There's a Violent World War Going On, with Millions of Casualties -- Oligarchs vs. Everyone Else

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/theres-violent-world-war-going-millions-casualties-oligarchs-vs-everyone-else


History is littered with the corpses of those who thought they could conquer the world, or at least the “known” or “important” world, through force of arms. Many come immediately to mind: Alexander the Great; Caesar; Hitler; the Celts, Ottomans, and Catholics; various European, Asian, and American empires from the 17th Century Dutch to the 18th Century French, to the 19th Century British and the 20th Century Soviets and Americans. Others, like the Aztecs, are less well known to westerners, Europeans, and Asians, but no less ambitious.

All used some variation on war, the force of military power, to accomplish their goal. All won, over the short-term, and then collapsed over the long term (making the relatively safe assumption that the American Empire is in the process of collapse right now).

So, who’s next?

While the rising economies of the world, like the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) nations, all have the potential, particularly the Chinese, all also are pretty focused on regionalism. But there is one group that has declared war on us - all of us, all over the world - and already won some significant victories. And that’s the creditor class, what economist Henry George called the “rentiers,” and we generally today refer to as “the billionaires.”

[HiPointDem]

1. kr. but rentiers is more important, because they maintain power not by producing useful things,

but by extracting rents on all human activities, actually siphoning cash from useful productive activities.

that's why every country in the world is in debt, but we can't see who's collecting all the debt or into whose pockets the 'savings' of austerity flow

[postulater]

2. I rec anything with Henry George mentioned

[rhett o rick]

3. It isnt personal, it's just business. There may be some collateral damage. nm

[CrispyQ]

4. The predator class.

They knew from the beginning it was war. But a softer and more silent form of war than the world was used to. Not since the ascendency of the British East India Company in the 1700s had the world seen an economic, rather than sovereign, force so dominate the world.

And now they’re in the final stages of their war. Having taken most all the resources of the West’s Middle Classes and thrown them and their children into debt bondage, they’ve moved onto taking over entire nations.

[xchrom]

5. +1

[CrispyQ]

6. Thursday morning kick.

But with the election of Ronald Reagan, the Takers - whose favorite way of taking is through putting the Makers into debt - won a huge victory. They killed or weakened democratic institutions, like unions and politicians not dependent on them. They moved the Middle Class from prosperity into, first, credit card debt, then into second-mortgage debt, and finally into student loan debt. And then, in the final Coup de grâce, they made the formerly democratic governments of Western Europe and the United States indebted to them.

It's not about nations anymore. The next peasant's revolution is going to have to be global. The dream of globalization could come back to bite the predator class on the butt if movements like Occupy take a stronghold. They will do anything to squash it.

I'm re-reading The Shock Doctrine. It should be required reading.