Have we in the USA been hijacked?

[howaboutme]

Have we have been hijacked by oligarchs, Wall street bankers, big media, multi-national CEOs, and military - industrialists.

George Carlin said it best http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acLW1vFO-2Q

Where did this idea originate that the USA needs to police and take care of the world and especially the Middle East? Did it originate 60 years ago post WW2 when we actually were a wealthy nation with a strong middle class that has since been decimated by the financial elite? I believe the issue originated when the financial elite decided that they would be better off with a poor USA without a questioning middle class. Our society was stolen by those who put Hollywood entertainment and pro sports as being more important than a responsible informed society?

Fast forward 50+ years from WW2 and we are now a nation gasping for fairness and egalitarianism for the people, and we are instead controlled by a minority of bankers and oligarchs with lots of money.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

1. 80%.

The last 20% is a bitch, though.

[anarch]

3. wait, what is the population of our prisons?

well, ok, not quite that much...but there is a definite trend, if you know what I'm saying.

[TheWraith]

2. "post WW2 when we actually were a wealthy nation with a strong middle class" Rose colored glasses.

"post WW2 when we actually were a wealthy nation with a strong middle class"

People look back and forget that back then, that "strong middle class" was built on a foundation of systemic economic inequality. Go back to the 1950s or 1960s and ask a black man how well he was doing economically. Check and see how many hispanic folks were getting a taste of that post-war prosperity. The idea that we were better off back then is built on the underlying perceptual bias. People make on average a lot more money today, adjusted for inflation, then they did back then.

[howaboutme]

4. Sorry did you live back then?

I did and Americans with a HS education probably made equivalent of 80K a year with one working spouse at a job that was soon to be exported to Mexico or Asia. Real jobs were exported by the deal making banksters on Wall St.

An immigration policy that allows the world to have our universities slots and take jobs at lower wages is to the benefit of Americans? The answer depends upon if one is being excluded, included or politically enhanced by the outcome. The only outcome that is really important in my view is if the US people benefit.

[Siouxmealso]

5. Actually

I grew up in a black neighborhood in the mid-1950s and early 1960s and the black people were merchants, tradesmen, professionals and government workers. My next door neighbor was a porter for Great Northern Railroad and his wife was a kindergarten teacher. There was a black-owned funeral home around the corner, a black-owned bakery, and a taxicab company. My scoutmaster was black, my den mother was black (and the mother of my best friend), my church minister and my first grade teacher were black.

People who didn't live back then shouldn't believe all the negative stereotypes that absolutely nothing good existed then for American minorities.

[grahamhgreen]

7. Great post!

[grahamhgreen]

6. No, it's built on statistical fact.