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Today's Top News
Inequality Drives Egyptians to Streets, But Ours Worse
It's amazing what inequality can drive people to, eventually. Just look at Egypt.
“These big guys are stealing all the money,” one 24-year-old textile worker standing at his second job as a fruit peddler told a reporter this weekend. "People are desperate.”
"I wish we could be like the United States with a democracy, but we cannot," said another.
And so they protest, regardless of police batons, curfews and shootings. With over a 150 estimated dead, a march of millions is scheduled for Tuesday.
In spite of what some on Fox News (and the Israel lobby's camp) sought to argue this weekend -- namely that the protests were all the work of Islamist radicals -- every report from the ground contradicts that. As in Tunisia, the protesters are driven by fury at poverty, lack of options, and the looting of their state by the super powerful.
It's an equation we understand -- elsewhere: a massive gap between rich and poor is inconsistent with democracy. But before you get carried away with third world conditions there, try here. On Friday a guest blogger at Yves Smith's Naked Capitalism blog noted a remarkable fact: the U.S. actually has much greater inequality than Egypt—or Tunisia, or Yemen.
The Gini Coefficient is a number economists use to measure inequality, and the U.S. is ranked as the 42nd most unequal nation — Egypt is 90th.
It's not just numbers — we can see it every day. As Edwidge Danticat told us last week, “There are places in the US that are like Haiti, that are like Zimbabwe.”
While 22 million were searching for jobs in the US this week, Goldman Sachs tripled Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein's base salary and awarded him $12.6 million of stock, a 42 percent increase from '09. The billionaire Koch brothers threw a lavish secret party for their looter cronies, to talk about their election plans.
The average American may not be suffering the way the average Egyptian has been but as Danticat noted, there's a tendency to exaggerate the suffering of what we think of as the “third world” while assuming that the U.S. has it better.
As for that anti-democratic gap between rich and poor -- not better, worse. And here too, our democracy is suffering. What are we going to do about it?
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204 Comments so far
Show AllResearching a little GINI...isn't it interesting that the countries with the better gini index are socialist? The correct socialist, not the fox news version of the word.
KUDOS, stonepig, for all your great ideas and insights. We need to repeat them to all zombie-right wingers until they absorb the truthful information.
http://money.cnn.com/2010/12/21/news/economy/estate_tax_lobby.fortune/index.htm:
"a small band of the richest Americans have acted as their own secret Santas on this [estate tax repeal] issue for years. A 2006 report by Public Citizen and United for a Fair Economy -- both nonprofits opposed to concentrated wealth -- identified 18 families financing a coordinated campaign to repeal the estate tax altogether. Among the leading names behind that push: the Gallos (E&J Gallo Winery), the Kochs (Koch Industries), the Mars' (Mars Inc.), the Waltons (Wal-Mart (WMT, Fortune 500)), and the Wegmans (Wegmans Food Markets). At the time, the report estimated the families' collected net worth to be at least $185 billion, roughly equal to the market cap of Google (GOOG, Fortune 500) today. Several of the families organized their efforts through an association called the Policy and Taxation Group."
Horace, I hope you are well paid for being such a corporate tool.
Horace,
So that you know what a loon sounds like go to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hw1It3AlXmQ.
A true loon tune!
OYE
Troll alert!
That's how the rich got rich to begin with, they steal it from others then they hoard their booty!
P.S. The Egyptian military is not firing upon it's people. It's the "blackwater ops" of Mubarack who have caused the repression. And you really think the us does not have a repressive military regime (joke's on you).
Horace I suggest a history lesson for you. Did you never hear about robber barons? Did you never hear of Wall Street manipulators encouraging problematic mortgages and making tons of money betting that those mortgages will fail? Do you believe all inheritors of great wealth work for a living?
Hmmm. Interesting comment. But I must say, I'm very sorry that your education has failed you so profoundly.
Horace I m disappointed the Neocons are alot more clever than your talking points, these "stupid" lefties are annihilating your arguments with one hand on the keyboard.
I would ask for my money back for defective talking points.
Are you calling me a loon Horace? It seems as though you are, then you are not welcome here where we are working for you to better your world. Go spend some money or watch t.v. play golf, shine the shoes of the wealthy or do whatever you feel ads value to us and the world, at least that is doing something of value. I don't see how putting people down by calling them dismissive names does anything but prove where you are as an individual, impoverished in spirit but with a bunch of money in the bank perhaps?
We must revoke the charters of the immoral corporations state by state.
How about a simple anti-trust against the too-big-to-fail set, it worked before. It should work again.
Also a mandate that Congress may pass no law until a general audit on the current morass of conflicting laws we have has been done, with an eye to getting rid of the loop-holes and gimies for the elites!
>^^<
Horace is a poster boy for the millions of Americans who have been brain washed by the corporate media, right wing hate wing radio, Fox News and all the right wing "think" tanks (like AEI, Heritage, Cato, etc.). They cheer on the super rich, the Wall Street banksters, the corporations, the CEOs and the hedge fund managers who caused the Great Recession in the first place. If we have a revolt or revolution in this country, it will be a revolution of dumba$$es like Horace who will be revolting for the rich and let's give more tax breaks to the rich, let's be nicer to the hedge fund managers, let's have a take a banker out to lunch day and a kiss the ass of a CEO day. Yeah, that's the ticket, support the oligarchs as they cut our throats with a rusty knife. Thomas Frank covers this self destructive behavior of ordinary Americans in his book, "What's the Matter with Kansas?" Too many Americans keep voting against their own best economic interests and keep supporting policies that are great for billionaires but toxic for working class Americans. The inheritance tax only applies to the richest Americans and it is not double taxation because much of the wealth is in tax deferred shelters and it's all a gift to the heirs. The billionaires could not have become so wealthy without the tax supported infrastructure and tax supported commons like our judicial system in which one corporation could sue another corporation.
and how about the hedge fund manager John Paulson who made $20 billion betting against the housing market, betting against all our systems of financial markets. Something is wrong with a system that makes these kind of bets/casino gambling legal.
Betting against what makes this country great, freedoms and equal opportunity for all.
This kind of behavior is what is bringing this country down but we will have a bunch of billionaires fighting over who will be king?
The U$A is too big not to fail. The time for secession has come.
I sincerely doubt you'd like the results of secession. The split would be along predictable lines not favorable to coastal elites.
It is long overdue in my opinion.
Global Revolution: Create thoughts and actions that support the "common good". If it is destructive to any living thing, just walk away. Time to choose sides.
I am beginning to believe the end associated with 2012 is the death of the Patriarchical Order.
North Africa once again initiating a New Enlightenment.
Yes and since they are our brothers and sisters and we support them, then it is us, the family of humans on this earth that are initiating a New Enlightenment, and this light in the darkness is to be celebrated all over the world.
Egyptians don't have "American Idol" or the Super Bowl and all its multi-million dollar advertisements to distract them into believing they live in the greatest country in the world.
Yes, Egypt is in no danger of the hubris overdose that is destroying the US.
The question is who gets to redistribute the wealth, corrupt politicians, compromised bureaucrats, or by fair people's referendums?
But, when the poor rob a bank here in the good ol' USA, the money is worth something, in Egypt, not so much.
Face it; we are better off being poor here than most anywhere.
Lloyd Blankfein stole his money fair and square. You would do the same, if given the chance.
Death to corporate personhood!
Time for a General Strike here!
What are we going to do about it?--Nothing at all. We are going to suck it up and realize that the rich got that way through their own diligent efforts, that they are intellectually, morally and spiritually better than those of us who labor for a living and then we are all going to sing together "God Bless America" for allowing a state to exist where the fruits of such wealth can be conspicuously consumed in activities like spending $20.000 to go to the super bowl. How I wish I could be rich like them, but if I can't be the least I can do is cheer for them, try to be like them, bear their tax burdens for them and hope they will generously bestow a little of their wealth on me, a humble hourly worker. Is this a great country or what.
Who's fault is it that your a "humble hourly worker"?
THE SYSTEM'S
Please explain.
Fault?
What is wrong with being a humble hourly worker? Why should not humble hourly workers make a decent living?
Gawd bless AmeriKKKa!
What are we going to do about it? We are going to continue with our chronic delusional state. Those who have it are going to demonize those who don't. They will continue to persue their insatiable appetites for materialism and hedonism. Vanity and the enernal quest for the perfect body, sexual prowess and oppulent surroundings will be the order of the day.
People who are at the bottom of the food chain will be looked upon with disdain as a bunch of deadbeats and pikers. Labor unions exist only to exploit the "free enterprise" system and inflate wages for the bottom feeders. Those who are unemployed need only get off their asses and look for work. To provide them with any form of relief only feeds the beast. Ratchet down on them and support WalMart.
God help us!
No god help the gullible ones who buy this crap..they will find themselves at the bottom with the ones they are disdainful of..too bad they have to take the rest of us down with them.
This comment is the most relevant here today. Why? Because the post indicates that the chronic delusional state is "Ours" The crux of the problem is ours. Not theirs, but ours. WE all share in this state of being which is one of inequality.
Some might argue it's the system that is corrupted, some will argue it's the masters of the system that are corrupted. But I insist it is our chronic delusional state that is the corruption or at least the soil the corruption grows from.
We, any of us together can choose a state of rapproachment, of balance. A state of equlity and harmony within, and this is how the revolution will start. End your own inequality your own inner battle. Let 'God' return to you as a power that is yours and within you and you will get the help you need. You, I, we will become the change we are all waiting for.
There are two levels of inequality. The Egyptian people regularly die for lack of food, and their quality of freedom is horrid. For one example, the Egyptian government clandestinely supports the kidnapping of young Coptic Christian women who are then wed to Muslims, in order to slowly get rid of all Christians in Egypt.
In the U.S. if you want freedom of the press, get yourself an old computer, a new laser printer, an online source of printer cartridges (or refill toner) and 20 cartons of office paper, 100,000 sheets.
The problem in the U.S. is that outrageous inequality buys our government. Our purchased government then engages in international megadeath for the benefit of various crooks who bought the government. The U.S. provides troops or jackals and the corporations get a good banana-growing environment, or they get a nice oilfield with natives that smile a lot. The problem for us peons is that the military bills are to be paid by us and our kids, so we in the middle class haven't seen one tenth of the human misery that we might soon see.
We need a Gini Coefficient for the entire world, which is where we all live. Rich tourists are still rushing into Egypt to see the pyramids and the abject poverty, because they booked their flights a month ago and there are no scheduling changes allowed.
The greatest propaganda campaign in recorded history (kleverly employing entertainment media) keeps 300 million USans' noses to the grindstone churning dollers in the giant petro-fired vat from which US elites scoop ...DAS KAPITAL KREME!!!
Nice! Can't say I ever heard it put that way.
"Inequality Drives Egyptians to Streets, But Ours Worse"
Laura, you gotta get out more, girl....
Impatience will not rush time. Have we established the New Economy yet? Are WE capable of surviving in the New Economy? Do you have six months of food, water, and medicine set aside?
When the revolution occurs here will you be capable of participating in it, or will you be looking for food? First things first.
Stone, this is an argument I have been trying to get people to understand, the packing in of supplies, the garden plot developed, the water...relies on electricity so people need to have all these systems in place.
As for me, I have everything in place except a generator.
Not sure what the New Economy is, care to define? We have actually discussed local monetary possibilities here. Having a horse might be necessary but one has to feed it. I have enough trees on my property and a wood burner. Some serious thought needs to be put into all of it but likely most will flounder, lay down and cry. The general population just isn't very resourceful. They go from mansion to tent city and then beg for a handout. Yup, themighty will fall too.
Just read that Dubai isn't doing so well either, funny how the criminal element eventually bites its own.
And how do you run the generator if there is a shortage of fuel?
Solar and wind power are readily available, if you live in the right place. If I had a wind generator today, it would be feeding back into the grid, as we currently have 22mph east winds gusting to 30mph. Solar generators would also be working hard, as we have bright sunshine in Oregon today.
Dear Progressive- Patriot and stonepig:
These are all valuable ideas, and I wondered too, with Progressive_Patriot, what would be used for the generator's fuel. Maybe George Washington Carver has suggestions in some of his writings , because he had a ton of ideas for peanuts and for planting.
I also read in an environmental magazine( sorry, I can't remember the one) which showed women in Aftica taking advantage of a double phone -book sized solar unit, that was used to power the cell phones, and also gave them their first electricity at night. It's made in China though. You must be able to find it somewhere on the web.
Stonepig, do you have to have a horse? Goats are self sustaining, along with giving milk, and a" goat" cart might be very useful. Also too, stonepig, before China became the manufacturing center of the world, the people there used every resource to live. I remember reading about the home being set up around the pig sty, so that pig poo could be used to heat the home. I'm not sure aboout the smell, but then, the early pioneers did burn buffalo chips for fuel too.
I was also wondering too, if people could build an igloo out of something besides ice and snow. The way they were built allowed for a hole in the center to get rid of any noxious fumes from the fire.
Water, that will be a real and coming problem. Do you have an unpolluted well, because weirdly, that could give you feudal king standing, if you were into that kind of thing. ( I hope not!)
PitBulls are very good at pulling,, Wagons and such. and can provide protection at night, and are much more loyal than humans!
>^^<
I have plenty of trees on my lot. When I eyeball the urban masses that live down the road, I realize I better have a crap load of weapons to defend said wood. I don't want to discourage you but I guess I don't really want to be one of the "beautiful ones" outlined in the rat study above. Good luck with your fantasies. Better that than actually address the real problems.
This Egyptian movement, if successful, could export to the rest of the Middle East. This would unite Arabs anew and they would begin trading with each other in enhanced fashion, instead of being split up and fractured by the West, as they are now. Inevitably, this means the Middle East will begin looking after itself, and the West will begin paying a truer cost for oil.
Egypt addressing horrifying inequality would eventually be a net benefit to people in the U.S. and elsewhere, but only because by addressing their oligarchs there, the price of our unsustainable extraction/colonization capitalism will be made more manifest here (as if the events of late 2008 and subsequently didn't already make that manifest), and we will finally be able to confront our oligarchs here. In the case of the U.S., I'm not sure economic inequality is automatically 'unfair'. But in the U.S. as elsewhere, it always leads to unequal political power, as is not obvious in the U.S. where the oligarchs are really calling the governments tunes, and everyone else is shopping for cheap Chinese junk at Wallmart, or cheap calories at McDonalds, or cuddling their guns, and thinking that this constitutes 'freedom'.
The Tunisian movement is already showing up in Jordan, as well as Egypt. Israel's Zionist government better start running scared, because, if The People of these countries prevail and form new governments, they will not stand for the treatment of the Palestinians at the hands of the Israelis. I predict that Egypt will no longer just stand by and let the abuse happen. It's not about Hamas or Hezbollah, it's about Israel and American Imperialism. The Israeli State is the second largest terrorist organization in the world ... second to the United States military.
Nice projection. It isn't the United States state, the one I fund with my tax dollars. It's the United States military. That other thing. I'm not out of control. It's them guys over there.
Have enough honesty to say that WE are the biggest terrorists in the world. Anything short of that and you can expect things to remain the same.
"We" are the biggest terrorists in the world? I agree that this applies to the ruling class here, but why are you referring to them as "we?"
Egypt has been just as much of a tool of US imperialism as Israel has been. The Egyptian government has been as brutal and oppressive as the Israeli government has been, and has gotten as much military aid.