Welcome to DU! The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards. Join the community: Create a free account Support DU (and get rid of ads!): Become a Star Member Latest Breaking News General Discussion The DU Lounge All Forums Issue Forums Culture Forums Alliance Forums Region Forums Support Forums Help & Search

xchrom

(108,903 posts)
Mon Jan 2, 2012, 11:31 AM Jan 2012

shoveling america's wealth to the top

http://www.nationofchange.org/shoveling-america-s-wealth-top-1325513855

As an old coun­try say­ing puts it, "Money is like ma­nure — it does no good un­less you spread it around."

Yet Amer­ica's cor­po­rate and po­lit­i­cal lead­ers have in­ten­tion­ally been shov­el­ing wealth into an ever-big­ger pile for those at the top. They've got­ten away with this by lying to the great ma­jor­ity, which has seen its share of Amer­ica's pros­per­ity steadily dis­ap­pear. Yes, they've told us, the rich are get­ting richer, but that's just the nat­ural work­ings of the new global econ­omy, in which fi­nan­cial elites are re­warded for their ex­cep­tional tal­ents, in­no­va­tion, and bold risk-tak­ing.

Horse dooties. The mas­sive re­dis­tri­b­u­tion of Amer­ica's wealth from the many to the few is hap­pen­ing be­cause the rich and their po­lit­i­cal pup­pets have rigged the sys­tem. Years of sub­si­dized off­shoring and down­siz­ing, gut­ting labor rights, mon­key­wrench­ing the tax code, le­gal­iz­ing fi­nan­cial fi­nagling, dis­man­tling so­cial pro­grams, in­creas­ing the po­lit­i­cal dom­i­nance of cor­po­rate cash — these and other self-serv­ing acts of the mon­eyed pow­ers have cre­ated the con­veyor belt that's mov­ing our wealth from the grass­roots to the pent­houses.

Not since the Gilded Age, which pre­ceded and pre­cip­i­tated the Great De­pres­sion, have so few amassed so much of our na­tion's riches. Hav­ing learned noth­ing from 1929's dev­as­tat­ing crash, nor from their own bank fail­ures in 2008 that crushed our econ­omy, the wealth­i­est of the wealthy fully in­tend to keep tak­ing more for them­selves at our ex­pense.
3 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
shoveling america's wealth to the top (Original Post) xchrom Jan 2012 OP
K&R airplaneman Jan 2012 #1
Yet, we continue the Welfare for Wall Street. Octafish Jan 2012 #2
Since at least 1980 Angry Dragon Jan 2012 #3

airplaneman

(1,239 posts)
1. K&R
Mon Jan 2, 2012, 02:56 PM
Jan 2012

We need to convince the majority of Americans that this is indeed what is happening and start to make real changes for the better of society as a whole.
-Airplane

Octafish

(55,745 posts)
2. Yet, we continue the Welfare for Wall Street.
Mon Jan 2, 2012, 02:58 PM
Jan 2012

Something is very, very wrong. And the 99-percent -- from the USA to Cairo to Warsaw to Port Au Prince know it.

Thanks for an excellent summation from Jim Hightower, xchrom!

Latest Discussions»Issue Forums»Editorials & Other Articles»shoveling america's wealt...