A .01%er Sees Pitchforks In The Elites’ Future
Click here for reuse options!I’m not the smartest guy you’ve ever met, or the hardest-working. I was a mediocre student. I’m not technical at all—I can’t write a word of code. What sets me apart, I think, is a tolerance for risk and an intuition about what will happen in the future. Seeing where things are headed is the essence of entrepreneurship. And what do I see in our future now?
I see pitchforks.
At the same time that people like you and me are thriving beyond the dreams of any plutocrats in history, the rest of the country—the 99.99 percent—is lagging far behind. The divide between the haves and have-nots is getting worse really, really fast. In 1980, the top 1 percent controlled about 8 percent of U.S. national income. The bottom 50 percent shared about 18 percent. Today the top 1 percent share about 20 percent; the bottom 50 percent, just 12 percent.
But the problem isn’t that we have inequality. Some inequality is intrinsic to any high-functioning capitalist economy. The problem is that inequality is at historically high levels and getting worse every day. Our country is rapidly becoming less a capitalist society and more a feudal society. Unless our policies change dramatically, the middle class will disappear, and we will be back to late 18th-century France. Before the revolution.
And so I have a message for my fellow filthy rich, for all of us who live in our gated bubble worlds: Wake up, people. It won’t last.
Copyright 2014 Liberaland
By: dave-dr-gonzo
David Hirsch, a.k.a. Dave "Doctor" Gonzo*, is a renegade record producer, video producer, writer, reformed corporate shill, and still-registered lobbyist for non-one-percenter performing artists and musicians. He lives in a heavily fortified compound in one of Manhattan's less trendy neighborhoods.
* Hirsch is the third person to use the pseudonym, a not-so-veiled tribute to journalist and author Hunter S. Thompson, with the permission of his predecessors Gene Gaudette of American Politics Journal (currently webmaster and chief bottlewasher at Liberaland) and Stephen Meese at Smashmouth Politics.
8 responses to A .01%er Sees Pitchforks In The Elites’ Future
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R.J. Carter June 27th, 2014 at 13:49
I think he just told all the top earners to buy lots of defensive weapons.
Gene Gaudette June 27th, 2014 at 18:07
New! Kevlar Fruit-of-the-Looms®!
R.J. Carter June 27th, 2014 at 13:49
I think he just told all the top earners to buy lots of defensive weapons.
Gene Gaudette June 27th, 2014 at 18:07
New! Kevlar Fruit-of-the-Looms®!
Ronald Louis Ramsey June 28th, 2014 at 12:15
Nick Hanauer knows what the problem is, I do agree with him, here’s my thoughts on the subject.
Pres. Reagan’s administration started thedownward fall of the American working family, to a life of struggle under the control of the corporations in this nation, who takes profit over the working family instead of uniting this nation with equal opportunity.
In the writings of some of our famous founding fathers, one of them Thomas Jefferson’s wrote.
“All men are created equal”,
Which is found in the Declaration of Independence, one of the countries best known documents that started this country departure from the ruling factor of the King George the third and his Parliament. We are now at the point in this
country’s history. That we are heading towards a structure that Alexander Hamilton mentioned in the Federalist papers number 17 that said.
“The barons, or nobles, equally the enemies of the sovereign and the oppressors of the common people, were dreaded and detested by both; till mutual danger and mutual interest effected a union between them fatal to the power of the aristocracy. Had the nobles, by a conduct of clemency and justice, preserved the fidelity and devotion of their
retainers and followers, the contests between them and the prince must almost
always have ended in their favor, and in the abridgment or subversion of the
royal authority.”
Alexander Hamilton
Now we give onto the corporations with such titles as Chief Operating Officer,
Chairman of the Board, or the President of the Company. Than titles like The
King, Queen, Prince, Princess or any other of the royal authority. We are creating a King George the third feudal society, a society run by plutocrats, government by the wealthy.
Thom Hartmann
“When I was in Denmark in 2008 doing my radio show for a week
from the Danish Radio studios and interviewing many of that nation’s leading
politicians, economists, energy experts, and newspaper publishers, one of my
guests made a comment that dropped the scales from my eyes.
We’d been discussing taxes on the air and the fact that Denmark
has an average 52 percent income-tax rate. I asked him why people didn’t revolt
at such high taxes, and he smiled and pointed out to me that the average Dane
is very well paid, with a minimum wage that equals roughly $18 per hour.
Moreover, what Danes get for their taxes (that we don’t) is a free college
education and free health care, not to mention four weeks of paid vacation each
year and notoriety as the happiest nation on earth, according to a major study
done by the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom.”
This was written By Thom Hartmann
I want to leave you with one last thought, beware of the East India Company
Ronald Louis Ramsey June 28th, 2014 at 12:15
Nick Hanauer knows what the problem is, I do agree with him, here’s my thoughts on the subject.
Pres. Reagan’s administration started thedownward fall of the American working family, to a life of struggle under the control of the corporations in this nation, who takes profit over the working family instead of uniting this nation with equal opportunity.
In the writings of some of our famous founding fathers, one of them Thomas Jefferson’s wrote.
“All men are created equal”,
Which is found in the Declaration of Independence, one of the countries best known documents that started this country departure from the ruling factor of the King George the third and his Parliament. We are now at the point in this
country’s history. That we are heading towards a structure that Alexander Hamilton mentioned in the Federalist papers number 17 that said.
“The barons, or nobles, equally the enemies of the sovereign and the oppressors of the common people, were dreaded and detested by both; till mutual danger and mutual interest effected a union between them fatal to the power of the aristocracy. Had the nobles, by a conduct of clemency and justice, preserved the fidelity and devotion of their
retainers and followers, the contests between them and the prince must almost
always have ended in their favor, and in the abridgment or subversion of the
royal authority.”
Alexander Hamilton
Now we give onto the corporations with such titles as Chief Operating Officer,
Chairman of the Board, or the President of the Company. Than titles like The
King, Queen, Prince, Princess or any other of the royal authority. We are creating a King George the third feudal society, a society run by plutocrats, government by the wealthy.
Thom Hartmann
“When I was in Denmark in 2008 doing my radio show for a week
from the Danish Radio studios and interviewing many of that nation’s leading
politicians, economists, energy experts, and newspaper publishers, one of my
guests made a comment that dropped the scales from my eyes.
We’d been discussing taxes on the air and the fact that Denmark
has an average 52 percent income-tax rate. I asked him why people didn’t revolt
at such high taxes, and he smiled and pointed out to me that the average Dane
is very well paid, with a minimum wage that equals roughly $18 per hour.
Moreover, what Danes get for their taxes (that we don’t) is a free college
education and free health care, not to mention four weeks of paid vacation each
year and notoriety as the happiest nation on earth, according to a major study
done by the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom.”
This was written By Thom Hartmann
I want to leave you with one last thought, beware of the East India Company
fancypants July 2nd, 2014 at 20:28
If we don’t 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 didn’t 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. It’s not if, it’s when.
so that we help the 99 percent and preempt the revolutionaries and crazies, the ones with the pitchforks—that will be the best thing possible for us rich folks, too. It’s not just that we’ll escape with our lives; it’s that we’ll most certainly get even richer.
——————————————————————————–
He’s not exactly a wordsmith with his advise OR encouragement for the middle class ( last 2 sentences )
fancypants July 2nd, 2014 at 20:28
If we don’t 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 didn’t 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. It’s not if, it’s when.
so that we help the 99 percent and preempt the revolutionaries and crazies, the ones with the pitchforks—that will be the best thing possible for us rich folks, too. It’s not just that we’ll escape with our lives; it’s that we’ll most certainly get even richer.
——————————————————————————–
He’s not exactly a wordsmith with his advise OR encouragement for the middle class ( last 2 sentences )