Because We Let Them

[polly7]

By Paul Street

January 4, 2015

Flash back to the 21st century and ask yourself: why does the United States’ astonishingly wealthy economic elite – so flush that the 400 richest Americans possess among themselves as much wealth as the bottom 150 million US residents – suck yet more and more money, net worth, and plutocratic power into its hands? Ten years ago, the late brilliant iconoclastic US comedian and ranter George Carlin told audiences that “The real owners” of America “are the big wealthy business interests that control things and make all the important decisions. Forget about the politicians….You have owners,” Carlin continued:

“They own you. They own everything. They own all the important land. They own and control the corporations. They’ve long since bought and paid for the Senate, the Congress, the statehouses, the city halls. They’ve got the judges in their back pockets. And they own all the big media companies, so that they control just about all of the news and information you hear. They’ve got you by the balls. They spend billions of dollars every year lobbying to get what they want. Well, we know what they want; they want more for themselves and less for everybody else.”

“But I’ll tell you what they don’t want. They don’t want a population of citizens capable of critical thinking. They don’t want well-informed, well-educated people capable of critical thinking….They don’t want people who are smart enough to sit around the kitchen table and figure out how badly they’re getting fucked by a system that threw them overboard 30 fucking years ago.”

“You know what they want? Obedient workers people who are just smart enough to run the machines and do the paperwork but just dumb enough to passively accept all these increasingly shittier jobs with the lower pay, the longer hours, reduced benefits, the end of overtime and the vanishing pension that disappears the minute you go to collect it. And, now, they’re coming for your Social Security. They want your fucking retirement money. They want it back, so they can give it to their criminal friends on Wall Street. And you know something? They’ll get it. They’ll get it all, sooner or later, because they own this fucking place.”

Full article: https://zcomm.org/znetarticle/because-we-let-them/

[ramprat63]

1. Yup

He always told it like it was.

[L0oniX]

2. George told more truth in that than any president ever has.

[JayhawkSD]

3. Why do we worry so much about money which is not even real?

You buy a house for $100,000; $20,000 down and a $80,000 mortgage. The housing bubble makes that house worth $500,000. "Oh boy," you say, "I'm filthy rich." So you borrow another $400,000 against "the equity in you house" and you live it up. But then the bubble bursts and now your house is only worth $100,000 again, but now you owe $480,000 debt against it.

That's because that $400,000 was never real money. It was an inflated expectation. It was money the government printed to pump up the economy and which invertors put into bogus instruments which pumped up false values on houses because that money had to go somewhere and there were too few places to put it.

And that's what the "wealth" which the 400 have is. It's "quantative easing." It's $85 billion per month for five years that the government greated out of thin air by "buying government debt" and putting bogus money in its place. It's not real money any more than was that bogus value which homeowners lost when the housing bubble burst. It's looks good on paper but it is not real money. It is not backed by real assets or real security. It can go "poof" at any moment just like the value in homes went "poof."

[niyad]

4. spot on, as george always was!

[Arugula Latte]

5. He got it on everything -- the scams of religion, business, government ... everything.

[Doctor_J]

6. Parenti sums it up this way

"We have a lot. We' take more. We want it all".

[sabrina 1]

7. We do let them. Even those who claim to be against this grotesque inequality, enable them when

they feel their 'side' may be part of it, but not as 'evil' as the other side.

I think what they fear most is the people UNITING. They WORK to keep the people divided.

Which is why they hated OWS so much. It could not be identified as a political group so they struggled hard to make it so.

The claims varied from 'it's the TP' to 'it's the radical left' in an effort to get the sides to line up against it.

The truth was, it was just Americans who were awakening to what Carlin warned about and nothing scares them more than that.

[polly7]

8. And we're letting them all over the world, Sabrina.

But people (especially those suffering the most under austerity right now) are beginning to fight back, I just hope that enough will unite with strong enough voices to force their gov'ts to listen.

[sabrina 1]

9. There is pushback Polly, more now than there was ten years ago when people were just trying to

figure out what was going on.

It took a while but Greece, one of the first to be destroyed by the Goldman Sachs run Austerity 'programs' in Europe, has finally begun to see the rise of more Left leaning parties.

Maybe it had to play itself out for people to see how awful it is, unfortunately a lot of people suffer in the meantime. But there was support at first for these draconian policies, now not so much.

I posted an OP about it in the Populist Forum http://www.democraticunderground.com/12772406

So there is hope of some changes coming, polly!

[polly7]

10. Agree completely, and that was a great link! nt.

[sabrina 1]

11. Here's a new one you might be interested in.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/12772771

Figuring out what the problem is, is a vital first step in figuring out how to fix it. I think we are seriously finding that out now.

Love your sigline, btw ...

[polly7]

12. Thank you Sabrina as always for all your good information.

I'm just reading your link now .. you guys have a real gem in Elizabeth Warren and a few other vocal truth-tellers. Every gov't in the world needs one of her to expose this crap, because it is global, and we clearly see how badly those who can least afford austerity are already suffering with increased suicides, poverty, lack of access to health systems they once depended on, etc. etc. etc. Yes, they are getting angry over the push-back they're already seeing, thus the escalation in dehumanizing others, ramping up the war-talk and doing whatever they can to ensure the least resistance. It's going to get very interesting .....