Status update: Wealth transfer almost complete

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

Well, looks like the wealth transfer is about complete. The wealth of the corporations went to the upper executive tier until they bled them dry, resulting in closings and job losses for the worker bees. The wealth in the stock market went to the Wall Street execs and traders, who made their giant nuts regardless of the results of their "Management" and "advice".The worker bees got to bail them out, too.

The politicians always seem to do extremely well; strange how their personal fortunes enlarge so vastly while they are in office due to their self-enrichment programs and influence peddling while deregulating industries that have a stranglehold on the rest of us.

The rest of us are left with upside down mortgages, falling wages, unemployment and decimated 401K's. Oh, but wait! They haven't privatized Social Security yet or attacked other "entitlement" programs! There is still some wealth to be transferred.

Couldn't the worker bees get just a little? Enough for food, shelter, education and healthcare? How long will it take to milk the worker bees of every last dime?

[ShortnFiery]

1. Yes, it's time for the "have mores" to take their ill gotten loot out of the country.

:(

[Greyhound]

19. They've been busy moving it out for 30 years, and they're more or less finished. n/t

[jmg257]

2. It's OK! We will gladly give them more control, and so more power.

Maybe we are hoping that in the long run the politicians will just adopt us all and give us a healthy allowance.

[havocmom]

3. Take enough from the worker bees and they get absolute freedom

With no stakes left in the game, we really have nothing to lose. Masses of people with nothing to lose can become a force to be reckoned with, if they just realize it.

Gated communities won't protect the usurers at some point. Unless space aliens are gonna let them buy tickets off the planet or something, they will take a big fall eventually. The merely rich don't seem to learn from history. The REALLY RICH just use them as a baffle from dealing directly with us, generation after generation.

[burythehatchet]

7. Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose

you are correct. The reckoning is upon us.

[rrneck]

9. Yep. Stock tip - any company that sells

pitchforks and torches.

[formercia]

4. Economic slavery 101

Should be a required course.

[havocmom]

12. Ever read Gerry Spence book on the subject?

From Freedom To Slavery: The Rebirth of Tyranny in America

He saw it coming and nailed it. Of course, I was sayin the same thing since '74 but since I am just a crackpot....

[formercia]

14. Another crackpot here...

I have not read it but I can just guess.

I'm surprised he isn't dead.

A good read:

http://www.gerryspence.com/index2.html

Good Blog too:

http://gerryspence.wordpress.com/

[Eric J in MN]

5. Obama is going to appoint a "Task Force" to say that Social Security needs to be cut.

Dean Baker writes:

Word has it that President Obama intends to appoint a task force the week after next which will be charged with "reforming" Social Security. According to inside gossip, the task force will be led entirely by economists who were not able to see the $8 trillion housing bubble, the collapse of which is giving the country its sharpest downturn since the Great Depression.

This effort is bizarre for several reasons. First, the economy is sinking rapidly. While President Obama's stimulus package is a good first step towards counteracting the decline, there is probably not a single economist in the country who believes that is adequate to the task. President Obama would be advised to focus his attention on getting the economy back in order instead of attacking the country's most important social program.

The second reason why this task force is strange is that Social Security doesn't need reforming. According to the Congressional Budget Office, it can pay all scheduled benefits for the next 40 years with no changes whatsoever.

Hillary Clinton was much better than Obama on this issue. She said balancing the budget should come before changing Social Security.

[earth mom]

10. We need to fight this crap with ALL our might.

:grr:

[Dover]

6. It will be up to us to create significant change. ...

...to take the bullhorn by the 'horns'.


Foreclosure Protesters Target Executives' Homes


...Targeting Executives

About 300 homeowners with bullhorns marched past a police cruiser, up the driveway and to the front door of the house where Morgan Stanley CEO John Mack lives.

"John! Where are you, John?" one protester called up to the castle-like stone walls of the house. Bruce Marks is the housing advocate behind what he calls a "predators tour."

"This guy, he has a net worth of over $400 million," Marks says. "Look at his house. He gets lost in his own house. It's so outrageous."

Marks, who is with the Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America, is singling out big Wall Street executives personally to try to pressure them to do more to help homeowners facing foreclosure.

"While Americans are losing their homes by the millions, he's living in the lap of luxury here in his beautiful house, isolated — and he thought he was safe," Marks says. "Well, it's Sunday, and it's family day, and we're bringing our families to his family."

The protesters also went to a hedge-fund manager's house, where they dumped a couch and a bunch of old furniture...cont'd

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=100441670

[earth mom]

8. Heads Up! The looting of Social Security is next!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x5080647

:argh:

[DCKit]

11. "The politicians always seem to do extremely well..."

Who was the Congressman who had a "special" mortgage arrangement with Countrywide and why isn't he awaiting sentencing?

[formercia]

13. Time for them to move on and find another country to loot.

It won't be long before they run out of countries.

The Borg.

[LeftHander]

15. Pour cement in thier bunkers.

That will slow them down some.

[Dover]

16. You want to know WHY we can't look to Washington for real change?

Here's just one tiny example, but just the tip of the iceberg...because regardless of party (and I believe much of the animosity between them is theatre for our consumption), they all eat at the same trough:



From an article on the now missing Tx. billionaire Allen Stanford:


...Stanford's business is headquartered on the Caribbean island of Antigua. In the last decade, Stanford and his companies have spent more than $7 million on lobbyists and campaign contributions in efforts to loosen regulation of offshore banks.

Among the top recipients: Senator Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), Congressman Pete Sessions (R-Texas), Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Senator Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) and Senator John Cornyn (R-Texas), one of the members who took a trip to Antigua where he was entertained by Stanford.

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/WallStreet/story?id=6903014&page=1

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

17. I agree with you.

And it pervades both parties.

I heard someone this week say "Everyone goes to Washington with the idea of doing good, but that turns in very short order to doing WELL." That about sums it up. And there are many Dems who are just as complicit as Republicans.

As a matter of fact, that is one reason why I liked Joe Biden who shows up at the bottom of most Senate wealth lists. For someone who has been in as long as he has, he really didn't work it like so many others. I also like thathis wife is a professor and not a lobbyist.

I also think it should be illegal for any sitting Congressman or Senator to have an immediate family member who is a lobbyist. What's so hard about that?

[Dover]

18. I can think of all kinds of great laws to prevent this, as well as existing laws.

The point is.....WHO will pass AND uphold them?

Almost all have their hands in the cookie jar. Government has become just a revolving door for
corporate positions. Corporations are the ones they answer to. REAL change has to come from us
and the sooner we accept that the better off we'll be. No more pretending that we have a representative government.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

20. Again, I agree with you.

Yes, I think we are all "pretending" we have a representative government when it is so clear that we do not. :cry:

[earth mom]

21. Kick!

:kick:

[onethatcares]

22. can we begin to actually limit their terms?

As my wife just got done telling me, two terms at the most, no legacy seats, no private paid for us retirement plan, make them contribute to Social Security and pay for their own healthcare insurance coverage just like the average government worker.

Sounds like it's time for the whisper campaign.

[dmr]

23. According to Michelle Bachman we're running out of wealthy people in America

She's one very crazy and scary Congress-critter!