Perhaps this is WHY Kucinich calls Wash DC a "Punch & Judy Show": The 1% Bug-Out Plan

[99th_Monkey]

Can we say "Global Neo-Fuedalism" yet?

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The 1% Bug-Out Plan: Why Third-World Billionaires Are Buying Fortresses in London, New York and Miami

Preparing for economic and political collapse requires survivalist strategies for new elite.

A recent article from Vanity Fair paints a curious picture of London’s well-heeled Knightsbridge, a neighborhood of quaint Victorian houses and elegant hotels serving high tea. Today, a ginormous complex of concrete and metal towers looms above; a development some call the world’s most exclusive address. Though London has long been a place where the cops don’t even carry guns, security is the watchword at One Hyde Park: high-tech panic rooms, bulletproof glass and “bowler-hatted guards trained by British Special Forces” offer residents the promise of perfect safety and privacy in luxurious surroundings.

Only, nobody really lives there. At night, the building is nearly pitch-dark despite the fact that most of the units have been sold.

The story of who bought these apartments and why reveals the complex dynamics of a tectonic economic shift that is creating a bumper crop of billionaires in the Third World as the austerity-strapped First World stagnates. This year, Forbes magazine’sannual list of billionaires included the first recorded in Angola, Nepal, Swaziland and Vietnam. Japan, once second in the number of billionaires, has been left behind by Russia and China. Europe long boasted the most billionaires after the U.S. but the Asia-Pacific region has taken off and may soon leave Europe in the dust. Today it is home to 386 10-figure fortunes (a decade ago, there were only 61). The world’s wealthiest person is a Mexican telecom mogul, Carlos Slim.

http://www.alternet.org/economy/1-bug-out-plan-why-third-world-billionaires-are-buying-fortresses-london-new-york-and-miami?akid=10289.1080794.MZyOO8&rd=1&src=newsletter820068&t=8#.UWBgZcP9dWs.facebook

[Newest Reality]

1. I'm already in a

Serf position and this is my second time with a job that involves no pay, but a place to live.

Yes, the Lords have their Serfs and we have a new form of feudalism.

[dimbear]

2. It's one of those British sounding in jokes.. Punch for alcoholism and Judy for whores. n/t

[Heywood J]

3. You have to ask yourself the obvious question.

Why didn't Rockefeller, Carnegie, Ford, etc. have to live in fortified bunkers? Sure, they didn't live in the same housing (or city) as their workers, but they didn't seem to need bullet-proof glass, panic rooms, and SAS-trained guards.

[99th_Monkey]

4. Hadn't really thought of that

so thanks for mentioning it.

I do believe those filthy-rich to whom you refer, DID have the Pinkertons, et. al. plus
nearly ALWAYS also had the local police along-side as well, as their hired guns &
mercenary thugs. Now we have Blackwater, et. al. of the same ilk.

Interesting. I didn't know that this same "Pinkerton Government Services" organization
STILL exists, as a division of the Swedish security company Securitas AB, although its
government division is still known as Pinkerton Government Services.

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From Wiki:

"Pinkerton's agents performed services ranging from security guarding to private military contracting work. At its height, the Pinkerton National Detective Agency employed more agents than there were members of the standing army of the United States of America, causing the state of Ohio to outlaw the agency due to fears it could be hired as a private army.[citation needed] Pinkerton was the largest private law enforcement organization in the world at the height of its power.[3]

During the labor unrest of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, businessmen hired the Pinkerton Agency to infiltrate unions, to supply guards to keep strikers and suspected unionists out of factories, and sometimes to recruit goon squads to intimidate workers. The best known such confrontation was the Homestead Strike of 1892, in which Pinkerton agents were called in to enforce the strikebreaking measures of Henry Clay Frick, acting on behalf of Andrew Carnegie, who was abroad; the ensuing conflicts between Pinkerton agents and striking workers led to several deaths on both sides. The Pinkertons were also used as guards in coal, iron, and lumber disputes in Illinois, Michigan, New York, and Pennsylvania, as well as the Great Railroad Strike of 1877. The organization was pejoratively called the "Pinks" by its opponents and victims.

The company now operates as Pinkerton Consulting and Investigations, a division of the Swedish security company Securitas AB, although its government division is still known as Pinkerton Government Services.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinkerton_Government_Services

Another interesting footnote is that the Pinkerton's "served" as President Lincoln's
security guards, and we saw how that turned out.