General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe Pitchforks Are Coming… For Us Plutocrats. Story by NICK HANAUER
"If we dont do something to fix the glaring inequities in this economy, the pitchforks are going to come for us. No society can sustain this kind of rising inequality. In fact, there is no example in human history where wealth accumulated like this and the pitchforks didnt eventually come out. You show me a highly unequal society, and I will show you a police state. Or an uprising. There are no counterexamples. None. Its not if, its when."
"It makes perfect sense if you think about it: If a worker earns $7.25 an hour, which is now the national minimum wage, what proportion of that persons income do you think ends up in the cash registers of local small businesses? Hardly any. That person is paying rent, ideally going out to get subsistence groceries at Safeway, and, if really lucky, has a bus pass. But shes not going out to eat at restaurants. Not browsing for new clothes. Not buying flowers on Mothers Day"
Read more: http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/06/the-pitchforks-are-coming-for-us-plutocrats-108014.html#.U9eGXeNdVJk
Excellent read. Stuff I've been saying for years.
FreakinDJ
(17,644 posts)RKP5637
(67,111 posts)local police. TPTB know all of this, so, rather than effective solutions for all, we are a police state more than I think many even begin to comprehend.
FreakinDJ
(17,644 posts)you know your there
jwirr
(39,215 posts)same as in the French and Communist revolutions. Many of the people in the French revolution were uneducated and in the numbers in the Communist revolution were small.
Not only are most of the 99% educated they are many. And those guns the NRA are so fond of selling - they are everywhere - no pitchforks there. There are also many military educated people in that 99%. Times have changed. Plus they assume the 99% is going to blame the government as they did in the other revolutions but the American people are more angry at the corporations and the rich than they are at the government. The revolution my target the politicians that support the rich but they probably will not be trying to overthrow the actual government. They and their property are not as safe as they think.
N_E_1 for Tennis
(9,734 posts)Now let's see action!
Then I'll believe him. Until then still on the pitchfork, maybe last, but still on it.
Hotler
(11,425 posts)the Wall St. melt down happened. Americans do not have it in them to get up and fight back. Glued to the TV.
randr
(12,412 posts)DeSwiss
(27,137 posts)- Although in all fairness to the Prophet Nicky here, they didn't have billionaire prophets back in Jesus' time. In fact I don't think they thought of a billion anything back then......
K&R
theaocp
(4,241 posts)Whether it's deliberate or not, only cognitive dissonance can explain away not understanding this point.
RKP5637
(67,111 posts)Martin Eden
(12,870 posts)... unless the standard of living for the majority declines enough to spur action.
And that is where we're headed. If the working/middle class was thriving with a fair amount of disposable income it wouldn't matter so much if a small percentage at the top became fabulously wealthy, but the unmitigated greed of the One Percent is impoverishing the true job creators in our consumer-based economy.
It would be much preferable to bring about the necessary change with ballots not pitchforks, but our democracy is broken. Nothing will be fixed until we fix that -- which means ending corporate personhood, the pernicious influence of Big Money in our electoral system, and laws intended to disenfranchise the poor.
Baitball Blogger
(46,733 posts)Because, "who is 'we', Kimosabi."
freshwest
(53,661 posts)It's designed to keep people from creating a social engine with enough power to set back the plutocrats.
And it sends the votes and pitchforks to skewer those who try to do so.
Populist_Prole
(5,364 posts)Couldn't be more condensed and consise.
dreamnightwind
(4,775 posts)The oldest and most important conflict in human societies is the battle over the concentration of wealth and power. The folks like us at the top have always told those at the bottom that our respective positions are righteous and good for all. Historically, we called that divine right. Today we have trickle-down economics.
What nonsense this is. Am I really such a superior person? Do I belong at the center of the moral as well as economic universe? Do you?
My family, the Hanauers, started in Germany selling feathers and pillows. They got chased out of Germany by Hitler and ended up in Seattle owning another pillow company. Three generations later, I benefited from that. Then I got as lucky as a person could possibly get in the Internet age by having a buddy in Seattle named Bezos. I look at the average Joe on the street, and I say, There but for the grace of Jeff go I. Even the best of us, in the worst of circumstances, are barefoot, standing by a dirt road, selling fruit. We should never forget that, or forget that the United States of America and its middle class made us, rather than the other way around.
Or we could sit back, do nothing, enjoy our yachts. And wait for the pitchforks.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/06/the-pitchforks-are-coming-for-us-plutocrats-108014_Page4.html#ixzz38sOTvRwJ
90-percent
(6,829 posts)Last edited Tue Jul 29, 2014, 10:07 PM - Edit history (1)
Didn't somebody already make a luxury ocean liner rich people can go to live on when the revolution is finally televised?
Or when global climate change renders entire coastal regions uninhabitable?
I mean, they didn't all become giga-rich by being stupid,did they?
-90% Jimmy
DiverDave
(4,886 posts)What say?
musiclawyer
(2,335 posts)All it takes is another Rodney King type of thing..... Or video of the murder of an immigrant kid. .... Plus social media .........and most every senator and targeted plutocrats could be taken out over night . But I don't think that will happen. The liberal, weed legal states in the west and northeast eventually will prosper economically by enacting living wage laws, among other progressive measures. They have no choice. Well paid 20th century and pre crash jobs are not coming back.
Then you really will have two Americas -- thriving and depressed. It's already started
Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin
(108,023 posts)But pretty relevant none the less.