MinistryOfTruth | Daily Kos | June 20 2014
Multi-millionaire Nick Hanauer is no dummy. He sees the writing on the wall.
I'd strongly suggest you read this entire piece titled “The pitchforks are coming . . . for us Plutocrats”
And what do I see in our future now?I see pitchforks.
At the same time that people like you and me are thriving beyond the dreams of any plutocrats in history, the rest of the country—the 99.99 percent—is lagging far behind. The divide between the haves and have-nots is getting worse really, really fast. In 1980, the top 1 percent controlled about 8 percent of U.S. national income. The bottom 50 percent shared about 18 percent. Today the top 1 percent share about 20 percent; the bottom 50 percent, just 12 percent.
But the problem isn’t that we have inequality. Some inequality is intrinsic to any high-functioning capitalist economy. The problem is that inequality is at historically high levels and getting worse every day. Our country is rapidly becoming less a capitalist society and more a feudal society. Unless our policies change dramatically, the middle class will disappear, and we will be back to late 18th-century France. Before the revolution.
And so I have a message for my fellow filthy rich, for all of us who live in our gated bubble worlds: Wake up, people. It won’t last.
I remember hearing a phrase during Occupy, “If you won't let us dream we won't let you sleep”. What happens when real opportunity for everyone below $100k evaporates entirely? What happens when people can't find decent paying jobs that they can afford to live on? What happens when people have had enough?
I don't want things to get that bad. I have often tried my best to get out in front of the problem before it gets worse. I don't have the resources or clout to be heard, my lack of money as speech prevents that, but Nick Hanauer does, and he is spelling it out for his uber-rich compatriots, cut the shit out before you unleash all hell on yourselves.
No society can sustain this kind of rising inequality. In fact, there is no example in human history where wealth accumulated like this and the pitchforks didn’t eventually come out. You show me a highly unequal society, and I will show you a police state. Or an uprising. There are no counterexamples. None. It’s not if, it’s when.Read more
Hanauer calls out the idiocy of “Trickle Down” as well as the entire GOP and too many elected Dems who think they can ignore inequality or appease it with weasel words while they continue their crazed weasel orgy behind closed doors with their wealth donors, but the reality is simply, if people have no money that is not only bad for the economy, it is bad for society as a whole. A society where only the wealthiest 1% benefit is a society destined for upheaval.
Now, for the GOP, this is a win/win. They rob everyone who isn't rich, create misery and then run on the misery they have created by redirecting it at their usual enemies, non-republicans, brown people, muslims, gays, women, gubmint, whatever. The problem with playing with fire is that you too can be burned, and where there are pitchforks there are bound to be torches.
Hmmm….. Mr. Hanauer recently acted on his concern over the possibility of angry peasants with pitchforks and torches coming after him and his fellow zillionaires.
Did he act by raising wages at the new Amazon fulfillment centers? Nope, the one here still specializes in offering part-time minimum wage jobs with no benefits, and there are no changes coming on that horizon.
Did Mr. Hanauer publicly agree with the conclusions of the five respected senior scientists who wrote an Op-Ed that appeared in USA Today and stated that wages in the tech sector haven’t risen since 1999, that there is no shortage of STEM workers in the US, and that the constant increase in visas for foreign tech workers has cut off a major route to the middle class for working class people? No, Mr. Hanauer and his fellow billionaires haven’t considered this – in fact, I believe Mr. Hanuer referred to those who oppose endless streams of immigrants as hating anyone who isn’t white and “dumb.”
No, Mr. Hanauer and his fellow billionaires decided the most effective way to stop the peasants with pitchforks and torches was one that has proved its effectiveness for centuries. They chose a method that costs them far less than raising wages or offering benefits. They decided to band together and donate several million dollars towards I-594, the Washington State ballot measure that is designed to make firearms ownership as onerous as possible. Lend a pistol to your sister-in-law at a target range? Teach children to shoot at summer camp? Congratulations, you are now a Class C felon.