One Stat to Destroy Your Faith in Humanity: The World’s 85 Richest People Own as Much as the 3.5 Billion Poorest
http://world.time.com/2014/01/20/worlds-85-wealthiest-people-as-rich-as-3-5-billion-poorest
85 = 3,500,000,000
Comments are closed.
One Stat to Destroy Your Faith in Humanity: The World’s 85 Richest People Own as Much as the 3.5 Billion Poorest
http://world.time.com/2014/01/20/worlds-85-wealthiest-people-as-rich-as-3-5-billion-poorest
Comments are closed.
7 Comments.
hmmm, again from my grade school history, I thought we had a revolution to get out from under the plutocracy.
We shouldn’t have bothered, all we did is change the titles – instead of “Duke of Windsor” we now have “CEO of Windscorp”
I’ve said it before: I don’t believe in blaming the victim. If you were walking down an alley and got mugged, that’s not your fault; it’s the mugger who did the wrong thing.
But if you keep walking down alleys, the mugger is no longer the solely responsible party.
These 85 people got as rich as they are mainly by theft — theft by lobbying, theft by loophole, theft by entitlement. And the theft happened because the 99.999% simply sat there and allowed it to occur. If you don’t vote, if you don’t participate in your democracy, if you just surf through the channels and accept whatever the talking heads say, you deserve to be taken advantage of.
Part of the problem is that somewhere between 50% & 99.8% have been fooled into believing a pack of lies – f’instance that if they cut taxes for the rich then their own outlook somehow improves. Simply say ‘tax cut’ and you’ve already picked up the 50% who always vote for whatever Rich Limpbone tells ’em to vote for.
In that environment, it doesn’t matter so much that a few of us have managed to pull the wool from our eyes.
The problem with most victims of oligarchy is not that the wool is pulled over their eyes but that their eyes are made of wool and remain wool no matter how much is pulled away.
The obvious conclusion is that no one is going to save us, and there will be no changing the government with the system, so it is long past time to take charge for ourselves and those we care about, which will involve shaking off Industrial Age notions. Stop thinking like employees and start thinking like entrepreneurs and investors. That’s not a defense of the system; that’s pointing out who is still getting ahead. That is, unless you are a silver-spoon, well-connected, Ivy Leaguer, then by all means be a highly paid executive employee.
Cutting taxes for the rich means social services and safety nets get cut, which means those horrible brown people can’t have any.
This is what’s known as cutting off your nose to spite your face. White folks were only too happy about federal giveaways when it was just white folks benefiting from them. The original giveaway here was to invade the place and give 160 acre lots to white dudes. No whining about entitlements then.
I always get the giggles when the wrong wing starts talking about ‘entitlements’
They think they’re entitled to government support for the religion. They think they’re entitled to the bulk of the wealth of this planet. They think the 1% are entitled to the fruits of the 99%’s labor. They think they’re entitled to the more of the wealth of this continent than someone who was born a few miles to the south.