The Death of the Middle Class & The Rise of Racism
By Thom Hartmann A...
According to new data from the federal reserve, if current trends of the rich getting richer and the middle class getting poorer continues at their current rate, in 33 years the top 10% of Americans will own one hundred percent of all American wealth. Everyone else will be in poverty and in debt. Right wing billionaires like Donald Trump are cheering this on, calling for more tax cuts on rich people and less power for working people through the continuing destruction of unions and fighting the minimum wage.They tell us that the problem is not corporate monopoly and rich people taking everything for themselves, but instead brown people from south of the border, black people wanting affirmative action, and women wanting equality, what Limbaugh calls "feminazis." They are more than willing to tear up the fabric of American society in exchange for what they think will be a permanent position of wealth and power.
By destroying the American working class, they're fueling class, regional and racial resentment, and then they use that resentment to split us apart and encourage us to hate each other - all so long as we don't point our fingers at them.
-Thom
Comments
#2
As well as some having less empathy as they get richer, there are others who rise through the ranks by being ruthless from the start,
#3
Glad you're back. :)
#4
Thanks :)
The Problem Isn't a "Trade War" - The Problem Is Trump
By Thom Hartmann A...
The United States needs to protect its domestic economy. We need to protect jobs in manufacturing. We need to rebuild manufacturing. But this needs to come from a comprehensive, coherent, multifaceted strategy that may well include tariffs.
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From Screwed:
"If we are going to live in a Democracy, we need to have a healthy middle class. Thom Hartmann shows us how the ‘cons’ have wronged this country, and tells us what needs to be done to reclaim what it is to be American."
From Cracking the Code:
"No one communicates more thoughtfully or effectively on the radio airwaves than Thom Hartmann. He gets inside the arguments and helps people to think them through—to understand how to respond when they’re talking about public issues with coworkers, neighbors, and friends. This book explores some of the key perspectives behind his approach, teaching us not just how to find the facts, but to talk about what they mean in a way that people will hear."
From The Thom Hartmann Reader:
"Right through the worst of the Bush years and into the present, Thom Hartmann has been one of the very few voices constantly willing to tell the truth. Rank him up there with Jon Stewart, Bill Moyers, and Paul Krugman for having the sheer persistent courage of his convictions."
Societal mechanisms that create wealth disparity span all cultures and all time. The bane of human psychology is innate selfishness that disconnects one's mind from the larger phenomenon of life as a holistic movement, including all things and all beings.
Credible studies (e.g., 1, 2, 3) have shown how, in certain individuals with certain personality traits, a lack of empathy -- a basic disconnect from one's humanity -- increases the wealthier they become.
Evidently, the more they gain the more they fear to lose. "Others" (the lesser classes) therefore become natural enemies, perceived as chipping away at concentrated wealth for no good purpose. In the petty mind of a greed-monger, "good" is subconsciously defined as only that which increases personal wealth, usually at the expense of others in a game of zero-sum economics. (Mindless materialism -- compulsive hoarding -- is a mental disorder.)
Homo sapien selfishness is destroying the planet; to survive, we need to evolve.
In honor of John Lennon, imagine a world where we only take what we need, where we preserve and replenish, where we live in harmony with nature and all other human beings -- a world without economic predators feasting on our corpses.