How Much is Enough?

Here’s a couple of interesting items, which I shamelessly lifted from the Too Much Web site. Perhaps you’ll find them interesting, too.

Stat of the Week:

How could U.S. income inequality be undone? Larry Summers, Barack Obama's pick to lead the National Economic Council, has worked out the math. If every top 1 percent household — average income: $1.7 million — wrote a check for $800,000, and if all these checks were pooled together, then $10,000 could be sent to every U.S. household making under $120,000 — and Americans would be as economically equal, by income, as they were three decades ago.

Quote of the Week:

“America’s wealthy have benefitted more than anyone else from the stability and safety provided by government, as well as the infrastructure and educated workforce and countless other public goods that make commerce possible. It is entirely fair to ask more from these families than we do from families who are struggling.”—Citizens for Tax Justice, Principles for Progressive Taxation During a Recession, December 2008

Ponder these while the U.S. economy continues its death spiral.

Harry Kwanukkahmas!

Wake Up, People!

“The Judds worship money. They make it a stand-in for all the other qualities of life. If you can be nice, or have money, take the money. If you can be brave, or have money, take the money. If you can have friends or have money, take the money. They’re like that. They don’t even hide it. Take the money.” —Excerpted from Dark of the Moon, by John Sandford

There’s something inherently wrong with a system that trades real wealth for the illusion of wealth. That so many people subscribe to the illusion only compounds the problem.

Monetary wealth, as most people know, never trickles downward. Instead, it works its way upward, pulling poverty along behind it. This kind of wealth redistribution is acceptable to the privileged and powerful. The kind of wealth redistribution that’s not acceptable to them is the kind they fear the most, the kind that takes money out of their pockets and into the hands of the lower classes.

The wealthy class does whatever it takes to protect its wealth and accumulate more; lie, cheat, steal—even kill when it’s expedient. The dominant mindset of the fabulously wealthy is that no amount of excess is excessive, no amount of greed inexcusable, and that too much is never enough.

We live in a broken world, a world that humans broke by using a symbiotic combination of unbridled capitalism and rampant greed. With global rainforests in decline, ocean ecosystems in disarray and on the brink of imminent collapse, and agricultural land threatened by encroaching population growth and the attendant pollution and resource exploitation that inevitably leads to desertification— all for the sake of personal and corporate profits—we’re quickly reaching a point beyond which the damage is irrevocable and our chances of recovery nil.

As currently practiced, capitalism is nothing more than a high-stakes Monopoly game in which the more one acquires the more one is able to acquire. Money begets money begets power begets more of each, ad infinitum.

It’s precisely this kind of wealth accumulation that disenfranchises a huge majority of the population, that allows public infrastructure to crumble, the quality of education to decline, the number of living wage jobs to plummet; it fuels inflation, stifles economic competition, drives housing costs into unaffordable territory for many, and puts health care out of reach for many more.

One of the major flaws of capitalism is that it overvalues money and undervalues or refuses to recognize other forms of wealth; healthy ecosystems, unpolluted air and water, pristine environments, biological diversity, food and water security, and sustainability are prime examples of various forms of wealth that are given short shrift in capitalism’s marketplace.

But capitalism has other flaws, too, some of them fatal. Although you’ll never get hardcore capitalists to admit it, capitalism’s primary fatal flaw is that it eventually consumes all of its capital, including material resources capital, environmental capital, and human capital. For the capitalist economic model to succeed, it must rely on an endless supply of resources and increasing numbers of consumers, neither of which are possible on a finite world.

Capitalism works just fine as long as there are plentiful resources and a small population with room to expand, but when resource scarcity becomes widespread and population numbers reach the limits of sustainability, it quickly falls apart. When an economic system excludes or disenfranchises large numbers of citizens while simultaneously heaping unearned or undeserved rewards on a much smaller privileged class of citizens, it sets itself up for an avalanche of unintended consequences, including poverty, homelessness, increasing crime rates, infrastructure breakdown, and periods of recession, inflation, and stagflation that eventually end in economic depression.

Tension between a relatively small class of over-privileged rich people and a huge class of marginalized poor people is building. At some point a clash between these two diverse groups is bound to result.

In one scenario of such a conflict, the rich eliminate the threat posed to their wealth simply by disposing of the poor and large segments of the middle class—in other words, the mass extermination of as many as 5.5 billion people worldwide. In another scenario, the poor eat the rich.

There are other ways this can play out, but for peaceful resolutions to the problems presented by wealth disparity to come about, people on both sides of the issue must first come to their senses. Maintaining the status quo is no longer an option.

Truth's Truth

As writing of my previous post The Qualm before the Storm neared completion, I stumbled upon this fabulous bit of insight on the BikePortland Blog (see comment Post #5, by Truth). It’s so good I couldn’t resist sharing it with you.

At the author’s invitation, I took the liberty of reposting his or her comments, albeit in heavily edited form. Because the original appeared as one impossibly long paragraph, I broke the text up into paragraphs where it seemed logical to do so. Although I rewrote a couple of sentences for clarity's sake, I retained the original wording to the greatest extent possible, and otherwise limited editing to spelling, punctuation, and formatting.

The following was written by a person identified only as Truth:

Don’t believe one optimistic word from any public figure about the economy or humanity in general. They are all part of the problem. It’s like a game of Monopoly. In America, the richest 1% now holds 1/2 of all United States wealth. Unlike lesser estimates, this includes all stocks, bonds, cash, and material assets held by America’s richest 1%. Even that filthy pig Oprah acknowledged that it was at about 50% in 2006. Naturally, she put her own “humanitarian” spin on it, calling attention to her own “good will.” What a disgusting hypocrite slob.

The richest 1% has literally made world prosperity absolutely impossible. Don’t fall for any of their “humanitarian” crap. It’s a sham. These people are causing the same problems they pretend to care about.

Ask any professor of economics. Money does not grow on trees. The government can’t just print up more on a whim (actually, it can; it’s called inflation —Ed.). At any given time, there is a relative limit to the wealth within any economy of any size, so when too much wealth accumulates at the top, the middle class slips further into debt and the lower class further into poverty.

A similar rule applies worldwide. The world’s richest 1% now own over 40% of all world wealth. This is even after you account for all of this “good will,” “humanitarian” BS from celebrities and executives. It’s a sham. As they get richer and richer, less wealth is left circulating beneath them. This is the single greatest underlying cause for the current U.S. recession.

The middle class can no longer afford to sustain their share of the economy. Their wealth has been gradually transferred to the richest 1%. One way or another, we suffer because of their incredible greed. We are talking about trillions of dollars transferred from us to them over a period of about 27 years. That’s Reaganomics for you. The wealth does not ‘trickle down’ as we were told it would. It just accumulates at the top, shrinking the middle class and expanding the lower class, causing a domino effect of socio-economic problems.

But the rich will never stop. They will never settle for a reasonable share of anything. They will do whatever it takes to get even richer, leaving even less of the pie for the other 99% of us to share. At the same time, they throw back a few tax-deductible crumbs and call themselves “humanitarians,” cashing in on the PR and getting even richer the following year.

It can’t work this way. Their bogus efforts to make the world a better place cannot possibly succeed. Any “humanitarian” progress made in one area will be lost in another every single time. It absolutely cannot work this way. This is going to end just like a game of Monopoly.

The current U.S. recession will drag on for years and lead into the worst U.S. depression of all time. The richest 1% will live like royalty while the rest of us fight over jobs, food, and gasoline. Crime, poverty, and suicide will skyrocket. So don’t fall for all of this PR crap from Hollywood, Pro Sports, and Wall Street pigs. It’s a sham. Remember: They are filthy rich even after their tax-deductible contributions. Greedy pigs.

Now, we are headed for the worst economic and cultural crisis of all time. Send a “thank you” note to your favorite millionaire. It’s their fault. I’m not discounting other factors like China, sub-prime, or gas prices. But all of those factors combined still pale in comparison to that huge transfer of wealth to the rich. Anyway, those other factors are all related and further aggravated because of greed. If it weren’t for the obscene distribution of wealth within our country, there never would have been such a market for sub-prime to begin with, which by the way, was another trick whipped up by greedy bankers and executives. It makes them richer.

The credit industry has been endorsed by people like Oprah, Ellen, Dr. Phil, and many other celebrities. It makes them richer. Now, there are commercial ties between nearly every industry and every public figure. It makes them richer. So don’t fall for their “good will” BS. It’s a lie. If you fall for it, then you’re a fool. If you see any real difference between the moral character of a celebrity, politician, attorney, or executive, then you’re a fool.

Wake up, people. It’s all about the money. The 1% club will always say or do whatever it takes to get as rich as possible, without the slightest regard for anything or anyone but themselves.

Vioxx? Their idea. Sub-prime? Their idea. NAFTA? Their idea. Outsourcing? Their idea. The commercial lobbyist? Their idea. The multi-million dollar lawsuit? Their idea. $200 cell phone bills? Their idea. $200 basketball shoes? Their idea. $30 late fees? Their idea. $30 NSF fees? Their idea. $20 DVDs? Their idea. Subliminal advertising? Their idea. The MASSIVE campaign to turn every American into a brainwashed credit card-pharmaceutical-lovesick celebrity junkie? Their idea. Their ideas, all of which have been created and endorsed by celebrities, athletes, and executives, concentrate the world’s wealth and resources and wreak havoc on society. It makes them richer. So don’t fall for their “good will,” “humanitarian” BS. It’s a sham, nothing but tax-deductible PR crap.

Bottom line: The richest 1% will soon tank the largest economy in the world. It will be like nothing we’ve ever seen before, and that’s just the beginning. Greed will eventually tank every major economy in the world, causing millions to suffer and die. Oprah, Angelina, Brad, Bono, and Bill are not part of the solution. They are part of the problem.

Extreme wealth has made world prosperity absolutely impossible. Without world prosperity, there will never be world peace or anything even close. Greed kills. It will be our downfall.

Of course, the rich will throw a fit and call me a madman. Of course, their ignorant fans will do the same. You have to expect that. But I speak the truth. If you don’t believe me, then copy this entry and run it by any professor of economics or socio-economics. Then tell a friend. Call the local radio station. Re-post this entry or put it in your own words. Be one of the first to predict the worst economic and cultural crisis of all time and explain its cause.

We are in big trouble.