How Can the Richest 1 Percent Be Winning This Brutal Class War Against 99% of Us?

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6/21/11 7:44 PM

How Can the Richest 1 Percent Be Winning This Brutal Class War Against 99% of Us?
By Larry Beinhart January 21, 2011 "AlterNet" -- Who are they? The richest 1 percent. And maybe the next 9 percent. Who are we? All the rest. Which poses an interesting question. How has a tiny fraction of the population which is diverse in many ways arranged for their narrowest economic interests to dominate the economic interests of the vast majority? And,
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while theyre at it, endanger the economic well-being of our nation, and bring the financial system of the whole world to the brink of collapse. They have money. We have votes. Theoretically, that means we should have the government. Theoretically, government should be a countervailing force against the excesses of big money, take the long view for the good of the nation, and watch out for the majority. Let alone for the poor and downtrodden. What we actually have is one political party that is flat out the party of big money and another party that sells out to big money. Well, at least we have safety nets. George Bushs biggest regret is that he didnt privatize social security. Why so eager? One reason is that it is a big pile of money. Absolutely gigantic. It drives the bankers and brokers crazy that they cant get their hands on it.
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The other is ideological hatred. Stephen Moore (senior fellow at the Cato Institute, contributing editor of National Review and president of the Free Enterprise Fund) wrote, "Social Security is the soft underbelly of the welfare state. If you can jab your spear through that, you can undermine the whole welfare state." Where Bush failed, Obama has now taken the first step. His recent tax deal includes cuts on employee contributions to Social Security. Which means defunding, weakening, and setting a new precedent, that Social Security contributions can be cut to stimulate the economy. The crash has put the states in trouble. Rather than raise taxes, or borrow, several have decided on cuts to Medicaid, the program that services several categories of low income people: pregnant women, children under 19, the blind, disabled, or who need nursing home care. If youre a poor kid who needs a liver transplant, you can beg, rob a convenience store, or die. This shift to the right is a triumph of a long and very wellfunded propaganda campaign. Every time I read an op-ed in the New York Times that was
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written by a senior scholar from the Hoover Institute or a fellow from the Cato Institute, I want to scream, please replace that with paid whore funded by psychotic right-wing billionaire. Which is significantly more accurate. They, in turn, have a great influence on the mainstream media. As conservatives decried the media's left bias, they saw their institutions mentioned in various media almost 8,000 times in 1995, while liberal or progressive think tanks received only 1,152 citations (How Conservative Philanthropies and Think Tanks Transform US Policy, by Sally Covington, Covert Action Quarterly, Winter 1998). Their influence on the national media affects the whole national dialogue. Now, of course, theyve taken the think tank concept to a whole new level Fox News. What about the media? Arent journalists outside of Fox News supposed to be objective? In journalism there is no objective reality. There are only objectively collated quotes. Quotes can only come from valid sources. A journalist cannot look at tax cuts and compare them to economic results job growth, changes in
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the median wage, and the like and report that tax cuts do not create jobs. They can only quote politicians, like Bush and Obama, who say that tax cuts are a stimulus, and then look for someone of equal authority or at least significant authority to say the opposite, then go Chinese menu, two quotes from column A, one for column B. But what if there are no heavyweights ready to go on record for column B? Heres where it gets stranger than strange. A whole field, economics, has lost its way. This became obvious when 99.7 percent (thats a made-up but probably accurate number), failed to predict the crash of 08. Failed to diagnose the housing bubble, failed to understand the derivatives bubble, and failed to realize the worlds biggest banks were all bankrupt. After the crash, they failed to cry out against the tax cuts that brought it on. They failed to come up with a way to solve the problems. Which, based on history, seem fairly obvious, raise taxes and spend the money on useful things that private industry cant or wont do, like hiring people. Paul Krugmans theory, loosely paraphrased, is that economists suffer from physics envy, which is like penis envy,
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but dumber. Economics is a social science, which is soft. Social scientists look at physics, the hardest of the hard sciences. They see lots of math and formulas. They imagine that if they have lots of math they will get hard, too. In order to create mathematical models out of the messy complexity of human activity, they presume perfect markets. So long as the economy is stable, that frequently works. Faith in the perfection of markets promotes deregulation and tax cuts. That destabilizes the economy. The economists, therefore, help create the disasters that dont exist in their mathematical models. Charles Ferguson, who directed the superb documentary Inside Job, is much more cynical. He believes that academic economists, like doctors who shill for pharmaceutical companies, are on the take from big money interests. He does a marvelous job in the film of demonstrating exactly that. Indeed, all of academia except perhaps for English departments have become part of the business, banking, military, and political nexus. The ivory tower was supposed to be above the mucky world. That was one of our final defenses in the class war -- a place devoted to knowledge for its own sake and truth just because
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it was true. Now, universities pursue truths that someone will fund a grant for. Tomorrows truth is whats paid for today. Larry Beinhart is the author of "Wag the Dog," "The Librarian," and "Fog Facts: Searching for Truth in the Land of Spin." His latest book is Salvation Boulevard. Responses can be sent to beinhart@earthlink.net. 2011 Independent Media Institute.

9 Comments (88) Sort by: Date Rating Last Activity Ron 21 weeks ago

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+19

"Failed to predict the crash of 08. Failed to diagnose the housing bubble, failed to understand the derivatives bubble, and failed to realize the worlds biggest banks were all bankrupt." Amazingly, the author fails to mention the multi-trillion dollar wars themselves -- in Iraq/Afganisistan/Pakistan with Iran and Syria on the horizon -- as the biggest reason of all for our financial woes. Wars for Israel's benefit, not Americas.
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rgl 21 weeks ago

Amerikkka - the land of bilk and money. Land of the fee, and home of the knave. Reply A Buddha Nature 21 weeks ago Report +17

"The ivory tower was supposed to be above the mucky world. " The problem is that 99% of the people are killing themselves trying to climb to the top of that tower and thinking all the time, " to hell with the rest, if I can just get to the top, myself I will be all set". The dream of success and what defines success in a capitalist system, is in itself a lie. Like a mouse running in a wheel they are. Reply 2 replies active 104958 weeks ago Report -6

Caljr 21 weeks ago

BY STAMPING OUT RELIGION YOU ARE ALSO STAMPING OUT LYING, STEALING, KILLING PLUS INSANITY AND OTHER MENTAL ILLNESSES ___THE HUMAN MIND IS A COMPUTER WHICH FUNCTIONS LOGICALLY AND BY ACCEPTING A LIE AS BEING TRUE YOU HAVE PROGRAMMED Y0UR COMPUTER TO LIE AND TO ACCEPT FALSEHOODS AS BEING A FACT. THUS YOU HAVE CORRUPTTED YOUR MOST VITAL POSSESSION THANKS TO THEHOLY PRESITHOOD OF RELIGION. THEY COULD NOT ACCEPT AS A FACT THAT HUMANITY AND THE UNIVERSE WAS GOVERNED BY A FEMALE, MOTHER NATURE AND HER LAWS KNOWN AS THE LAWS OF NATURE. THE HOLY MONKS
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INSTALLED THEIR OWN BELIEFS AND WISHES AS THE LAWS OF AN OMNIPOTENT GOD. THERE IS NO OMNIPOTENT GOD IN NATURE ONLY CAUSE AND EFFECT. MAN MADE LAWS VIOLATES THE LAWS OF NATURE. THEREFORE THE INACTMENT AND ENFORCEMENT OF MAN MADE IDEAOLOGY IS EXTREMELY SELF DESTRUCTIVE Reply 4 replies active 21 weeks ago Report +1

ian 21 weeks ago

what would we do with these people running things. can you imagine a revolution in say the US. Can you imagine the chaos, who would run what, how would you decide, who'd be in charge?, the problems would be probably unsurmountable. That's before you were invaded by the armies of other countries right wing governments and put back in your place. All you can do is play along and try to change it from within. A free media would be a big start, and from there to honest ordinary poor members of government. Work towards it. Reply c.t. 21 weeks ago How Can the Richest 1 Percent Be Winning ? Let's not forget the school system which consists of endless drills in obedience to authority and.... a religion which implores you to turn the other cheek and give your power away in every situation. .
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William 21 weeks ago

The answer is that the ultra wealthy have bought and sold the cowards in the US Congress just like cattle. This has been ongoing for most of my life....at least since the early 1960s. This same answer applies to WHY the cowards and fools in the US Congress accept the lies of the 911 Commission. Anyone with an IQ over 75 realizes that Mossad and rogue elements of the US government (DOD, STATE, FBI, CIA) were behind 911. Yet, no one will take a stand and challenge the LIES because the ultra wealthy Khazars will spend what is necessary to oust the noncompliant Congress critter. But, we get the government we vote for, with the exception of the Smirking Chimp and war criminal being installed in the White House in 2001 by the US Supreme Court, and in 2005 by MASSIVE voter fraud in Ohio. Reply 6 replies active 21 weeks ago Report +6

Bubup Myass 21 weeks ago

They ain't winning. They're ignorant fools and vanity queens living off our dole - and that's all they are.. Do they like have their own power generation, communications and private security army of private security on their property? Money ain't nothing if you are forced to hide in a secret sewer. No one can dominate 300 Million spawn of baby killers and king disembowelers. We just want them to think they are winning so they'll fatten up a bit before we harvest their fat pink sissy asses! They're meat. They always will be. They always have been. What they should be worried about are the whispers from inside our local police department, and our rank and file civil and uniformed federal
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civil services we employ. They ain't got a chance - they just too the fool to realize it. Reply 2 replies active 104958 weeks ago Report +6

keep it simple 21 weeks ago

How does that saying go? When the pain of doing nothing becomes intolerable or much greater than the less pain of doing something, the mass rebellion will start. Its an obvious class war. Interestingly, the oppressed bottom 2/3s dont yet know theyve been in a war perpetrated by the wealthy. When the cat gets out of the bag, the wealthy will get drawn and quartered. And rightly so! Reply 2 replies active 21 weeks ago Report +9

george 21 weeks ago

When it come to experts do not tell me about Noble prize winners in economics, USA have the most still they failed to avoid the collapse of the economy. China have non yet its way better than USA!!!!!!!!!,that means one thing the Noble prizes in any field is are just bull shit. Maan they give peace prizes to war criminals examples are plenty just start in USA. Reply 2 replies active 21 weeks ago 1 2 3 4 Next Post a new comment Or post a video comment Embed video Check Spelling
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