Forum Post: The Power Elite & Us: Ramblings
Posted 13 years ago on Oct. 7, 2011, 2:45 p.m. EST by Logic
(4)
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I would argue that the upper echelon want and actually are heavily dependent upon the existence of a middle class. Amongst many reasons, socio-economic division ensures them that their life styles will remain relatively consistent for future generations of the power elite. I would go as far to say that they've always wanted a middle class of society since they had a hand in their creation if we want to start going back to the beginnings of class division within this nation. It started out with implementing a racial ideology and then paying these people slightly more. So it was like "Yea, you're like us, but not like us." Another example of the people in this country not seeing through bullshit or perhaps not wanting to.
Look at all the countries in the world that have or have had that break-down; they usually are subject to much more volatile conditions and I don't mean just economic, but political too. So why not have a middle class who contributes to our portfolios via debt payments and also chucks up the cash to make sure the poor can lay around and hey! let's make them believe that they're elected representatives are actually representing them; point is that having a middle class will help sustain all that you just wrote because they're led to believe that they can someday make it to that upper echelon by going to work every morning and grabbing whitey's coffee and not worrying about things like expanding economic inequality; while the middle class is distracted by working hard and trying to reach "higher status" the power elite continue having their way; whereas if we just had a rich and poor split then the poor would revolt much faster considering that they're already at rock bottom and have that "nothing to lose mentality"; it just seems more feasible in the mind of the power elite to have this type of class division.
My argument is directed towards longevity and sustainability; with a rich-poor split, you'll definitely see greater profits then a rich-middle-poor split but what I'm attacking is that despite receiving greater wealth there is a much higher risk at for that wealth to dry up faster whereas in this societal structure, the rich are able to plan for up to several generations ahead because of it being less volatile. So they definitely won't amass as much wealth as those in a rich-poor split but they don't have to worry as much about their house of cards collapsing. Thus is why the rich are so reliant on exploiting the labor of the middle class in order to exercise their means of production. The poor can't do that for them and they rather not have them. Let's have our media (which is yet another tool of the power elite) report on welfare and Medicaid so that the middle class keeps their eye on the poor looking at them with resent and disgust while we'll just keep making more without everyone too busy to question our methods because we've created some witty distractions.
The evolution of capitalism turned that America you speak of into the one we live in today. The continuous need for "more" which if anything has been pushed by our government over the past century has fueled a society that is no longer interested in the state of the community but rather the state of the individual. I try to be an optimist, but when you look all over the country, let alone the world, it's hard not to notice how widespread corruption has become. Perhaps it's on us just as much it is on them for we were so naive to believe that putting so much power in the hands of very few would lead to anything but corruption. Based on the current structure, the middle-class in this nation will continue to be exploited unless some sort of radical change occurs. That's merely me scratching the surface.
Excuse some of the language used as I was involved in a rather emotional discussion with a colleague; much of the language was a result of frustration and realization as I was writing.
The evolution of capitalism turned that America you speak of into the one we live in today. The continuous need for "more" which if anything has been pushed by our government over the past century has fueled a society that is no longer interested in the state of the community but rather the state of the individual. I try to be an optimist, but when you look all over the country, let alone the world, it's hard not to notice how widespread corruption has become. Perhaps it's on us just as much it is on them for we were so naive to believe that putting so much power in the hands of very few would lead to anything but corruption. Based on the current structure, the middle-class in this nation will continue to be exploited unless some sort of radical change occurs. That's merely me scratching the surface.
Here are my thoughts on the power elite and us. We have had a massive "wealth redistribution" for the last 30 years. The top 1% of the nation now controls over 42% of the nations wealth and the top 10% now controls over 70% of the entire nation's wealth. The bottom 50% control less than a meager 2% of the Nation's wealth.
The middle class spends their wealth on goods/services and the corporations take that money in as profit. The corporations have redistributed the middle class wealth by paying their profits all out to the executives and shareholders.
Middle class wages have stagnated for 30 years while executive wages have gone up 256% in since 1980. Even last year executive compensation went up another 11%. The top 1% now controls over 42% of the entire nation's wealth. We have not seen numbers like this since the great depression. The top 10% controls 70% of the entire nation's wealth. All of our nation's wealth has been redistributed into the hands of the few.
The middle class was roped into replacing wages with easy credit. So instead of paying people living wages, corporations fooled us into thinking we were doing well and could afford things by giving us easy credit instead of wages. Instead of having wages to buy t.v.'s, furniture, etc. we were given easy loans. So the middle class became a debtor class. There used to be a tax disincentive to paying out all of corporate profits at the top because in the 1950's income was taxed at 90% over a certain amount money and now that tax disincentive has disappeared. In 1950's the highest marginal tax rate was 90%. In 1960-1970's it was 70%. In 1980's it dropped to 49%. In 1990's dropped to 39%. Under George Bush it dropped to a mere 36%. We have had over 30 years of massive tax cuts for the wealthy.
There is now no tax disincentive to paying out all of the corporate wealth at the top. And there is no employee bargaining power because now less than 12% of all of our jobs are unionized. Corporate profits are at an all time high, healthcare company profits are at an all time high, and oil profits are at an all time high. We don't have a healthcare crisis we have a healthcare company profit-taking crisis that no politician will doing anything about. Healthcare and oil companies have enjoyed a decade of record profits while we have had a decade of massive premiums for little coverage and a decade of outrageous gas prices.
The problems are: 1) deregulation of the banks by the Republican-controlled congress in 1999; 2) hedge funds are exempt from regulation; 3) tax system no longer has a disincentive against paying outrageous executive salaries (highest marginal tax rate has dropped from 90% to 36%); 4) commodities market is exempt from regulation (Republican-controlled Congress exempted it in the Commodities Future Modernization act of 2000); 5) the Supreme Court has ruled that corporations can spend unlimited funds in campaign elections (thus politicians on both sides favor the wealthy/corporations) and 6) the rise of corporate/billionaire propaganda media "news." Because of the need to raise massive sums in politics today, we no longer have a party that represents the people. The Democrats have to chase the corporate and big money donors too.
What can we do about this: 1) re-instate Glass-Steagall Act regulating the banks; 2) regulate hedge funds and the commodities market (because the commodities market is not regulated speculation has caused prices for commodities to go through the roof); 3) get rid of the money in politics (have federally funded elections with clear limits on spending and no outside groups allowed to have ads); 4) get rid of 1980's laws stating that corporations' only duty is to maximize shareholder profits; and 5) regulate "news" channels and newspapers (no more "slanted opinion news" masquerading as hard news) and reinstitute the fairness doctrine across all news outlets to ensure that both sides get equal time.
Corporations should have duties to society and to their workers too. They should have to balance their duties to maximize shareholder profits against their reinstated duties to their employees and to society. The laws saying that corporations' only duty is to maximize shareholder profits have led to the destruction of long-term business plans and care for their workers and have created short-term profit monsters at the expense of workers and society.
"I would go as far to say that they've always wanted a middle class of society since they had a hand in their creation if we want to start going back to the beginnings of class division within this nation."
The middle class was born out of thousands of miles of separation from government and European financiers. The establishment of banking influence and government regulation in America resulted in a bloody war (aka The Revolution) to preserve the freedom that the middle class had found by fleeing government.
Please stop apologizing for psychopathic, eugenicist-loving kleptomaniacs.
I'm not apologizing for anyone.
Excuse the accidental duplicate posting at the end. My Apologies.