If you didn't see it, the other night on the Rachel Maddow show, she had a statistic that was almost incomprehensible it is so unbelievably over the top.
It seems that six members of the Walton family control more wealth than over ninety million of the rest of us.
That's right, six people whose last name happens to be Walton, control more wealth than over 90,000,000 of the rest of us!
That's not only obscene, it also explains why this country has been declining in so many ways, as the result of the economic inequality fostered by corporations, and their apologists, so that this kind of obscene injustice can exist.
Many Walmart workers are unable to support themselves, let alone their families, without taking other jobs or doing without necessities like medical care etc. (there have been numerous news reports of homeless people unable to make enough at their steady job at a Walmart to put a down payment on an apartment!). Not to mention the foreign workers Walmart depends on to keep their prices low enough to put all the mom and pop small businesses out of business in areas where Walmarts take over.
This is what the Occupy movement is about, the anger and frustration over the gross disparity between those who make obscene profits on the backs of workers who make those profits possible.
As my friend Lisa suggested yesterday when I visited a young mother responsible for organizing protesting parents in the Occupy movement, it's time to Occupy Walmart! (And the rest of the places where the most exploitative corporations do their business. And yes, pun intended.)
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I entered one of those places but once. The big box stuff loomed in great stacks o'erhead, perilous as in a nightmare. At the exit there stood a flock of human size green garden gnomes. Freako. But definitely priced to sell.
(By an ironic twist of historical fate, a lot of mom and pops lost their trade around the neighborhood of the Oakland Occupy site -- tear gas parties & c. not so good for small business.)
I hear you Tom. I could never take big stores, they always made me dizzy and since the brain op even worse.
And my recommendation is to occupy corporate and financial headquarters and places of corporate business, which the deleted one, as the right's most virulent representative in this space, actually transformed into my calling on occupy supporters to kill the rich! The usual fear mongering and whining for the plight of the super rich.
who needs more than a billion dollars? Nobody should be allowed to make or have more than this. Anything over this should be re-distributed to those in need. Call it communisim, socialism, whatever you want, the unchecked greed motive is then taken out of the picture and more honorable, humanistic, caring motives can emerge.
Lal--What European Union is it that Jim says has been "destroyed" by "socialist bullshit"? The European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund? And they are, thus, 21st century versions of the Socialist International and the Comintern? Mario Draghi will be surprised to hear it. And what, short of a public statement by President Obama to the effect that he is NOT a socialist, will it take to convince the Jims of this world that our President is a genuine capitalist-sympathizing, free market believing, American Dreaming bourgeois?
Bob B.
The big lie technique Bob, seems to still work with the rightwingers.
How can i or anyone be happy and content having obscene wealth, knowing that the majority of others are suffering. The Walton/Walmart example is just one, where people are being exploited, underpaid, can't afford to live, are suffering, hungry, subsisting on wages while their employers profit unethically, immorally, sinfully? Jim, if this is what you condone, please say so we know with full certainty where you stand.
Robert Berner, Super Mario seems to be very concerned. The odds are high that weak southern European will likely split from the strong northern countries. I suspect German voters will be reluctant to bail out Greece et al, just like we Colorado voters would not want to bail out liberal California. Big government socialism is failing world wide.
"Mario Draghi has warned of the costs of a eurozone break-up, breaching a taboo for a president of the European Central Bank, even as he sought to play down market expectations about the ECB’s role in combating the sovereign debt crisis.
Mr Draghi’s willingness to discuss a scenario for Europe’s 13-year-old monetary union that his predecessor, Jean-Claude Trichet, simply described as “absurd,” highlights the high stakes in the eurozone debt crisis, which has rattled global financial markets..."
Do you guys really want to try and have a dialogue with someone who's every word parrots rightwing propaganda and hasn't expressed on original thought or opinion since first stalking this blog years ago?
Well, it would be nice to have an actual conversation, where reality, reason, understanding, compassion, morality and integrity exist, but it appears that the best we can expect is to drive one more nail of confirmation into the coffin of ignorance and disdain in which Jim's mind and heart abide.
What is sad too, is that the Walton Family's exorbitant fortune will further isolate them and their progeny from the realities of the majority of the world population - and their beneficence to whatever cause (good or bad), will be directed by those that have access to them - probably others that are equally out-of-touch, or that run self interested agendas.
As the notion of Capitalism matures there begins to be an entirely unique set of problems that accompany it - problems that defy previous standards, ethics, and responsibilities. Amusingly, because of the growing disproportion of wealth over our generation and available information today - it begins to look awfully similar to medieval Europe.
Human nature being what it is, I would imagine the competition in that 'green ether' must be pretty ruthless.
I'm starting to understand more clearly what Reagan endearingly referred to as a 'trickle down economy'. I had no idea the stench would be so unbearable.
Time to re-visit the notion of capitalism ...
If people are suffering, tense and life it fruitless in our society, then clearly, Capitalism is a tragic failure. It goes against the grain of human nature and evolved being and hearkens to pure animal instinct, and even this does a disservice to animal cultures, sharing and selflessness.
of interest:
http://enews.earthlink.net/article/us?guid=20111223/8637fe31-6230-4900-975e-dd66ecd36017
Michael,
A gift to the show to have voices as sensible as those of Messrs. Zuckerman, Berners and harryn on hand; and as for that offensive slime thing that crawls out from under its stone to entertain us all... I suppose every circus needs a clown who got lost on its way to the execution.
And interestingly Tom, Berner and you are poets, harryn a painter and Zuckerman a photographer and writer. The deleted one is a stockbroker. Oh those liberal arts!
Too bad humans are not more like Bonobos. The following are actions humans engage in but Bonobos do not: Gang Violence, Sexual Coercion, Sexual Taboos, Infanticide and Gambling.
http://poptech.org/popcasts/brian_hare_peaceful_as_a_bonobo
The stock broker majored in history at NYU. Maybe he has a better knowledge of history and economics than artists.
Perhaps Miles has it right. Maybe we should have stayed up there in the trees...
But instead we're down here swimming in the formaldehyde tanks with an NYU history major!! Had we but known!!!
Actually, it is proper to refer to the "history major" by its scientific name: historicus distortous ignoramus.
Merry Christmas and Happy Hannaka! Liberals feeling of good cheer and good will toward others remains consistent, no matter what the season.
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