The industrialists, bankers and politicians tied to the oligarchy have
coded the system to tilt the game in their favor. It is now a matter of
statistical record that the “recovery” after the 2008 economic crisis was a
transfer of wealth to those who already dominated the game. The poor got
poorer, and so did the well-adjusted and middle class.
The times are getting more difficult not just for those on the bottom, but
for all who are not towards the top.
Columnist Jeff Sparrow at the London Guardian
wrote a column on the growing nightmare of inequality at a time when the
economy will be sparing few from harsh conditions. The headline is
particularly punchy:
By every meaningful measure, today’s elites are gods. This should
make us angry
According to Oxfam, the wealth of those richest 62 people grew by more
than half a trillion dollars since 2010, even as the wealth of the bottom
half of the world dropped by 41%. That, mind you, took place in the period
after the global financial crisis, during the years of supposed recovery.
In other words, inequality increased massively when the economy was
growing, with most of the new wealth created going to the rich rather than
those who needed it most.
[…]
What can democracy possibly mean in a society resting on such disparities
… Today… the notion that our 62 god-kings can be in any way
constrained or controlled by Joe and Jane Citizen dropping their votes in a
ballot box is too ludicrous for serious contemplation.
On the contrary, the multibillionaire relates to the pauper as
predator does to its prey, with the vast human flock simply a resource that,
in Pushkin’s phrase, can be “either slaughtered or shorn”.
It’s about time to pull back the veil. It isn’t kindly old grandfathers in
charge of a flawed paternalistic system; it is wolves voting on what kind of
sheep to have for dinner from a global supply chain of gullible and dependent
people who have few alternatives and little means of improving their
circumstances.
Sparrow says that they have become “gods,” pure and simple, the world’s
titans now qualify among the gods:
To update that list, add everything made possible for the wealthy
by the almost magical technology of the 21st century. Once you do, it’s clear
that today’s elite don’t need to imagine themselves gods. By every meaningful
measure, that’s what they are. They have absorbed, via their wealth,
all the attributes that religion traditionally attributed to divinities, even
as the world’s poorest still endure conditions familiar to the labourers who
constructed the pyramids.
Such statistics should come as a shock: not necessarily a surprise but
something more like an electrical jolt, awakening us to the global
order we’ve constructed, now, in its everyday operations, demonstrably more
unfair than any previous society in human history.
There are those who, naturally, blaming the system on capitalism – scorning
the billionaires and calling for a level playing field under socialism.
Of course, the problem isn’t capitalism. That our society functions IN
capitalism is one of the biggest deceptions we face. Like “Republicans” and
“Democrats,” the term “capitalism” has become a mascot for the corrupt,
embedded insiders who have rigged our economy as easily as they have rigged
the political systems of the most powerful nations in the world. Certainly
there is no free market.
The Federal Reserve, a privately owned agency, controls the public money
supply – and through quantitative easing and monetary policy gives the bulk
of the currency’s kinetic energy to the big banks who dominate Wall Street,
and in turn, steer or control the major consolidated industries that provide
services in the private sector under the Fortune 100 companies, or who
fulfill government contracts and steer taxpayer spending through public
services for the collective hive of the masses.
In short, the problem is crony capitalism, and the cronies aren’t 2-bit
opportunists, they are managing the major trading blocs and vested interests
of the entire economy.
Socialism is but one predominant flavor of collectivism – large systems
(public or private) which the “crony” billionaires growing in wealth have
taken control of and learned to milk. When governments push expense and far
reaching programs, they create a market for their favorite bidders.
For instance, when Congress considered major cuts to the SNAP food stamps program, to appease
public anger, it was the major banks, like JP Morgan Chase and Goldman Sachs, and Walmart, the dominant retailer,
and major food groups who lobbied to keep and expand it. The
debit cards that SNAP uses generate revenue from fees for JP Morgan; Walmart
sees the largest share of spending from food stamp purchases, and the food
industry – dominated by a handful of conglomerates – benefits as well.
In short more “socialism” will not keep the rich from getting richer, and
will not deliver us all ponies. However, the righteous anger of the many is
growing, and likely to spill over in the wake of forecast financial gloom and
disaster.
Meanwhile the power elite – currently convened in Davos for their annual
spectacle of global domination – are keenly aware of the roused rabble who
shake their fists at ivory towers and clamor for radical change, by whatever
means.
They may not be satisfied with the threatening levels of instability; on
the other hand, they have often ruled through chaos and crisis.
Reportedly, Warren Buffet said:
“Sure there is class war, and it is my class, the rich, who are
making it and we are winning.”
Read more:
If the System of Money Isn’t Changed “Rising Inequality Will
Trigger Social Disorder”
THIS CHART Tells a Story… America’s Middle Class Thrived
After WWII and Died Under Obama
WATCH: American Dependency: “Give Me My Food Stamps”
Epidemic Of Hunger: New Report Says 49 Million Americans Are
Dealing With Food Insecurity
The USDA Is Pushing Food Stamps Like a Drug Dealer at a Grade
School
Hank Paulson Has A Good Laugh Over Wealth Inequality: “We
Made It Wider”
