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The Class Warfare the Rich Don't Understand
The Masters of the Universe evaded responsibility and defiantly demanded more sacrifice from their victims, says author.
"Those who own the country ought to govern it."
- Founding father, John Jay
Taxes for the rich are at 35 per cent, the lowest ever in comparison to 1960, when it was 91 per cent . (EPA) There have been rumblings in the corners of the Tea party movement for some time, but the minute president Obama announced that he was going to ask wealthy Americans to kick in a small bit more in taxes to help pay for some infrastructure improvements in his jobs proposal, the Republicans have been clutching their pearls and gasping for breath like Aunt Pittypat awaiting the arrival of the marauding Yankees.
GOP leader Rush Limbaugh called for the smelling salts, saying "If [Obama] would get all of this actually passed, it would represent perhaps a fatal blow to the US private sector ... I don't know how anyone could even argue about the fact that this is on purpose anymore. To boldly lie that it's not class warfare? It is class warfare. Specifically and purposefully class warfare."
Republican economic guru Paul Ryan dolefully declared, "Class warfare may make for good politics, but it makes for rotten economics. We don't need a system that seeks to divide people. We don't need a system that seeks to prey on people's fear, envy, and anxiety." Indeed. What could be more destructive to the average American than to ask the upper one per cent to kick in what amounts to tip money? The guilt they will feel at such unfairness is bound to create a profound spiritual crisis throughout the land.
A false hope
One would have thought that in 2011, the term "class warfare" would be as out of fashion as Nehru jackets, but after watching the Republicans spend the first two years of Obama's presidency apoplectic over what they defined as hard core socialism put in practice, it stands to reason the old standard would make a comeback. No matter what you call it, rich people complaining about taxes is evergreen. It is also completely ridiculous.
The fact is that the mega-rich have been gobbling up a greater and greater share of the national wealth for several decades now: in 1976 the top 1 per cent of households received 8.9 per cent of all pre-tax income - by 2008, its share had more than doubled to 21.0 per cent. Between 1979 and 2009, the top 5 per cent of American families saw their real incomes increase 72.7 per cent, according to Census data. Over the same period, the lowest-income fifth saw a decrease in real income of 7.4 per cent (by contrast, the 1947-79 period all income groups saw similar income gains, with the lowest income group actually seeing the largest gains). And perhaps most astonishingly, the tax rate for the highest earners was 91 per cent in 1960, 70 per cent in 1980 and only 35 per cent today, the lowest ever with the exception of a couple of years in the late 80s and early 90s.
And it's not as if these people have been suffering during this recession. Unlike the bottom 99 per cent, they've quite smartly recovered from the 2008 unpleasantness. For instance, according to a recent New York Times report, executive pay at 200 big US companies last year went up by an average 23 per cent over 2009 - the median executive salary was 10.8m USD. Meanwhile, the average American family's household net worth declined 23 per cent between 2007 and 2009.
Considering this somewhat ostentatious disparity, one would think that those who are doing well would decide to lay low and quietly count their money so as not to draw undue attention to their good fortune. One might even have expected them to take up good works and be especially generous in order to deflect the anger and resentment that any sentient being could see might result from such blatant unfairness. But no. They have instead waged a public campaign of extravagant whining, complaining incessantly that they are being scapegoated for the nation's economic ills and throwing tantrums at the mere suggestion that they might need to contribute a little bit more in taxes to make up for the carnage their bad bets left in their wake.
Read the full article at Al-Jazeera English.
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Show AllIf the US had an objective press, the press corps would be declaring (as Warren Buffet did) that US class warfare has been in progress for the past 30 years and the wealthiest 1% are winning by an ever widening margin.
The press needs to ask every candidate for elected office (at every level) which side of the class war they are on.
Debating whether class war exists is distracting and a waste of energy...lets just admit its happening and require each politician and each American to declare which side they are on.
Even better ... they need pay only enough to make these spokesmodels BELIEVE that they are part of the 1%. Or at least on a smoothly paved road to that promised land.
ray, class warfare was here before the white upper class started the u.s. on paper, you know, all legal like, with signatures and everything.
Of coarse they are winning by an ever widening margin. That's how monopoly works, it's exponential. The game ends when everyone, but one, are landless and broke.
It's not that hard to tell which side a candidate is on. Did you think, even for a moment, that obama would be like Chavez?
This president will be a socialist when I become a John Bircher if even then.
Rush Limbaugh called for the smelling salts, saying "If [Obama] would get all of this actually passed, it would represent perhaps a fatal blow to the US private sector. My sentiments to Rush : Waa, Waa. Shut your yap.
Get your money out of the richest 1%'s hands. Join the movement- BANK TRANSFER DAY November 5th! Pledge to move your money to a local credit union instead.
http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=281139538577206
"There will always be rich and poor".
If we internalize that defeatist phrase, things will hardly improve.
Direct democracy
It would be good if there were just two classes. Rich and rich enough.
They know full well what it is. They understand it thoroughly. It was, after all, they who brought the term "class warfare" to the mainstream media table.
Rich people are scared excrementless of losing their wealth, more than of anything else. They know deep in their depths (such as they are) that it's an unfair accumulation. They think yelling "class warfare!" will guilt trip the rest of us into giving up. It won't.
We need a new tax code. No tax on income below $88,000. A progressive tax on all income above $88,000. A 99% tax on all income above $250,000 All income, earned and from investment.
That's the spirit, although a tad extreme IMO. I'd settle for 2 things and 2 things only:
1) Remove the SS cap of $106K (and get rid of the "tax holiday"). NO cap at all on SS taxable income. You make $5 million/year? You still pay 6.6% (or whatever it was before the holiday). You make $50K/year? 6.6%. $1 billion? 6.6%.
2) Financial Transaction tax of 1% on all trades. Buying stock? 1%. Selling stock? 1%. Transferring $5 billion from your Cayman Islands accounts to your Swiss bank account, and you are a U.S. corporation? 1%. I read that even a 0.50% tax would generate over $1 billion PER DAY in revenue. Let's double that.
#1 would guarantee SS's solvency for eternity. No more fake wailing that it is in "need of fixing" by cutting it or raising the retirement age, or privatizing it. #2 would fix the "deficit" issue in short order, and force the politician-corporate-whores to come up with another lame excuse to slash jobs, benefits, pay, and institute their "austerity" measures. After these 2 are implemented, and these 2 issues resolved, we can then move forward on adjusting the tax code to be more progressive, closing loopholes that allow the rich/corporations to get away with not paying any income tax, etc.
Every time I hear the rich demand tax cuts or budget cuts, I think of another kind of cuts: the guillotine. Are the oligarchs really unaware of the terrible consequences of obtuseness on the part of an aristocracy or a plutocracy? Must they really rely on the rest of us to save them from their excesses?
All empires eventually fall, usually through their own greed, which promotes dry-rot until the whole thing collapses. If the greed is high enough and the rot weakens the system, the People may help it along, peacefully or violently.
The old empires lasted for a long time, and took a long time to collapse. The newer ones, with more power at hand and therefore more arrogance, seem to self-destruct much more quickly.
Often what replaces it turns out to be more ruthless and grasping than the original. The Russian Revolution deposed the Tsar and his family. For a short while, it had a democratic government, which the Bolsheviks quickly destroyed and took over. Then came the strong men, the purges, and lo, a new Empire was formed.
The CCCP finally went down, largely because they were trying to beat our MICC in weaponry. They went broke first.
We are well on the road to the same end. The hubris of the wealthy and powerful is the cause of much misery amongst the People, but eventually, when enough people are suffering they will rise up.
One parallel that comes to mind. NorthCom has been training returning combat brigades in the suppression of civil dissent since 2006. They are supposed to be the answer to any uprising of the downtrodden. When the Tsar's officers sent their men to shoot the protesters, they marched to the square, and joined the people, turning their arms on those of their officers that were determined to follow the Tsar's orders.
Who knows? Perhaps the same thing could happen here. PsyOps is spending billion$ to see that it doesn't.
Win, lose or draw, we are facing a rough and rugged road ahead.
Class warfare isn't only about rich and poor, it's also about the subordinated class and the dominant class. In a proper Democracy where justice prevails neither class would exist.
Greed is an insatiable appetite.
The corporate oligarchs' press shills and political lackeys often used the term 'class warfare' as a rhetorical last resort when their opponents arguments cut too deep...and it worked when the 'polite Left' was what there was as presented on corporate media. One of Occupy Wall Street's perhaps unintended effects is that the use of 'class warfare' as an epithet by right wing media lackeys has lost much of its' power. Another part of the genius of OWS is the refusal to use the language of right wing noise machine, so it is not all that surprising the sociopath elites are flummoxed.
When did keeping score -- describing who's winning and who's losing -- become "class warfare"?
As we say, marching in the streets of Vancouver BC CANADA every day, NO WAR BUT CLASS WAR NO WAR BUT CLASS WAR NO WAR BUT CLASS WAR .... and throw in a little: no justice no peace no justice no peace!!! Now, all together from the top comrades..."no war but....
... CLASS WAR." I'm with ya' sister Elisabet
Me too--NO JUSTICE NO PEACE...but especially...NO WAR BUT CLASS WAR!!
I really think we need a war with a little class!
Eat the Rich.
I hear they are quite tasty with a slice of Brie and a glass of Chardonay, served on a bed of fried rice.
The rich don't understand because most of them are socio or psychopaths, whom lack the higher emotions of generosity, compassion and community.
This is not just about taxes and, yes, the rich need to pay their fair share but we need more talk about how the rich are getting rich on our backs, not more BS rhetoric about how the rich need to cover the needy. It's total BS. People wouldn't be needy if there were jobs with fair wages. The rich, like McDonalds, are building world controlling empires off the backs of workers then turning around and demanding that they shouldn't have to pay for others that are lazy etc.
Not only do they not pay for the work they receive, they soak taxpayers in many ways, one being that taxpayers have to help support their employees they don't pay well with food stamps, etc.
Jobs that pay, Living wages, Single payer. A real economy not built on the war profiteering of a handful. Infrastructure. After that, the rich can swim in their money for all I care.
Come over to the dark side -reckless greed is good -and Power, power, nothing comes close.
What the general public needs is a good dose of critical thinking. Also, if they'd stop watching TV and reading MSM newspapers, much of the toxic addictive fog would lift.
For all its blatant in-your-face blaring, some of the messaging is quite subtle.
In practical terms, how can this problem be solved?
No reform is possible, only solution is revolution.... the last meaningful reforms in this country were what, during Nixon's reign? Jimmy Carter? The trends have been clear... toxic fog unto death for those who beg for favors.
A FAIR tax code should be drawn up and implemented and the tax code should be written on a single sheet of paper. Any anywhere near the poverty livel should pay no taxes… Little children understand the meaning of FAIR.
It is unfortunate the very rich couldn’t have to live for a year with an hourly wage of near $12 bucks an hour and see what it is like and get laid off for the last four months… Sort of like the Prince and the Pauper story.
One thing that is very unfair is major corporations that pay very little or zero taxes and CEOs and executives who receive annual bonuses of up to billions and pay less annual income tax then their secretaries… That happens.
The main reason our country is broke and cannot afford to repair our falling apart infrastructures and have the millions of jobs President Obama promised is because of senseless unjust wars that cost trillions a year.
The next time you figure out your income tax form, figure how many gallons of military jet fuel you paid for, or how many hours of pay for one of Halliburton’s mercenary troops… Crazy huh? __ As crazy as most of our 536 Washington DC elected.
Finally; I got a chuckle out of this comment from the article,,, (Those who own the country ought to govern it" - Founding father, John Jay)
Well john jay, that is exactly what is happening... We are now governed by major corporations, because they own the country and our leaders... Fascism.. Not exactly what John Jay intended when he wrote that comment I'd bet. ..
And so I wonder; if there were only two classes- The Rich and the Rich Enough. Would the rich try to take the 'enough' away from the Rich Enough? Does greed always trump reason? Or can the Rich Enough maintain enough control of government to trump greed? When is enough enough? For the Buddha, one bowl of rice a day was enough. Is a clean house and food on the table enough? Hum; I will return to this thread in a hour or so to see if these questions stir up some answers. Peace
Fellow early bird,
I'm with Buddha on this, except I prefer potatoes and beans. You have touched on a most sensitive nerve here in the land of "I want my MTV". Capitalism and the generational conditioning in this consumer society is a hard nut to crack. Who contributes more positively to human society; an insurance salesman or the refuse collector? An auto assembly line worker or an organic gardener?
And speaking of houses, should anyone be able to heat and cool a 6,000 sq ft house because they can afford it? Which is the more responsible choice to clean it; an electric vacuum or a broom?
I would prefer no classes, simply alive and well, or not.
Thank u Buck for your response: I imagine that any of the people you mention above are of great value to the human web of life if they are smiling with kindness and wish to pass it on. And the Buddha would probably say they are all of great value as they are all part of the life and death cycle that makes life possible. Power to the OWS and all. A big re birth sounds good to me.
Damn "don't we all just hate this scapegoating of the rich?" It's "just terrible."
To express special thanks to the Donald do read and consider the below text.
We know where the money is. It’s time for Wall Street to start paying us back!
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Tell Congress there's a sensible tax on Wall Street that would help solve our budget problems.
When reckless trading on Wall Street crashed the global economy, American taxpayers bailed out the big banks to the tune of $4.7 trillion. That is trillion with a “T.”
Today, Wall Street is booming. Goldman Sachs, Morgan Chase, and Wells Fargo executives are earning as much as they did before the financial crisis. In 2010, the CEOs of these three banks made $52 million dollars combined.
Yet on Main Street, family incomes are tanking, job creation has stalled, and 42 million people are living in poverty -- more than at any time in the last 50 years.
We have done our part, now it’s time for Wall Street to do more – through a tiny sales tax on each Wall Street trade. It's called a financial transaction tax (FTT).
Right now Congress is considering huge cuts to Medicare and Social Security, as well as other important programs in health, education and housing.
Enough is enough! We know where the money is. It’s time for Wall Street to start Paying US Back! A tax on financial services can generate billions of dollars.
Please spread the word by forwarding this email to your friends and family.
Sincerely,
Aimee, Jeff, Sarah
and the RootsAction team
P.S. Our small staff is supported by contributions from people like you; your donations are greatly appreciated.
Resources:
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Total_Wall_Street_Bailout_Cost
Perfect,,,thank you AD.