U.S. now has wealth distribution typical of 3rd world banana republics. The Reagan Revolution is complete -- the wealth of America has now been transferred from the middle class to the top 1%, who now make 24% of the income -- and own 34% of the wealth. Meanwhile, the top 5% of Americans own more of America than the entire bottom 95% of Americans combined -- roughly 60% of America's wealth.
Congratulations, Republicans, for your successful Mexification of America. You took a country that had a thriving middle class and turned it into a nation where the vast majority of the middle class is groveling on their knees for trickle-down that looks an awful lot like the view from the bottom of a urinal. And you bastards in the former middle class.... SIIIIIiiiigh. You are too fucking stupid to even notice it, instead whining "thank you sir please give me more!" and voting for the same evil-ass politicians who butt-fucked you in the first place...
As for the Democrats -- I just got a letter from good ole' Barry Obama dated August 8 stating that the upcoming election is going to be critical to the future of America and please donate and please vote. I got that motherfucking letter *TODAY*, folks -- err, a week AFTER the election. Stupid-ass Democrats are fucking useless, the most inept buncha clowns to ever stumble drunk out of a clown car.
Siiiiigh.... we are so fucked, yo. So I guess I'll leave ya with a joke: Q: How is American beer like fucking in a canoe?
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A: It's fucking close to water.
That is all.
-- Badtux the Snarky Penguin
I feel your pain and share your anger. I am mostly pissed off at my fellow Americans and their seeming inability to smell the bullshit that has been smeared all over their faces by our Corporate masters.
ReplyDeleteWe are indeed fucked.
Agreed.
ReplyDeleteWhat I have been wondering for quite some time - and people look at me as if I were nuts when I say it - is if the Rethug model is a So. American style banana republic, or medieval European feudalism.
ReplyDeleteI read that the landed nobility - the economic equivalent of the generational county club set here - had an actual turn over rate of about 50% per century, as some families diminished in wealth and power, and others moved up -- because they made a lot of money, and that has always mattered.
50% per century. I think we have less economic mobility here and now than in what is generally considered to have been a historically unique period of tradition and static immobility.
JzB
It's funny. I watched a documentary by Oliver Stone on South America and the move towards democracy and I loved it.
ReplyDeleteI understand why you're angry, but I don't quite share it. Way I see it, I survived eight years of the Bush administration -- compared to that, getting through these next two years should be simple. That, and I'm just tired of the anger -- my system can't handle it the way it used to.
ReplyDeleteYes, we may be fucked. But that's not the issue. The issue is, what to do next...
It's not an 8 years of Bush thing, Jim. This country's been on this path ever since the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980. Obama at best could have slowed the process a bit... but like Jimmy Carter, he blew it. He blew it because he thought sincerity and reaching out could solve all problems. Carter learned differently, when the Soviets bit his hand in Afghanistan and the Iranians kicked U.S. butt in Tehran, but by that time it was too late to salvage his Presidency.
ReplyDeleteMy guess -- Obama is going to be a one-term President if the Republicans can dredge up someone even semi-palatable to the electorate, because Obama has basically removed himself from the equation. And the Mexification of America continues...
-- Badtux the NorteMexicano Penguin
Don't all forms of government eventually become plutocracies? You might call it monarchy, feudalism, fascism, communism, democracy or, hell, even high school. Seems that a few people wind up with all the money and power, and the vast majority wind up getting by and doing the work. The whole middle class thing in America was a result of the Industrial Revolution and the urbanization of the populace. WWII ended with one industrial nation still having a basically untouched (in fact, improved) production capacity. So for the last half of the century we had a healthy, prosperous middle class. It's just taken us 60 years returning to the era of the robber barons.
ReplyDeleteMephisto -
ReplyDeleteYou might be right. Here is my take on the middle class.
I’ll say that we had our time of greatness – starting post WW II to an end date that can’t be pin-pointed since we are fading slowly, like an old soldier, but I believe is now past tense.
My children – born in the early 70′s – will never have the quality of life as adults that I did. Two income families have become a necessity.
I’ll say we were great because we had a strong, vibrant, and upwardly mobile middle class – the old American dream, characterized by relative equality in income and wealth distribution. Well, that is gone – killed by Reaganomics, tax policies, union busting, exporting manufacturing jobs, and the gutting of regulations. We are now at a banana republic level of wealth disparity.
Rule of law had a lot to do with it, too. But we are losing that, as well. Being rich can preclude prosecution for even an egregious crime.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/08/martin-erzinger-morgan-stanley-hit-and-run-_n_780294.html
I don’t think I’d get that delicate treatment from a prosecutor.
And the Citizens United decision gave muti-national corporations essentially legal status equal to U.S. citizens. And they just bought themselves an election.
Where we go from here is medieval serfdom – not as Hayek imagined, but under the iron fists of multi-national corporations.
Yup - WASF
JzB
Good rant Badtux.
ReplyDeleteForget what class you are in, forget the
politicians, don't worry about the
corporations and the multinationals.
Work with the people you trust, local,
responsible people. Food co-operatives
can feed you better than the huge chains. Sharing talent and tools will
save money. Community Supported Agriculture keeps the money local, creates jobs and is fun.
Or just keep your ass in the recliner and bitch, that'll work, eh?
So in other words the best bet is to embrace your inner serf? Dude, that may be a good survival mechanism, but that isn't going to solve the problem of serfdom on the estates of the plutocrats. Besides, the plutocrats can -- and have, multiple times in the past -- take steps to ensure that your proposed steps don't threaten their ownership of you and yours.
ReplyDeleteThe solution to ending serfdom is to end serfdom, not to embrace your inner serf and cheerfully become a subsistence farmer on the fringes of the estates of the plutocrats. We can have safe and healthy food without growing it ourselves -- see Europe -- and many of us have better things to do with our time than spend it grubbing dirt. Indeed, time is my most precious commodity... there simply isn't enough of it in a day, sigh!
- Badtux the Busy Penguin
- Badtux the Practical Penguin
I, for one, welcome our new corporate overlords, and am getting fully in touch with my inner serf.
ReplyDeleteYum!
JzB
"This country's been on this path ever since the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980." - Badtux
ReplyDeleteBingo! Krugman, in his book Conscience of a Liberal (the book predates the blog), agrees with you. Moreover, he says the transformation is premeditated, mostly by neocon's. But an awful lot of people who are not any sort of con's seem afraid not to go along with them, and Obama really seems to believe that we can all just get along. Sigh. Doesn't anybody have the 'nads to fight these people?
born without balls
ReplyDeleteno gonads are forming
afraid to stand up
even with global warming
the plutocrats win
as they do all the time
but history is replete
with payback for crime
Lennon and McCartney
sang of the solution
the French and the Russians
know it as Revolution
the problem this time
this beast is multinational
we can't herd the nobles
to death in their castle
this modern day Hydra
with heads of all sizes
is callous and cruel
and never compromises
Badtux is right
fucked we shall be
as we take it up the ass
from either party