US disparity in wealth akin to banana republic

Fairness has nothing to do with it. Societies in decline tend to exhibit increasing disparities of wealth and income. The US is a nation in decline, addicted to militarism and finance, and ossified in every sense of the word.
 
darmanad said:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/07/opinion/07kristof.html?_r=1
No fairness.
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Once again, poor "workers" and evil rich. THE WORLD IS NOT FAIR!!!

So what if the rich make 1000 times more than the average worker...SO WHAT!!

The U.S. isn't about fairness, it is about providing a system of OPPORTUNITY! And before you cry about the system is broken, blah blah blah...bullshit!

ANYONE that WORKS, and I mean WORKS (not sits around and cries about the world being unfair or the rich being evil or taking govt handouts) has the opportunity to become rich. Period! End of story!

For example, people that sit around for 99 weeks...99 F'IN WEEKS taking unemployment payments...they don't deserve to be rich and they sure as hell don't deserve the same opportunities as someone who busted their ass looking for ANY type of job. And though they DON'T DESERVE it, the opportunity WAS there for them..they just CHOSE not to take advantage of it.
 
Jared, your ethics are weird. Do you really believe all the wealthy people got that way through hard work? Do you really think that a growing disparity in the distribution of wealth is a sign of a healthy society?
 
darmanad said:
Jared, your ethics are weird. Do you really believe all the wealthy people got that way through hard work? Do you really think that a growing disparity in the distribution of wealth is a sign of a healthy society?
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Fairness, of course as you say, has everything to do with it! It is clear that some families got rich not through hardwork but rather because somebody (grandppa, great grandpa etc) was in the right place at the right time and succeeding genrations added to the wealth or simply didn't squander it.

Regardless, Jared, I don''t think anybody who collects unemployment is expecting to get rich, at least not the type of rich the article is talking about (1 percent of Americans now take home almost 24 percent of income, up from almost 9 percent in 1976.) The type of Banana Republic inequality that the article is addressing means 1% have the money and another 90+% are living hand to mouth.

I personally don't like our capitalist system because whether you're collecting unemployment or making $50,000 a year you always have your back up against the wall. As we know, the overwhelming majority of us would be on the street within two months if we lost our jobs today.
 
So are the people who support the extension of the Bush tax cuts.

Until such time as all people become Christ-like in their attitudes toward their fellow man and materialism, I believe capitalism works better than communism to improve the general good. However, a capitalistic economic system must be managed to prevent injustice for those members of society who are less fortunate, less educated, less intelligent, less white, less male, less entreprenurial, and, to some extent, even less industrious. The tax system is the principle governor of wealth. No person should have 2 Rolls Royces until every person has a bicycle.
Here is the new web site of millionairs asking that there be no tax cuts for those earning 1 M or more per year. http://www.fiscalstrength.com/ . The US can not allow the Bush Tax cuts for the well off to be renewed. It is unethical to allow wealthier people to escape a higher tax burden especially now when the country is on the verge of a horrendous fiscal crisis - a crisis that will cause enormous human suffering to all but the superrich.
Approximately 1/2 of the US Congresspersons are millionaires. One per cent of the general public are.
 
darmanad said:
Until such time as all people become Christ-like in their attitudes toward their fellow man and materialism, I believe capitalism works better than communism to improve the general good. However, a capitalistic economic system must be managed to prevent injustice for those members of society who are less fortunate, less educated, less intelligent, less white, less male, less entreprenurial, and, to some extent, even less industrious.
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Seems like you want to have your cake and eat it too. Typical of American liberals -- to want to mitigate the egregious excesses of a system that is inherently predatory and cannot be reformed. Might as well try to make a vegetarian out of a tiger. Capitalism is about capital accumulation -- this by itself yields economic disparities that eventually translate into disparities in political power. The system itself is a roller-coaster ride of booms and bust, prone to crises. Either be for it or against it. Not talking out of both sides of your mouth.

For roughly three decades after WW2, US capitalism was strong enough to reach a modus vivendi with a chunk of the American population. That's where the "middle class" came from. Those days are irretrievably in the past. US capitalism is in a state of deepening crisis. The disparities are a consequence of this, not a root cause. In other words, restoring progressive taxation will not seriously mitigate USA's economic crisis.
 
It's not a question of how but when it will happen.

The US Dollar is doomed

The truth is that the US is insolvent and its policymakers will stop at nothing in order to avoid sovereign default. So, it should come as no surprise that at its latest meeting, the Federal Reserve downplayed the risk of inflation, thereby setting the stage for another round of money creation.

Make no mistake; Mr. Bernanke has already created copious amounts of money. Granted, the Federal Reserve’s previous monetisation was highly secretive, but you can be sure that it did occur. Allow us to explain:......

.....more

It is interesting to note that throughout recorded history, the worst excesses of inflation occurred only in the 20th century. Undoubtedly, this was a direct consequence of the adoption of fiat-money.

Figure 1 highlights all the hyperinflationary episodes in recorded history and as you can see, with the exception of the French Revolution (1789-1796), all of the other disasters occurred in the last century. In fact, it is an ominous sign that 29 out of the 30 recorded hyperinflations in human history occurred during the 20th century!

hyperinflations-in-history.jpg


cost-of-living-1750-1998.jpg
 
The one expression American liberals can't mouth is "class war." When even Warren Buffett acknowledges its existence and asserts that his class is winning the war. I agree with the following essay:

What the Financial Times calls a “dirty secret” is hardly news to those who have followed developments since the collapse of Lehman Brothers 26 months ago. What is remarkable, however, is the bluntness with which this organ of British finance capital acknowledges the existence of a dictatorship of the banks over government policy throughout Europe. Nor is it any different in North America, South America, Africa or Asia.

The newspaper admits that a tiny financial elite, which it describes as “reckless,” is looting public treasuries in order to cover its speculative failures, reducing entire populations in the process to the status of “indentured” servants. It is this single-minded pursuit that drives the decisions of governments throughout Europe.

Regardless the nominal political coloration of a particular government—whether “left of center” (as the social democratic PASOK regime in Greece and the Fianna Fail government in Ireland) or “right of center” (as the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition in Britain and the Gaullist regime in France)—it takes its orders from the major banks. This is the meaning of the recurrent references by government leaders to “market realities.”

The Times’ acknowledgement of the “dirty secret” of bourgeois politics lifts the veil on the fraud of so-called democracy under capitalism. Governments uniformly pursue anti-social policies in defiance of popular opposition. The state is, as Marxism has long explained, the instrument of the corporate-financial ruling class for the suppression of the working class.

Over the past year, finance capital has intensified its offensive against the working class. The Irish events, following the Greek debt crisis of last spring, marks a new stage both in the objective crisis of world capitalism and the response of the ruling classes to this crisis.

Last spring, under pressure from the banks and bond markets, the European Union adopted its program of austerity, launching historic attacks on what remains of the welfare state and all of the past social gains of the working class. The Irish crisis represents a new stage in this class-war offensive.

Its aim is a fundamental realignment of class relations worldwide. Whatever remains of welfare programs are to be obliterated. Wages in developed capitalist nations are to be slashed to a level comparable with low-wage “developing” countries. Conditions for the working class are to be rolled back to those which prevailed a century ago.

The global financial elite is on the offensive not because the working class accepts its demands. Workers in country after country have demonstrated their willingness to fight, carrying out mass strikes and protests. These struggles have to date been sabotaged and defeated because of the treachery of the trade unions and their allies in the official “left” parties and middle-class pseudo-left organizations.
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