Pic Of The Moment: What 30 Years Of "Trickle Down" Policies Have Produced

[EarlG]

Oxfam: 85 richest people as wealthy as poorest half of the world

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[The Magistrate]

1. Cold Truth, Sir....

It is the sort of thing gets one to brooding on revolution....

[JNelson6563]

3. I daresay, you are correct.

[The_Commonist]

16. And revolution is in the air.

I see or hear some reference to revolution just about every day now, OTHER THAN ON DU. Just to make that clear. DU is always ahead of the curve, but now it's normal people doing normal things that are beginning to talk about it. Really, since the Occupy movement.

It's in the air, it's coming and it will most likely be ugly. There is a chance for it to be peaceful, but that will require some compromise on the part of those 85 people and their peers and lackeys. And they are not known for compromise. They don't live in the normal world of human beings, and they have no idea that they are as wealthy as they are.

The simplest thing is for all the rest of us to just stop buying their products, and borrowing their money and paying it back with interest to pay for those products. That may be difficult for most people to do, but it's easy to understand.

Starve the beast.

[lark]

27. Quitting banks is easy

Go to a credit union. Pay cash for everything - no exceptions except a home. If you need something, save for it. We have only used our cards to hold reservations for us for the past 5 years and have not felt any pinch. I'd like to stop buying perscriptions here, but don't know of a good reputable company overseas to buy from. Anyone have any good, reliable sites they've used for awhile?

[caledesi]

51. My husband and I went straight a credit union and never looked back! (about 6 mons. ago) nt

[elzenmahn]

54. I've been with credit unions for 20 years...

...better service, equal to better interest rates, and best of all, it's another term for "co-op" banking: the depositors own the institution, not Goldman Sachs. And you're money is insured, just like at a bank.

I'm never going back to banks if I can possibly help it.

[caledesi]

55. you speak the truth! nt

[WHEN CRABS ROAR]

30. Yes we do vote with how we spend our money, very important,

But to have a peaceful revolution will require a large majority of our population to agree on what the real problems are and then have the resolve and patience to force a peaceful change, something I don't see happening soon.

Most in our culture want instant overnight change, that kind of change rarely lasts, we need to take the time for the populace to understand and bring about meaningful change, not just a reaction.

But yes, we need a revolution in our thinking on many levels (economic, MIC, conflicts, population, resources, environmental, pollution, etc.) and that has to be worldwide in scope.

We are at the crossroads.

[heaven05]

41. +1000

for reasonable, logical summary. Yet, hot points of social upheaval are rarely thought out or through. Many, many issues have to be addressed.

[caledesi]

52. Amen to that! nt

[A Simple Game]

49. I think the tipping point is fast approaching.

I think a lot of tipping points are approaching.

Some just never learn from history.

[JNelson6563]

2. The situation is so very wrong.

Excellent work there Earl G. As usual.

Julie

[Scuba]

4. Trickle down hasn't worked yet, but just needs a few more decades, kinda like the Cuban embargo.

[90-percent]

5. The Cuban embargo

Has been wonderful for keeping American cars from the 1950's in continuous operation there.

Pictures of traffic in Cuban cities look like they could have been taken fifty five years ago.

I'm a car guy. I had to post this.

-90% Jimmy

[Mika]

56. Jimmy, only a small percentage of cars in Cuba are old American cars.

The VAST majority are Russian, French, Spanish, and various Asian cars.
Also, MOST old US cars in Cuba have transplanted engines from non US cars.
I've lived in Cuba, and been there many many times.

[Bjorn Against]

6. It is time to fight back against those who try to make redistribution a dirty word.

Clearly redistribution has become a necessity, no one can claim with a straight face that those 85 people deserve it because they worked harder. I can guarantee you that those 85 people did not produce as much as the bottom 3.5 billion, a large number of whom hold manual labor jobs that involve back breaking work that you never see any of the CEOs doing.

[Mika]

57. Redistribution isn't a dirty word when it is going to the top .001 percent ...

... in our corporocratic media.

[Coyotl]

7. K&R. Also staggering, they are able to do so. We have a global cultural problem to resolve.

Inequality is also a international issue because the individuals of privilege are protected by the nations of privilege. The nation-states are to a great degree tools of creating and protecting the status quo of that privilege.

[godevil10]

17. +1000!!!!!

It won't be 85 individuals you will be fighting, but nations as well.

[onehandle]

8. The Madame Is Calling...

[thesquanderer]

9. I wonder how different this was 30 years ago, though. (n/t)

[florida08]

10. disgusting isn't it

we know too well what only thing that trickles down is

[Half-Century Man]

11. One wonders if the 85 have 3.5 billion bullets.

One day, they may have a need for them. The day that living is more frightening than bullets.

[Amonester]

20. The bad news is, they don't need any out-dated bullets, since they control high-tech drones, and...

... nukes (bio-weapons not included).

[Half-Century Man]

24. Unless they have them on hand, at their homes.....

the 99% includes the military forces.
The lower tier Powers That Be will join the masses hoping to become the new top tier. It is always a crap shoot with insurrection.

[Amonester]

25. I don't believe the military forces cannot be bought and paid for.

Look at Ukraine... LOndon... Bejing... Irak... et al.

And I hate to be the realistic pessimist here.

[cer7711]

12. Don't Step In the Leadership

The elites have failed us.

See the trenchant, timely criticism of: Chris Hedges, Robert Reich, Noam Chomsky, Barbara Ehrenreich, et. al.

The only question now is: What are we going to do about it? You know, us--"the people we've been looking for"--that hyper-stressed, economically-downtrodden, servile class of consumers who've had "learned helplessness" beaten into them by autocratic family, anti-reason church and fascist state. (To say nothing of the "terminate-at-will" corporate workplace, eh?)

How do you teach people to exercise their democratic freedoms when, in a very real sense, THEY'VE NEVER HAD AN EXPERIENCE OF DEMOCRACY OR GOAL-DIRECTED DEMOCRATIC ACTION IN THEIR LIFE?!

[zebonaut]

13. Look Up! Some of the urine is trickling down!

Still waiting

[Kablooie]

14. Reagan would be proud that his philosophy has been so successful.

[pauldp]

15. The ruling elite are unfit to rule.

Just think of the incredible suffering that could be eliminated if those 85 decided to give a damn.

[cer7711]

18. Will You Please . . .

Last edited Wed Jan 22, 2014, 04:38 PM - Edit history (1)

. . . write that single sentence on a postcard and send it to all 85 concerned?!

I'm only half-joking.

Point well and succinctly made!

[Demenace]

22. Yes, these 85 people do give a damn ... it is not just about you and I!

Want to make them give a damn about you, make them notice you that is how!

Think about this, 85 of them and over 3 billion of us, we need to give a damn about us by stopping the divide among us. Occupy was a good starting point until the Occupy movement failed to understand the need for one common course and the determination to stay on that one course which in the end would have resolved all the other 3 thousand dividing courses, they chose to pursue.

That ladies and gentlemen, is what we should give a damn about - maintaining one course regardless of where on this planet we find ourselves. The one course that these 85 people and their immediate support circle need to give a damn about us as their survival is dependent upon our ability to also survive and this is simple to achieve if we only understand that the only thing stopping us is us dividing ourselves.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

19. A Republican would claim those 85 are "job creators" for the 3,500,000,000....

But the 3,500,000,000 are too lazy to work and expect a handout.

[Enthusiast]

39. Precisely

[Jessy169]

21. Look at the "bright" side

If any significant amount of the wealth held by these 85 fat-cats was redistributed to the "little people", one thing we can be sure of, and that is that consumption of energy and natural resources would go UP.

A guy who has umpteen trillion $$$ in digital money sitting in some offshore bank account could probably care less about whether he adds another few billion or trillion to that amount. His account is just a place to stash all of the QA billion$ that the Fed is regularly printing. It isn't like he can spend any significant portion of it. It just sits there.

But if the hungry masses get their hands on that money, they WILL spend it -- on cars, houses, gadgets, vacations -- everything. And in a world where population is exploding exponentially and resources are declining as fast (or faster) than population is growing, do we really WANT to raise the consumption level of the teeming masses?

This is an "inconvenient truth" for DU'ers -- but one that needs to be faced head-on anyway.

Or, are there other points of view?

[Demenace]

23. Wow - No wonder these 85 people and their immediate support circle will never give a damn...

So in your eminent wisdom, the only thing the masses will do is buy cars and consume more? It is this dividing trait among us, the masses, that drive the nature of these 85 people. For they understand us more than we understand ourselves!

Dude, the people you defending are singularly focused on getting rich regardless of the consequences! we, the masses, have to focus singular mindedly on making them give a damn about our collective survival.

[Jessy169]

26. I never claimed "eminent wisdom"

Just putting out a point of view and looking for other points of view. Yes, it is a fact, that if/when the lower and middle income classes get more money -- they spend it. That is fact. Whether on food, shelter, transportation or entertainment -- or something else -- it gets spent, and THAT spending translates to consumption of natural resources.

If you haven't realized yet that the human race is like a virus on the face of planet earth, eating up and consuming every possible source of energy -- then you haven't stepped back and taken a good look yet.

Releasing a trillion or more dollars into the American economy would raise the demand on oil, gas, electricity and other resources past their breaking point. And that is also a fact.

It is tough to deal with, I know, but it is better to recognize the truth rather than find ways to not deal with.

[Demenace]

29. You assume again that the rest of the world is America...

The people you are talking about are already here on the planet and do have a right to survive and their level of consumption has little or no impact on your concerns. You are still defending the 85 people and their immediate support system which is reflected by the American consumption society which again is not the rest of the world who if I must remind you deserve to survive.

Guess whose cars, industries and jets are impacting the earth - Answer: these 85 people and their support system which you are defending. Please, go ask them if they give a damn about their impact on the planet?

So, the masses and I do not give a damn about the impact on the planet.

Your argument is the same as the trickle down theories this thread is talking about, care about the rich because somehow something will trickle down from their getting rich to you and we all know this is not true.

The rich need to give a damn about the rest of us 3 billion because if they do, they (the rich and this planet) will survive, period!

[notemason]

32. Another POV

Then let the 85 install solar panels on every home so those “breaking points” disappear. Let them rebuild the infrastructure. Let them clean up the streams and oceans and get the mercury out of our fish. Let them feed the hungry. Let their legacy be that their success was used for the benefit of the entire tribe, not just their selfish interests. These are the by products of their attainment of wealth, let them clean up their own mess.

[Demenace]

33. Amen...

Telling this member of the masses, what the truth looks and sounds like.

[The_Commonist]

34. Ah yes, there's that old "the human race is like a virus" meme again.

FALSE!

The human race is just fine. And it was fine for a million years, until a few thousand years ago. And there are still cultures that are not virus-like. The human race can be fine again, except for 85 or so sociopaths who keep us mired in the muck of their greed.

It's a particular way of living that causes us to be "virus-like." And that way of life is not "human nature." It's a particular lifestyle, which includes turning atoms and energy into pieces of metal and paper and zeros and ones in computer spreadsheets, and then a few individuals hoarding vast amounts of that "wealth."

Granted, most people want stuff. But frankly, most people are and can be fine with just enough stuff to be comfortable and safe. Most people don't need to hoard vast amounts of zeros and ones in computer spreadsheets. The hoarders have convinced you that this is the way it should be done, that this is "human nature" and that we are a virus. It's how they justify and how they get YOU to justify their greed.

My 2 cents, and that's all it's worth.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

45. Good thing a lot of those poor people on the planet don't know about modern stuff....

....oh wait,...they DO.

[Demenace]

46. So, they do not deserve to survive, right?

Your point is, what again?

[Spitfire of ATJ]

50. They're not stupid. They know they're getting screwed.

[dotymed]

28. I may sound like a broken record....

IMO the only chance we have for a peaceful revolution is to elect Bernie Sanders as POTUS.
FDR proved that one man, in that position, can make a difference.

[Jerry442]

31. Trickle-down works just fine. What? You thought it would be MONEY trickling down? nt

[quakerboy]

35. I would love to see it boiled down even further

The richest person in the world has more money than the poorest ____ Million (it has to be at least 41 million)

[TBF]

36. And people accuse me of "fake outrage" -

the guilty parties ought to be choking on their words by now.

[Ian_rd]

37. Totally nonsensical statistic. Those 85 would never ...

... be caught dead riding a bus.

Proud monthly contributor to Oxfam!

[Enthusiast]

38. Hey, Mr. Obama. let's not exacerbate this problem by enacting the TPP!

How bout it?

[heaven05]

40. the disparity and criminal nature

of such out of proportion numbers is staggering. This is not right. People will get fed up though, sooner or later. Always have, always will.

[Bill USA]

42. recommended. Chart showing income inequality growth in various nations. U.S. leads the way!

[blkmusclmachine]

43. Savvy!

[blkmusclmachine]

44. It IS called a "trickle," you know. Like condensation, something you flick off with your fingers,

something that is not part of the contents of a cup or glass, and something you don't value.

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

47. The awful truth. I have to say, though, the wording of Byanyima's quote is somewhat vague.

Does half of the world's population own tiny elite, whatever that is? And why do the elite have numbers they put on busses?

Yeah, I know what it means, but it's not gonna get through to most of the 3.5 billion who ought to be pissed off about this.

[GeorgeGist]

48. FreeDumb!

[AdHocSolver]

53. Just bitching among ourselves is not going to solve the problem.

We need to start imagining a strategy to enlighten the 99 percent, or at least a significant number of the 99 percent, to the reality of the economic and political situation.

For example, the 1 percent don't just decide to "create" jobs just because they get a new tax incentive. There first has to be a demand for a product, that is, companies first have to see a "demand" for a product or service before they do any hiring.

In fact, the greatest number of jobs created by the corporations due to tax decreases for the 1 percent have been in China and other low-wage countries.

Another propaganda theme by the 1 percent is that the stock market "drives" the economy. The reality is that the stock prices go up when companies reduce their number of employees whether after buy-outs or mergers, or by outsourcing.

And, don't bury the reality by displaying a bunch of meaningless graphs, charts, and tables. We are not trying to convince a bunch of economists or statisticians what the reality is.

So let's start thinking of how to counteract the propaganda and influence of the 1 percent.