The more things change the more they are and continue to be the same.

‘Wall Street owns the country. It is no longer a government of the people,
by the people, and for the people, but a government of Wall Street, by Wall
Street, and for Wall Street.’ - Mary Ellen Lease, lecturer, writer, and political
activist, advocate of women’s suffrage, Kansas Populist, a speech in 1890.

Is that like over 100 years or was that like yesterday?

It seems to me to be extremely self-serving to the top 25% of our nation’s income grabbers, to focus attention and blaming on less than one percent of the populace who are global oligarchs, and really live in a world without national constraints.

The biggest problem in a democracy, as Aristotle pointed out, is that it has a natural tendency, unless its citizens are both virtuous and diligent, to decay into the plutocracy we have now.

And in our ugly new plutocracy, the 25% of income grabbers have also asserted a monopoly on almost every social good. That means that those MANY citizens who are able to afford to send all their kids to $45,000.00 a year private schools from pre-school to college, are the folks who are directly responsible for the mess our nation is in.

What is so peculiarly disturbing and scary is that most of the upper quadrant have become so insulated by wealth and privilege that they do not actually KNOW or APPRECIATE how the other three quarters of the populace strive to survive and prevail, and the extent to which we working poor are disenfranchized from meaningful, dignified, economically viable, safe, living conditions in our own nation.

We need to be honest about the sharing and changing necessary to reboot democracy, or we are going to increasingly be encumbered by social disarray, a reliance on criminal black market trade and a vice economy to pick up the slack from the mainstream loss of jobs, and violence that is increasingly cruel.

THE ONCE PERCENT OCCUPY CONGRESS

bern: but it is still the only game in town because which ever of the two factions wins, we still have the same system in place,

That ain’t necessarily so.

We have a two party system and the process, called the primaries, is presently taking place. It is in that process that we chose those who will represent us.

What must be done is to expand the number of progressives in Congress in order for its “colour” to change. Enough of the just the Blues and the Reds, both of which have got this country into its present peril - not to mention the 47% of Congress in the hands of millionaires.

The One Percent Occupy Congress!

Does anybody in their right mind think those millionaires are representing the interests of we, the sheeple?

Which means, everybody, get off your duffs and start militating for the sort of change (particularly in Congress) that will make a difference over the next ten years it will take to reform America.

To that end, I propose this Progressive Agenda for National Reform as a litmus-test for candidates with Progressive Stance. It’s just for starters, mind you, because the Progressive Movement must first be organized and then effectively elected into Congress.

MY POINT?

Only then will any real reformation in America take place. It’s a long row to hoe, so let’s get started. The future well-being of our children will depend upon Our Success.

Want to remain sheeple all your lives, shorn regularly by an elite class that is making their riches off the backs of your hard work and consumption of goods/services?

Then do nothing.  Continue with the cathartic of bitching-in-a-blog and nothing will change. The rich do not read blogs … they do read the results of the election polls however.

Wake up Amerika! All of this electoral nonsense is just what it is! Really, what are the people of this country voting for exactly? This nation is ruled by one party only. You may call it the Capitalist Party or the Corporatist Party or what have you but it is still the only game in town because which ever of the two factions wins, we still have the same system in place, namely a, for now, velvet-gloved version of fascism where the ruling elite wear Armani rather than military garb. The charade of the elections is just the means by which the plutocrats cull the herd for their future servants. Hey, it works better than occassional purges and deludes the public into thinking that they actually have a say in what goes on! Remember the English War Of The Roses between the Yorks and Lancasters? The outcome was that the aristocracy won and what difference did it ultimately make if the peasantry bowed before the red or white rose? Paties don’t matter; it’s the system that is rotten and must be completely overhauled. There is no such thing as a “free market” and the central premise of capitalism is not supply and demand and competition, but monopoly and total control and hegemony over all aspects affecting the economic lives of the world’s population ultimately by force and not by choices made by individual consumers! FREE BRADLEY MANNING!!!!!

HISTORICAL ECONOMIC LESSONS

AB: In truth, our democracy was sold to the highest bidder long ago, but in the 2012 election the explosion of super PACs has shifted the public’s focus to the staggering inequality in our political system, just as the Occupy movement shined a light on the gross inequity of the economy.

Yes, well put.

Income Inequality in America probably goes back to the inception of the country. It was grossly accelerated by the advent of the Industrial Age when those who worked the farm made their way to the large cities to work in factories. It was during this period that the wealth of the industrialist Robber Barons was first made.

As well, two economists, researching Income Disparity, found their data from the first income declarations made as a result of the 16th Amendment to the Constitution (ratified in 1913) that instituted a national Income Tax. Pickety & Saez demonstrated that Income Inequity goes back to early part of the 20th century.

The tax on upper incomes is shown historically in this info-graphic here. Note the info-graphic history and the fact that in both periods, one before the Stock Market Crash of 1929 and the other the Great Recession of 2008/9, the income tax rate had been brought down to ridiculously low levels.

The second of those two periods commences with the Reagan Administration. And so?

So, each time we lower upper-income tax rates, money accumulates at the top and inevitably a cataclysm occurs in our country. This empirical evidence occurred twice in our history (on record). How many times must it occur before we learn the link between “cause and effect”? A third? A fourth? A fifth time? Which is kinda stupid.

One further piece of important empirical evidence, here. It is the same info-graphic above with a history of upper level income tax. But this time note the green line indicating our National Debt. 

During which years does the National Debt inflect seriously upwards. Of course, this is due to the fact that our government increased expenditures – but also because our Tax Revenues were not coincidently raised to cover that spending increase.

In other words, we were spending beyond our means – and come the SubPrime Mess the damn finally busted.

The rest is a history that we are still living.