What is the Achilles Heel of the 1%?

[begin_within]

How do you win at their game, so that they lose instead of us?

[rucky]

1. Democracy?

[begin_within]

2. Is that their game, though?

I thought their game was about as undemocratic as you can get, and is based on money and "ownership."

[Zorra]

3. Bankruptcy broiught about through democratic planning and action by the 99%. nt

[NYC_SKP]

4. Boycott consumerism, quit buying their shit, educate others. 9nt0

[RZM]

5. Their numbers?

There aren't all that many people who are insanely wealthy.

[PETRUS]

6. Non cooperation, to start.

Then you rewrite the rules of business to prevent concentration of wealth and power - aiming for a system in which there are no losers.

[vets74]

7. Pass a WEALTH TAX as a new constitutional amendment.

The Income Tax amendment is implemented with the phony exclusions for capital gains and interest-carry.

-- Start at $10,000,000 with a 0.1% levy.

-- Graduate the rate on the way up.

-- Go to 2% on everything over $1,000,000,000.

Income tax took 30 years. We need to start ASAP !

[EstimatedProphet]

8. The fact that they are 1%

[haikugal]

9. National Strike and Repeal of Citizens United!

[pennylane100]

10. Control of the Supreme Court.

If we want to keep the battles in the courts instead of the streets we must get rid of people like Thomas and Scalia. I think the easiest target, at this time, is Thomas. That is where I would put my money and energy.

[tabatha]

11. customers and self-sufficiency and small US businesses

[TheKentuckian]

12. That their power is illusion allowed by the sufferance of the 99%.

You win by refusing to play their game en mass, you are destined to lose playing their game by their rules. That is the entire purpose of setting up the game in the first place.

What drives you to beat them at their game, pride? We do everything, put the fuckers on ignore and re-boot.

[tsuki]

13. Transaction fee tax. nt

[Fire Walk With Me]

14. Selfishness. Not all rich folk, but you know the drill.

[Occulus]

15. Given that they've accomplished what may well be the greatest heist in human history,

I think it's no moral failing to simply walk away from our debts to them.

What if we all stopped paying them? At once?

That's a question we all ought to ponder for a bit.

[socialist_n_TN]

40. Yep. I've said it often..........

A "Repayment" strike.

It used to be that the only thing that the working class had to fight back with was the withholding of our labor. Or a strike. However because of the expansionist nature of capitalism, they had to do something in an era of flat incomes to encourage consumption. So they allowed the working class to accumulate debt. Now this is another weapon in the arsenal.

But the "Repayment" strike has to be done in conjunction with the general strike or it won't work. The legal system is built to crush working class resistance, so the only out is bankruptcy. If/when it comes to this, we all need to file Chapter 7 and NOT just stop payment. And all at the same time. That would be part of overloading the ENTIRE system.

[Kennah]

16. A truly progressive House and Senate majority

[Odin2005]

17. Pride cometh before the fall.

[MannyGoldstein]

18. Destroy a bank or two

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x2157127

[sakabatou]

19. Sheer number of people?

[Quibono]

20. simple answer

FEAR. Is it success to desperately grasp more than you'll ever
need and be willing to screw anyone to get more? Of course
not, it's the signature of failure and plain old fear. Look
how well it's worked for the Neo-Cons & the Fox crowd to
carry fear like a cudgel. The most comical thought is that not
one of the buggers will take a cent with them  -and ooh, they
really hate that thought. 

[BlueIris]

21. *The* Achilles' Heel? Classism. The belief the upper class is entitled to better just because.

Eliminate that and it's hard for me to believe there would be one.

It's also hard for me to believe that's going to happen any time soon.

[Demeter]

22. The Vulnerability of the 1%

is the inequality that they demand and command into existence. Ir is an unnatural inequality: artificially created, artificially maintained via subversion of the community through the destruction of the natural economy.

To create and maintain an economy that oppresses so many people requires so much effort (to keep the 99% down) that it will fail of its own exhaustion, whenever the 99% decide they can't and won't take any more.

[rhett o rick]

23. I am truly disappointed in the above responses.

Many are just dreams. I want democracy. I want a cool SCOTUS. I want a Congress that represents us. Yes we all do, BUT HOW?

One answer above came close to what i believe. We must become independent of them. That is extremely hard. A very many of us work for them, depend on them for our livelihood. We depend on them to grow our food. Home gardens are swell but wont feed us. but we must be free of them

[Devil_Fish]

24. Join a credit union and pull your cash out of the big banks. NT

[RickFromMN]

25. The top 1% fear what may happen if the bottom 99% lose all hope and opt for revolution.

I offer a controversial question...did FDR's New Deal save Capitalism?
The affirmative side suggests the New Deal saved Capitalism from complete collapse.
Reforms were put in place to halt the excesses of Capitalism.
People were given hope.
Some links, on the affirmative side:
http://www.hoover.org/publications/hoover-digest/article/7076
http://www.slate.com/articles/business/moneybox/2008/03/the_new_new_deal.html
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USARnewdeal.htm

The negative side suggests the New Deal was creeping Socialism.
The negative side suggests the New Deal stifled the natural way Capitalism would correct itself.
Some links, on the negative side:
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Did_the_New_Deal_save_capitalism_in_the_US_or_did_it_endanger_capitalism_by_promoting_socialist_activity_within_the_American_economic_system
http://mises.org/freemarket_detail.aspx?control=515

I tend to believe FDR's New Deal saved Capitalism.

In my view, we need another New Deal, with the American Public, if Capitalism is to survive.

Being a Socialist, I almost hope there isn't a New Deal.
People won't change the status quo until they lose all hope.
Unfortunately, the public reaction could just as easily be fascism instead of socialism.

[socialist_n_TN]

41. Succintly put Rick........

This old Trotskyist agrees with you. And welcome to DU. :)

[bhikkhu]

26. Our spending is their income

Very simple. If you spend at W-mart or anywhere like that, guess where it goes?

Of course, in many ways our habits are determined by necessity, but little choices like going to a local market instead of a big chain, or buying fresh food at a farmer's market, can add up.

[coalition_unwilling]

27. Their wealth can be expropriated and their lives made

hellish. The fury of the masses once roused will not be easily extinguished.

We don't need to win at their game, becuase they will lose at ours.

[Amonester]

28. A widely spread General Strike for 2-3 weeks.

Stop the machine. They'll be on their knees, begging.

Since that will prolly not happen (understandably)...

Create a parallel "We The People" government and print a new currency.

IOW, ignore the "1%" corrupt government. Create a new DEMOCRACY with parliementary functions. ;)

[socialist_n_TN]

42. What you are describing is a dual power setup

And I'd think it would take another 3 weeks on the general strike for a 6 week total time before it would effectively end the system as we know it. Of course by week two it would be classed as "economic terrorism" and the shit would hit the fan for all the leaders, official and unofficial, of the strike movement.

The dual power set up is VERY unstable though, so your alternate currency and parallel government would need to be in place for when it does hit the fan. I would suggest everyone take a page from the survivalists and start stocking up on essentials. If it happens you'll be glad you did. If it doesn't, you haven't wasted anything.

[dameocrat67]

29. Chris Hedges says it is the support of the police and the military

when that ends the 1% has to give up.

[socialist_n_TN]

43. The police (official or Xe) will always be a problem

Even in Tsarist Russia and Kerensky's Russia, the police stayed with the PTBs till the end. And they both were situations where almost the entire populace, OTHER than the police, was against the government.

Now the military is an interesting conundrum. No successful revolution happens without either the neutrality or the active cooperation of the "working class" of the military. The EMs. I think in our case with the inevitable hiring of XE by the ruling class if things REALLY get dicey for them, we're going to need the active participation of the EMs on our side. Else it will be VERY bloody and disruptive. There's more of us and we're armed too, but XE is WELL armed. IMO, we'll need the active participation of the military on our side to even it out.

Then you worry about a military "Bonapartist" dictatorship. Hopefully, the soldier's committees will forstall that.

[WCGreen]

30. We out number them 99 to 1....

[kentuck]

31. The ability of the Congress to raise their taxes.

...

[babydollhead]

32. greed is not self regulating

[The2ndWheel]

33. The collective agreement about money being worth what it is

As long as we all want what they have, money, then they win. What power would they have if they had what you didn't want? You don't get to beat them at that game.

I guess that makes it everyone's Achilles Heel though.

[Festivito]

34. I'd say it's the things they have to keep secret that could possibly see the light of day.

Transparency, it kills them.

[surrealAmerican]

35. You don't win at their game, you stop playing.

As long as you are playing by their rules, they will win.

We need to write our own rules.

[Starry Messenger]

36. We play our own game--mass organization.

[Scuba]

37. The fact that 90% of the 1% don't agree with that other 10%. n/t

[jimlup]

38. It won't be pretty and we are probably too spoiled as a society

to do what must be done.

[hunter]

39. People who don't have money don't buy stuff.

People who don't have money don't play the markets.

People who don't have money don't have savings.

People who don't have money ain't got nothing to lose.

That's the Achilles Heel of the 1%.

[Initech]

44. Their weakness is for us to follow where their money really goes. To expose them.