 2010-10-24 19:29:48 by tom007
Keywords: None
Views: 487
Comments: 15
The Perfect Storm Monday 18 October 2010 by: Robert Reich | RobertReich.org It's a perfect storm. And I'm not talking about the impending dangers facing Democrats. I'm talking about the dangers facing our democracy. First, income in America is now more concentrated in fewer hands than it's been in 80 years. Almost a quarter of total income generated in the United States is going to the top 1 percent of Americans. The top one-tenth of one percent of Americans now earn as much as the bottom 120 million of us. Who are these people? With the exception of a few entrepreneurs like Bill Gates, they're top executives of big corporations and Wall Street, hedge-fund managers, and private equity managers. They include the Koch brothers, whose wealth increased by billions last year, and who are now funding tea party candidates across the nation. Which gets us to the second part of the perfect storm. A relatively few Americans are buying our democracy as never before. And they're doing it completely in secret. Hundreds of millions of dollars are pouring into advertisements for and against candidates — without a trace of where the dollars are coming from. They're laundered through a handful of groups. Fred Maleck, whom you may remember as deputy director of Richard Nixon's notorious Committee to Reelect the President (dubbed Creep in the Watergate scandal), is running one of them. Republican operative Karl Rove runs another. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a third. The Supreme Court's Citizens United vs. the Federal Election Commission made it possible. The Federal Election Commission says only 32 percent of groups paying for election ads are disclosing the names of their donors. By comparison, in the 2006 midterm, 97 percent disclosed; in 2008, almost half disclosed. We're back to the late 19th century when the lackeys of robber barons literally deposited sacks of cash on the desks of friendly legislators. The public never knew who was bribing whom. Just before it recessed the House passed a bill that would require that the names of all such donors be publicly disclosed. But it couldn't get through the Senate. Every Republican voted against it. (To see how far the GOP has come, nearly ten years ago campaign disclosure was supported by 48 of 54 Republican senators.) Here's the third part of the perfect storm. Most Americans are in trouble. Their jobs, incomes, savings, and even homes are on the line. They need a government that's working for them, not for the privileged and the powerful. Yet their state and local taxes are rising. And their services are being cut. Teachers and firefighters are being laid off. The roads and bridges they count on are crumbling, pipelines are leaking, schools are dilapidated, and public libraries are being shut. There's no jobs bill to speak of. No WPA to hire those who can't find jobs in the private sector. Unemployment insurance doesn't reach half of the unemployed. Washington says nothing can be done. There's no money left. No money? The marginal income tax rate on the very rich is the lowest it's been in more than 80 years. Under President Dwight Eisenhower (who no one would have accused of being a radical) it was 91 percent. Now it's 36 percent. Congress is even fighting over whether to end the temporary Bush tax cut for the rich and return them to the Clinton top tax of 39 percent. Much of the income of the highest earners is treated as capital gains, anyway — subject to a 15 percent tax. The typical hedge-fund and private-equity manager paid only 17 percent last year. Their earnings were not exactly modest. The top 15 hedge-fund managers earned an average of $1 billion. Congress won't even return to the estate tax in place during the Clinton administration – which applied only to those in the top 2 percent of incomes. It won't limit the tax deductions of the very rich, which include interest payments on multi-million dollar mortgages. (Yet Wall Street refuses to allow homeowners who can't meet mortgage payments to include their primary residence in personal bankruptcy.) There's plenty of money to help stranded Americans, just not the political will to raise it. And at the rate secret money is flooding our political system, even less political will in the future. The perfect storm: An unprecedented concentration of income and wealth at the top; a record amount of secret money flooding our democracy; and a public becoming increasingly angry and cynical about a government that's raising its taxes, reducing its services, and unable to get it back to work. We're losing our democracy to a different system. It's called plutocracy. All republished content that appears on Truthout has been obtained by permission or license.
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#1. To: tom007 (#0)
deleted
The relationship between morality and liberty is a directly proportional one. "Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters." - Ben Franklin
It means that if do not throw out all the trash on 2 Nov we are screwed even more.
I doubt it, but not a bad guess. Rent collectors from the Fed system, no doubt.
"Satan / Cheney in "08" deleted
The relationship between morality and liberty is a directly proportional one. "Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters." - Ben Franklin
deleted
The relationship between morality and liberty is a directly proportional one. "Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters." - Ben Franklin
Well - Yes.
"Satan / Cheney in "08" deleted
The relationship between morality and liberty is a directly proportional one. "Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters." - Ben Franklin
That does suppose that I know what I am talking about, might be a dubious proposition.
"Satan / Cheney in "08" deleted
The relationship between morality and liberty is a directly proportional one. "Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters." - Ben Franklin
A democracy is a good thing to lose. We had a constitutional republic. That the replacement democratic system is crashing is a good thing, not a bad thing. That it was based on lies and criminal conspiracies means that the destruction of that system is inevitable. They built that house on sand. A quick question? What good is having billions of dollars when they are to become worthless? If they are manufacturing wealth out of nothing, and that is what they do; then they have nothing. They may as well hoard Monopoly money. ,
#2. To: Eric Stratton (#1)
#3. To: Eric Stratton (#1)
So 68% are owners of the Fed then, is that what we're to make of this.
#4. To: Lod (#2)
#5. To: tom007 (#3)
#6. To: Eric Stratton (#5)
#7. To: tom007 (#6)
#8. To: Eric Stratton (#7)
#9. To: tom007 (#8)
#10. To: tom007, all (#0)
We're losing our democracy to a different system.
Click for Privacy and Preparedness files
The second dumbest creature on the face of the earth is the one who cannot recognize its enemies. The most stupid of all is the one who will defend and collaborate with the very enemies that are destroying it and its own kind. -Ben Klassen
#11. To: tom007 (#0)
This is good thing. The rich are getting too greedy. As long as most American have a place to sleep, watch TV, and have enough to eat, they are fat and happy. However, when 30 percent are out of work, losing their houses, and no food to feed their babies begging for something to eat, the start getting mean. When the go protest and the police kill several hundred and the papers claim they were terrorist, that dog want hunt because it will be neighbors and kinfolks that were killed so they will stop believing the media and consider the police the enemy. First they will start shooting the police then they will go after the judges, politicans, and all the rich fat cats. Perhaps Americans can make the French Revolution look like a picknic.
#12. To: DWornock (#11)
One of the big problems with the 7.62x39 round is the lack of throw weight in the conventional load. The typical 123 grain full metal jacket just doesn't make it. Many 7.62 rifles will shoot a .311 cast bullet of 150 grains. It can be loaded with up to 22 grains of AA 1680 or 25 grains of Reloder 7 to yield a round with much more punch and accuracy.
I would like to direct this to the distinguished members of the panel: You lousy cork-soakers. You have violated my farging rights. Dis somanumbatching country was founded so that the liberties of common patriotic citizens like me could not be taken away by a bunch of fargin iceholes... like yourselves. Thank you. - Roman Moroni
#13. To: PSUSA (#10)
, 1,000,000,000 times zero is zero.
What good is having billions of dollars when they are to become worthless? If they are manufacturing wealth out of nothing, and that is what they do; then they have nothing. They may as well hoard Monopoly money.
"Satan / Cheney in "08"
#14. To: tom007 (#13)
They don't become worthless. Paper has value. In Germany they used it for wall paper and as a substitute for firewood.
What good is having billions of dollars when they are to become worthless?
#15. To: DWornock (#14)
Puts my retirement in a more optimistic mood.
"Satan / Cheney in "08"
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