Timely article--couldn't agree more. Plutocracy is on the rise in America. This talk of "socialism" while taxes are lower than they were under Nixon and Reagan and the wealth disparity is the greatest since right before the Great Depression is simply delusional. The Right Wing maintains that we need to cut taxes for the rich so they'll create jobs. In fact, the Bush tax cuts have been in effect since 2001. And where are the jobs?? The truth is that the rich are hoarding their wealth and using it to buy politicians who will help skew wealth disparities even more. Some people can never get enough money, no matter how much they already have and no matter what they have to do to get it. It's a kind of psychosis, and in this country, where the worship of self-centered greed is a cultural disease, it is destroying the quality of life of the masses and the environment. To stop it, all people need to do is to see through the fog of ideology. But for the most part the U.S. is simply a nation of nitwits being manipulated by the plutocrats. The rich want to erode educational standards and funding while beefing up propaganda operations (such as Faux News) so that they can push the envelope even further, disempowering everyone else as much as possible. We need to be fighting back with everything we've got.

...also, the Gini Index is not a 'ranking' as this article mistakenly termed it (although one could certainly rank countries based on their Gini scores). Rank implies ordinality; calling it a 'rating' or 'score' (or simply, 'index') would be more appropriate.

Here's the definition of the index:
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/fields/2172.html

In the past 10 days I have submitted commentary to a newspaper and two web sites (one truthout). In one, I reported statistics for the 80 years of past administrations showing higher taxes have consistently added jobs and tax cuts have consistently increased unemployment. In another I reported statistics on the enormous concentration of wealth which occurred even with progressive taxation with a top marginal rate of 80%. In the third I pointed out the data showed the export of jobs to China was not related to lower labor costs but to the fact that big money no longer has any interest in investments in making things. In each case my comments were blocked as unacceptable content. It would be easy to believe in a conspiracy but my (university) computer people tell me the current round of commercial filters assume students are the major source of spam so the newest filters are very suspicious of anything originating fron a .edu domain.

Sorry, the 'fog of ideology' has totally encompassed the majority of the people in this country. We are all so accustomed to following the Pied Piper..wherever he says go..we go. In other words, we have become so dumbed down that many do not even recognize what doo- doo they are plowing through anymore. What was once an educational system that the rest of the world envied is now no more. This is the aim of the ones that have taken control...we are all being slowly and insidiously programmed to be slaves to the System..so education must go. Why is it that people have not recognized the Plan of World Conquest by the Fascist that dominate..while they throw out smokescreens by screaming 'Socialism', in order to divert us from their true agenda of Fascism. The Nazis are alive and well and living among us.

We could only wish...even Jesus would approve of Socialism ! The main part of His Teaching was "the Golden Rule." And also," What you do for the least of these, you also do unto Me." Limbaugh, Beck, and the rest of the Loonies will surely pay for preaching their lies to the uneducated, who clearly have no ability to Reason for themselves anymore. Hell is not punishment enough for that cabal of traitors to pay for the damage they have caused.

First and foremost- I agree with your facts. I like your article, and I support the message that you're putting out there.

However, I am left with a few questions and think that you could probably enhance your article a little more than it already is if they are answered.

1) What is the percent growth disparity between wealthy individuals and the poorest individuals? In other words- during the great depression, what percentage of the american population was considered to be the modern equivalent of the "Top 1%"? What was the ratio then and now? (if there is one)

2) Who is now buying all of the homes that went on to be foreclosed? Are they banks? Which Banks? How are they connected to development firms using their newly-purchased-by-someone-else lands to accommodate the fact that homelessness is about to be big in this country despite the surplus of empty homes?

3) well.. not really a question. Thanks for sharing the article. I'm no socialist, I'm no millionaire, and I'm not a libertarian... however, taxes should be the same across the board. If people want TRUE competition, then level the playing field and put an end to corporate personhood.

"The rich are getting richer because our government is getting bigger and bigger."

This comment is both ludicrous and disingenuous. It's more of the propaganda that helped create the very situation we're in.

A weaker, compliant, deregulating government serves the interests of the super-rich--which is why the Koch brothers and company are doing everything in their power to spread their radical libertarian memes and to elect supposedly anti-government Republicans.

Of course, it's not that simple. Republicans are hardly anti-government when it comes to deficit spending, military adventures, and spreading the wealth upward.

When the power elite are the only humans left alive on the planet because they have starved to death 99.99999% of the global population, and they have to grow their own food and chop wood for heat, I wonder how happy they will all be holding all of that money

I made a comment on T.O. two or three years ago in which I said people only need to understand two words: CLASS WAR.

I'm glad people are waking up.

When the morning stretch is over, what are you going to do at high noon?

It's not a war; it's a massacre. In a war, both sides fight. As it is now the rich are waging war, while the rest of us are distracted by bogus issues disseminated by the mainstream media. Some of us even fight on the side of the rich against our own interests.

As our situations become more desperate, we struggle just to survive, while the wealthy hold pity parties because they had to walk away from the mortgage on a second (or third or fourth) home. All this in the face of record bonuses and profits for corporate America.

The Real Republican Ideology

Mitch McConnell the Republican senate minority leader said today, “The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president.”

There’s the real Republican ideology! To hell with the economy, to hell with unemployment, to hell with the deficit, to hell with the middle class, to hell with the country, the most important thing we want is to win!

Are we only pawns to them in their quest for power? Do they care more about politics and winning than restoring our country? Do we really want these unpatriotic bastards back in control?

Vote. Spread the word.

Because we live in a largely free society, we tend to forget how limited is the span of time and the part of the globe for which there has ever been anything like political freedom: the typical state of mankind is tyranny, servitude, and misery. The world runs on individuals pursuing their separate interests. The great achievements of civilization have not come from government bureaus. Einstein didn’t construct his theory under order from a bureaucrat. Henry Ford didn’t revolutionize the automobile industry that way. In the only cases in which the masses have escaped from the kind of grinding poverty you’re talking about, the only cases in recorded history are where they have had capitalism and largely free trade. If you want to know where the masses are worst off, it’s exactly in the kinds of societies that depart from that. So that the record of history is absolutely crystal clear: that there is no alternative way so far discovered of improving the lot of the ordinary people that can hold a candle to the productive activities that are unleashed by a free enterprise system.

A major source of objection to a free economy is precisely that it gives people what they want instead of what a particular group thinks they ought to want. Underlying most arguments against the free market is a lack of belief in freedom itself.

A society that puts equality before freedom will get neither. A society that puts freedom before equality will get a high degree of both.

start by taxing hedge fund CEO's into non existence

Tue, 10/26/2010 - 03:42 — Tea Party Whacko-Bob, you state the following:

A major source of objection to a free economy is precisely that it gives people what they want instead of what a particular group thinks they ought to want. Underlying most arguments against the free market is a lack of belief in freedom itself.

This may or may not be true (i do not believe that it is).

However, the fact is that the U.S. economy, as it currently exists, is not completely free:

NAFTA/Patent Laws that recognize only written verification (thus excluding illiterate indigenous people with the knowledge of plants that lots of our drugs are made from)/obscene tax subsidies at all stages of the life of oil/etc.

What we are free to do, however, is steal from whoever we damn well please...

just as the rich are doing right now...to everyone else on this planet, which, inherently includes us.

ps - i will object your argument on the grounds that there is really no such thing as a 'free' economy, since it will always be influenced by someone. this is, of course, unless we free ourselves and thus fundamentally change what an economy is.

TP Troublemaker above seems to have been sipping from a pot of Ayn Rand. The greatest bureaucracies historically have been police states designed to protect the privileges of kleptocratic oligarchies. Care for crumpet?

Does this mean that Marx-Lenin & C° were just off by a century in predicting the inevitable collapse and implosion pf 'capitalism' by just pure plain ol' greed ?

The United States has been enriching the rich and impoverishing the poor since the beginning.

America's forebears didn't colonize the wilderness because God gave them a sacred, individualistic, unscratchable itch.

They did it because the banks and the wealthy landowners forced them out of the places where the soil had been broken and a kind of civilization had taken root.

The only difference between now and the past is that the imperial fortunes of the U.S. are waning, not waxing. Or so we are told.

In fact, the greatest obstacle to revolution in this country is the defeatism that croons to us incessantly from the millions of propaganda loudspeakers with which we are continually surrounded.

Add to these facts the following:

The top 1% of Americans own 43% of the financial wealth.

The bottom 80% of Americans own 7% of the financial wealth.

sociology.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/power/wealth.html

Don't be fooled by those claiming membership in the Tea Party. They're just (more) Republicans, dumber and more right wing than their predecessors. What to me is fascinating is just how conscienceless, arrogant, and ill educated any single human being has to be to sign up for the Tea Party idiocy. Unbelievable! Laugh or cry: it's your choice.

Damn you, Rich. You better not be Rich Crawford that I went to school with. Otherwise I will be TOTALLY pissed off.

Hello Friends. How about a look into the demographic of this Tea Party Troll. I'm actually a government employee who earns six digits and is in the top 5% wage earners of the nation. Maybe you guys are behind in your reading. Government employee pay is now ahead of private industry.

www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2010-03-04-federal-pay_N.htm

Perhaps the US Federal Government is the kleptocratic autocracy you seek. Seems to be working as you planned. Well done.

But, there's just one little problem. Your reality check is due in the mail in 7 days. Mid-terms, baby!

Love this new media! God Bless America.

Would you like some cheese with your whine?

> a government employee who earns six digits

In other words, your anti-government, free-enterprise posturing is a massive case of hypocrisy. You are to economics what Ted Haggard was to homosexuality.

"It's not hard to make a lot of money if all you want to do is make a lot of money."--Mr. Bernstein, Citizen Kane

"Liberals on average are better educated and earn more than conservatives"

Wait...so...the liberals are the rich people? And, conservatives are the poor people? What about all the posts above about the greedy, rich conservatives?

Perhaps you have a habit of putting people in collective groups. Perhaps you have a habit of stereotyping others. Perhaps you are prejudiced against those who have a different opinion than yours. Perhaps you demonize those who think differently than you. Perhaps that's in your progressive cookbook. Perhaps Socialism is not so different than racism. Socialism is sold as creating equal conditions for the masses but hides that it creates a ruling class, a superior class of people. It takes control away from the individual.

Maybe people prefer to be individuals rather than part of collective groups. Maybe there are both rich and poor liberals and conservatives. And, those who get rich? Good for them! They are not "all" evil...do not stereotype! People want to make decisions on their own rather than having others make decisions for them. That's at the root of conservatism. Small, limited government. We don't want a nanny state making decisions for us. We don't want people who "think" they are more educated than we are being our mommies and daddies.

Where are the real liberals? Where are the non-progressive liberals? What did you let the Socialists take over your party? If you don't purge them, you will surely implode.

Conservative Bill of Rights:

You have the "right" for your environment to be destroyed by Big Corporations (see, e.g., The Gulf Coast).

You have the "right" to a government bought by the corporations, serving corporate interests.

You have the "right" to agree with conservatives, or they'll stomp on your head.

You have the "right," if you're a woman, to be forced by the State to bring an unwanted pregnancy to term.

You have the "right," if you're a solider, to die in foreign wars based on lies. (After all, you signed on the dotted line. You deserve to die, or at least be maimed, so that Halliburton and Blackwater can make some dough.)

You have the "right" to practice your religion, so long as it's Christianity.

You have the "right" to be spied on by Big Brother (see: The Patriot Act).

You . . . get the idea.

Tea Party Troll = Karl Rove himself ("earning" six figures). Anyone want to take that bet?

Dear Anonymous on 10/26 at a little after midnight - what "chop wood"? When the power elite are left to subsist without us hard-working middle-classers, there won't BE any wood left! Or edible fish. Or potable water. Or fodder for livestock. Or livestock . . . Anyway, I so get your point.