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The Pitchforks Are Coming...For Us Plutocrats
Politico.com ^ | 6/29/14 | Nick Hanauer

Posted on 06/29/2014 8:45:11 PM PDT by hoagy62

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To: hoagy62

I read the whole thing, too. His analysis is correct, too, although he’s only seeing a small part of the crisis.

There is income inequality, certainly, but it is far greater than the manner he writes about. For those of us working for the state - hey, I’m a teacher, so I’m speaking from personal experience here - times have never been better. Teachers and the rest of the government bureaucracy are paid pretty well, and the perks that we get are a hell of a lot better than anything I experienced as an employee in the private sector. The corporate sector that is connected to the state through lobbyists, connections, schmooze, and going to the same schools as the government regulators is doing pretty well, too. The poor are in fine shape, too. Before I went back to college at the age of 42 to get my (disturbingly easy to obtain) teaching degree, I lived much of my working life alongside the working poor and the welfare poor. The welfare poor had lots of benefits, too, often allowing them to live better than their working peers.

I agree that there’s inequality. I disagree with the author about what that looks like. The taxpayers - the productive people - are being squeezed by everyone else - the nonproductive, those who get paid by the state, and those who gain wealth from connection to the state. So the writer’s metaphor about a royal elite is on target, with the state, the gentry, and the peasants on one side, and the middle class on the other. That’s the inequality.

Oh, and he’s right about what happens when the shit hits the fan. Eventually the system collapses. It’s always horrible. God helps us.


21 posted on 06/29/2014 9:32:11 PM PDT by redpoll
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To: hoagy62

Another reason it won’t work is the assumption that those who are on government entitlements now will automatically stop using them. Poof! It’s magic.

Magic 8 Ball says: Try again! The entitlement class is hooked on big gov’t like a crack ho.


22 posted on 06/29/2014 9:36:16 PM PDT by BuckeyeTexan (There are those that break and bend. I'm the other kind. ~Steve Earle)
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To: GeronL

“When the revolution starts, do they really think they will be safe?”

They do. They won’t.


23 posted on 06/29/2014 9:42:15 PM PDT by jocon307 (These people are (some Polish word) crazy)
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To: jocon307

They think they can wall off Martha’s Vineyard? Fly to the south of France?


24 posted on 06/29/2014 9:56:37 PM PDT by GeronL (Vote for Conservatives not for Republicans)
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To: hoagy62

greed is also behind government confiscating more and more from others to give to who they think deserve it. greed for power, to screw people they don’t like, and to buy votes.


25 posted on 06/29/2014 10:32:42 PM PDT by Secret Agent Man ( Gone Galt; Not averse to Going Bronson.)
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To: hoagy62

hes from seattle...what would one expect

the problem goes back to the Carniege Foundation which, along with Council of Foreign Relations, promoted a world wage...problem was no one told middle class americans that a company would send their jobs overseas to make 1% more in ROR...INCLUDING by the way most slime from Seattle...apple etc makes its products overseas and keeps its money there...there have always been loyal original business founders BUT when the Harvard Business School appoints the majority of business leaders you get abandonment of American workers...I spit on all of them...including that superscum and coward carl the rat rove and bumbrain bush who will not lift a finger to name Obama...

im not sure how capitalism as its developed worldwide can reemploy americans...those of us born in the 40s and 50s lived in the best of times and assholes like the bush family with their new world order doomed us ...


26 posted on 06/29/2014 11:02:36 PM PDT by Understand the stimulus
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To: GeronL

the people are getting sick of things as they stand. The tar and feathers are coming out—the pichforks and troches are ready—along with the tricorn hats and drum and fife. All it would take is a spark to set things off. Revolution, Session, Junta take over, or a general strike. Ride to the sound of the Guns! One good speach by Sarah Palin—one good reason to rise and the movement would slip into a new phase.


27 posted on 06/30/2014 12:18:59 AM PDT by Forward the Light Brigade
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To: hoagy62

This POS is one of the obscenely rich Demoncrats that fund much of their mischief making. He is a primary funder of I594, the anti gun initiative on the Nov. ballot in Washington state. He is a capitalist when it comes to accumulating wealth but is a pure statist at heart.


28 posted on 06/30/2014 12:43:25 AM PDT by allblues (God is neither a Republican nor a Democrat but Satan is definitely a Democrat)
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To: hoagy62

ping


29 posted on 06/30/2014 12:55:51 AM PDT by gattaca (The heart of the wise inclines to the right, but the heart of the fool to the left. Ecclesiastes10:2)
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To: hoagy62
"...The problem is that inequality is at historically high levels and getting worse every day..."

Unless the government mandates income, there is ALWAYS going to be "inequality".

Hearing someone make an argument that is financial-related and include statements about "equality" just levels the argument. It's like that old joke about a man asking a woman if she would accept money to have sex with him, and when she asks how much money, gets offended when he only offers a quarter.

The author has already stated what he is with his comment about "inequality".

30 posted on 06/30/2014 2:02:28 AM PDT by rlmorel ("A nation, despicable by it"s weakness, forfeits even the privilege of being neutral." A. Hamilton)
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To: GeronL

Liberals ALWAYS think they will be safe.

They are the ones who scream as they are dragged away “Wait! I’m on YOUR side! Why are you doing this?”

They never take the time to read books like “The Gulag Archipelago”. They view it as fiction.


31 posted on 06/30/2014 2:04:59 AM PDT by rlmorel ("A nation, despicable by it"s weakness, forfeits even the privilege of being neutral." A. Hamilton)
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To: rlmorel
"...Unless the government mandates income, there is ALWAYS going to be "inequality"..."

A clarification is in order: there will be inequality even when the government mandates there will be none.

It is hard work being one of those writing and enforcing tyrannical mandates, and they have to be adequately compensated for that.

Everyone ELSE will have more 'equality'.

It will go with the gruel.

32 posted on 06/30/2014 2:09:43 AM PDT by rlmorel ("A nation, despicable by it"s weakness, forfeits even the privilege of being neutral." A. Hamilton)
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To: Forward the Light Brigade

Revolt is coming.


33 posted on 06/30/2014 2:47:43 AM PDT by Biggirl (“Go, do not be afraid, and serve”-Pope Francis)
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To: hoagy62

He, like the rest of his fellow guilt-ridden liberals, apparently buys all of the BS about increasing income inequality that has been spouted for decades.

Fact is, income “inequality” has remained about the same for the last 50 years with minor variations.

It’s not hard to concoct a bogus case when you ignore (as income) a trillion per year in welfare, the effects of taxes, changing average household size and a bunch of other important stuff. Piketty (a socialist) writing a book chock-full of the same old stupid garbage is just the latest example.

The entire argument is rubbish. There is something of a case to made for decreasing income mobility (movement among income quintiles, up and down) but that’s mostly a result of liberal government policies.

The guy just parrots the usual liberal lies to make himself feel better. He knows nothing about economics or the gross manipulation and distortion of statistics or convenient omission of critical facts used by liberals to support their ridiculous arguments.

“Income inequality” is on a par with “global warming.” Both are total BS, concocted by the same type of people with the same socialist “we know better than you” agenda.


34 posted on 06/30/2014 4:00:24 AM PDT by AntiScumbag
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To: Mr Ramsbotham

Over taxation is bad but over regulation is far worse.


35 posted on 06/30/2014 4:05:43 AM PDT by freedomfiter2 (Brutal acts of commission and yawning acts of omission both strengthen the hand of the devil.)
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To: freedomfiter2

They are both bad.

It’s a shame that people are so “dumbed down” that they don’t really realize that they will NEVER own their own land or homes.

Don’t believe it........don’t pay your property tax and you will soon see who really owns it.


36 posted on 06/30/2014 4:24:51 AM PDT by DH (Once the tainted finger of government touches anything the rot begins)
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To: hoagy62

Fear not the pitchforks..... they are the tool of workingmen

Fear rather the “nines”, the tool of the lazy, unproductive, parasitic urban detritus.


37 posted on 06/30/2014 4:36:41 AM PDT by bert ((K.E. N.P. N.C. +12 ..... Obama is public enemy #1)
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To: bert

“..... Unless our policies change dramatically, the middle class will disappear, and we will be”......

We will wind up being just like Mexico where there will be those who “have” and those who “have nothing”......

Those who flock to this country seeking the American Dream will wake up to the reality that they picked the wrong horse and are/were part of the outcome of America becoming what they had left, Mexico.


38 posted on 06/30/2014 7:00:23 AM PDT by DaveA37
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To: hoagy62

Frankly, I do think he is correct. I believe the Great Depression was largely the result of too much of the money piled in the hands of too few. Too few dollars chasing too many goods and then combined with a major drought. Capital has to be employed, money has to be spent.

I worked for a guy who was very well off. Not like some of these stupid rich we have now but rich enough to own the yacht, the Falcon jet, Sun Valley place and such. He was very good to us who worked hard for him. We went to a party at his house and above his desk was a framed slogan, “Money has to be spread around to do any good.” That was more than 30 years ago when I worked for him.


39 posted on 06/30/2014 7:35:44 AM PDT by Sequoyah101
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