How the Rich Stole Our Money--And Made Us Think They were Doing Us a Favor

[madokie]

Pushing people toward stocks, real estate and credit cards have all come at a cost -- and with one goal in mind.

If you’ve paid attention to the economy over the last few years, you’ve doubtless seen the charts and figures showing the decline of the American middle class in concert with the explosion of wealth for the super-rich. Wages have stagnated over the last 40 years even as productivity has increased, which is another way of saying that Americans are working harder but getting paid less. Unemployment remains stubbornly high even though corporate profits and the stock market are at or near record highs. Passive assets in the form of stocks and real estate, in other words, are doing very well. Wages for working people are not. Unfortunately for the middle class, however, the top 1 percent of incomes own almost 50 percent of asset wealth, and the top 10 percent own over 85 percent of it. When assets do well but wages don’t, the middle class suffers.

This ominous trend is particularly prominent in the United States. That shouldn’t surprise us: study after study shows that American policymakers operate almost purely on behalf of wealthy interests. Recent polling also proves that the American rich want policies that encourage the growth of asset values while lowering their own tax rates, and are especially keen on outcomes that favor themselves at the expense of the poor and middle class.

So why isn’t the 99 percent in open revolt? The answer lies in part because the top 1 percent have done an excellent job disguising the upward transfer of wealth by making the rest of us feel better off than we actually are while enriching themselves in the process.

To understand how they accomplished this, we have to realize that the peculiarities of American politics and culture do not tell the whole story. The trend toward greater hoarding of wealth by economic elites and shrinking middle-class incomes is not limited to the United States. It is present to one degree or another throughout the industrialized world. The self-interested preferences and self-serving ideology of the super-rich surely have influence, of course, but it also seems clear that a broader range of factors and economic policy decisions come into play. And indeed they do. The current inequality crisis has its roots in a series of decisions made in response to the inflation shocks of the 1970s and to the growing threat of globalization and workforce mechanization.

http://www.alternet.org/economy/how-rich-stole-our-money-and-made-us-think-they-were-doing-us-favor

[Le Taz Hot]

1. I'm right in the middle of Elizabeth Waren's new book

and holy cow is it an eye-opener! I especially like the part where the 1% (who owns the media) sent their minions out to tell us all that the foreclosures and job losses were OUR fault -- that we bought houses we couldn't afford (when many trusted the "experts" when they told people we COULD afford those houses) and that skyrocketing bankruptcies were because we overspent. And the sad thing is? There were a WHOLE LOT of DUers who mimicked that exact same sentiment. There's a bozo on this board right now blaming the BOOMERS (all of us) for the fact that so many of us lost our jobs, pensions, and homes. Just goes to show you that Faux Nooz isn't the only entity will lazy, stupid people unwilling to do their own research.

We forget that a whole lot of "Democrats" voted for things like the bailout (with no strings attached), CLINTON (Democrat) deregulated the banks and a whole lot of "Democrats" voted for the bankruptcy laws making it virtually impossible for people to file bankruptcy. There was a time when Democrats fought for the middle class and the poor. People like Paul Wellstone, Ted Kennedy, Russ Feingold, REAL Democrats. Now we have corporate toadies -- most of whom are entrenched and most of whom are bought and paid for by Wall Street and only the Wall Street darlings will be allowed to get anywhere near the presidency. If you doubt any of this, ask yourself, "How many banksters are in jail.?" We all know the answer and we all know the reason why.

[madokie]

8. No doubt we're being taken to the cleaners

If we don't get something done about our so called free press we've truly screwed. Its not supposed to be this way. I'm old enough to remember when a person could make enough to pay her/his bills and save money for vacations and rainy days. Now it takes two and sometimes three jobs to make ends meet. I think it was Will Rogers who said that there ought to be a politician hanging from every tree between here and Washington, something to that effect. I'm not advocating anything like that but the jest of the statement is right on with todays crop of politicians, 'specially the republiCON party. We still have a few good Democratic members in congress but only a few are left.

[CrispyQ]

16. This: "only the Wall Street darlings will be allowed to get anywhere near the presidency."

I will still vote but I no longer believe we'll get our government back via the ballot box. Our electoral process is too compromised with electronic voting, money equals speech, a 'fair and balanced' media, and an apathetic public, although I can see why they are apathetic. "We don't suck as bad as the other guys" is not a rally cry, it's a cop out.

[blkmusclmachine]

2. Trickle Down is/was a LIE. But try telling that to our current crop of so-called "Democratic" leader

-s

[Spitfire of ATJ]

3. Pay off your credit cards and joyfully cut them up....

I know someone who got into the cash advance trap at one of these payday lending places and they were $500 in the hole.

They said, "I'd like to get out from under but I can't afford to do without the $500."

I said, "How about $100 less a month?"

They said, "Yeah, I could do that."

I said, "Cool. Next month only borrow $400, then the month after that only borrow $300, then the month after that only borrow $200, then the month after that only borrow $100 and the next month you'll be free."

I can't believe people don't think of this stuff.

[marmar]

4. k/r

[Enthusiast]

5. K&R! This post should have hundreds of recommendations!

[Scuba]

6. K&R

[Laelth]

7. k&r for exposure. n/t

-Laelth

[WinkyDink]

9. I said it decades ago: The reduction of interest rates for SAVINGS was this plan's push. People for-

get that the Carter Years saw HUGE interest rates for Certificates of Deposit. All Americans do now is bash the rates for LOANS back then, but ask my mother and others of the Greatest Generation now when they made the bulk of their saved money. They'll tell you: The Carter Years.

[madokie]

10. I remember when

I could borrow money and use our savings account for collateral and in the end the interest paid on the savings and the low interest charged on the loan would make for free money. Well not free but not cost anything to finance whatever we wanted but really didn't want to just spend the savings on it. Now our savings don't pay shit. I still use that strategy but only because I can get a better rate on the loan

[Jesus Malverde]

11. The creation of 401K's, IRA's while allowing companies to loot pension funds.

Is a way to subsidize wall street.

Billions of dollars have been stolen from the middle class by wall street bankers and financiers.

The fundamental basics of the monetary system, where the federal reserve is owned by private banks and the individuals that control them, contributes to the parasitic class that takes from the people and creates nothing of value.

[Hissyspit]

15. See:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024910548

LEAKED: Docs obtained by Pando show how a Wall Street giant is guaranteed huge fees from taxpayers on risky pension investments

[SammyWinstonJack]

12. ...

[CrispyQ]

13. An excellent article.

Though Diner’s Club cards originated in the 1950s, the charge cards as we know them today were truly born and popularized in the mid-1970s and early 1980s – not coincidentally the same time as Wall Street deregulation, 401(k) transitions and the birth pangs of the real estate boom. The boom in popular credit had two major effects: to enrich the same financial services companies whose success disproportionately benefits the wealthy, and to disguise and soften the effects of stagnant wages.

Another article I read some time ago stated that Americans are trinket rich but equity poor. We have iPhones & iPad & gadgets galore but no equity. That also helps to disguise stagnant wages. People think they are doing better than they are because they have new gadgets & new furniture & new cars. Most of it on credit, but they have it.

My mother thought my husband & I were losers because we live in a small house & drive old cars & our furniture is the crap I bought in the 80s. But when she passed, my sister, who she thought was wildly successful with her new house, new furniture, vacations & new car, could not write a $2000 check to put my mother in the ground. Nor could she charge it. The only time my BIL has ever been decent to my husband was the day my mother died & we paid for her expenses.

[Hissyspit]

14. BREAKING: LEAKED: Leaked docs show how a Wall Street giant is guaranteed huge fees from pensions

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024910548

[pacalo]

17. K&R.

[bvar22]

18. The DEFINITION of 3rd Way Democrats:

[font size=3]"disguising the upward transfer of wealth by making the rest of us feel better off than we actually are while enriching themselves in the process."[/font]


The Old Traditional Democrats (FDR/LBJ) New Deal/Great Society Democrats built the largest, wealthiest, Most Upwardly Mobile Working/Middle Class the WORLD had ever seen.
Lets try THAT again,
IIRC, the top marginal rate was 90%.

Why do we even need "3rd Way Democrats" or "New Democrats".
At least with the "Old" Democrats, we were moving in the right direction.

[madokie]

19. Instead of a third way democratic party pol

I'd just as soon have a republiCON. At least with them you know where they stand and they don't have to mislead you in your knowing that. Blue dog, third way all the same in my book.