Class Warfare Explained
83F. Scott Fitzgerald said,
"Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me. They possess and enjoy early, and it does something to them, makes them soft where we are hard, and cynical where we are trustful, in a way that, unless you were born rich, it is very difficult to understand. They think, deep in their hearts, that they are better than we are because we had to discover the compensations and refuges of life for ourselves. Even when they enter deep into our world or sink below us, they still think that they are better than we are. They are different."
-- F. Scott Fitzgerald
Ford Futura
They Started It!
The Bazillionaires, the richest top one percent of society, the 1%ers, are tired of sharing this planet with all those pesky poor people. From the perspective of the the Bazillionaires, those people who make less than a million dollars a year and have a personal net worth below ten million dollars are poor. All those congressmen, governors, presidents, judges, doctors, dentists, lawyers, generals…are relatively poor. But the plan is to get rid of all the even littler, poorer people first: factory workers, teachers, civil servants, sales associates and entrepreneurs. The thing is, the 1%ers look at the peasants and come to the conclusion that poor people just aren’t poor enough. They are fat and happy, arrogant, and convinced their lives are just as important as those of the Bazillionaires. So, time to cut them down to size. Either own them, or if they can’t be bought, break them.
It’s important to get the support of the masses, all the while picking their pockets. Make them think they, too, could become rich. Start a lottery, where they can toss their money away and think they have a real chance at getting rich. Or pay a handful of athletes an outrageous amount of money to play a game, or run a national talent show that features poor people making it big. That is important, so that even the poorest of the poor will support lawmakers who favor the rich. When the little people have the idea in their little heads that they too can made it big, they don’t want their imaginary money taken away by high taxes.
The most important thing is to take away the poor people’s money. The government is an easy tool to take the money away from the unwashed masses. Simply reduce the tax rate for the richest one percent and leave it the same for everyone else. Then, have the bought and paid for congress alter the tax code even further so that the sources of income for the 1%ers are taxed at an even lower rate than the incomes of the poor. Call it capital gains and bonuses instead of salaries or wages.
Then change the rules. De-regulate the banks, so it becomes possible to loot the savings accounts of the little people. Bust down the laws that made it difficult to just reach out and take all the money. If that doesn’t extract enough money from the poor, when the poor somehow manage to still live well and still have the audacity to, perhaps, flip off a 1%er or say something bad, in public, about a member of the wealthy elites, it is time to punish them for their insolence.
Lend them more money than they can ever repay, ship their jobs overseas, and then watch them squirm as they liquidate every asset they have, trying to keep up with impossible mortgage and credit card and car payments. Then, penniless and bankrupt, they will never dare raise their eyes to gaze into the face of a 1%er. Make them broken shells of their former selves.
But somehow, those pesky poor people keep right at it, arrogantly failing to recognize their inferiority. Some keep on trying to better themselves, going to college. But that is easy enough to counter-act. Have them borrow immense amounts of money through student loans and credit cards. Dangle the possibility of high salaries and a shot at becoming wealthy in front of them, but ensure that when they graduate they will not find a good job, and will be burdened with more debt than they can ever repay.
But then there are the stubborn holdouts, the pensioners, the wisest, oldest peasants who have lived long enough to have seen the last attempt by the 1%ers to take all the money for themselves, the generation that lived through the Great Depression. Crash the stock market, and then send health insurance costs through the roof. Take their life savings as they lay dying, weak, infirm, and unable to resists. Unable to warn their loved ones of what the 1%ers are doing.
But many children of the Greatest Generation know about the 1%ers, the Baby Boomers know. The way to silence the Boomers, the way to take all their money and leave them powerless, is to loot their pension funds. Go around state by state and install collaborative little governors who will renege on public pension obligations for the sake of protecting the wealth of the bond holders, the 1%ers. Easy money.
And to solidify the victory, turn the younger generation against the old. Convince GenY that the Boomers are taking their money, borrowing against their future; tell those young fools that all those Boomers are a worthless, lazy burden to us all. And they’ll believe it, as they struggle to find even minimum wage jobs to pay off $100K college debts.
But that pesky GenX, those little buggers, distrustful of corporations and government as well, debt-free and self-employed for the most part. What to do with them? They are much too cynical to control or influence with simple greed and fear. After all, GenX experienced a signifigant drop in its standard of living, and Bill Clinton told them it was going to happen and he was right. GenX was “trickled down” on by Reaganomics and is not better off. They have looked into the abyss and are stronger for it. To deal with them, hand them a noble cause. Start a Taxed Enough Already (TEA Party) movement and have GenX demand smaller government, weaker government, fewer laws and less regulation. Have them vote in a bunch of inexperienced political duds who have no idea what the 1%ers are doing.
And still, the poor have too much money. The answer is to figure out what it is the poor have to buy, then drive up the prices so they can’t afford it. Food, energy and fuel; can’t be fat and happy without that. Soon the 1%ers will take all the money from those damnable poor and declare themselves living gods. And they will be worshipped.
And here we are, at the crossroads of history. The solution is simple. Tax the crap out of the 1%ers. Put the marginal income tax rate at 97%. Set the marginal estate tax rate at 97%, so the 1%ers can’t pass on unholy amounts of wealth to their next generation. Slam the door on tax loopholes. It works. General Eisenhower, Supreme Allied Commander in Europe in WW2, rubbed shoulders with enough 1%ers to understand them fully. When he became President of the United States, he shut them down cold. And America prospered, until the 1%ers were able to climb out from under their rocks and get all those annoying regulations and tax laws repealed.
Governments can make bad behaviors go away by taxing those behaviors into oblivion. The right move for our government now is to tax greed into oblivion. Get rid of the 1%ers or they will enslave us all.
Class Warfare Illustrated
- millionaires-world-singapore-businessweek: Personal Finance News from Yahoo! Finance
Personal Finance, real-estate - Its Good to Be the King: CEO Pay Up Big 2010, Not So Much For the Average Worker - Yahoo! Finance
- Situation Normal, All Fouled Up!
Graphs of income disparity.
 | Amazon Price: $2.99 |
 | Amazon Price: $2.99 |
 | Amazon Price: $0.99 |
 | Amazon Price: $2.99 |
vote upvote downshareprintflag
- Useful (2)
- Funny
- Awesome (9)
- Beautiful
- Interesting (1)
CommentsLoading...
Well, I think the decent thing for any society to do is put a floor under poverty, to allow some people to be poor but only to a point, then just ensure a minimum qaulity of life for them. There are some very decent people out there who just don't "get" the whole money thing. On the other end, put a cap on the top of just how much wealth a person can accumulate. Let them get rich, but ensure there is a limit. Otherwise, as history proves, unconcionable sociopaths take all the wealth out of the economy by hoarding it for themselves. Kind of like a highway; there is a minimum speed and a speed limit, so that everyone is more likely to get where they need to go.
Your a typical lib, the bazilionaire your refering to is Government, .........there is only one super rich guy left and that is Zoros, the most socialist hate filled man on earth!
I'm referring to the Banksters.
Two points: First read your history, specifically on FDR's new deal, he taxed to s*** out of the rich and what happened? He made the depression last longer.
Second, you seem to not realize there is something in this country called "Freedom of choice" or personal responsibility. No one is forcing someone to buy lottery tickets, buy houses they can't afford, take out high interest college loans, etc. Last I knew people still had a choice on whether or not to do these things.
The goal of politics - get people to vote against their own best interest. Nice hub -
Yes, the last depresion went longer because the 1%ers ran off to Switzerland with all the money, and then orchestrated a global war to kill off the surplus of poor people.
Jed Fisher
POOR IS POOR AND RICH IS RICH, the world has not changed as you would like it to be.
Without the so called rich many of the poor would be poorer.
Man becomes rich either by being born into a rich family or by working hard , saving and investing his money into wealth building investments. There is always risk in wealth building that would deter someone from chancing the investment. Welfare is not an avenue to getting out of poverty. Unemployment surely don’t help one to become rich. The way our government waste taxpayer money why would anyone want the government to take more of our money. The bottom and the top can spend the money better than the government. Well, maybe not some of the bottom when they can get government money without having to work for it.
Think about it, 50% of the people pay no taxes, the rich (5% ) pay 60% and the middle class got to be paying 40% of the taxes. Something don’t look fair if one wants to be fair.
The rich is not the problem in today’s society. Big government is the problem.
A past president once said ‘’ government is not the solution, government is the problem’’.
Now here's a secret: the way to get rich is to take all the money for yourself and higher a lawyer to say it's your money. That's all there is to it. G'luck, all.
(Or in more sophisticated terms, set up an LLC, borrow ten million from the bank to get the business started, and pay yourself an outrageous salary to run the business into the ground.)
Jed Fisher
HEY WAKE UP, it’s not easy to get the bank to give you anything unless you have collateral. Small businesses represent75% of the business world. Ask any small business owner how much of his whatever assets he needed to pledge to get into a business. Ask him how many hours a week does he have to work to either break even or to make a profit. Profit that dirty word that government and labor seem to chastise and degrade. Profit is good not bad. The government takes maybe 35% of the profit for the people, let’s not forget how hard the government worked to get a piece of the profit. Let’s not forget about the employee who received a check for his labor helping him to feed his family. Let's not forget the bank who don't care about profit, they get their payment first before anyone. Let’s not forget the insurance payments that get paid up front allowing the business to operate safely.
Employees generally work 5 days a week 8 hours a day and the owner who sometimes works 6/7 days a week and 10 to 14 hrs. a day. Let’s not forget about those who sometimes don't pay for the services they receive on a timely manner.Let;s not forget mandated government non productive work regulations. Let's not forget the IRS who will penalize you for late paperwork or incorrect paper work.
Let's not forget the worries of losing your business and sometimes your life’s savings. Let me sum it up because I could go on and on. By the way I have experience in the above.
So when you the ordinary guy see someone driving a big car, go to expensive restaurants, take yearly vacations, live in a big house and has a lot of money, don't be envious.
He either worked hard, was lucky, was a thief, born into a rich family, married rich, was a crooked politician, sold dope, was a pimp or worked on wallstreet,was a union official or a member of congress.
What and Whom did I miss covering in reminiscing about life in the business world?
Jon Ewal,u dont have 2 discriminate the poor cos they all have egual rigth as people you feel are the so called rich
You nailed it down!!!
I can see it both ways...there are two sides to every story... The Rich get richer and the poor get poorer...we all need to CARE, do the right thing, be honest and we will still be in a mess...Great hub...I usually don't read these kind,but this got to me...:O) Hugs G-Ma
Great comments here, bless you Mr. Shaw especially. Just one more point to make, that may save us all a lot trouble if enough of us understand the concept: cotton has been grown in the Deep South, profitably, for over 146 years...without slavery.
Jed Fisher
COTTON IS BEING GROWN IN ARIZONA at a profit by a US citizen for some 20 years.The price of cotton is going out of this world, thanks to the politicians in washington.
I DON'T DISCREMINATE AGAINST THE POOR,I know how it was when I was poor.I'm not a racist either or a union thug.
I am with you Jed, the system is tipped to favour people from privileged backgrounds, and although there are opportunities for a small numbers to rise up in the ranks these as very small numbers.
The majority still remain relatively poor and its getting worse. It was recently found in the UK that our Prime Minsiter intends to literally remove taxes for corporations by allowing them to claim taf free status if they have one of their operations abroad.
I dont want to have a super heavy corporate tax, or to tax the rich by 90 % but maybe 40% and a fairer distribution of wealth around the world.
You could say capitalism is fair, you can get rich and become richer, but the people that do become rich also become corrupt and look at ways of holding onto their riches and accummilating more wealth. Hence the problem with the systems, and any other system.
People essentially are corrupt, and the ones that rise to the top have the potential to be the most corrupt of all.
a solution would be to have fair checks and balances in place that would benefit the majority and not the minority and that would require the majority to start voting for someone a little bit different, and they won't.
why ? because for now they are fat and happy, even with a moderate income. When you remove that safe secure base and the middle class suddenly become the working class then you might be able to gather enough people to encourage change.
We will see what happens over the next two years.The collapse of the dollar, and war with Iran ? If neither of these occur then I am full of shit.
If they do then we will know that we are slowly moving to a truly global socialist/dictatorship that has the illusion of democracy and freedom but will be nothing more than voluntary economic slavery.
The funny thing is that the majority of is will vote in the changes forced upon us and turn a blind eye untill we have literally have nothing left.
During Watergate, Deep Throat kept telling Woodward and Bernstein, Don't be idiots. Follow the money.
The same is still true today. Two years ago we witnessed the greatest transfer of wealth in the history of the world. What baffles me is that the very people who are being hurt the most are STILL being duped.
Do they live under rocks? Do they think all those billions of dollars (some of them THEIR dollars)just disappeared? How is it possible that they are still being distracted and manipulated by phony issues? It's mind-boggling.
Nothing can be fixed until Congress reforms itself. Tough laws against the powerful lobbies (big banks, big oil, big pharma), tough campaign reform, and tough laws to stop the cozy revolving door from Congress to management level corporate positions and back again.
Nice hub, Jed. It was refreshing to read truth.
L.T.
Yes, thank you for the support. The 1%-ers are just as flawed and petty and disorganized as the gods of ancient mythology.
Well said.
It looks like got some of the Corporate Drones of HP going, so ya' done good:)
"The test of a first rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function."
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Good Job.
In the United States, 85% of the millionares and billionares are first generation. This means that they brought themselves up and out of the middle and poor classes. Huge fortunes can be made in this country, as well as huge fortunes lost.
As far as taxing them into oblivion, don't waste your time. From the begining of income tax (1916) to the present, the top 1% have paid 17-21% of the tax bill. The time when they have paid the largest amount is when taxes were lowest.
Rather that bemoaning how bad it is that someone else has been sucessfull in life, and wanting to sela from them to give to someone else, why not try a more productive approach? Impress on those who are poor and who are not trying to achieve greatness that only the burning desire to better themselves will help their economic standing. A person must be willing to do the hard work and make the sacrifices to get ahead in this world. And when someone does succeed, don't be jelous....be happy for him.
I'm sure Charles Goodyear and Mother Theresa would agree with you. Al Capone and JP Morgan, not so much. Or it's the other way 'round.
Very nice hub Jed
I am always amazed that people just do not get what is happening to our country.The rich control our work places and they control our government(it is their government).Simple math proves they do not pay taxes as the poor do.The poor pay 39% in taxes.If the rich payed 39% there would be no national debt,there would be a surplus of money.I never believed that this could happen here in the USA,but our government is no longer representing the people,unless you have LOTS of money.
WAKE UP INDEED!WE NEED TO WAKE UP AND TAKE BACK WHAT IS OURS!Thanks for sharing.
Brutally honest hub. Thank you for sharing your insights Jed. http://hubpages.com/hub/Going-To-France-In-The-Off
Right on Jeb! This Hub breaks down the situation to a tee! So, when do we storm the castle walls of the Federal Reserve? Seriously, I want us to get started!
Great Hub! I'm really glad you had those solutions at the end, they really make sense. I wish that more people realized that the 1%ers have way too much pull in this country and if it was obvious before, after the Supreme Court decision that said that corporations are people, it's clear that everyone in our government can be bought.
Just vote the bums out. But beware, registering to vote could lead to getting slected for jury duty...
If we had the fair tax then a lot of scum bag politicians would get out of politics as they could not get rich taking bribes in exchange for tax credits.
Of course they would fail in the private sector too since few of them could hold a job at burger king let alone run the country.
But at least the banksters would not have as much control over DC as we would end up with better leaders with the fair tax.
I'm thinking, Donald Trump for president. He knows the ways of the 1%-ers, he is one; they couldn't buy him. Besides, 1%-ers eat their own. It would be fun to watch.
do you think he is electable?
does it matter live life...
Maybe we should get the ghost of Lenin or Stalin to make things "fair" in America. I know what let's do, let's take everybody in the country that has made something of themselves and ship them to the gulag! That'll show them. How dare they show us up by achieving more than us!
Aristocrats are not entrepreneurs. Anyway, g'luck making something of yourself now a days. Get a little too successful and Google will release all that embarrasing information they have stored about you.
As I beat a hasty retreat . . .
Nice hub.
I enjoyed that Jed and I'm looking forward to the rest.The truth hurts and I see them scrambling for the Advil.
Tax greed into oblivion? What is wrong with greed? Do you blame the housing crash on greed? Greed has always existed so how can you point to greed as the cause? You say greedy people are not entrepreneurs, but do you believe they keep their money under the mattress? They keep it in banks which benefits the economy. You are trying to pretend you are a common sense guy but you are just a typical big Government leftist. Leftist can remember information but they can't break it down and follow policies to their logical conclusion. Hell they barely see beyond step one.
Jed, you take a more aggressive position that I would, but I agree that the top 1% is making more than they ought, while the rest of us are making too little. Throughout history a too-wealthy top class has never been a good sign for the health of a country. Tax breaks for the wealthy, when they are making more than ever, is just a silly, silly policy.
"The most important thing is to take away the poor people’s money."
oxymoronic. Poor people don't have money.
Think a little: poor people need tax money for health care, transportation, food, phone, cable TV, clothes... where does the tax money come from? It comes from the so-called rich people.
"Lend them more money than they can ever repay, ship their jobs overseas, and then watch them squirm as they liquidate every asset they have, trying to keep up with impossible mortgage and credit card and car payments. "
I don't recall anyone with a gun to my head when I signed my mortgage. To the best of my recollection, my family wasn't being held hostage when I opened my car loan.
Personal responsibility is a wonderful thing, but it seems to be mostly anachronistic these days.
Nicomp,
That's easy to say now, with hindsight. But in 2007 the national unemployment rate was below 3% and many workers were optimistic. Taking classes at night or on-line to earn a degree, recieving lots of "non-monetary compensation" like praise and recognition from their employers, and globalization was touted as a real boon for American workers. Foreign markets would open up because of free-trade agreements, billions of new cutomers....
So individuals felt comfortable taking risks, felt comfortable taking on debt, because they believed what they were told, that things were great and getting better. I mean, the Fed Chairman himself said so.
Then look what happened...
Jed, it's not a risk if you're comfortable taking it.
You, also, should look at what happened. Policies advanced by the Clinton and Bush administrations obligated banks to make loans to unqualified borrowers: the government involved itself where it had no constitutional mandate and ultimately caused a recession. That's what happened.
So... Clinton, Bush, Greenspan, Paulson, Bernanke, the Banksters et al, should be living in their cars and eating food stamps now, right?
Personal responsibility, right?
No?
Jed- Excellent Hub. Our country is in serious trouble and getting worse. We defend the rich and ignore their loopholes and overtax the lower and middle classes. Thanks for speaking out so clearly.
Here's my latests thought: Let the people who control our government pay for it themselves!
![What Percentage of Your Tax Dollar Really Goes to Help the Free-Loading, Indigent, Ought-to-Get-a-Job American's? [56]](http://s4.hubimg.com/u/5128211_50.jpg "What Percentage of Your Tax Dollar Really Goes to Help the Free-Loading, Indigent, Ought-to-Get-a-Job American's? [56]")
john000 Level 4 Commenter 15 months ago
But, they will say, everyone should have the right to accumulate limitless wealth. Let them accumulate it and then have it taxed - watch what happens in the middle east when the poor are poorer and there is no more middle class. Very good hub!