Originally published on www.paulcraigroberts.org
Today the Western peoples are experiencing the destruction of their well being that is comparable to what the one percent in Rome imposed on Roman citizens and conquered peoples. Here is how John Williams (shadowstats.com, 9-12-12) phrases the wipeout of Americans’ hopes:
“Consumers simply cannot make ends meet. Inflation-adjusted, or real, median household income declined for the fourth-straight year, plunging to its lowest level since 1995. Deflated by the CPI-U, the 2011 reading actually stood below levels seen in the late-1960s and early-1970s.”
“At the same time, despite the ongoing nature of the economic and systemic-solvency crises, and the effects of the 2008 financial panic, income dispersion—the movement of income away from the middle towards both high- and low-level extremes—has hit a record high, instead of moderating, as might be expected during periods of financial distress. Extremes in income dispersion usually foreshadow financial-market and economic calamities. With the current circumstance at a record extreme, and well above levels estimated to have prevailed before the 1929 stock-market crash and the Great Depression, increasingly difficult times are likely for the next several years.”
This chart shows where the median household income of the US Superpower, the “indispensable people,” stands at the culmination of 2011. Americans are as well off as they were in 1967-68. Most americans cannot pay for fighting multi-trillion dollar wars for 11 years, bailout trillions of dollars in uncovered casino bets by Wall Street, have their middle class jobs sent abroad by corporations, and still expect to have higher personal incomes.
Apparently, Americans are the first people in history who are so idealistic, or so thoroughly brainwashed, that they prefer to pay for wars and bail out banks than to make their mortgage payments and help their children with student loan debt.
The federal court in Germany has ruled that Germans are to be just as idealistic as Americans. The federal court has produced a ruling that it is OK for the EU to require German citizens to provide $190 billion to pay off the private banks who lent too much money to Greece.
In exchange for paying off the banks for Greece, the Greek people are to be driven into poverty and hopelessness. Pensions are cut, taxes are raised, employment is cut, social services are curtailed, prices of utilities are raised. The Greek people are to be destroyed in order that the private European banks do not lose money on their bad loans.
In the West the Revolution From Above has succeeded. The peoples are re-enserfed. The promised land is a promised land for the one percent.
Comments
Adapt or die
We may as well adapt. Main Street can't change things, we no longer have the power and TPTB are not concerned with Main Street economics.
So live smaller, stop buying stuff and have your friends over for a Saturday afternoon pot luck. Enjoy the life you can make. Figure out how to survive the rest.
Lame
That's so out of reality, when people have nothing they cannot "cut back". Nice fantasy and basically you're telling people to just take it, lay down and die. Thanks for sharing.
What can be done?
When those in power make the rules, when they stack the deck, and most people have no say - how do things change?
When the wealthy buy the laws, set the rate of pay, cut jobs to obtain more profit for the wealthy - what options do the rest of us have?
How does a 30 hr. part time, just about min wage, no benefit worker do? Main street is working hard to feed the kids and pay the bills. Most barely have a spare hour, or spare dime, to figure out a way out. Most live in some state of worry about keeping the job, getting enough hours, putting gas in the car. People trying to hang on to the little they have aren't going to rock the boat and put basic survival at risk.
I'm not saying you give up. I'm saying you look at the reality of now and try to figure out how to make the best of a bad situation.
Not sure the "just give up" attitude is the way to go
In sum, why reward or even allow those criminals and/or traitors that are selling out their countrymen for their own personal wealth to continue to do so? Why allow them one moment's peace (let alone billions in ill-gotten wealth) while everyone else that studied, worked hard, served their country in the military or as teachers or in other positions and followed all the rules is continually screwed over by people that didn't study, or work honest jobs, or simply got wealthy through connections and/or stepping on anyone and everyone that didn't view other human beings as fodder and steps to some CEO position? All that would happen is that the powers that be would start seeking new rent-taking methods and methods of crushing other Americans, like taxing purchases of farm tools at ridiculous rates, or small homesteads, or forcing public school children to pay college level tuitions or else work in factories to make products the plutocrats could sell, or buying all the land around small farms and homes and then imposing tolls to go through (like Rockefeller did with oil plots surrounding small drillers and the train barons did with farmers 120+ years ago). Nah, not even appeasement, but merely allowing these folks to get away with anything will only embolden them. Like all criminals and those without any shame or integrity, they will take and take and take until someone gets in their face and stops them. Even if someone is hiding in a corner, they will not leave you alone - these predators will view that as weakness.
Well, screw that. I'm tired of these predators thinking for a moment we are weak. Look at them. They surround themselves with guards, live in walled compounds, and never mingle with regular folks. They attend conferences with people just like them. I mean they are even afraid of honest questions! Questions scare them?!
Look at Mike Bloomberg, the plutocrats' mayor. He surrounds himself with armed guards, doesn't walk the streets of the city he represents to mingle with the regular people he should represent, and only attends conferences with other plutocrats where the general public isn't allowed in and he and other plutocrats arrange policies harming us without any checks or balances (e.g., working with phone-hacking and cop bribing Murdoch to get more foreign workers to replace Americans). Who are the cowards then plutocrats? They can't resist constantly showing others how tough they think they are - it's the nature of predators, they only stop when called out and forced to stop. And in a democracy, the numbers of honest people that want the criminal conduct and exploitation to stop far outnumber the criminals destroying the USA - so in true democratic fashion, numbers must carry the day.
Dream on Pollyanna. The
Dream on Pollyanna. The predators don't think we are weak. They are barely aware of our existence. Look at any tea bag party and behold the spectacle of elderly dependents on Social Security ranting about Big Gov'ment, lamenting the good old days when we were free, and imagining that we are the wealthiest, most secure people the world has ever known. Let's have another shot of tax relief for the rich, and everything will be as near perfect as possible; jobs will just start dropping like ripe figs.