The FIRE Next Time: End-Game for the Elite's ONE-WAY CLASS WAR

[Segami]

:smoke: :smoke: :smoke: :smoke: :smoke: :smoke:

:nuke:



".....So when Hudson speaks, we should pay serious heed. And his latest piece in CounterPunch is heedful and heart-sinking indeed. We are, he says, entering the end-game of a decades-long process of wealth transference in which the entire burden of sustaining society a degraded, hollowed-out, inhumane society and a bloated, belligerent militarist oligarchy falls entirely on working people and the poor, while the elite reap all the profit.


Hudson sees yet another manufactured crisis hitting the battered system next spring: the "debt" crisis, when Republican legislators and Blue Dog Democrats refuse to raise the federal debt ceiling, "forcing" a most willing (yea, eager) Barack Obama to effect an "historic compromise" to "save" the government from closure and collapse: a flat tax.




You should read Hudson's entire analysis, which is set up carefully with very pertinent historical background,

<http://www.counterpunch.org/hudson11252010.html>


but here are some disturbing excerpts:



The danger the United States faces today is that the government debt crisis scheduled to hit Congress next spring (when Republicans are threatening to vote against raising the federal debt limit as the government deficit soars) will provide an opportunity for the wealthy to give a coup de grace on what is left of progressive taxation in this country. A flat tax on wage income and consumer sales would "free" the rentiers from taxes on their property. "


The flat tax actually would tax wage earners much more steeply than the wealthy, whose income it would largely exempt! " The tax does not fall on "empty" pricing in excess of value what the classical economists termed "economic rent," that element of price (and income) that has no counterpart in actual cost of production (ultimately reducible to labor) but is a pure free lunch: land rent, monopoly rent, interest and other financial fees, and insurance premiums. This economic rent is the major return to wealth. It is grounded in the finance, insurance and real estate (FIRE) sector.


The effect of untaxing the FIRE sector is twofold. First, it increases the power of wealth, privilege, monopoly rights and property over living labor including the power of hereditary wealth over the living. Second, it helps "post-industrialize" the economy, creating a "service" economy. A service economy is mainly a FIRE-sector economy.
And now for the end-game, the kabuki theater in which the FIRE-breathing or rather, FIRE-bought -- politicians of both parties finally give the One Percenters what they've always wanted: everything.


The wealthy want just what bankers want: the entire economic surplus (followed by a foreclosure on property). They want all the disposable income over and above basic subsistence and then, when this shrinks the economy, they want the government to sell off the public domain in "privatization" giveaways, and they want people to turn over their houses and any other property they have to the creditors. "Your money or your life" is not only what bank robbers demand. It is what banks themselves demand, and the wealthy 10 per cent of the population that owns most of the bank stock.



cont'

<http://www.opednews.com/articles/The-FIRE-Next-Time-End-Ga-by-Chris-Floyd-101125-564.html>

[fascisthunter]

1. so many were fed enough at the Trough

lot's of people made tons of money, only to be used and screwed in the end. You took the bait suckers, now you'll be like the rest of us, broke.... stupid greedy-ass fools.

[leftstreet]

2. Kill Capitalism Before It Kills Us

K&R

[socialist_n_TN]

3. Ain't that the truth.........

And as to the OP headline, it's not a class war unless we fight back. It's a class massacre.

[maryf]

14. copy that!

K&R too!

[notesdev]

4. We have progressive taxation?

Check again. Why does Warren Buffett pay 12% of his income in taxes while his middle-class secretary pays up to three times that rate?

[DBoon]

5. a "one way war" is called "slaughter"

nt

[Mimosa]

6. K&R for truth. People, wake up! n/t

[Segami]

7. Next stop, Kabuki Theater Matinee. Could be a blockbuster summer release.

[BeFree]

8. You ain't kidding

It's gonna be one hell of a show, if they try to cram us with more of the tax burden.

If they promise to progressively tax all incomes and earnings above say 100,000, we might talk.

Only if every penny that comes in above a certain mark gets taxed progressively higher.

And no taxes on foods and other essentials.

[Segami]

9. A friend continues to remind me not to be blinded by the illusion of ' hope ' over ' clarity '

I'm patiently waiting for the triggering event to rear its face.


".......The trick has been for Republicans (and “Blue Dog” Democrats) to pose as “tax cutters” rather than tax shifters. Many wage earners now pay more in FICA paycheck withholding and other taxes cited above than they do in income tax. These changes over the past thirty years have reversed the 20th century’s tendency toward progressive taxation with a regressive tax system.,,,"

[BeFree]

10. It is coming

Your OP, while maybe missing a few details is the only course left. The poor can't be hammered any more. The tea party is all about that. Sure, it's financed by richies but they know not what they have grown. They will cream any pol who wants to hit them with more.

So what we can do, in the coming needed revision of the tax code, is to make sure the richies pay ever more. It is an opening that I pray our side rises up to overwhelm the owners and make taxes fairer and lean more upon wealth rather than labor.

[Goldstein1984]

15. "...they know not what they have grown."

Tea Party populists and Progressive populists have a common enemy because the class war is vertical, not horizontal. As we approach a threshold of suffering the commonalities will become apparent. When we cross that threshold, there will be one populist rebel army content to work out their differences once the common enemy is defeated.

I had an interesting conversation with a Tea Party coworker. Once we set political dogma aside and started discussing root causes, he found my social concerns valid, and I also found his libertarain views very compatible with my views on individual liberty. We only disagreed on what was the best caliber of ammunition to stockpile. He is a big 7.62 mm fan, and I prefer a .22 for its flexibility and compact ammunition. We did agree that a 12-guage shotgun was essential, and that generators are a two-edged sword because they draw attention to those who are prepared--where there is a generator, there is food and water.

[BeFree]

19. Yeah

If they can just quit with the "pinko commie" reactionary dogma thinking, they come to realize that progressive liberalism is what they are seeking. And we need to work on perfecting it - meaning government has a limited role to play. Like get off our asses and quit throwing us in jail.

And that taxes need to be more balanced... that the working man needs less of a burden and the wealthy have to start paying their fair share. Like they did during the Reagan years.

[Goldstein1984]

20. I think the Tea Partiers will start to come around when the fruits of

the policies they're being tricked into supporting are harvested. When they see their own government-provided services cut due to draconian tax policies. When they or their relatives are shopping for food in the pet food aisle. When the logical flaw in statements like, "Keep your government hands off my medicare!" finally sinks in.

The revolt that's coming will be a populist revolt.

Virginia and New York didn't necessarily have similar reasons for wanting the British off their backs, but they (barely) got together for a common cause, and they worked out compromises that, for good or ill, at least succeeded in postponing a violent fine-tuning of the nation's path for more than 80 years.

[BeFree]

21. Question is

Will the left be tolerant enough to shake hands, find common ground, and move forward?

It really is up to us. We are supposedly the tolerant bunch, eh?

A commonality I have found is getting government out of our living rooms, bedrooms and back yards.
And while the TP lack fundamental cognizance, they can be educated.

[Mimosa]

11. Oh heck, we do.

My partner and I have moved into debtitude because as self-employed people we were trying to hold onto BC/BS health insurance policies. We tried getting cheaper health insurance but were turned down because of pre-existing conditions.

So, our health insurance premiums (including co-pays and Rxs not covered) are near $14,000 a year. And we now owe the IRS $8,000 for 2009 Social Security (is that called FICA?). We can't afford to pay the IRS quarterly tax payments and pay monthly health insurance premiums. If health insurance premiums were 100% deductible we wouldn't always fall behind.

Now, the blue link people always post 'wait until 2014'. Or they post links to the health.gov link. From that site we can find out BC/BS is the state supplier of insurance for pre-existing conditions and the premiums are 38% higher than what we're now paying although the deductibles are lower.

[Catherina]

12. Rec'c. Thank you. n/t

[Jeffersons Ghost]

13. K&R

[blindpig]

16. It ain't gonna be one way for long.

Despite the opinions of some elitists, that the American people are too docile, too lazy, a bunch of 'sheeple', our time is coming. The ruling class gives us no choice, the fightback will happen. Even as the ruling class has little choice in the matter, to preserve capitalism and their place in it they must resort to these deprivations, so we will have little choice but to fight back as the size and intensity of the squeeze becomes unbearable. People do not take to the streets lightly, but they will. Get ready.

[socialist_n_TN]

18. And this Trotskyist agrees.......

nm

[amborin]

17. K&R