"The Pitchforks are coming...for us Plutocrats."

[NoTeaPartyPleez]

How is he part of the problem? He probably has worked all his life, paid taxes and minded his own business until the glare of inequality and corporate welfare could no longer be managed by wearing sunglasses.

In the meantime, I suggest you take your rose-colored ones off.

I don't think you really care about an answer, but I'll provide it. Those who do nothing but attack the other "side" are exacerbating our problems. It's coming from both "sides" and it's killing us. It's entirely possible that you don't -- or more likely won't -- see that, because you are committed to one "side". I don't know how much more clear I can make it than that.

Both "sides" are at fault. Both "sides" will need to get over themselves and work with the other "side" for anything to improve. But people like you and Joe are happy to just throw the stones. It sure beats doing the heavy lifting.

.

I suggest you get some perspective on these "sides" and compare concentrated money at the top of corporations in the early 1980s compared to now. You can do that research on Forbes site.

Be sure you are sitting down and if you're at your computer, don't have coffee or liquid in your mouth unless you have Windex handy.

The playing field not only is no longer level, it doesn't even exist anymore.

The stone I choose to throw is in my post above: corporations need to be responsible for their own employees getting a living wage, not me and the federal gov't. That would be a great start.

 

[JoeB131]

[


How is he part of the problem? He probably has worked all his life, paid taxes and minded his own business until the glare of inequality and corporate welfare could no longer be managed by wearing sunglasses.

In the meantime, I suggest you take your rose-colored ones off.

Quite right.


My parents were middle class, Union folks who made decent money in the good old days when we had a middle class. But being brought up in the tumult that was the 1970's, I really bought into the conservative argument that we needed "morality".

When I was a young man, I joined the Army and used the oppurtunity to go to college. and when I got out, I got to see what it meant to work for rich people with more money than decency.

IN the last 20 years, I've seen people fired for being gay, fired for getting pregnant, fired because they ran up too many medical bills, (that last one actually happened to me).

You don't get the "morality" unless you have the foundations of a strong middle class that isn't constantly worried about that one little setback that ruins your entire life.

But no, no, Pompous Mac thinks the problem is Government. And Political Correctness.

 

[NoTeaPartyPleez]

I know Joe, you have the answers and anyone who disagrees with you in any way is a "moron".

You're part of the problem. And you won't see it.

.

I do have the answers.

And sadly, they spend a lot of money keeping the morons being morons.

If you are making $9.00 an hour at a Hobby Lobby and you can't get a job because all the good paying manufacturing jobs went to China, but you think the Greens are wonderful people when they take away your health care options because they are right with Jesus.

You ARE a fucking Moron.

I mean, there's really nothing more to be said about it.

The wealthy spend a lot of money convincing you they are better than you and you can't get by without them. And a lot of you stupid fucks fall for it.

Once again, Joe illustrates my point.

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You don't have a point. You're actually very much like a character out of "Atlas Shrugged" but with a twist. You want to say it's all a big gray zone with fault on both "sides" but you won't define it in real terms.

I just gave you a great tip on how to do the math since 1980. I suggest you try it.

 

[Mac1958]

How is he part of the problem? He probably has worked all his life, paid taxes and minded his own business until the glare of inequality and corporate welfare could no longer be managed by wearing sunglasses.

In the meantime, I suggest you take your rose-colored ones off.

I don't think you really care about an answer, but I'll provide it. Those who do nothing but attack the other "side" are exacerbating our problems. It's coming from both "sides" and it's killing us. It's entirely possible that you don't -- or more likely won't -- see that, because you are committed to one "side". I don't know how much more clear I can make it than that.

Both "sides" are at fault. Both "sides" will need to get over themselves and work with the other "side" for anything to improve. But people like you and Joe are happy to just throw the stones. It sure beats doing the heavy lifting.

.

I suggest you get some perspective on these "sides" and compare concentrated money at the top of corporations in the early 1980s compared to now. You can do that research on Forbes site.

Be sure you are sitting down and if you're at your computer, don't have coffee or liquid in your mouth unless you have Windex handy.

The playing field not only is no longer level, it doesn't even exist anymore.

The stone I choose to throw is in my post above: corporations need to be responsible for their own employees getting a living wage, not me and the federal gov't. That would be a great start.

Well, it's my profession, so yeah, I'm kind of familiar with this stuff.

In Post 3 I made it quite clear there is a problem.

But that post also included nuance, and that just got everyone all confused 'n stuff.

I'm used to it.

.

 

[Mac1958]

.

The zealots are killing us.

.

 

[Stephanie]

the glare of INEQUALITY

translation: give up more of your monies to those who are too lazy, too stupid, to make more of their lives or be under the threat of riots and pitchforks

How do you all like being threatened? Living off you taxpayers isn't enough for these people they want everything you have worked to give your families

 

[PaintMyHouse]

the glare of INEQUALITY

translation: give up more of your monies to those who are too lazy, too stupid, to make more of their lives or be under the threat of riots and pitchforks

How do you all like being threatened? Living off you taxpayers isn't enough for these people they want everything you have worked to give your families

The zealots are killing us.

Case in point Mac. Rich = Good, Smart, Hard-working. Poor = Bad, Stupid, Lazy.

 

[NoTeaPartyPleez]

[


How is he part of the problem? He probably has worked all his life, paid taxes and minded his own business until the glare of inequality and corporate welfare could no longer be managed by wearing sunglasses.

In the meantime, I suggest you take your rose-colored ones off.

Quite right.


My parents were middle class, Union folks who made decent money in the good old days when we had a middle class. But being brought up in the tumult that was the 1970's, I really bought into the conservative argument that we needed "morality".

When I was a young man, I joined the Army and used the oppurtunity to go to college. and when I got out, I got to see what it meant to work for rich people with more money than decency.

IN the last 20 years, I've seen people fired for being gay, fired for getting pregnant, fired because they ran up too many medical bills, (that last one actually happened to me).

You don't get the "morality" unless you have the foundations of a strong middle class that isn't constantly worried about that one little setback that ruins your entire life.

But no, no, Pompous Mac thinks the problem is Government. And Political Correctness.

Big money calls the shots in government, and that big money is easily defined. Big money is in the stratosphere compared to the early 1980s. The Forbes 400 list had Ross Perot at the top of the list with a worth of $2,000,000,000. That's lunch money to the WalMart family ($135,000,000,000). Chump change to the Koch brothers and not even worth picking up in a parking lot for Buffett and Gates.

These are the people who run our government. But the yahoos on this board think Obama is a dictator. It would be laughable if it wasn't so painful.

The Richest People in America List - Forbes

 

[JoeB131]

How is he part of the problem? He probably has worked all his life, paid taxes and minded his own business until the glare of inequality and corporate welfare could no longer be managed by wearing sunglasses.

In the meantime, I suggest you take your rose-colored ones off.

I don't think you really care about an answer, but I'll provide it. Those who do nothing but attack the other "side" are exacerbating our problems. It's coming from both "sides" and it's killing us. It's entirely possible that you don't -- or more likely won't -- see that, because you are committed to one "side". I don't know how much more clear I can make it than that.

Both "sides" are at fault. Both "sides" will need to get over themselves and work with the other "side" for anything to improve. But people like you and Joe are happy to just throw the stones. It sure beats doing the heavy lifting.

.

Hey, guy, my "side" is doing plenty of heavy lifting. Because I'm stuck with an underwater mortgage and a busted 401K thanks to the Rich people you love fucking up the economy in 2008, I am working three jobs at the age of 52.

And most of the people I know on my "side" are in the same boat.

And why am I in this situation? Because I worked for a company for six years, and in that sixth year, I required some very expensive medical treatments. WHich means when the rich people who ran our company didn't see the problems coming (They lost the biggest customer despite nearly a year of warning signs said customer was unhappy) it wasn't like they were going to cut back on their limos and yachts and Dressage Horses. Nope. Go up and down the employee list.. See who is making more money because we gave them good raises and see who has run up too many medical bills and totally fire those people.

Now, I have to work with these people until the pitchforks come out, but I have no illusions that they will fuck me over at the first oppurtunity.

Because they already have. Numerous times.

 

[Wry Catcher]

Pompous Mac. You mean old idealogues are the problem for pointing out the problem, not the actual problem.

Hey, guy, we HAD the solution to the problem. The Rich pay their fair share, you have unions that make sure their working folks pay THEIR fare share, and you have trade treaties that don't make us compete with some Chinese babe who gets a government mandated abortion if she exceeds her baby quota!

I mean, Jesus H. Christ on a Pogo Stick, this isn't fucking complicated.

You start at the premise of "What's good for working folks" instead of "What's good for rich people".

I pointed out the problem, too. I wonder if you see that. I just see that life is nuance.

You're approaching this from one side. There's always another side to consider, whether you like it or not. And they have influence, too. So you can either stand on one end and throw rocks, or you can actually try to fix the problem.

.

When all one can do is throw rocks, i.e. pick up the pitchfork, there is a problem. We are approaching that day as the OP correctly states. Plutocrats make the laws and therein create the inequity. As I've posted before, the greatest threat to Capitalism are the Capitalists. Greed is a deadly sin.

Power tends to corrupt, and when the few have power and the rest do not an imbalance occurs which will lead to a police state or a conflagration.

 

[zeke]

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The zealots are killing us.

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Nah, apathy is what is doing that. The apathy of the 1% to the plight of the middle class and poor.

I mean when you (the ultra wealthy) have seen your wealth accumulation and income grow at a pace many of the wealthy have never seen before, what is the problem? To the ultra wealthy there is no problem. Yet.

 

[occupied]

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The zealots are killing us.

.

Zealots break trail for the rest of an ideological movement, without them no political party or movement can exist long.

 

[NoTeaPartyPleez]

the glare of INEQUALITY

translation: give up more of your monies to those who are too lazy, too stupid, to make more of their lives or be under the threat of riots and pitchforks

How do you all like being threatened? Living off you taxpayers isn't enough for these people they want everything you have worked to give your families

I really don't think your thick skull can ever be penetrated by facts.

Report: Walmart Workers Cost Taxpayers $6.2 Billion In Public Assistance
Report: Walmart Workers Cost Taxpayers $6.2 Billion In Public Assistance - Forbes

Walmart’s low-wage workers cost U.S. taxpayers an estimated $6.2 billion in public assistance including food stamps, Medicaid and subsidized housing, according to a report published to coincide with Tax Day, April 15.

 

[Mac1958]

When all one can do is throw rocks, i.e. pick up the pitchfork, there is a problem. We are approaching that day as the OP correctly states. Plutocrats make the laws and therein create the inequity. As I've posted before, the greatest threat to Capitalism are the Capitalists. Greed is a deadly sin.

Power tends to corrupt, and when the few have power and the rest do not an imbalance occurs which will lead to a police state or a conflagration.

Sure power corrupts. And we allow our political and electoral systems to be almost entirely controlled by cash. It's staring us right in the face, it's laughing at us, and we do nothing about it.

Our problems are a self-inflicted wound, but no one is looking in the mirror.

.

 

[NoTeaPartyPleez]

.

The zealots are killing us.

.

Zealots break trail for the rest of an ideological movement, without them no political party or movement can exist long.

I wonder if he thinks that the American Revolution was started by zealots or a bunch of fat, lazy middle of the road schmucks like himself who choose to sit and wait for something to happen?

 

[JoeB131]

the glare of INEQUALITY

translation: give up more of your monies to those who are too lazy, too stupid, to make more of their lives or be under the threat of riots and pitchforks

How do you all like being threatened? Living off you taxpayers isn't enough for these people they want everything you have worked to give your families

Again, it isn't the poor who are the problem. Even with government assistance, the bottom 20% controls less than 1% of the wealth. The bottom 80% in this country controls only 13% of the wealth.

Meanwhile, the top 20% controls 87% of the wealth and the top 1% controls 43% of the wealth.

And this by you is fine.

 

[occupied]

When all one can do is throw rocks, i.e. pick up the pitchfork, there is a problem. We are approaching that day as the OP correctly states. Plutocrats make the laws and therein create the inequity. As I've posted before, the greatest threat to Capitalism are the Capitalists. Greed is a deadly sin.

Power tends to corrupt, and when the few have power and the rest do not an imbalance occurs which will lead to a police state or a conflagration.

Sure power corrupts. And we allow our political and electoral systems to be almost entirely controlled by cash. It's staring us right in the face, it's laughing at us, and we do nothing about it.

Our problems are a self-inflicted wound, but no one is looking in the mirror.

.

No one? Lot's of people saw that one coming but who cares what commie libs say? If they hate it that much it must be awesome.

 

[mudwhistle]

This is a very interesting article, and even though it runs four pages, it's a great read.

A rich guy who actually gets it.

The Pitchforks Are Coming? For Us Plutocrats - Nick Hanauer - POLITICO Magazine

And so I have a message for my fellow filthy rich, for all of us who live in our gated bubble worlds: Wake up, people. It won’t last.

If we don’t do something to fix the glaring inequities in this economy, the pitchforks are going to come for us. No society can sustain this kind of rising inequality. In fact, there is no example in human history where wealth accumulated like this and the pitchforks didn’t eventually come out. You show me a highly unequal society, and I will show you a police state. Or an uprising. There are no counterexamples. None. It’s not if, it’s when.

Here’s what I say to you: You’re living in a dream world. What everyone wants to believe is that when things reach a tipping point and go from being merely crappy for the masses to dangerous and socially destabilizing, that we’re somehow going to know about that shift ahead of time. Any student of history knows that’s not the way it happens. Revolutions, like bankruptcies, come gradually, and then suddenly. One day, somebody sets himself on fire, then thousands of people are in the streets, and before you know it, the country is burning. And then there’s no time for us to get to the airport and jump on our Gulfstream Vs and fly to New Zealand. That’s the way it always happens. If inequality keeps rising as it has been, eventually it will happen. We will not be able to predict when, and it will be terrible—for everybody. But especially for us.

He's talking about Hollywood folks.....liberals.

So what's your point?

 

[zeke]

When all one can do is throw rocks, i.e. pick up the pitchfork, there is a problem. We are approaching that day as the OP correctly states. Plutocrats make the laws and therein create the inequity. As I've posted before, the greatest threat to Capitalism are the Capitalists. Greed is a deadly sin.

Power tends to corrupt, and when the few have power and the rest do not an imbalance occurs which will lead to a police state or a conflagration.

Sure power corrupts. And we allow our political and electoral systems to be almost entirely controlled by cash. It's staring us right in the face, it's laughing at us, and we do nothing about it.

Our problems are a self-inflicted wound, but no one is looking in the mirror.

.

That being the case Mac, how is it that you feel both the very wealthy and the poor and middle class BOTH bear responsibility for our situation in equal portions?

Are there a lot of middle class and poor people in our political system making decisions as to how money can be used in the political process? Who is it that has the money to influence politicians and their decisions? It ain't the poor. Or the middle. Unless you are middle class represented by a union. And there is fewer of those people all the time.

You keep on thinking the moneyed class has the best interest of the rest of us Americans at heart.
And when something not very pleasant happens in the future, you can put all the blame on us middle class folks. We should have just folded up and let the ultra rich do what they want.

That probably won't happen.

 

[occupied]

.

The zealots are killing us.

.

Zealots break trail for the rest of an ideological movement, without them no political party or movement can exist long.

I wonder if he thinks that the American Revolution was started by zealots or a bunch of fat, lazy middle of the road schmucks like himself who choose to sit and wait for something to happen?

People like that tend to live through revolutions so I can understand.