-Submitted by David Drumm (Nal), Guest Blogger
Republicans want to raise taxes on the poor to pay for tax cuts for the wealthy. CEOs are using taxpayer funded bailouts to rake in obscene salaries and bonuses. The wealthy fund play-for-pay think tanks that spit out position papers that support their benefactors’ desire to get wealthier. Certain media enterprises push messages such as corporate tax holidays and corporate deregulation that enhance the wealth of the few at the expense of the many.
Professor G. William Domhoff calculates that 1% of the nation’s population owns 43%, and 10% owns 83%, of the nation’s financial wealth. This is the scenario that James Madison warned of, in an essay published in the New York Post.
Madison wrote:
We are free today substantially but the day will come when our Republic will be an impossibility. It will be impossibility because wealth will be concentrated in the hands of a few. A republic cannot stand upon bayonets, and when that day comes, when the wealth of the nation will be in the hands of a few, then we must rely upon the wisdom of the best elements in the country to readjust the laws of the nation to the changed conditions.
The quote is included in the 1972 book entitled The Great Quotations: The Wit and Wisdom of the Ages. The book was written by George Seldes who spent thirty years researching the book for accuracy.
Madison was a firm believer in meritocracy. In Federalist no. 57, he wrote:
Who are to be the objects of popular choice? Every citizen whose merit may recommend him to the esteem and confidence of his country. No qualification of wealth, of birth, of religious faith, or of civil profession, is permitted to fetter the judgment or disappoint the inclination of the people.
When the wealthy use their money and power to influence governmental policy to enhance their wealth and power, meritocracy is replaced by a sense of entitlement. Paul Krugman wrote about the Angry Rich “who feel that things to which they are entitled are being taken away.” In The Wail of the 1%, when the privileged class loses its privileges, they get angry.
Madison’s words ring true today and we ignore his warning at the Republic’s peril. The “best elements in the country” cannot be found in the field of Republican candidates nor in the current occupant of the White House.
H/T: Rick Ungar.
Activist Who Reagan Called ‘One Of The World’s Greatest Labor Leaders’ Coming To Support Occupy Wall Street
http://thinkprogress.org/special/2011/10/14/344327/activist-ronald-reagan-called-one-of-the-worlds-greatest-labor-leaders-coming-to-support-occupy-wall-street/
Excerpt:
As ThinkProgress reported earlier this week, former Polish anti-Soviet activist, union leader, and president Lech Wałęsa announced that he supports the occupation of Wall Street by demonstrators upset about economic injustice.
Now, Wałęsa has announced that he will be joining the protests in New York city in person:
Solidarity hero Lech Walesa [sic] is flying to New York to show his support for the Occupy Wall Street protesters. “How could I not respond,” Walesa told a Polish newspaper Wednesday. “The thousands of people gathered near Wall Street are worried about the fate of their future, the fate of their country. This is something I understand.”
Blouise, It is much worse here with all the wealthy oil and gas people in control of the tea party legislature and Rick Perry.
Tax Cuts for the Wealthiest 5% of Americans Cost the U.S. Treasury $11.6 million every hour of every day
http://campaign.r20.constantcontact.com/render?llr=n6j6bzdab&v=001qNpDsySIaEIHOHTGLIEL3ptNy3yM0JBmgJUFFvbkNnwFP4B5n6rGPCHf8fsbKW243CcA-qczVxmCbv6MBo9kW5HPF_mwRojn4ftFlG0RCFz9nQdysIWmDX_UWA12xAaIT9eqpDrPbbQUvd3Ru0i_KwIG_09mTHr1
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http://costoftaxcuts.com/
Monty Python – Merchant Banker
Nal:
good post. But the question I have is why is wealth being concentrated?
At the end of the 19th century/beginning of the 20th century there was a quotation which went something like this – “rags to riches to rags in 3 generations”. It doesnt work like that anymore. Why not?
The mid to late 19th century saw incredible advances and great wealth created. Government played a role but not to the extent it does today.
What is happening, at least in my opinion, is that government is responsible for this concentration of wealth. Had Wall St. not been bailed out a good many wealthy would have lost their fortunes and rightly so. Darwin is good for markets too.
Government regulations/interventions are preventing natural market forces from culling the heard and are rewarding rather than eliminating inefficient uses of capital.
Get rid of the idea of too big to fail and some other regulations which perpetuate poor performance and you will see a return to a more equitable distribution of wealth.
More people will be able to take part by simplifying business creation and by getting rid of regulations which make it hard for a little guy to compete with the big guys. More little guys means a better deal for everyone.
More people should also start working for themselves and get over the idea of a corporation taking care of them until they die. Back in Madison’s day most people were self-employed or had small farms.
What has been the result of the US govt.’s “humanitarian missions” so far? If the US is invading countries for humanitarian reasons, why did we greenlight the killing of protesters in Bahrain in conjunction with Saudi Arabia? Why have we just recently sold Bahrain some of the govt.’s most sophisticated weapons?
Surely, it must be clear that we “humanitarly” invade based upon oil, not the goodness or badness of who is doing what in another country. If we used war crimes as a real basis for invasion, Obama would need to order himself droned and the US under occupation by the US!
No one should argue the fact that there are many bad people doing horrible things in various countries, including president Obama in the US. So the question is two fold? 1. Is war the correct response? I would argue, No. War leads to more war. It is extremely profitable, so much so, that the govt. arms every side of every conflict. Don’t believe me, just look it up. 2. if we are in such a fiscal crisis, where did the money come from for this invasion? Obviously, a choice is being made that the govt. will take care of the investments of the elites and let the rest of the people starve. Is this acceptable? I would say, no.
P.S. The Family is very involved with the Ugandan elites. They are currently sacrificing children in the service of obtaining more wealth. I wonder why we are not going after these people since they are doing such awful things as taking machete’s to children, cutting them to bits and doing ceremonies for wealth with the parts (see the BBC world for that story). Hmmm, could it be we don’t give a shit when the elites who are the friends of US elites commit atrocities?
SwM,
We won a huge victory in the Ohio Supreme Court this week when they ruled against the Republican’s effort to stop the voter referendum that is going on. We want it on the ballot so that the voters may decided whether or not the Republican’s gerrymandered maps will stand.
It is amazing the lengths to which the wealthy will go to protect their imagined entitlements.
One of the reasons for an estate tax is so that great concentrations of wealth aren’t passed on generationally and cause a disparity in the wealth held by fewer and fewer people from becoming a destabilizing force in the society and economy. That’s what I’ve read anyway.
Good reading on the current state Estate Tax, which just keeps getting lowered as time goes by:
http://www.cbpp.org/files/estatetaxmyths.pdf
http://www.buzzfeed.com/abrams/mitt-romney-makes-it-rain Romney with his Bain Capital pals back in the day.
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2011/10/07/335968/herman-cain-koch-brothers/ Herman Cain is the favorite candidate of the Koch brothers.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2011/10/2011101591032110944.html Aljazeera say it is overdue.
Thank you…It appears to be more of a peace keeping efforts….at least that is my take on it….Hmm…I wonder what Civic Rights Organisation is going to come and help us…..
Could you provide a link to the US Invasion of Uganda, please….I would like to read it and could not find anything on it…..Maybe it is just my search terms….
Jill,
The president is evidently cutting out an organ from the health care reforms to pay for the new war.
http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/10/14/human-rights-group-welcomes-obamas-decision-to-send-troops-to-uganda/ I will go with the human rights organizations on this one.
The US govt. just invaded Uganda (for the humanitarian reasons that there is oil there!) So where does that money come from? Why is there money available to wage war but not to provide much needed services for the American people?
The “savvy businessmen” have devised ever more complex gambling instruments since they crashed and burned our economy in 08. This is done with both the full knowledge of and help of both President Obama and members of Congress. And no, this behavior is not sustainable.
David Swanson calls this govt. a Plutopentagonocracy. If ever there was a time to take a stand for justice, it is now.
Whats up is down and whats down is up.
Nal,
“The “best elements in the country” cannot be found in the field of Republican candidates nor in the current occupant of the White House.”
I agree. Good post!
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Buffett’s Son Defends Occupy Wall Street Protests
By Andrew Frye and Alan Bjerga – Oct 13, 2011
Bloomberg
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-10-13/howard-buffett-defends-occupy-wall-street-protests-to-make-things-happen-.html
Excerpt:
Howard Buffett, the Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK/A) director and son of Chairman Warren Buffett, said Wall Street protesters were provoked by abuses from corporations amid a widening disparity between rich and poor.
“I think it takes that to make things happen sometimes,” Howard Buffett, 56, said of the demonstrations in an interview yesterday in Des Moines, Iowa. Over the past 15 years, “we saw large corporations really screw people.”
Occupy Wall Street has drawn out protesters from New York to Seattle and gained empathizers among the top executives at Citigroup Inc. (C) and BlackRock Inc. Warren Buffett, the world’s third-richest person, has said he is concerned about inequity in the U.S. The younger Buffett, a farmer and philanthropist, said obtaining enough food has become more difficult for more people.
“There has never been a larger gap between earnings in this country,” said Howard Buffett, who was in Des Moines to deliver a speech at the World Food Prize conference. “There has never been a time in my lifetime when the government is going to cut an incredible amount of programs that support poor people and feed them.”
Protesters criticized the government for propping up financial firms including Citigroup and Bank of America Corp. (BAC) in 2008 while individuals struggled with unemployment, depressed wages, foreclosures and reduced retirement savings. Republican lawmakers oppose raising taxes to reduce the U.S. deficit and have pushed for cuts to government programs.
Great subject Nal. Good post.
The only relevant numbers for our nation now are: 1% and 99% … the rest is dictum.
Madison also alluded to The Germ Theory of Government when he said “Of all the enemies to public liberty war … develops the germ of every other.”
This was said during a time when the official scientific and medical establishment did not believe in germs. They even put a doctor in the insane asylum for suggesting that doctors wash their hands before going from patient to patient.
We need to realize that the symbiotic relationship between human and microbe, recently discovered and elaborated on by microbiologists, may lead to a germ theory for the toxins of power as a cause of government corruption.
We can’t seem to stamp it out with paper ballots, electronic ballots, or any other type of ballot.
Time to stop doing the same thing while expecting a different result.
Nal,
Excellent choice….on Thursday….clean air on NPR did a show on Madison…and his wonderful working wife while he was out doing what we have read about….
Something I recall from the show….is Madison thought he was considered “Obnoxious” and that is how it happened that Jefferson wrote the DOI….
Something else gleaned was Dolly…She created wealth by buying Bonds and such investments that James had no knowledge….They died with some money…due to her diligence and Jefferson died with about 10 million in debt….