Its kind of like milking a cow

[ThomWV]

I can not get this out of my mind: There are always people getting very rich in places where there is great poverty. Drug dealers (high up the chain) in poverty stricken inner cities is an example that comes immediately to mind but a host of small nations operate in much the same way. High level predators are more than able to feast where others starve. In fact it could be argued that a weak and poverty stricken society is the easiest prey.

The Koch brothers and their likes do not care what they do to this country. They do not care how poor we become, in fact the poorer the better.

I can not get this out of my mind either: For a long time I thought we were becoming, or had become, a fascist nation. I see fascism as the melding of Government and Industry (the corporate world) into one who's priority in governance is always in favor of the commercial interest over the individual or class of individuals. "Down with the Corporations" has been my cry. But then I thought about all the people I know who operate their own small businesses. And then I realized that most of the nation's businesses are small owner/operator and it is not they that are trying to take over Government. No, it is a much smaller group and it is not the Corporations that are being favored so much as their it is a small group of very rich people who happen to also own or control a few very large corporate/industrial money makers. What we have is not Fascism, it is a Plutocracy. What they have done is genius. They now have us fighting an amorphous blob - all corporations everywhere - when the real target should be a much more self-centered elite. And who are these elite? Well, we have the much-deamonized Koch brothers, but they have to just be the tip of the iceberg. Look at it this way, Republicans are constantly pushing for lower taxes or no taxes at all and that is being pushed from somewhere; Warren Buffett and Bill Gates both tell us they pay too little and that their billionaire friends feel the same way. Well, who is it then?

And maybe one again I'm full of shit, but at least I got these two things off my chest.

[grahamhgreen]

1. This is America! In America we have a choice,

that is a choice of milking machines.

Which one would you like?

The Blue milking machine, or the Red one?

[patrice]

2. I started thinking about that with the Harriet Miers nomination for SCOTUS: Think of the internal

fractures in the uber-rich class that were exacerbated by that nomination, because of the business advantages it would have given to the Bush branch of the plutocracy. Think of how violations of rights to privacy have profoundly enabled things like industrial/business espionage.

There are those in the uber-rich class who "care" about America and those who don't, BECAUSE THEY DON'T HAVE TO. One thing I hope about President Obama is that he is TRYING to make/let these people decide whom they bear allegiance to, so that, THEN, the rest of us can decide.

[patrice]

7. On edit: make that "international industrial/business espionage". nt

[liberal N proud]

3. There will soon be two classes in America

Those who have and those who do not, nothing in between. The wealthy will still not be happy because they personally do not have it all. The only hope is that they one day devour each other because at this point there is no stopping them from devouring our middle class.

Gone!

[TheKentuckian]

4. The few people aren't the problem because they are easily replaced from the farm squads.

The problems are systemic. If you have an epiphany that involves focusing on individuals and not the system set up and rigged for their great benefit, it is a brain fart.

[The Wielding Truth]

5. This is why Monopolies are busted. Concentrated wealth is a death nail to

a stable economy. Eventually it will destroy a society, decaying into decadence or erupting into revolt.

[L. Coyote]

6. It's kind of like owning the cow

If you own the cow, you own the milk. You drink
what you want, and you allow others to drink
after you are fully satisfied, if there is any milk left.

You get the butter and the heavy cream,
the lucky few nearest your position get whey.

What is needed is taxing cows!