No, I didn't write that.
Paul B Farrell of Dow Jones did.
And he means it. He really means that if the 1% in the US (and in the UK too, though he doesn't say that, so I will for him) who control government to further their claims on 40% of capital in pursuit of their demand for ever higher income, whether earned or not, don't relinquish their claim on control then there will be social disorder in the US.
And the UK too.
As Farrell says:
Our top 1% honestly believe they're immune, protected from the unintended consequences of beating down average Americans for three decades with the free-market, trickle-down Reaganomics doctrines that made them Super Rich.
They honestly believe those same doctrines will protect them in the next depression. Why? Because they have megabucks stashed away. Provisions for the long haul. Live in gated compounds with mercenaries guarding them.
They believe they'll continue living just fine in a depression.
I am convinced he's right: that is exactly what they think. But as he adds:
But you won't. Nor will your retirement. Neither will the rest of America. And still the Super Rich don't care, ‚except in the abstract, because they aren't directly affected.
Warning: The Super-Rich Delusion has pushed us to the edge of a great precipice: Remember the Roaring Twenties? The Crash of 1929? Great Depression? Just days before the crash one leading economist, Irving Fisher, predicted that stocks had ‚reached what looks like a permanently high plateau.
Yes, he was trapped in the ‚Great Gatsby Syndrome, an earlier version of today's Super-Rich Delusion. It was so blinding in 1929 that the president, Wall Street, all America were sucked in ‚ until the critical mass hit a mysterious flash point, triggering the crash.
Yes, we're reliving that past ‚ never learn, can't hear. And oddly it's not just the GOP's overreach, the endlessly compromising Obama, too-greedy-to-fail Wall Street banksters, U.S. Chamber of Commerce billionaires and arrogant Forbes 400. America’s entire political, financial and economic psyche is infected, as if our DNA has been rewired.
The Collective American Brain is trapped in this Super-Rich Delusion, replaying the run-up to the ,29 Crash.
A Dow Jones economist is an unlikely source for such stuff. He makes UK Uncut look tame.
But he's right to write as he does.
I believe this is the precipice towards which the ConDems are marching us in the UK.
And what really worries me is Labour is still not offering an alternative, any more than the Democrats are in the US.
That vacuum is the real danger.
Read the rest of what Farrell has to say. It's worth it. And note his conclusion:
Wake up folks. The Super-Rich Delusion is destroying the American Dream for the rest of us. The Super Rich don't care about you. They're already stockpiling for the economic time bomb dead ahead. Don't say you weren't warned. Time for you to plan ahead for the coming revolution, for another depression.
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Hog Wash. Americans will never protest in numbers, and will never kick out the rich. Unlike Europe or England, Americans ADORE the rich. They idolize them EVERYWHERE, from TV, to radio to internet.
And unlike the educated Europeans, Americans are so gosh-darn optimistic about everything. Their spirit and blind patriotism binds them to believing that it’s the American dream, that some people get rich really fast, and super rich. Oprah, Puff Daddy, Jay-Z, Jennifer Lopez, pick any ethnicity, any minority group, any downtrodden, and America has produced one lucky S-O-B that they all dream to become.
And that “gosh darn” American optimism makes them all believe that their ‘time to shine’ is just around the corner.
This economist is out to lunch and disconnected with America. The America I live in idolizes Oprah and Donald Trump… they will never revolt!
@kimbjo
Oh dear, you’ve fallen for it, haven’t you?
That’s what Fisher said in 1929
You evidence the whole complacency of the elite
It’s worth also mentioning this article in Vanity Fair. Do I see a bit of a theme developing?
http://www.vanityfair.com/society/features/2011/05/top-one-percent-201105?currentPage=all
@Richard Murphy
I could be wrong, but given the scorn @kimbjo evinces for his fellow Americans, in thrall to the hyper-rich and the ever-retreating promise that they too could join them through no more than wanting it hard enough – I don’t think he’s fallen for anything… he strikes me as just appalled that so many do fall for it.
(Although granted, starting a reply with “hogwash” probably isn’t the best way to persuade the person to whom you’re replying that you’re on their side…)
Can you spell out what sort of alternative you would like to see Labour offering, Richard?
@Huw Spanner
See publications in right hand column and this http://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2010/12/17/the-alternative-economic-policy-we-need/
I don’t think I’ve fallen for it. America’s ‘left wing’ party the Democrats make the Conservatives in the UK look like Trotskyists.
Americans have a deep distrust of their government, and the whole ‘communism/socialism = bad’ dogma that was inculcated in their heads for 5 decades leads them to see a slippery slope where anything short of privitizing roads, jails, schools, air, water, grass, oxygen, carbon is just red Russia communism!
Believe it. They will never revolt.
@kimbjo
Madison. It’s in Wisconsin.
@Dave, but don’t call me Cam
Excellent point
They are revolting – now
Just a comment on Madison, from a Wisconsinite’s point of view. The public sector in Wisconsin has been taken one kick in the head after another with no way of negotiating the time they spend away from their families, the benefits they receive and guaranteed pay raises. Salaried workers have been taken advantage of by companies who continue to cut personnel and add responsibilities to their plates requiring them to work long hours with little time to spend with their family. There is no pursuit of the American Dream in the private sector as we have struggled to keep our jobs by forcibly accepting whatever has been handed to us. This has lead to consequences that are unimaginable. I, personally, took a gamble after falling ill from exhaustion for working for a company that cared very little for what happened to their management. I left the company two years ago, with a bachelor’s degree and ten years experience under my belt, I had faith that the world would welcome me. I was unaware that my experience and education would actually hinder my ability to find employment, as companies are cutting back to less educated and less experienced workers in order to cut costs. This is the trend in Wisconsin, but not for government workers. As I recovered and was ready to return to work, the workforce has not welcomed me. As part of the middle class, that the government workers keep stressing as being themselves, my family has in the last few years become the part of the middle class that has already disintegrated. I believe that tomorrows elections may tell the true story about how Wisconsin feels about the public workers’ cuts and the eliminatiion of bargaining rights in order to bring business back to our state. We have seen too many businesses leave in the last ten years and part of the reason is because unions are costly and Wisconsin is a highly union state. Just another view the media failed to cover.
@Jodie
It sounds to me that you make the case for unions, very strongly