Are governments just protection rackets for the 1%?

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Greatest I am
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Re: Are governments just protection rackets for the 1%?

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Repeat you like all you like. It does not make it true.

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Re: Are governments just protection rackets for the 1%?

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Please, it should be obvious that the ultra-rich spend most of their time creating more wealth in the form of goods and services for the not-so-rich as opposed to the personal consumption of same.
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Re: Are governments just protection rackets for the 1%?

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bobevenson wrote: Thu Oct 05, 2017 5:14 pm Please, it should be obvious that the ultra-rich spend most of their time creating more wealth in the form of goods and services for the not-so-rich as opposed to the personal consumption of same.
Reaganomics trickle-down theory.

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Re: Are governments just protection rackets for the 1%?

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Time to check your pants again.
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Re: Are governments just protection rackets for the 1%?

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bobevenson wrote: Thu Oct 05, 2017 6:52 pm Time to check your pants again.
Time to zip up yours.

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Re: Are governments just protection rackets for the 1%?

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GIA, some people cannot bear to even consider the possibility that a system which worked well throughout their lifetimes could become unbalanced and cease to work well.

https://anticap.files.wordpress.com/201 ... jpg?w=1400

How wide should this gap become before we think about slowing it? Should we wait until so many people are resorting to crime to survive that life becomes perilous?
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Re: Are governments just protection rackets for the 1%?

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Yes.

But it takes a lot more control and power inside democratic countries to maintain that control.
This week we saw the farce of the Tory party conference. The Tories - a party sustained by less than 100k people, and dropping promotes itself with patriotism, images of old empire, queen and country, and a bunch of platitudes and dawn right lies about working for Britain, (f)or everyone.
They enjoy the support of the world's most powerful man who is in control of the biggest media companies and news papers.
When they offer crumbs such as 5000 council houses, the media present that in two ways both which ignore how woefully inadequate that policy is. One way is to pretend it cares about the million in poverty, the other that it is unwise for economic health.
What is really needed is millions of new affordable homes. But you'd never guess because even the media not controlled by Murdoch is controlled by rich people who can not understand the needs of the majority, even if they might care about the rise of Food Banks, there is always a trope about feeling up-lifted by charity to make them feel better.
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Re: Are governments just protection rackets for the 1%?

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bobevenson wrote: Thu Oct 05, 2017 5:14 pm Please, it should be obvious that the ultra-rich spend most of their time creating more wealth in the form of goods and services for the not-so-rich as opposed to the personal consumption of same.
Rich people create NO wealth, they just collect money.
Wealth is created by work, not by rich people.
The economy is fired by demand. Ordinary people spending their hard earned cash is what drives the economy. If you keep squeezing the wealth creators you just end up with one fat lazy kunt with all the money and everyone else in poverty, and a broken economy.
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Re: Are governments just protection rackets for the 1%?

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Greta wrote: Thu Oct 05, 2017 10:32 pm GIA, some people cannot bear to even consider the possibility that a system which worked well throughout their lifetimes could become unbalanced and cease to work well.

https://anticap.files.wordpress.com/201 ... jpg?w=1400

How wide should this gap become before we think about slowing it? Should we wait until so many people are resorting to crime to survive that life becomes perilous?
I recall seeing a painting by one of the old masters that showed a time just before the French Revolution. It showed a castle surrounded by a high and well guarded wall with the rich behind it partying to beat the band while outside the wall, there was poverty and destitution without compare.

The present rich are in their gated and well protected and gated communities while many go wanting a fair shake.

Crime is not the problem. The problem is that the rank and file have forgotten that the rich are a part of our community and need to take a proper and moral profit, yes, but no more and certainly not what they are taking today.

The American rank and file, as in many countries, have lost their balls and sense of community and honor.

That is why our politicians can be bought off so cheaply and why the average voter does not care.

I seek the remedy that will regrow balls but have yet to find it.

John Wayne is dead and Liberty is out of control.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDN4L7cAQf0

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Last edited by Greatest I am on Fri Oct 06, 2017 12:14 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Are governments just protection rackets for the 1%?

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Greatest I am wrote: Thu Oct 05, 2017 11:45 pm
The present rich are in their gated and well protected communities while many go wanting a fair shake.
There is a new definition of the gated community, wrought large. As happened with the break up of Yugoslavia leaving Croatia with all the best property, land, and hotels, and Bosnia in poverty. Now Catalonia, the richest part of Spain is about to be hived off for the rich and powerful who shall enjoy a seafront to park their yachts, leaving the rest of Spain in poverty.
This is being promoted by exploiting the most base and vile instincts of the human animal; nationalistic and racist othering of their fellow citizens.
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Re: Are governments just protection rackets for the 1%?

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Hobbes' Choice wrote: Thu Oct 05, 2017 11:16 pm Yes.

But it takes a lot more control and power inside democratic countries to maintain that control.
This week we saw the farce of the Tory party conference. The Tories - a party sustained by less than 100k people, and dropping promotes itself with patriotism, images of old empire, queen and country, and a bunch of platitudes and dawn right lies about working for Britain, (f)or everyone.
They enjoy the support of the world's most powerful man who is in control of the biggest media companies and news papers.
When they offer crumbs such as 5000 council houses, the media present that in two ways both which ignore how woefully inadequate that policy is. One way is to pretend it cares about the million in poverty, the other that it is unwise for economic health.
What is really needed is millions of new affordable homes. But you'd never guess because even the media not controlled by Murdoch is controlled by rich people who can not understand the needs of the majority, even if they might care about the rise of Food Banks, there is always a trope about feeling up-lifted by charity to make them feel better.
I hear you buddy.

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Re: Are governments just protection rackets for the 1%?

Post by bobevenson »

Hobbes' Choice wrote: Thu Oct 05, 2017 11:19 pm
bobevenson wrote: Thu Oct 05, 2017 5:14 pm Please, it should be obvious that the ultra-rich spend most of their time creating more wealth in the form of goods and services for the not-so-rich as opposed to the personal consumption of same.
Rich people create NO wealth, they just collect money.
Wealth is created by work, not by rich people.
There is an obvious defect in your understanding of economics as exemplified by the above comment.
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Re: Are governments just protection rackets for the 1%?

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bobevenson wrote: Fri Oct 06, 2017 12:48 am
Hobbes' Choice wrote: Thu Oct 05, 2017 11:19 pm
bobevenson wrote: Thu Oct 05, 2017 5:14 pm Please, it should be obvious that the ultra-rich spend most of their time creating more wealth in the form of goods and services for the not-so-rich as opposed to the personal consumption of same.
Rich people create NO wealth, they just collect money.
Wealth is created by work, not by rich people.
There is an obvious defect in your understanding of economics as exemplified by the above comment.
Thanks for your comment, brainwashed moron.
The evils of society boil down the the ability to "make money" from the simply fact of having money. Real wealth is achieved form work, not sitting on your arse waiting for your balance to increase.
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Re: Are governments just protection rackets for the 1%?

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Greta wrote: Thu Oct 05, 2017 1:13 am Once governments represented the people, theoretically anyway. Now they clearly represent corporations and billionaires. It's not the top 1% who are protected by the government so much as the 0.1%.
You are an optimist, Greta. It's more like only the top 0.000000000000000001% is protected.
Greta wrote: Thu Oct 05, 2017 1:13 amThe stagnation and, sometimes, reduction of wages suggests that the ultra wealthy have largely stemmed the flow of the "trickle down". No doubt they feel they need the extra money in these difficult times.
Bah. Reduction of wages is a result of large unemployment; the labour expense is a highly elastic demand-price function. In economic terms. And the large unemployment is the result of a catastrophically large overproduction crisis, yes, a Marxian one.

This overproduction crisis is not only due to having manufactured much more than the market can bear; it is due also to the reduction in personal spending. Young people do not collect "stuff", they play their computer games and live a much more minimalistic life than us, older folks (55+). Young people are content to download cheap, or free, stuff, and other than the occasional running shoes, they do not purchase expensive items. They ride their bikes or e-bikes, instead of driving SUVs and trucks; they listen to downloaded music, instead of going to the opera; they get a tattoo, instead of getting a diamond necklace for their wives; they smoke cheap drugs, instead of LSD and MPEKDU(QW{IDFJGPOG*(_UUPRNHPOJN. They live in the river, under floating ice, they don't buy real estate no more. They eat whatever they can forage: half-eaten sammiches, bugs, thrown-about used condoms, discarded tires. The restaurants and bars are all begging for customers.

Looks like today's youngsters got closer to their parents' and grandparent's hippy and flower-child ideals. Save the Earth, consume less, grow your own food, have a small carbon foot print.

However, it's destroying the economy, which depends on constant, stable growth.

If it's between the economy and the environment, the young of today choose to save the environment. After all, we've been blaring that into their brains since their inception into this world. "Be careful what you ask for."

I'll be the last one to bleed my heart for the rich and the super-rich; but the unemployment crisis and the real income falling are not their doing. At least not directly.
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Re: Are governments just protection rackets for the 1%?

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Hobbes' Choice wrote: Fri Oct 06, 2017 8:49 am
bobevenson wrote: Fri Oct 06, 2017 12:48 am
Hobbes' Choice wrote: Thu Oct 05, 2017 11:19 pm

Rich people create NO wealth, they just collect money.
Wealth is created by work, not by rich people.
There is an obvious defect in your understanding of economics as exemplified by the above comment.
The evils of society boil down the the ability to "make money" from the simply fact of having money. Real wealth is achieved form work, not sitting on your arse waiting for your balance to increase.
You don't think rich people work, huh? Do you really think Bill Gates. Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg stopped working when they became rich? Maybe when your country gets rid of its godforsaken socialism, you'll understand economics, my friend.
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