The Great Wealth Robbery

[Zacha341]

It is supposedly 'wise' when it's your chosen party holding the reins for a time........

We've handed over the reins of our civilization to the most insane among us.

How is that wise?

[Jimaz]

Reich: How Unequal Can America Get [Before We Snap]?

Robert Reich, a visiting professor at the UC, Berkeley's Goldman School of Public Policy and former U.S. Secretary of Labor talks about the inequality of income, wealth and opportunity in the United States and asks his audience to speculate on what will happen if these trends continue. Series: "Richard and Rhoda Goldman School of Public Policy at UC Berkeley" [5/2005]

He argues that the inequality can only either "snap back" or "snap break." The more dramatic "snap break" speech starts around 50:00.

[Jimaz]

Why do we continue to pretend to play the same old game that was settled decades ago?

Despite what we're preached, the most effective way to demotivate a population is not the perpetually denigrated welfare system but rather to renege on paying that population what they have already earned. Yes, labor theft does exist, despite what labor thieves would have you believe.

What motive do The Parasitic Saboteurs In Power™ share to demotivate workers? Think about it.

Attachment 28173
Wealth Inequality in America

Infographics on the distribution of wealth in America, highlighting both the inequality and the difference between our perception of inequality and the actual numbers. The reality is often not what we think it is.

• It's the Inequality, Stupid
• Wealth Inequality in America
• How Unequal We Are: The Top 5 Facts You Should Know About The Wealthiest One Percent Of Americans
• CEO pay is 380 times average worker's - AFL-CIO

[old guy]

People need to wake up and get with the program. Unfortunately, I don't think most people are aware of what's going on, which baffles me.

There was a time. Actually their were several, when people realized that they needed to voice their opinions to even the odds. These days, people seem to assume that everything will work out fine. Good luck with that. Being complacent rarely proves positive for the working class.

[Honky Tonk]

People need to wake up and get with the program. Unfortunately, I don't think most people are aware of what's going on, which baffles me.

There was a time. Actually their were several, when people realized that they needed to voice their opinions to even the odds. These days, people seem to assume that everything will work out fine. Good luck with that. Being complacent rarely proves positive for the working class.

@ some point, people started drinking the Kool-Aid and playing with the shiny baubles. Too much needless energy could be wasted on righting wrongs. The other thing that happened is the "Global Economy". The people @ the top merely took their ball and went to play somewhere else. This added to the problem because now the working stiffs are "lucky" to even have a job, so they don't make waves.

[MizMotown]

The ego's fundamental principle... If I aim to get what I want, achieve success, and attain pleasure and happiness, I must do so at someone else's expense. One or the other... dog eat dog... survival of the fittest. In most cases equal partnership and sharing is not an acceptable option. In this world the inherent aggression and self-centeredness in homo sapiens has to be recognized, it's the driving force.

[Richard]

Today Fortune 500 CEOs make 204 times regular workers on average, Bloomberg found. The ratio is up from 120-to-1 in 2000, 42-to-1 in 1980 and 20-to-1 in 1950.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articl...-as-sec-delays

[Honky Tonk]

Today Fortune 500 CEOs make 204 times regular workers on average, Bloomberg found. The ratio is up from 120-to-1 in 2000, 42-to-1 in 1980 and 20-to-1 in 1950.

The pattern shows CEOs are getting smarter.....

[MizMotown]

"In communism man exploits man. In capitalism it's just the opposite." -Kenneth Galbraith [[American economist and Harvard professor)

[MizMotown]

All over the world, about eighty percent of the industry is based on grievances, hate, fear, and insecurity. And what about loneliness? How much money is spent to entertain loneliness? How much money is spent on bitterness and hate and suspicion and doubt about other people? -Tara Singth

[Richard]

The pattern shows CEOs are getting smarter.....

lol maybe,but I wonder if the ratio is slanted a bit.

If they compare the CEO pay of a retail store that employs a large amount of unskilled labor then one can kinda see the reason.

Or is it indicative of how our country has changed to a service related verses manufacturing.

So what would the ratio be of, say for instance a medium size manufacturing facility, or industry that utilizes higher paid skilled labor.

My favorite one is the guy that compares the currant US to 1800s England where you have only either the very rich or the very poor no in between.

It seems like the best years were 1945 to late 1960s before that was rough and lots of rough patches after that.

Now is kinda like the depression,there is always somebody a little bit hungrier and willing to work for a little bit less which will stay the same until the demand for labor increases.

Like the movie Grapes of Wrath,they were offered $5 per day but so many showed up it was dropped to $2.50 and they still worked.

Even if one looks back at the early titian's of industry through the gilded age they made some serious buck while the workers were poor.

Henry Ford paid well but in comparison his wealth compared to the average was immense.

Mc Donald's in the fifty's when they first started found out that by training one person to do one job they could employ a less costly workforce.Which really seems to be started by the auto manufactures and they just moved the concept into the fast food aspect.

[jackie5275]

People need to wake up and get with the program. Unfortunately, I don't think most people are aware of what's going on, which baffles me.

Of course they're not aware. They're not even paying attention. They too busy watching the Kardashians, the Duggars, Dancing with the Stars, the Voice, etc. to be aware of what's going on in the reality of the real world. Think it's not done by design? Of course it is. When a story on the local news is a recap of American Idol [[yes, this went on all the time on Fox 2), you have to know it is.

[Jimaz]

Attachment 28488
Jonathan Pie: Reporter gets angry about Matt Damon, David Cameron, Alan Sugar...etc'!

UK News reporter Jonathan Pie has a go at David Cameron, Alan Sugar, Nuclear Weapons, Matt Damon's treatment in the press, Jeremy Corbyn's treatment by the press...you name it, he has a go about it!

Why do so many of us pretend to not pretend that everything's stable — unto the bitter end?

What's wrong with intervening a destructive course before we arrive at the bitter end?

Rise up against this insanity.

[Hermod]

Today Fortune 500 CEOs make 204 times regular workers on average, Bloomberg found. The ratio is up from 120-to-1 in 2000, 42-to-1 in 1980 and 20-to-1 in 1950.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articl...-as-sec-delays

Do the same analysis over the last hundred years on baseball players multiples versus the baseball ticket sellers.

[Hermod]

It seems like the best years were 1945 to late 1960s before that was rough and lots of rough patches after that.

Now is kinda like the depression,there is always somebody a little bit hungrier and willing to work for a little bit less which will stay the same until the demand for labor increases.

There are three factors contributing to that:

1. The consumer driven post-war boom which lasted till the late sixties where people caught up to the inability to buy goods during the depression for lack of money and during the war for lack of supply [[diversion of production to the war effort).

2. During the late forties and the fifties, only the "depression babies" were entering the workforce [[and there weren't that many of us). Beginning in the sixties, the "baby boomers" flooded the job market.

3. Beginning in 1920 or so there was a massive and draconian crackdown on immigration. This eased in the sixties [[and became a flood in the eighties) which further flooded the job market.


Workers are "a dime a dozen" and there is no upward pressure on wages.

[Jimaz]

Total duration 26 minutes:

Attachment 28527
Noam Chomsky & Abby Martin: Electing The President of an Empire

At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass., Abby Martin interviews world-renowned philosopher and linguist Professor Noam Chomsky.

Prof. Chomsky comments on the presidential primary "extravaganza," the movement for Bernie Sanders, the U.S.-Iran nuclear deal, the bombing of the Doctors Without Borders hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan, modern-day libertarianism and the reality of "democracy" under capitalism.

• The US is an oligarchy, study concludes
• TeleSURTV.net

[Richard]

Donald Trump mentioned something in a speech the other day.

He was talking about Mr. Bush lowering some of his staff workers pay to save some money on the campaign.

Mr Trumps reply was if they were willing to work for less why did you hire them at the rate you did? When he said it,it was without a thought and it should be common to hire at the least possible wage. I guess that is the difference between a politician and a business owner.

[Richard]

Do the same analysis over the last hundred years on baseball players multiples versus the baseball ticket sellers.

Other then auto or marine related I am not really into the sports thing but it seems like the favorite pastimes of the average person taking their child to the ballgame is becoming a thing of the past because of the cost factor.

Something about sitting on concrete bleachers in -20 Minnesota winter watching the Vikings play back in the 70s might have had something to do with it.

[oladub]

There are three factors contributing to that:

3. Beginning in 1920 or so there was a massive and draconian crackdown on immigration. This eased in the sixties [[and became a flood in the eighties) which further flooded the job market.

Workers are "a dime a dozen" and there is no upward pressure on wages.

Supply and Demand 101 - the more workers competing for the same job, the less they can demand for their labor. You get it, the 1% gets it, maybe the Democratic leadership gets it if they want to make their voters dependents, but rank and file liberals don't get it.

I would add a corollary to number three: Bad trade agreements from NAFTA, to GATT, to the secretive TPP agreements the president is rolling out put US workers into direct hourly wage competition with Asians. Sending jobs abroad is every bit as bad for US workers as bringing in cheaper foreign labor to compete for jobs here.

[Jimaz]

AP EXPLAINS: What Is 'Affluenza'?

The term was used by a psychologist testifying for the defense during the sentencing phase of Couch's trial in juvenile court. The expert argued that Couch's wealthy parents had coddled and pampered their son into a sense of irresponsibility — a condition the expert termed "affluenza" — to the point that Couch never developed a sense of right and wrong, or suffered any repercussions for bad behavior.

"Too big to fail" applied to the level of the individual.

'Affluenza' teen's mother charged, $1M bond set

"Personal responsibility" is the burden that need not be borne by the privileged?

How deep are we going to delve into this depravity of disparity before we awaken to its absurdity?

Does anyone dare defend this effete P.O.S.?

[JBMcB]

Wanna know where the increased income gap has come from? Let's see, it started just after the housing market collapse, right about when the federal reserve started creating trillions of dollars out of thin air and handing it to the banks. Did you see any of that money? No? Well guess where it went.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quanti...lth_inequality

[Jimaz]

"The very definition of power is to become a 'legitimate' deadbeat, immune from collections."

— The Parasitic Saboteurs in Power™

[MizMotown]

If workers are more insecure, that's very 'healthy' for the society, because if workers are insecure, they won't ask for wages, they won't go on strike, they won't call for benefits; they'll serve the masters gladly and passively. And that's optimal for corporations' economic health.

Noam Chomsky

[Jimaz]

Attachment 30292
This Is The Income Inequality Video CEOs Don’t Want Americans To See

“If Michael Norton’s research is to be believed, Americans don’t have the faintest clue how severe economic inequality has become—and if they only knew, they’d be appalled.

Consider the Harvard Business School professor’s new study examining public opinion about executive compensation, co-authored with the Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok’s Sorapop Kiatpongsan. In the 1960s, the typical corporate chieftain in the U.S. earned 20 times as much as the average employee. Today, depending on whose estimate you choose, he makes anywhere from 272 to 354 times as much. According to the AFL-CIO, the average CEO takes home more than $12 million, while the average worker makes about $34,000.

In their study, Norton and Kiatpongsan asked about 55,000 people around the globe, including 1,581 participants in the U.S., how much money they thought corporate CEOs made compared with unskilled factory workers."* The Young Turks host Cenk Uygur breaks it down.

• Americans Have No Idea How Bad Inequality Really Is
• Wolf-PAC.com

[Jimaz]

Concierge

[[Not available to those in some socioeconomic strata.)