What the 1% just don't get.

[Skidmore]

They don't understand that the 99% aren't asking for yachts or vacation homes or even first homes that look like mansions. The 99% aren't asking for fancy sport cars, designer clothing, and $500 hair cuts. The 99% are asking to be able to work a job at which they can afford decent and safe shelter, food, and clothing and access to clean water and air. These are the basics of the hierarchy of human needs. They are not wants but are essential for life. However, there is a disconnect in their thinking, I believe.

Larry Summers was on WBUR's "On Point" this morning and callers kept asking him if he or Greenspan any of these people in charge of fiscal planning felt any responsibility for their pushing the country to the brink economically. He would not own any of it but kept claiming that "if we had known" and that the whole scenario was so "complicated." Even when it was pointed out to him that choices made were based on their recommendations, he still did not see himself as an active participant. The only redeeming thing he said was that the minimum wage absolutely needed to go up so that people could better participate in the economy and that corporations needed to up their job creation. At the same time, he said that businesses didn't utilize that $2T they are sitting on because they would rather keep it offshore and the tax code needed reformed. It wasn't cost effective to invest in jobs here. He seemed to be saying that he understood the business world's decisions and found them acceptable. He did not seem to understand that there was a moral question that begged to be answered or that there should be some insistence on a participatory role of a corporate citizen in a society that demands the primary job of the private citizen be that of consumer. A total disconnect between the notion that the bottom line has something to do with actual peoples' lives.

The case to be made is that your or my demands for a living wage must be interpreted in terms of the values of lives and not whether or not some 1%er can count a certain number of zeros on the balance sheet or must make due with one less car or a smaller house or less jewelry or clothing. What was the worth of the life of the Ohio woman who froze to death in her trailer this past week? How much is the life of a hungry child in a shelter worth? How many Rolexes would it create few jobs in a town? When will we collectively start demanding to know why this is acceptable?

[alsame]

1. Personally, I think they

get it but just don't care.

[closeupready]

5. Correct. They don't care, and they won't if they don't have to.

This is where taxes come in, IMO. The model of a better society through philanthropy is fatally flawed in that respect.

[bvar22]

2. FDR addressed those Basic Human Needs.

He called them Fundamental Human Rights,
and there was a time when voting FOR the Democrat
was voting FOR those Fundamental Human Rights.

Sadly, this is no longer true,
and Larry Summers is one perfect example (one of MANY) that today's Democratic Party
is NOT the Democratic Party of your Father or Grandfather.

In our day these economic truths have become accepted as self-evident. We have accepted, so to speak, a second Bill of Rights under which a new basis of security and prosperity can be[font size=3] established for all—regardless of station, race, or creed.[/font]

Among these are:

*The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the nation;

*The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation;

*The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living;

*The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad;

*The right of every family to a decent home;

*The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health;

*The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment;

*The right to a good education.

All of these rights spell security. And after this war is won we must be prepared to move forward, in the implementation of these rights, to new goals of human happiness and well-being.

Please note that the above are stipulated as Basic Human RIGHTS to be protected by our government,
and NOT as COMMODITIES to be SOLD to Americans by Private Corporations.

I really miss THAT Democratic Party.

---bvar22
a mainstream-center New Deal/Great Society Democrat for almost 50 years,
now labeled a "Fringe leftist".
I haven't changed.

[clarice]

3. Dissolve the Fed !!!!!!!! nt

[factsarenotfair]

4. The explanation is that they are sadistic.

And sadists have rationalizations for their sick behavior.

[Armstead]

6. It should be simple...They get to make money but they have to give something back

That is the real "grand bargain" that should be at the base of the system.