The Coming Decade of Suck

[Karmadillo]

http://www.ianwelsh.net/greek-mistakes-european-misery-and-the-coming-decade-of-suck/

Greek Mistakes, European Misery and the Coming Decade of Suck

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When you refuse to tax the rich, the only other option is to soak the middle class and the poor.

Meanwhile the Brits have voted for cuts, cuts, cuts. They too are about to get what they asked for. Austerity.

This contagion is going to spread, because Europe is fundamentally in the same mode as the US: spare the rich, cram down the middle class. The lesson taken by the elites from the crisis was that the rich must be appeased at all costs, because if they aren’t, they will go on strike, and crash the world economy.

What happened yesterday on the stock market proves it–nearly a 1,000 points off the DOW in seconds. The stock markets are no longer free markets, their movements are controlled by a relatively small number of actors with very deep pockets, who can make them go up or down whenever they choose.

There was an opportunity to break the power of these folks—to wipe them out, but it required calling their bluff, not caving to them. That opportunity has now passed. While the world economy remains very fragile and could go into a tailspin any time if anything goes wrong, best guess is we have another really lousy recovery and economic cycle to look forward to, if austerity measures don’t crash it out entirely. Over 80% of any gains will go to corporate profits, virtually nothing to ordinary citizens, and we’ll have another lost decade in which for virtually everyone the economy sucks.

There are solutions, but it’s clear that the elites in most countries aren’t willing to do anything about it, and frankly the population keeps voting for right wing governments (whether called that or not), so they’re getting what they vote for. (Say what you will, Obama was the most right wing of the major Democratic candidates.)

more...

[bobbolink]

1. And the people who will, as always, suffer the most are us POOR FOLK

Yet, we are ignored.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

20. As long as people pretend that the poor are some strange fringe minority they will be ignored

BUT, now we have THE NEW POOR and there's a lot of them:formerly prosperous Americans who have been taken down by real estate bubbles, over extension of credit, job loss, medical expenses, bankruptcy, etc.

So now that there a whole lot of people who once considered themselves middleclass now part of the Nouveau Impoverished, I would feel more hopeful that perhaps finally, some attention will be paid.

[bobbolink]

21. Nope.... you may have noticed that where these people are discussed, it is always carefully

pointed out that they ARE "the new poor", and therefore... WORTHY.

This country has always divided poor folk into two groups.. the "worthy" and the "unworthy" poor.

Those of us who were here first will always been labed "unworthy".

UNLESS those of you who care start speaking up...LOUDLY.

[Warpy]

2. Often, right wingers on both "sides" is all people are offered

and that is by design. We have to hope for a class traitor like FDR to come along. If one doesn't, then we're in a world of suck permanently.

Remember, FDR was thought of as a mild son of great wealth who would never put his own family fortune on the chopping block.

While they were right the first two years of his first term, he made a total turnaround when he realized none of those measures his class wanted had a chance of working.

That's really what we're waiting for, not for either party to offer us leftist candidates.

[rudy23]

3. Let's remember, FDR was pre-Kennedy assassination

I think there's a backup plan to make sure no one goes "FDR" on us again.

[glitch]

8. bingo. nt

[Sebastian Doyle]

12. Well, I wasn't going to go "there" but since you did.....

There's a hell of a lot more of us than there are of them. So if that's what it takes to put an end to this bullshit, maybe that's what needs to happen?

[Angry Dragon]

4. You do not paint a very nice picture of the future

[Karmadillo]

5. You're right, but Welsh's picture at least clues us in we have serious problems that

won't be solved by magic. If we want a better world, we're going to have to work for it.

[WillyT]

6. Hey... No Fair... We Just Went Through A Decade Of Suck !!!

:beer:

:smoke:

:hangover:

[glitch]

9. That was Blow. nt

[scheming daemons]

7. The headline of this thread was accurate in 2000.... in 2010, not so much

Obama was not even close to being the most "right wing" of the major Dem candidates. Hillary was much more centrist than Obama.

Much more.

[tbyg52]

10. There are many variations of suck. We're in for ten *more* years. At least. nt

[flamingdem]

11. Exactly. We can't afford to trash Obama, he's dealing w unprecedented OBSTRUCTIONISM and BUSHISM nt

[Name removed]

14. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[JDPriestly]

16. They are not different at all in that respect.

Rahm Emmanuel and Robert Gates see to that.

[amborin]

18. Obama was the most right of center of all the candidates

just take health care...Hillary wanted to start negotiations from a much stronger, more pro-citizen, anti-corp perspective; Obama started negotations from a compromise position

[Sebastian Doyle]

19. You're absolutely correct about candidate Obama

Problem is that some time shortly after November 4, 2008 he was apparently replaced by his evil look alike from the DLC parallel universe. I'm not sure when the exact date and time of the switch was, but my best estimation is right before he announced who his chief of staff would be.



So how do we send this guy back through the wormhole and get the man we actually elected back on this planet? :evilfrown:

[Fading Captain]

13. Democracy was the greatest threat to the rich

One person = one vote.
The poor and middle class outnumber the rich. Even with radio, TV and newspapers pushing their agenda's on us, Democracy was the great equalizer.

Then game globalization. You want your minimum wage? You want union-friendly laws? You want costly enviromental laws? Fine, we're shipping the jobs overseas. And we'll still make our money.

Take that, democracy.

[tblue37]

15. Just prior to the French Revolution, the nobility were not taxed at all.

They enjoyed the privilege of being completely free of taxation. Sound familiar? (Of course, we know how they ended up.)

[JVS]

17. But last decade sucked too. This sucks!