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Plutocracy: Government by the wealthy.
The Wealthy "Govern" by using their wealth, and money from Corporations they control to ensure that legislation favors them.
They hire Lobbiests to influence Elected Office Holders. They donate to Candidates and PACs that support the (re)election of Legislators who pass laws that benefit them. They donate to super PACS that OPPOSE the (re)election of Legislators who either don't pass laws that benefit the Wealthy or pass legislation to regulate Corporate activities.
The Elected have become the Minions of the Wealthy.
I love the wealthy. I want to be one some day. I love corporations. I would like to see TRUE Capitalism tried.
I hate Plutocracy!
I want my country back! I want my Government back! End Plutocracy!
Drew Peacock:
"...the Social Security Administration does not need to periodically request money from the Congress to pay benefits.
Funds not withdrawn for current expenses.......are invested in interest-bearing Federal securities, as required by law; the interest earned is also deposited in the trust fund."
http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/ProgData/describeoasi.html
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The Social Security trust funds are United States Treasury bonds. These bonds are issued by the U.S. Treasury to raise money to pay for budget deficits. The total value of all outstanding Treasury bonds is the national debt. The Social Security trust funds own part of the national debt.
"The trust funds have been accumulating Treasury bonds since the mid-1980s because Congress, at the recommendation of Alan Greenspan and Ronald Reagan, decided to collect more in taxes than were needed to pay current benefits. That decision was made in order to build up reserves against the retirement of the baby boomers. As workers, baby boomers have been accumulating Treasury bonds to help pay for their retirement."
"The fact that a default on any part of the national debt is almost unthinkable is underlined by the reaction of financial markets when former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill and President Bush announced in speeches that the Social Security trust funds are nothing but paper. If markets really believed that the U.S. government would fail to redeem its bonds, there would have been an immediate rise in the risk premium on Treasury bonds, with interest rates spiking upward. But nothing happened. Everybody knows: it is only political talk."
"The ability of the government to service its obligations to the Social Security trust funds (that is, to future retirees) is inseparable from its ability to service the entire national debt. The question is not whether the Treasury will be able to repay the 22 percent of the national debt that is owed to the Social Security trust funds. The real question is whether the entire national debt, the sum of all the borrowing from all lenders, is getting out of control. Will the federal government be able to tax and borrow and scrimp in the future to meet its commitments?"
"...every Democratic president (Kennedy-Johnson, Carter, and Clinton)* left office with the ratio of national debt to income below where it was at the beginning of his administration, while the last three Republican administrations (Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and George W. Bush) have presided over explosive growth of the national debt relative to national income. Since 1960, Republican administrations have added 38 percentage points to the national debt/GDP ratio, while Democratic administrations have subtracted 23 percentage points from that ratio. This record stands on its head all the clichés about who is fiscally responsible."
"For the next few years, with the administration repeatedly asking for supplementary appropriations to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan while striving to make the tax cuts permanent, it seems unlikely. Any decline in the national debt/GDP ratio would represent the first such decline under a Republican president since 1974."
"There is no special problem of meeting the Treasury's obligations to the Social Security trust funds. The fundamental problem is the larger one of servicing the national debt. And the solution lies in controlling federal deficits."
http://tcf.org/publications/2005/7/pb540/
*I guess we might make an exception for Obama...but then he really isn't a real Democrat anyway...and he did inherit most of the problems from Baby Bush.
War...what is it good for? Nuttin' except for some rich cockroaches at the top to have an excuse to squeeze the tax-payers out of their hard earned money. The problem is War and wasteful insider deals facilitated by bought off crooked politicians....the problem is not Social Security or any other social program...where the recipients will spend most of their money on necessities vs rich people taking huge gambles with other people's money.
David Abbot. Priceless!
Drew Peacock: Well, I'd say you were partly right about all those people who took part in the gambling and expecting an ROI of 40% which was the exclusive realm of the absolute top 1%. I'd have to include maybe a few more percentage points right up there just below the top 1%. Everyone else were slaving away trying to put a roof over their family's heads and feed, cloth, educate, and provide decent health care with a little set aside for retirement. It was certainly getting very hard to do even this as the employers were constantly squeezing the wages and salaries and benefits and expecting even more work out of their employees. All that time these hard working people were participating in paying their FICA (Social Security wage deductions) and saving through their 401k plans or other retirement plans the reckless and greedy administrators were cheating on their fiduciary responsibilities, hoping to make a killing before the bubble popped again...this time a really big bubble that these greedsters were all making to happen with their CDO tranches, liars loans, CDSs, derivatives, and other schemes. And lets put the blame on those who deserve it...the same people who did these deeds were the ones who propagandized the masses with delusions of "you can make it to the top too if you only work hard enough and save...yeah like "invest" for the long term while the rats reap the short term profits right out from under the masses. The whole capitalist structure is geared to psychologically warp people's better sense...to deceive them into buying things they really don't need...to get their money any way they can. And when these cockroaches succeed in squeezing out the life's blood out of the masses they try to belittle them by saying they did not work hard enough, or they didn't choose to better themselves, or they wasted their money on buying the things they were psyched into buying. It's like in some countries, the women are actually shunned, whipped, or stoned for being raped while the man gets off without even a reprimand. It's the victim's fault. The fact is that the cockroaches who managed to amass great wealth, and much of that wealth was gotten through inheritance, devious deeds, and buying power and not always necessarily through hard work. Some cockroaches were just plain lucky.
Am I saying that the government should force the 1% to bail out the 99%? I am saying that the 1% amassed their fortunes by stealing from the 99% and, yes, they should be not only forced to pay back what they stole but many should be put into prison as well. Bernie Maddoff was just the tip of the cockroach heap and they recently got another cockroach billionaire swindler insider trading guy who happened to be Indian (not American Indian). And others will fall...but I'm sure that most of these cockroaches will get away with their crimes against the people.
Just brilliant, let's wildly cheer for guys like Cain and Romney. These cold hearted rich guys make their money by screwing around with the jobs of average working class citizens via financial schemes involving everything from downsizing corn syrup pizza franchises to leveraged buyouts and the outsourcing of jobs. Self enrichment by job killing is great for the 1% but not exactly the type of leadership the 99% is looking for. IT'S THIS KIND OF ARBITRARY POWER THAT HAS CRUSHED THE HOPES AND DREAMS OF MILLIONS OF HONEST HARD WORKING CITIZENS.
The unemployed are going through enough HELL without OLE NUMBNUTS adding to it with,"it's their own fault", comments. Nobody won, they all disgust me!.... I for one want to be on the side that becomes the SCOURGE AND TERROR of this ARBITRARY POWER!
Reply to post #21 Janesrygley
There are all kinds of parties created by a need to fight the corrupt and choking system, yet being fully controlled by the system and its 1%.
Why do you, the people, continue in ceaselessly flogging a dead horse which will bring you no closer to the home goal tomorrow than it has today?
If you, the people, cannot get past this fork in the road and open up the gates of your minds to the possibility of building a true paradise for yourselves upon this earth, then you, the people, both as a group, and individually (for those who refuse to open their minds and try), are doomed once again, to repeat over in another lifestream the sorrows in bondage to the 1%.
teneraansis, palidromedary, and cygnus 1: can you guys tell people what they can be doing right now to change any part of this system? What kinds of financial acts? What social acts? What about buying strategies? How can people begin to empower themselves and their local communities right this minute, as we wait for the revolution of unfold. How can we be a part of it?
Plutocracy: Government by the wealthy.
I want my country back!!! I want my Government back! End Plutocracy!
The Wealthy "Govern" by hiring Lobbiests and by donating to support the (re)election of Legislators who pass laws that benefit them and by donating to OPPOSE the (re)election of Legislators who don't pass laws wanted by the Wealthy.
Republicans and many Democrats want to be reelected so badly that they have become Minions to the Wealthy.
I want my country back! I want my Government back!! End Plutocracy!
Marshall
Mr. Peacock, from your response to the fine statement of fact palindromedary posted under #13, it appears to me you stand in need of having a few feathers pulled out of your colourful tail.
You remind me of someone who just can't stop eating from the dish that keeps making nearly everyone ill (99%). Let me explain: In your mind you have blindly accepted the debauched financial system as legitimate and authoritative truth, as well as a fact of life, and forget the concerns of millions of downtrodden people parading through the streets of the world after having been forced by the banker to feed from the trough of his defunct finance system.
Can you not see that by pure mathematics the system is designed to let people fall between the cracks as a natural consequence of functioning within its parameters, who then by pure default, yet to no fault of their own, end up unemployed or homeless? Perhaps you don't care. Well, then you must at one time or another find yourself where the protesters are in order to understand their outrage of what has been done to them by the 1% of leeches. While the people are sick of being trampled upon, lied to by political crooks and greedy bankers, and tired of being thrown to the dogs, you continue to support the established order without regard to its fairness. Maybe it has worked well for you, however that does not mean that you should condone all aspects of the financial system which through ignorance of the masses is permitted to use mathematical formulae designed to bankrupt the masses for the benefit of the few.
And here is the lesson from what was said: When we function under an economic system whereby a massive transfer of wealth occurs from the labouring hands of the many into the few hands of lazy opportunists, then we owe it to our own souls to protest and do whatever we can to disapprove of it. You need to learn to become your brother's keeper, as well as his guardian.
Who won the republican debate? Well, let me put it this way: the various parts of a person debated about who should be in charge. The head said, "I should be in charge, I do all the thinking," the heart said, "I should be in charge because I pump the blood that keeps all of you working," the intestines said, "We should be in charge because we do all the digesting." Then the rectum said, "I should be in charge because I handle getting the wastes out of the body. The other parts laughed so hard for so long at the idea of the rectum being in charge, that the rectum closed up and refused to allow any wastes to leave the body. The first day it was kind of unpleasant, the second day was worse, and by the seventh day the brain couldn't function at all, the heart was sluggishly flushing bad blood through the body, and the intestines were full of rotting undigested food from days ago. So they all gave in and let the rectum be in charge.
Which proves that a republican doesn't need any brains, heart, or guts to be a republican. They just need to be a bunch of anal retentives. And that perfectly describes how the republicans have functioned in our government and what they have done to America over the last thirty years.
IF your close owns 23 car dealerships, he could afford to "let them go under". THE auto workers, related workers, and their families couldn't. TOP executives salaries are given to them by the mutual admiration society of narcissistic corporate CEOs who are on one another's boards of directors. UNION wages are negotiated between 2 teams of opposing economists. AND unions are just like any one else - they get what they can get when they can get it. AND when it came time to take a haircut - they took a haircut. A person who works for a small company can represent him/herself directly to the owner or manager. WITHOUT a union contract, a blue collar assembly worker, working for a large corporation is working under a dictatorship. HOW are 50,000 or more employees suppose to represent him/herself singly to the ceo or board of directors for a raise or benefit? AND if that were possible favoritism and racism would be rampant, which is bad enough even with a union. LIKE the good looking lady with the tight jeans and low cut top in my factory, who didn't even need to show up for work and had her boyfriend foreman deliver her check to her home every THURSDAY night. AT least until the union caught them.
Who won the debate last night?
OBAMA, of course.
The rest are just noise.
Thanks, Thom, for all you do.
Vicki
IF your close owns 23 car dealerships, he could afford to "let them go under". THE auto workers, related workers, and their families couldn't. TOP executives salaries are given to them by the mutual admiration society of narcissistic corporate CEOs who are on one another's boards of directors. UNION wages are negotiated between 2 teams of opposing economists. AND unions are just like any one else - they get what they can get when they can get it. AND when it came time to take a haircut - they took a haircut. A person who works for a small company can represent him/herself directly to the owner or manager. WITHOUT a union contract, a blue collar assembly worker, working for a large corporation is working under a dictatorship. HOW are 50,000 or more employees suppose to represent him/herself singly to the ceo or board of directors for a raise or benefit? AND if that were possible favoritism and racism would be rampant, which is bad enough even with a union. LIKE the good looking lady with the tight jeans and low cut top in my factory, who didn't even need to show up for work and had her boyfriend foreman deliver her check to her home every THURSDAY night. AT least until the union caught them.
Palindromedary, thank you. You are most kind. Let's consider this:
The way the government writes into existence, money, with a keystroke, is in actuality done when the government sells to the Federal Reserve Bank, bonds, promising to pay the monies back with interest. The bond is actually an IOU with interest. Banks write money into existance whereas governments approve deficits. The only way this debt to the Federal Reserve will be paid back is through taxes paid by the taxpayers who never are asked to give their consent to running government deficits in the first place. The funds are created by the Federal Reserve out of thin air, creating debts for the people, which the government promises will be paid. So if the government wants, say, a trillion dollars then the government gives the Federal Reserve, for instance, ten bonds worth one hundred billion each, and at no cost to the Federal Reserve, the Federal Reserve simply writes it into existence, or as you say, with the keystrokes in the computer.
Your post on this is excellent. It is so good to read some of the other posts whereby people have seen through the banditry of all those who hold significant offices or positions, yet offer nothing to their country nor to the people due to the fact that they do not work for the people.
Thank you for the post on the U.S. military psychology. It is indeed very revealing. I trust you have heard of HAARP. This is not only a weather altering machine but is a disrupter of "human mental processes, it jams all global communications systems, interferes with wildlife migration patterns, negatively affects your health and unnaturally impacts the Earths' upper atmosphere,
But we do not want to stray to far from our focus which the Revolution will bring, therefore, it is important for the Revolutionists to decide what they are going to do as the cold weather settles in. We are sure this is what the 1% and their government based inside of the United States in Washington, D.C. are waiting for, for the weather to drive them off the streets.
When the cold weather sets in, the people should be busy networking, passing information back and forth and developing a plan of action strategy, which they may then begin to implement in the spring.
"Wall Street Ponzi schemers who recklessly gambled with other people's money...".
It takes a greedy investor as well as a greedy broker to make the deal. Those who were sucked into outlandish returns kept the ball turning. GREED cost them there investments. Had they kept making their 40%/year ROI they would never have said a word.
"And if the government can force the 99% to make good on that debt, through taxation, for the bankster bailouts then the government can force the 1% to make good on bailing out the 99%. "
So you are saying the 1%, what ever that is, should be forced to bail out the 99%? What the hell are you thinking? That is an idioitic statement.
"Whether there is, or not, a pile of cash sitting in treasuries, as I believe the Social Security Admin says there is, doesn't really matter."
The Social Security System does not say there is a pile of cash sitting there. It is Thom Hartmann that pushes that B.S. on his audience.
If the Government is forced to print more money to cover the fact they wasted it on studying underwater basket weaving the value of it is lost due to inflation. You get nothing in return.
"If you stick your money in a savings account, you expect the bank to make good on any withdrawals you want to make later."
You just made the case for private retirement savings accounts. Thank you. (very much)
BTW it is 53% that pay the income taxes for all the rest. Not 1% I am proud to be one of the 53% How about you?
The point is, the companies, whatever they produce, cannot let them get themselves into a situation where the top executives salaries OR the company paid union benefits can break them in the event of a duwnturn in the economy. At this point in time we cannot afford to give bailouts to anyone that thinks they need them. I have a close that owns twenty three car delerships. Mostly GM. His comments all through 2008 was "Let them go under" they will rise again new and stronger than ever. I believe him.
No one wins when that bunch of heartless greedy nutballs gets together. There sure weren't any of those things called ideas or solutions batted around--I guess you gotta' be rich like them (or the lapdogs of the rich)--har-har.
Hey! Thom said on his show that he reads all the comments, so....
I just wanted to say that as Progressives we need to be careful not to alienate the Republicans who might be receptive to our message. There are a LOT of Republicans in the 99%. Thom talks a lot about how the party has lost its way. If we can reach the people who are receptive to the Progressive message, maybe they can be a voice for change within the Republican party and bring some sanity to the table!
I know when I have tried to listen to Fox "News" I have been immediately turned off because the term "Liberal" is used so negatively... "Liberals" believe this, "Liberals" think that, etc. Even if they had something of value to say, I wouldn't be listening anymore because they've insulted me already! I know my Republican boyfriend--who is wildly against political corruption and wants the rich to be taxed--has the same reaction when he hears Republicans or Conservatives being referred to in a generalized, negative light... and I'm quite sure he isn't the only one who feels that way.
So I think when we talk about what certain Republicans are doing, we need to be very specific. Instead of saying, "The Republicans want to keep giving tax breaks to billionaires," we should name names! "Eric Cantor and John Boehner won't even bring the jobs bill to the floor of the House!" This makes the really crazy fringe of the party stand out, allowing the moderate many to distance themselves.
There is lots of room in our Progressive Tent for Republicans, many of whom are suffering in this economy; we need to make them feel welcome.
Hopefully you'll say something about this on your show Thom because if not I'm going to have to call you! :-)
Thanks for all you do!!!
Jane
IF GENERAL MOTORS was not given the loan, a million plus auto and related jobs would have been lost, how much money would that cost the U.S. taxpayer in unemployment benefits? AT least with a loan , there is the possibility of being repaid, how much is repaid when over a million people are on unemployment benefits? THE big 3 auto companies share suppliers, if GM and CHRYSLER did not get the loan, suppliers wouldn't be able to make it supplying FORD alone, and very likely FORD would also have had to gone outta business, putting even more people in unemployment lines and making the economy even worse than it is now. THE WALL STREET bailout was a parting gift from the BUSH administration when it became clear that McCAIN would not win the election. THE banksters took the money and used it to enrich themselves. HOW much did that cost the taxpayers?
When that crowd that was on stage last night, lay on their death bed, they will truely know what a loser is. There were no winners last night.
I honor your optimism I have lost mine
Exactly right Last hope for average folks
Can't stand to listen to lies, so I avoided watching the "debate." Why do they call these events debates? In a debate we agree on the facts then discuss how to interpret what they mean. In this format it is a free for all. You can't learn anything except that every candidate is willing, eager, to tell a bigger lie than his opponent. That is if the lie can be easily fact checked. They don't even tell lies that are difficult to refute. They seem to prefer lies that can be easily fact checked. It is as if they are in a "truth free" zone.
What is amazing is that this group of seven, including the absent Huntsman, is the best that the Republican Party has to offer. Imagine that one of these candidates is likely to become the Republican Standard Bearer. I could not imagine any one of them actually serving in the White House as Chief of State and Commander in Chief. I don't think any of them have ever visited a library, a concert, or a place where ordinary people enjoy listening to each other discuss the events of the day. It is almost as if they were from another planet.
Who won the debate? Who cares? The Republican Party lost the debate because of the poor quality of contenders. I believe some of the smart leaders have decided not to run against a popular President. They are waiting until 2016 and allowing the clowns to enjoy their 15 minutes of celebrity. I know the unemployment is still high. However, President Obama is well liked by the majority of the public. He is smart. He will have a huge war chest. He knows how to campaign and he has not even begun to fight. He can wait and allow the Republicans to beat up on each other. Whomever comes out as the "winner" will have had all his weaknesses revealed to the public. Obama will hammer those weaknesses until he is re-elected in a landslide. There is still a mountain of work ahead, but the fight has not really begun.
I expect that a big part of the Democratic plan for re-election will be to ensure that Democrats will be able to get to the polls on time and to vote when they get there. The Republicans are trying to shut the doors on Democratic voters, but they will not win. The Republican canidates are pathetic creatures who only know how to lie. Obama will reveal their weaknesses to the electorate.
The idea that you think that what Herman Cain said last night about the unemployed is 'very very ugly" is crazy to me. Now, for sure there are some qualified people out there with out jobs, but for many many people they are unemployed because they have limited skills. And the reason they lack skills is because they choose to not get them, and that IS their fault, in most cases that is. Sure it's hard sometimes, and harder for some then others but this is STILL the land of opportunity, you just have to WORK for it. I know that "W" word is hard for a lot of you lefties to grasp, but you should try it out sometime, it's actually brings about good results. BTW, that was one of the only things that Cain said last night that made any sense.
It's so funny (and sad) to hear you rail against Wall Street and to hear you support the bought and paid for by wall street war monger Obama! You want the money/lobbyists out of washington, yet you support those who receive money from lobbyists and wall street insiders. All the while calling the one man who doesn't give the time of day to a lobbyist crazy because he believes in freedom, because he wants to bring the troops home, a man that believes that American empire is bringing this country to it's financial knees. So, this then must make you Thom, pro war, pro wall street, pro poverty, and anti freedom.
You all got suckered in the hope and change of 2008, and now that you see that the new boss is the same as the old boss you still support him!?! Was it Einstein that said the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results? Yet the idea of electing Ron Paul, the only candidate that actually presents hope or (real) change, is abhorrent to you. So, ideology is more important than what's right????? Dispicable.
Critical Mass.