The Ferengi have, in their estimation, done very well.The wealth of the middle class has evaporated at alarming levels while the upper 1%, the Ferengi, have filled their coffers beyond what they could ever use. Concerning the status up to 2004, educators tell us:
These data suggest that wealth is concentrated in the hands of a small number of families. The wealthiest 1 percent of families owns roughly 34.3% of the nation's net worth, the top 10% of families owns over 71%, and the bottom 40% of the population owns way less than 1%.(Fairfield University). The story gets worse in the years after 2004. In cold numbers it was put this way by others:
The Federal Reserve reported Thursday that households lost ... 9 percent, of their wealth in the last three months of 2008, the most ever in a single quarter in the 57-year history of recordkeeping by the central bank.(NY Times. emphasis added). Now that it is 2010, how did 2009 go?
For the full year, household wealth dropped ... about 18 percent.
The figures are not all in, but after some adjustments, one observer had this to say:
“We knew we fell into a real deep hole,” said Mark Vitner, a senior economist at Wells Fargo Securities Inc. in Charlotte, North Carolina. “It’s encouraging to see we’re at least making progress in digging ourselves out of it. American households are having to lower their sights as to how much wealth they hope to accumulate over their lifetimes. This is going to impact consumption habits for years to come.”(Bloomberg, emphasis added). I have noticed a pattern: they minimize the bad news, promise better things, then revise in the form of more inflated "good news", after they think we have "learned to live with" the disaster of plunder.
The states of California and New York, as well as some others, are in grave danger fiscally, the federal deficit is out of control, there is a classified budget we are not allowed to see, we spend more on war and the military than all the other nations of the world combined, and things are getting better?
Remember, their doctrine is that we can only remember things for three months then we forget all about their plunder of all of us through the Federal Reserve, taxation, and the Treasury.
Makes me wonder, after the wealth is effectively entirely confiscated, what's next? As in, poor consumers who are no longer able to effectively consume aren't much good to anyone. Maybe that explains the insurance industry's resistance to healthcare reform. Not much reason to support healthcare for the poor, when in fact you're actively trying to promote the opposite.
ReplyDeletedisaffected
Anonymous (disaffected),
ReplyDeleteWe are literally seeing mass insanity at work. The insanity comes from a malady of power, which is at once mysterious yet fathomable.
You might like the post comparing empires which are dying with the progression of delusion in individuals who are freezing to death.
It is not a rational process but it is a process, and it is quite dangerous to the well being of all of us, not just those who suffer the delusion.
Dredd,
ReplyDeleteDownloaded "The Decline of the American Empire" from your link. Very interesting read, got about 1/2 way through today. Reminds me of Walter Karp in style - poli sci that's actually approachable to non-academics, who, as the author points out repeatedly, are often purposefully obtuse, merely in the interest of defending pseudo-intellectual/academic turf. Who would guess at first blush (other than the dated references) that this was published in 1955? Change the dates and the specifics, and this is just as applicable to our times, albeit exponentially more so, especially given recent history. I'll finish it up tomorrow, hopefully, and post a comment or two. Thanks for the link.
-disaffected-
Dredd,
ReplyDeleteBy the way, I've read your post on delusion and freezing to death. Very informative, although not entirely surprising. The flip side, dying of thirst, has similar queer anomolies, including drinking one's own piss, and eventually blood before giving it up. Hey, we're programmed to survive, although our modern brains may sometimes interpret that urge in some pretty strange ways.
Very interesting subject - this modern jumping off point of animal vs. intellectual/spiritual conciousness that we're at right now. The war between the two camps is certainly raging, and I'd say the outcome is even money at this point.
-disaffected-
disaffected,
ReplyDeleteYes "The Decline of the American Republic and How to Rebuild It" by John T. Flynn was published in 1955.
I too find it interesting that some of what he said is still an appropriate observation:
"The enemy aggressor is always pursuing a course of larceny, murder, rapine and barbarism. We are always moving forward with high mission, a destiny imposed by the Deity to regenerate our victims, while incidentally capturing their markets; to civilise savage and senile and paranoid peoples, while blundering accidentally into their oil wells." (As We Go Marching, 1944).
A bit of sarcasm "blundering accidentally into their oil wells" I would say, which is what is evidently going on now even as we blog.
I like Naomi Klein's take on it as well, which she calls "The Shock Doctrine" or "Disaster Capitalism." Looks like perpetual war for us from here on out, at least until the empire crumbles. None of this surprised me while the Republicans were in charge, but I'm amazed at how quickly and seamlessly the Democrats embraced the concept as well. I guess the beast is bigger than mere partisan politics.
ReplyDelete-disaffected-
disaffected (Jan 5, 8:28),
ReplyDeleteAgreed. Today's post gets in to some of that.