ATS Email Special: Capitalism Endgame

ATS Special: Capitalism Endgame

Email Newsletter Special Feature
April 30, 2007
By ATS Member "polanksi"

"The American lifestyle is non-negotiable" Pres. Bush I & II

Are the power elite 'conspiring' to promote their good fortune at the expense of the working class? At first glimpse that statement appears fraught with 'wild eyed conspiracy theory'. There would be many who would say that it would involve too many people and thus highly unlikely. But how many people would have to know? What if those in power benefited from the policies and laws made to favor them, but were not aware that there was a very specific conspiracy to achieve total economic pre-eminence of the governing elite. It would be difficult to prove the existence of such a cabal, they would cover their tracks. They would practice to deceive, prevaricate, bully, lie and use the 'system' to protect and preserve their 'rights.' They would hope to co-opt the middle class by trying to convince them it is in their best interest as well. The evidence would be 'erased', made to disappear and it would indeed be difficult to find any hard proof. But there is a legal precedence in such cases when hard evidence is lacking and that is a preponderance of evidence. When one sees example after example of how the game has been rigged to benefit the few at the expense of the many one must wonder. This edifice that provides and protects the elite certainly did not arise overnight. It has incrementally been built up over the years. Like the formation of a pearl it has slowly been added to and like that pearl it is now ripe to be harvested and worn proudly and legitimately by the best and the brightest.

One layer of this anti-working class edifice is what is called universal default. It allows credit card companies to raise your interest rate if you pay some other loan late. Of course you should be punished if you are late with a payment, but what does being late with a car payment have to do with your credit card? Without ever missing a payment or going over your limit on your credit card your interest rate can be increased to the limit. Clearly you have proved to be a greater risk that expected. You are a scofflaw and should be penalized or so someone thinks. It's not really logic. Logic would dictate that you may have mistakenly missed a payment deadline or perhaps you did not have enough money to pay all your bills that were due. You did, however, pay your credit card bill and yet your rate is going up. This policy targets the blue collar workers and benefits the financial institutions. It defies logic but perhaps there is an underlying coherence. It redistributes money up from those who can least afford it to those who least need it.

Next we have the newly renovated bankruptcy laws. They have been revised to make sure that those with rather serious money problems are not let off the hook. The new bankruptcy laws have been designed to make it more difficult for the consumer to get a so called 'fresh' start. In short filing a Chapter 7 bankruptcy allows many people to pay off a portion of their debt and cancel the rest. There are strict rules that apply regarding assets that qualify for liquidation, but the filer normally is not allowed to keep much beyond necessities. It has now been made much more difficult and expensive to declare bankruptcy. Lawyers are being held to a higher standard as well, thus there is less gray area involved in the proceedings. Bottom line is it is more difficult for the little guy to get out from under their debt. It is still relatively easy for Corporations to go bankrupt and eliminate their debt, however. Although there appears to be a pattern here it could still be just a coincidence.

Next let's look at tax cuts. As reported in the New York Times the wealthy benefited most from the Bush administration tax cuts. The average tax reduction for a mid range income, $56,200 was $1,180. This is nothing to scoff at but it is very misleading. Those families with incomes in the $1.25 million range received tax cuts of $58,000. In effect the tax cut was regressive those at the middle received a smaller percentage tax break. As stated in the article, "tax cuts reduced rates for people at every level; they offered the biggest benefits by far to people at the top." There seems to be mounting evidence that there is some collusion or conspiracy to enrich the wealthy at the expense of the struggling middle, but clearly more evidence would be needed to prove the case.

There has been much said about the widening gap between the wealthiest Americans and their poorer counterparts. Not too long ago the United States replaced France as the industrial country with the widest income gap and recently that gap has continued to grow. As Janine Jackson says in her article Good News! The Rich Get Richer "Wages and income for average workers, adjusted for inflation, are down in recent years, -- The Poverty rate is rising, as is the number of people in debt." That this is taking place at the same time that a seeming upsurge in the economy is, is rather vexing. Perhaps the 'trickle down' effect has just not had time to run its course.

A 2005 article by Abid Aslam gives information about the widening compensation gap between the highest paid CEO's and the average worker. It points out that not only do the best paid employees get paid significantly more but, the percent of their raises is higher as well, thus constantly increasing the pay differential. In fact, the rich do continue to get richer and the middle and poor keep falling farther behind.

"An analysis of securities filings showed that CEO salaries rose 12 percent in 2004 compared with average raises of 3.6 percent for rank-and-file workers, further widening the world's largest gaps between executive and labor pay."

Surely if this is not by design it would be rectified, but it has not been and the CEO's have circled the wagons to protect their right to exorbitant wages.

Another thread to this web of complicity is war, war in general and The War on Terror specifically. War calls on the middle and lower classes to make the biggest sacrifices. The corporate leaders and politicians plan and execute wars and benefit greatly from the sale of war goods and owning stock in those corporations, but the middle and lower classes are called on to make the supreme sacrifice in the name of patriotism. While paying lip service to the soldiers in the field and decorating the 'heroes' who protect the motherland with the other hand they are busy trying to reduce medical benefits, save money on armor plating and failing to maintain hospitals in good condition. The actions of our politicians speak volumes. Be good patriots and don't ask questions. Contracting for armor plating is a prime example. A pentagon report said that as much as 80% of the fatalities to our troops could have been avoided with adequate body armor. Are they thinning the herd? With the high birth rates of minorities and the poor it would indeed take a long war to effectively offset those statistics.
President Bush Owes Troops an Apology

Last summer the government allowed United Airlines to drop their pension plan. This is a benefit derived from collective bargaining and would certainly seem to have the force of law, but the US government allowed United to drop the pension plan. They were let of the hook, would the government be as understanding if it were you or I who had defaulted on a contractual agreement?

The pension was taken over by the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation. There are some important considerations when the PBGC takes over a corporation's pension plan. They do not cover health benefits, lump-sum death benefits, or disability benefits claimed after the PBGC takeover. Those are some major concerns and would especially burden those who didn't have the savings or resources to pay for those necessities. It appears that those provisions would place an inordinate burden on the middle class or poorer workers. Is there a well established bias favoring the wealthier over the less well off?

This is by no means a comprehensive list of the numerous authorized slights to the middle/working class. Can this 'agenda' be passed off as a mere coincidence? If a class is systematically favored or legally diminished as the case with the middle and lower classes have been can it just be happenstance? How this has come to be accepted is quite a different topic and not the point of this discourse but it again brings up the systematic use of the legal system. One part of that edifice is deregulation of the media that has significantly narrowed the scope of opinions expressed in the mainstream media. Has the majority been lulled into a false sense of security? Have we gradually been desensitized to the removal of our former rights? Have we somehow accepted the fact that the wealthy should rule and that depending on their benevolence is the proper order? Ladies and gentlemen of the jury is this 'system' that has built up over the years just a random collection of laws, regulations, and customs that just happen to favor the wealthiest at the expense of the rest. Could it just have happened coincidentally over the years? I would submit not. There is a plan. There is a preponderance of evidence that supports the existence of such a plan. There is puppet master(s) and because the wealthy and powerful benefit they are willing to go along with the dismantling of our democratic system without a conscious understanding of who the 'wizard' behind the curtain is or of his (their) ultimate goal. It is not a coincidence!


[Related AboveTopSecret.com Discussion Threads:
Theory: Mankind is Growing Stupid
Can anyone tell me why this administration seems intent on the end of the world?
The Omega Agency: "Above The President"

And yet no replies to this? Interesting. Like you said, this is but a drop in the bucket of coincidences that point to something bigger. Yet people don't want to think that they have been duped. They like to believe that they are in control of their lives and that they actually do live in a 'free' society.

When the veil lifts the 'many' that make up the middle and lower classes (typical of us as a society to label groups of people instead of thinking of all as they were meant to be. Equal and part of the whole) there is going to be some serious retribution to be paid. I don't really like what I see on the horizon. When the money pools in the hands of the few and then people start to lose their homes, belongings, loved ones, etc. they will look to those that took all of that away. If (or more likely, when) this economy comes crashing down around everyone's ears, there will be mass hunger in the streets and mass homelessness while the bankers sit comfortably in their homes. That won't sit well with the majority.

It's already starting with the number of foreclosures spreading like wildfire across this country. It's a house of cards and it's ready to crumble.

Nice post.

I've been watching this situation for over a decade. You did a nice summary of a few of the crisis-level problems that are being ignored. Great job!

Our marvelous economy has been fueled by the most massive credit bubble in history. We've shipped all capability to make anything useful for ourselves overseas. The factories are all shut down. We've gone into so much debt as private citizens and as a government it's impossible to get out of it. I don't have a perfect crystal ball, but I know that there IS some point in the future when we can simply not borrow any more money. I will happen to us as a nation just like it happens to us as individuals. At some point, you just can't get another credit card. Something changes and the monthly payments become more than you can handle. Yeah, i've been there and done that. It won't happen to me again. What happens to the whole nation though? Our economy sort of sputters along. Sure, there are "indicators" that show the economy is strong, but that also has built into it the MASSIVE amount of borrow in order to fuel the consumption. What happens when the credit fountain stops pouring out free $$$$? Like the OP said, people are really not going to be happy with life -- No more toys to distract them. Upside down in their mortgages. Can't go bankrupt and get a clean start. etc. etc. It really makes me want to cry sometimes thinking about it :-(. It don't wish it on people, but people in general really don't want to pay any attention to it.

We have a huge "baby boom" population socking money into a stock market with NOBODY to purchase it back when they are ready to kick back and retire to the easy life. Who is going to buy it all from them at higher prices in the next 10-15 years when the following generations are being crushed with lower wages and unstable job markets? Yeah, you can't buy groceries or pay for golf club memberships with stock certificates. Have fun there boomers :-)

Doom and gloom and more doom. :-)

What am I doing about it?

1. I *WILL NOT* take on any more debt. PERIOD. If I can't pay for it with cash, we don't get it.

2. I will not invest in anything that does not have practical, intrinsic value. Stock certificates mights as well be toilet paper.

3. I had 6 children and raised them to be decent, productive people. They will feed me and let me live in a spare room or the garage. I am not picky :-) I've studied the social security administration actuary reports. There isn't going to be any social security for me in 30 years :-(. Do I sound crazy? That's why you see people in 3rd world countires with such large families. That's the way it's always been until the past 100-200 years or so. Children take care of their parents when the parents are too old and sick to work. I'll trust that my children will give me a little food when i'm an old man. Trust the government or some company pension plan? Uhhhh, they don't have a very good track record of paying out lately do they...

4. I keep extra food, water and emergency supplies around. When the poo hits the fan, you don't want to be hanging around the Homeland Security relief camps or whatever alphabet soup agency will be doling things out. I'm not some survival nut or nothing. It's just a sound, prudent idea to have a pantry system and a portable water filter on hand. Stuff happens. Depending on someone else sucks.

Here's a really great site that with a mountain of info on public and private debt. It's very informative. Warning: It's not for those who are feint when confronted with lots of numbers. lol. It's solid stuff though.
mwhodges.home.att.net...

Enjoy.


[edit on 30-4-2007 by Perfect Fifth]

[edit on 30-4-2007 by Perfect Fifth]

This is just more anti-Capitalism conspiracy theory that has been handed down by fuming Marxists for over a hundred years — you may plug in a few new examples of economic doomsday and pick a few new capitalist enemies to blame, but you're following the same old Marxist propaganda.

Frankly, I'm not buying any of it. Respected economists and Marxist instigators alike have been predicting the collapse of the dollar-based economy and the capitalist system for decades now — yet somehow the economy recovers and surges ahead, and capitalist enterprises enjoy greater profits than ever before, in direct defiance of the "doom and gloom" fortune-tellers.

Not to disrespect the amount of effort that went into composing the OP, but your thesis is an old one — no revelations whatsoever for any student of the 20th Century. Been there, heard it before, am quite confident that it's pure bovine defecation.

It always is.

— Doc Velocity



• In bourgeois society capital is independent and has individuality, while the living person is dependent and has no individuality. — Karl Marx

• For the bureaucrat, the world is a mere object to be manipulated by him. — Karl Marx

• The rich will do anything for the poor but get off their backs. — Karl Marx

• Capital is dead labor, which, vampire-like, lives only by sucking living labor, and lives the more, the more labor it sucks. — Karl Marx

• Capital is reckless of the health or length of life of the laborer. — Karl Marx

[edit on 4/30/2007 by Doc Velocity]

Uhhhh, yeah. Sure. That's an effective but empty tactic. Just throw out a derogatory name like "marxist" and make the whole thing go away right? ok.

I can only speak for myself and my own response. I never talked about anything marxist. I talked about NOT depending on other people to give me anything. I don't want any hand out from ole brother Karl.

People can only borrow so much money. That is true as individuals. It is true collectively for groups of individuals (a nation). Credit card debt alone in the US is over 680 billion dollars and it's basically owned by 3 large merchant processing banks. People are stupid for borrowing the money. That's the first and most important issue. The banks are greedy and stupid for lending money to people who should never have had the credit to hang themselves with. I've lived in 2 areas now where people own $400+ houses that have no business borrowing that much money. I'm not saying that about them because of some egalitarian social theory of fairness. It's a mathematical and financing fact. They have no room for any financial error or fluctuation in their lives. Lenders bend all kinds of standard financing rules and ratios to cram people into loans that are doomed to fail. It's sick and evil.

Then to go even further, there's a flood of TV and radio advertising for people to get out of debt. YES! Get completely out of debt by taking on a home equity loan. ROFLMAO and puking! Do people even listen? Get out of debt by getting more debt. Hmmmm, something's wrong there :-). Maxed out on your credit cards (unsecured debt), no problem! Just secure it with your house. If you can't make the new payments you lose your house. That's a great deal. wink wink.

I think there's a large group of people ignoring this problem because it's either uncomfortable to consider or they know it isn't going to happen when they are still around to deal with it. I wish there were no social security or government social programs AT ALL. That's not exactly marxist.

There's nothing flawed about capitalism. The flaw is the people who have been warping it.

[edit on 30-4-2007 by Perfect Fifth]

[edit on 30-4-2007 by Perfect Fifth]

Polanski said -


Not only did the army not provide enough body armor, the army made it illegal for the soldiers to buy their own. (Probably prison-labor, most government manufacturing contracts are prison labor), - One imagines the manufacturer with the government contract to supply body armor - demanded protectionist measures on a contract and government complied with lives.

'Freedom' - not permitted to buy their own, with their own wages, poor wages at that. The mercenaries, who comprise a bulk of Bush's army, earn three times as much as an enlisted soldier. Mercenaries aren't restrained by army restrictions and they can buy all the body armor they like; not subject to court martial.

Thinning the herd, or simply the upper hand. Wages and living conditions didn't improve for 100's of peasant uprisings until the Black Death. Suddenly workers were scarce and one had to pay money - raise them up. No conspiracy needed for the logic of perpetuating an advantage. Exploiting the principle of relative gain that insures value with the scarcity of money - the rich would prefer to see a drop in their yearly standard, than a sizable rise in everyone else's living conditions. Whether it's a conspiracy, or something we'd all do is, debatable.

The pall on the topic of economics suggests expert media manipulation. Commie is an effective American tar brush, 'Puritans' have found some new 'Witches'. Nothings ever perfect, so with an eye towards checks and measures to insure against tyranny, a constitution was made. It has always been that way - one group or another gets into a position of advantage. That's why they revolted. Rome has always struggled with empires and round table accord.

If only George Orwell could elucidate today on what Howard Unger found had been deftly concealed -



Orwell displayed a fine prescience for mangled semantics, in his essay "Politics and the English Language." Orwell might begin with the Patriot Act - Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act. United by a divisive presidency, not inclined to appeal or entice - more entrench and terrorize. Maybe Orwell would look at the IMF International Monetary Fund conditions:

Ten Conditions Countries Must Meet to Obtain an IMF Loan:

1.) Eliminate and reduce government controls over imports. Justification: transfer decisions on the use of foreign exchange to the free market. Result: Market is flooded with imports, same phenomena that led to the Boston Tea Party.

2.) Devalue the currency. Justification: Devaluation brings down the price of exports and this allegedly increases exports allowing the debtor to earn the money to pay the debt. Result: Population can't afford imports and everything made in country is exported.

3.) Restrict availability of credit and raise interest rates. Justification: Control inflation. Result: Causes inflation.

4.) Limit or reduce government spending and deficits. (social spending) Justification: Tight money policy. Result: Leads to reduction in services, health care, etc.

5.) Raise Taxes. Justification: Curb purchasing power to fight inflation. Result: Less money circulating within market.

6.) Increase prices of public services. Justification: Increase revenue and reduce public spending. Result: Demoralize the people.

7.) Abolish government subsidies for food and transportation. Justification: Limit government spending. Result: Outlaws trade unions creates starvation.

8.) Control wages. Justification: Control inflation. Result: Suppresses purchasing power.

9.) Eliminate price controls. Justification: Free market policy. Result: Leads to price gouging.

10.) Open country to foreign investment. Justification: Free market economy. Result: Economy is controlled by outside investor's. Loss of National identity and government has no access to own resources.



Orwell might find a misnomer, in agreement with half of the fund's participants, and name it the - International Misery Fund. Argentina's social genocide, Marcos, Pinochet. The School of the America's, Immanuel Noriega, yet another mole in CIA history, and the razed slums in Panama's flexed muscle. Orwell might examine the ruminations in a "Foreign Affairs" journal by the council on foreign relations in response to Clinton's JFKish inauguration speech.

"The task is much more complicated and difficult than Clinton makes it out. First the president has not prepared the nation for the sacrifices that lie ahead if America's trajectory is to turn upward.
Second, he has yet to explain the complex obstacles to restarting the American economy when there is a recession in Japan and Europe.
Third, he has yet to confront the delicate problem of pleasing powerful financial markets which are all too ready to unleash their fury at the administration's first fiscal misstep.
Now that the election is over the new president will have to move quickly to deliver the tough message and make agonizing decisions. In the CNN age, when indelible impressions are instantaneously formed around the world and when wall street and it's foreign counterparts can bring policy makers to their knees overnight Clinton's first hundred days are not just an opportunity to unfold a new agenda, rather they just as equally present a mine field that could blow up and damage his administration for the next four years.
Clinton's immediate priorities should be both offensive and defensive and defined in terms that are crystal clear and that reduce the cancerous budget deficit."

In the CNN age, when indelible impressions are instantaneously formed around the world and when wall street and it's foreign counterparts can bring policy makers to their knees overnight..,


Orwell, might come to the conclusion 400 million dollars hadn't been spent on sexual indelicacy and the redefinition of fellatio as having nothing to do with sexual relations. After reading David Corn's bestseller, "The Lies of George Bush - Mastering the Politics of DECEPTION" Orwell might conclude that some Pigs are more Human than others.


[edit on 30-4-2007 by clearwater]

Instead of complaing about the current capitalist system, why dont you lazy socialists get an education in something other than sociology or history and get a high paying job so you wont have to complain all day.

I don't think that polanski is wrong. I look at this from the political point of view, and each of his socio-economic points does in fact correspond to a political 'angle' that will result in the same conclusion that polanski makes. Centralization of power, like the type we are seeing now, is in fact a major contributor to the overall trend in corruption that you are reading about in this article. If he and I can look at this from different perspectives and still draw the same conclusion...America must really be in trouble.

What a joke.
I restrict my commentary in economics on boards like this one simply because the vast majority of people here have never taken any eco courses in their life. They think they know something because they have read some flawed theories that someone pulled out of their ass and posted on some random site. Anyways the stupidity of these supposed "IMF 10 conditions" actually made me laugh for I decided ill debunk every single one of them for you kids.

Ten Conditions Countries Must Meet to Obtain an IMF Loan:

1.) Eliminate and reduce government controls over imports. Justification: transfer decisions on the use of foreign exchange to the free market. Result: Market is flooded with imports, same phenomena that led to the Boston Tea Party.

Which markets are flooded with imports? Completely unthoughout, not only does it defy logic, its physically impossible; there must be demand in order for their to be supply. You socialists must remember that this isnt Mother Russia where the economy is driven by supply, in capitalism economies are driven by demand. No demand=no supply.

2.) Devalue the currency. Justification: Devaluation brings down the price of exports and this allegedly increases exports allowing the debtor to earn the money to pay the debt. Result: Population can't afford imports and everything made in country is exported.

I believe you mixed up "devalue the currency" with allowing the currency to float in the open market. The IMF cannot artificially devalue a country's currency if its traded in the open market.

3.) Restrict availability of credit and raise interest rates. Justification: Control inflation. Result: Causes inflation.

WOW This one is just mind boggling. Please do explain to me how raising interested rates causes inflation. If you prove that I assure you, you will recieve the nobel prize for eco.

4.) Limit or reduce government spending and deficits. (social spending) Justification: Tight money policy. Result: Leads to reduction in services, health care, etc.

So in your opinion government spending should be unrestricted? How much was the Continental worth after the war again?

5.) Raise Taxes. Justification: Curb purchasing power to fight inflation. Result: Less money circulating within market.

Hit the Mother Load again. IF you think high taxes=lower money supply aka"less money circulating within market" then you have ZERO, NO CLUE how money is created. Read a couple books.

6.) Increase prices of public services. Justification: Increase revenue and reduce public spending. Result: Demoralize the people.

This one is just way over my head, what on earth do public services have to with morality?

7.) Abolish government subsidies for food and transportation. Justification: Limit government spending. Result: Outlaws trade unions creates starvation.

Ya you do realize that unions weren't predominant until the last century. Real shocker that all our ancestors didnt die of "starvation" the past 2000 years without all those great unions.

8.) Control wages. Justification: Control inflation. Result: Suppresses purchasing power.

WTF This is the invention of you socialists, IMF would never stand for, let alone demand, wage controls.

9.) Eliminate price controls. Justification: Free market policy. Result: Leads to price gouging.

WTF So according to you they want to control wages but eliminate price controls. LOL Lets pretend you didnt contradict yourself though, price gouging do not exist, in the long-term, in a capitalist economy. Price controls have historically never worked.

10.) Open country to foreign investment. Justification: Free market economy. Result: Economy is controlled by outside investor's. Loss of National identity and government has no access to own resources.

Ya ill give you this one, if youd rather have your national identity than food on the table then I guess its better.




[edit on 30-4-2007 by clearwater] [/quote

America must really be in trouble at the hands of those despicable wealthy bastards who are shaping our domestic policies and who are draining the lifeblood and property of the American working class.

How many times have I heard this? Let's see...

I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations which dare already to challenge our government in a trial of strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country. — Thomas Jefferson

As a result of the war, corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavour to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed. I feel at this moment more anxiety than ever before, even in the midst of war. — Abraham Lincoln

Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people. To destroy this invisible government, to befoul the unholy alliance between corrupt business and corrupt politics is the first task of the statesmanship of the day. — Theodore Roosevelt

For too many of us, the political equality we once had won was meaningless in the face of economic inequality. A small group had concentrated into their own hands an almost complete control over other people's property, other people's money, other people's labor, other people's lives. For too many of us life was no longer free; liberty no longer real; men could no longer follow the pursuit of happiness. Against economic tyranny such as this, the American citizen could appeal only to the organized power of government. — Franklin D. Roosevelt

Point is, the looming spectre of capitalist corruption destroying America has haunted this nation since Day One, and those in the highest offices have always expressed their unconcealed horror at the thought of corrupt business secretly running the country, sapping the lives and spirits and wills (not to mention property) of the American people, and doing so in the pursuit of that awful, detestable, putrid and evil thing called "money"...

C'mon, people, just face the fact that Capitalism works and will continue to work even as the leaders of our nation and the respected economists and the fuming Marxists and the frantic socialists and the foaming conspiracy theorists all sound their respective doomsday alarms. Every generation thinks the end is nigh, and every generation is wrong.

It always is.

— Doc Velocity

[edit on 4/30/2007 by Doc Velocity]

You know...it seems ot me that the US has kept the "working class" of almost every nation in a level of poverty for quite some time.

i think it is most likely due to the simple reality that not all nations can prosper at the same time. We are currently seeing that Europe and the US have done this for quite some time, and it is ocming home to roost with terrorism.

I would like to think that we would begin to open this up to the rest of the world soon...who knows. From what you discuss above it seems as though I am wrong.

Winston Churchill said: "The best argument against democracy is a five minute conversation with any voter" Maybe it's lack of leisure. Leisure, it's been argued, is the basis of civilization.

One of the first questions asked protesters is 'Do you have a job?' Most people are too busy trying to pilot a family, often requiring two bread-winners, to pay for all the requirements of life. Take the economics out of it and it's still sounding Total Awareness Surveillance. Corporate logos beamed into your head, from early childhood with brain invasive technology....that's another thread.

Where's John Perkin's "Confessions of an Economic Hit-Man", when you need him?
1) Main point of free trade is to eliminate any tariffs, becomes a down-sizing, corporate take-over. America still puts protectionist tariffs on their own softwood lumber.
2) All currency set by World Market, International Financial System has a formula through which they determine the relative amount of foreign currency to the dollar. Currency agrees to devaluation for a loan. Their exports are sold at lower profits.
3) Less money in circulation, less credit to individuals and smaller business - Loans go to monopolies and private ownership.
4) Eliminate all health care, social safety net, food programs. All taxes funneled to private profit and military industrial machine. (Lower living standards.)
5) Jack up prices by limiting circulation of money- they call it "anti-inflation."
6) Decrease in people's purchasing power. (Lower living standards.)
7) Privatize public subsidy.
8) Lower wages globally - barbed wired sweat shops.
9) Enables price gouging. John Kennedy stopped gouging on steel.
10) Sell off the country's resources to private investment and make sure none of the profits get to the nation's people unless their personally and usually dictatorially involved.


One thing that is conducive to the imposition of totalitarianism is the meaninglessness of political semantics. They're meaning changes from one region to the next, and from one group of people to the next.

Where, liberal actually started as an economic description of the laissez faire
capitalism for the hey day of colonist England, and continues with those connotations today in South America - it has come to represent wasteful government spending in America.

While socialism - one wouldn't consider Norway a communist or totalitarian society though 49% of their taxes are funneled back into programs for the people who have paid them - socialism has come to reflect a communist or totalitarian ideologue in America. Since McCarthyism, socialist, knee-jerk.

It's arguable that there has never been a true democracy or a true communism, with both attempts at governing when not started oligarchical, slipping into totalitarianism. It's questionable whether it's a failure of ideology, or education. It certainly does prove the old adage - power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

So without political semantics that offer an agreed upon basis of understanding and in conjunction with reflexive responses, characteristic of propaganda - Discussion of political ideology is severely restricted. Authority sets an example, good or bad, and campaigns are run hurling insults.

Laissez faire is sympathetic to fascism, and was quite cozy before Winston came along. Like greater personal restrictions and less corporate accountability to social demands and national laws.

Nations are helpless to enforce labor and environment protective measures within their own borders. Private wealth is constraining personal liberty by capitalizing on demoralized and militarized markets where manufacturing is cheap. No pensions or wages to interfere with profit margins. Copper mines are profitable, and this leaves off where oil started.

So while all ideologues, and all people are vulnerable to totalitarianism, or fallacious logic, Western tradition has enshrined the use of reason, logic and freedom of discourse in order to advance the values of human dignity and democracy in spite of their tenuous nature in our psychology and in our political systems. Shadows of its great successes reverberate in the cry of Freedom still heard today.

Freedom has an interesting eytmology in the English language. It developed in Latin as a word that defined slaves who had been emancipated. In Old English, freedom referred to serf's, released in part or whole, from serfdom. Peasants belonged to the land, which belonged to God; the lord was God's intermediary.

Current economic structures, have a bottom line. People another resource to be owned privately; land, water, air and every genome known to man. Total Surveillance Awareness network and profitable slavery. Historically and in a social context, it's the rich who are free to do what they want, and it's no different now. Simply trumpeting the word freedom as an alternative to in depth analysis is now a familiar part of the CNN age.

Schopenhauer said:"A man can be himself only so long as he is alone; ... if he does not love solitude, he will not love freedom; for it is only when he is alone that he is really free." "The World as Will and Idea" In a spiritual sense, freedom can be attained in a number of ways. The most reliable being the Buddhist practice of non-attachment, in direct contrast to material views of freedom. There's no solitude at all in Total Surveillance Information.

The soldiers who died from lack of body armor might agree - Orwell's democratic socialism, had less to do with totalitarianism, than America's current versions of Freedom. A constitution in ribbons and shreds, torture resurrected from the middle ages. Torture camps built to hold those turned in for bounty. Sentences for neighbors who don't agree to report 'suspicious' activity. Sounds like East Berlin under Putin, when teachers would talk for a fee. Now the bulk of North America's export is solely raw resource - like a developing country. Squandering resources in wars, they don't even let Generals run.



[edit on 1-5-2007 by clearwater]

I recently read a book called "patriots: surviving the coming collapse" it is eerie how the book seems to paint a very vivid picture of the times at hand.
It describes a sort of "end of days" scenario where the american country has built up so much of a debt to the world that other countries begin to speculate that the amount owed is simply too large to pay back. With a market racked with speculation, and "buying on margin," People will begin to make large draws on thier funds. Rushing banks and financial institutuions alike, the fed scrambles to approve the printing of currency night and day, to keep up with the demand of our fiat currency. The result being inflation rates in the thousands of percentage points. Giving the people currency that has the value of toilet paper, and not even the good soft kind. Commodity prices skyrocket, people and buisnesses can no longer afford to purchase gas, or produce fossil fuels. This shuts down the ability to transport goods and services, slowly buisnesses shut down. Martial law will be declared, but very few soldiers show up to work. From there the world collection agency, or the UN, comes in to claim righs to American property. The book describes the fight to save what's left of the country, rebuilding the society from the ground up, after the great stock market crash that has occured.

In any nation, the strength of a country, and its economy, lies in its distribution of wealth. More importantly the strenght lies in the middle class. This class is slowly disappearing as more and more become relatively poor, compared with the social elite. When our intrest rates skyrocket, which shouldn't be too long now, anyone in debt will not even be able to afford the minimum credit card payment. Not to mention anyone with a variable rate mortgage. My advice to everyone, is to get out of debt, liquidate your assets into commodities, arm yourselves, stockpile supplies and ammo, and pray.

I would just like to thank all members for their responses to this post. Clearly it is a touchy subject, good. I don't think getting a good job is going to solve anyones problems. I have two good jobs but I still have debt. The playing field is clearly not level. The 'system' favors the haves. I think I would also rather have a good understanding of history than be a cog in a capitalist regime.

First of all, good post.

I agree with all your points - I think from a domestic standpoint (not to mention an international standpoint but for now I'm sticking to domestic) this country is in a bad place and shows no signs of heading for higher ground.

I don't know that I'd call this a "conspiracy" in the sense it's generally known around here. I think the situation is more accurately characterized as those people with the means to do so ($$) exerting control over the people making the laws. This has always been the case, it's just that some would argue that it's more so the case now (most of those who would not argue that are probably doing it themselves!). I think a lot of blame can fall on the current administration's cronyism and corruption - there are countless examples of appointments to either actively undermine what the federal agency is supposed to do, or to just passively run it into the dust.

The feeling with these people is that if government agencies are made to look bad through poor management, then clearly they don't work and should be dismantled! This isn't conspiracy theory - this is just a particular brand of economics and more widely speaking, politics. The "conspiracy" is simply that if we can dismantle the massive regulatory system that has grown since the New Deal, we can replace it with corporate self-policing, which has the twin advantages (from the corporations' standpoint) of being (1) cheaper, and (2) friendlier to corporate interests. And bottom line, corporate interests = profit.

Is the above equation a bad thing? Many would argue so. Personally, I don't believe so. But I'll stop there for fear of straying too off topic.


Just a couple more comments on a few of your specific "rants" (and let me add that more people should be ranting!!):

The tax gap, the wealth gap, and the compensation gap are all tied together and have been analyzed fully for several years now (probably longer but that's how long I've been paying attention). Again, I chalk this up to the people with money having the ear of the people who make laws. This is always the case - sometimes more so than others, and now is one of those times.

The bankruptcy revision is, IMHO, criminal. I still can't understand why they did that, especially considering it has the ability to screw our deployed troops in the 2-hole. My wife was taking Bankruptcy in law school at the time, and the day this was passed, her professor said, "throw out the textbook, everything you just learned is wrong. But it's too late to learn anything new for the exam. Just be warned."

Universal default relates to the bankruptcy revision - both are an undue influence by the banking industry on our policymaking. In the Repub. Congress the lobbyists would often write the laws; let's hope the Dems put a stop to it.

One more item to add to the list of complaints against this country, just to spur further discussion (was gonna make a list but I have to go pick up the wife and kid from the airport, plus running out of space!): The recent Supreme Court decision saying that government can take our homes under eminent domain in the name of private developers.


Now for a bit of optimism. It seems that popular sentiment among voters is beginning to swing the other way. I think you'll see in the coming years (maybe not fully be 2008 but certainly by 2012) a populist resurgence, even so far as a New New Deal. Check out Paul Krugman's Op-Ed in the NY Times from last Friday, April 27, 2007. Unfortunately to look at it online you need access to TimesSelect which generally requires a subscription to the paper, or you could go to your local library. I won't repost the whole thing here b/c of copyright considerations but the gist is as follows: we're living in a new Gilded Age, the far right like Norquist et. al. like it this way, but your average US of A'ian is getting fed up of the widening income gap and we may see a political backlash (he certainly hopes so).

One more thing really quick since I exceeded length.



In many localities you see the city council or whoever bowing to the wishes of land developers, over Strong objection by the majority of the population. This happens a lot where I used to live in Jacksonville, and happens in a lot of "exurbs" as well. To follow Polanksi's argument, this is another example of "the elites" ignoring the wishes of the "unwashed masses" for their own gain - (and in the case of Jacksonville, ignoring the damage done to the wetlands .

Okay, that is all. Again, really enjoyed the post and looking forward to continuing reading the discussion.

EDIT - correct fierce dragon-face

[edit on 1-5-2007 by NineSquared]

yep. which begs the question - how did this rate an email alert going out to all the (active) ATS members? WHY did this rate an email alert?

Being the paranoid conspiracist that I am ... I'm starting to wonder about a shadow-mission that the ATS board elite are running.

Translation: I have no counter argument, and I don't have a clue either what you are talking about, so I will call you a dirty name and run away.

P.S. I have a degree in business management and accounting. I work 50 hours or more a week helping a successful, profitable business run. I am able to make much more than the average income. We have some problems in our country that need to be dealt with or the problems will deal with us.

this is the ignorance that rules our capitalist society. everything is ok as long as your making enough money.

I don't make jack for a salary, but that's not what I'm after. I want to live happily and raise my children in a decent society. Unfortunately the corporations took that from me when they widened the gap between themselves and the dredge that make their corporations function. The country will continue it's spiral of ignorance.

But, hey ... enjoy your money. hope it makes you happy. and if it doens't ... I guess just watch "The Simple Life" or "Dancing with the Stars" and go buy something.

I think this assumtion is one of the key flaws in the theory. How many rich people did you interview to come to this conclusion? Have you met any?

By and large, the rich got that way because they either inherited the money, or made it themselves though some sort of business or investments. While many may not care about the masses, they have nothing to gain by trying to keep others down... Most people do a pretty good job of keeping themselves poor through wasteful spending, over-borrowing, or simply a lack of understanding of how to handle money.

If you know how to get rich, and have tried but have found your path impossibly blocked by others, you might have a point, but I very much doubt that's the case.

It's a symtom of the "someone else's fault" culture.


[edit on 1-5-2007 by nowthenlookhere]