Wealth Gap Creating a 'Social Time Bomb'

Wealth Gap Creating a 'Social Time Bomb'

www.guardian.co.uk

Growing inequality in US cities could lead to widespread social unrest and increased mortality, says a new United Nations report on the urban environment.

In a survey of 120 major cities, New York was found to be the ninth most unequal in the world and Atlanta, New Orleans, Washington, and Miami had similar inequality levels to those of Nairobi, Kenya Abidjan and Ivory Coast. Many were above an internationally recognised acceptable "alert" line used to warn governments.

"High levels of inequality can lead to negative social, economic and political consequences that have a destabilising effect on societies," said the report. "[They] create social and political fractures that can develop into social unrest and insecurity."

(visit the link for the full news article)

I think most of us can see this coming.

Unfortunately, so can Big Brother. That is why they have installed all the Orwellian measures in place so meticulously over the past several years.

The more I look back at the sequence of events and passages of certain "acts" and measures, the more I come to the conclusion that this has very INTENTIONALLY been plotted and planned out for many years.

These vampires have drained the blood of the populace and won't stop till we're all completely dry.

That time is approaching fast....

But that's why we have the jack-booted cops marching up and down the streets crushing all dissent, and MILITARY units deployed domestically, already in place, for what the Elitists know is going to happen. They have been check-mating us all into poverty and concurrent submission at the same time.

Sickening...

www.guardian.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

BUMP

Flagged and Starred. This helps to dispel the "land of opportunity" myth. Any casino will mint a few lucky people a year, at the expense of millions of broken people.
Only this casino holds you inside at gunpoint.
Welcome to America.

Don't worry, all the shiny goodness will trickle down eventually. Just hang on a little longer.

In the meantime, whatever money you have left, can you spend it? Some of our smaller shareholders are feeling just a little bit of pinch because profits are anticipated to be down compared to last year and that second home won't pay for itself!

Adding to the original post is a recent report filed by The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) that categorizes the U.S. as the THIRD WORST country of Income inequality and poverty, among the organisation's 30 member states. Only Mexico and Turkey ranked higher in terms of income gaps. With the disgusting bailouts, reverse-Robinhoodisms, re-distribution of wealth, jobless and homeless numbers exploding, we are fast inching up that list to take the top spot. I'm sure the "ruling class" is real broken up about that. >end sarcasm<

On the US, the report explained: "Since 2000, income inequality has increased rapidly, continuing a long-term trend that goes back to the 1970s ... Rich households in America have been leaving both middle and poorer income groups behind. This has happened in many countries, but nowhere has this trend been so stark as in the United States. The average income of the richest 10 percent is US$93,000 in purchasing power parities, the highest level in the OECD. However, the poorest 10% of the US citizens have an income of US$5,800 per year—about 20% lower than the average for OECD countries." [Original emphasis]

These income figures actually underestimate the gulf between the ultra-wealthy and the working class and poor. Wealth inequality is far higher than reported income disparities. A tiny elite layer comprising less than 1 percent of the population has amassed unprecedented levels of wealth over the last three decades through various forms of speculation and financial parasitism. But this wealth, largely concealed through tax evasion schemes and other mechanisms, is difficult for economists and statisticians to accurately measure.

Full Article:

www.inteldaily.com...

A few things spring to mind, but I'll share the first one that popped into my head.

"Working as designed."

Everything just seems falling into place for a well designed, well planned, perfect storm.

What will be its end result - I admit I do not know the answer and fear it will be nothing good.

Originally posted by Frogs


What will be its end result - I admit I do not know...

Why not let them tell you themselves?

"The supranational sovereignty of an intellectual elite and world bankers is surely preferable to the national autodetermination practiced in past centuries." -- David Rockefeller, founder of the Trilateral Commission, in an address to a meeting of The Trilateral Commission, in June, 1991

“In our dreams, people yield themselves with perfect docility to our molding hands. The present education conventions of intellectual and character education fade from their minds, and, unhampered by tradition, we work our own good will upon a grateful and responsive folk. We shall not try to make these people, or any of their children, into philosophers, or men of science. We have not to raise up from them authors, educators, poets or men of letters. We shall not search for great artists, painters, musicians nor lawyers, doctors, preachers, politicians, statesmen – of whom we have an ample supply. The task is simple. We will organize children and teach them in a perfect way the things their fathers and mothers are doing in an imperfect way.” -- John D. Rockefeller, General Education Board (1906)

That seems pretty clear and as you can see, they've been at it for generations.

I feel that their one huge mistake was in not recognizing the impact of the Internet. The Internet has enabled people from varying locations, backgrounds, races, and cultures to communicate on a scale never before realized. Due to this, people are starting to wake up and figure out what is and has been going on. The vast inequities are visible to nearly everyone who bothers to look. The Internet is Toto pulling back the curtain.

Look for increased efforts to collar and muzzle Toto in the near future. This hasn't been Kansas for a long time now, Dorothy. Look at the gold paint on your pretty red shoes...

DD! You always get these gems!

There is a dark possibility in all of this. Patterns are in place according to the 'tin-foil' hat crowd theories. It seems highly probable that there is a predatory element to our current 'stewards' of the planet.

However, theirs is not infinite power. And despite their self-perception they are quite human and frail, just as we are. I am beginning to see that as long as the information is flowing, there is hope.

People aren't taught history, it seems, and those few of us who are interested have learned of prior attempts at 'controlling the world', and the people and mechanics of their parasitic existence.

Perhaps we won't see the social unrest they so desperately need to justify their actions. Perhaps they well be foolish enough to fabricate it, I think that most would immediately recognize it for what it is, and then, the "game would be afoot."

Many express a rancor and chaffing at the fact that people have not risen en masse to express their utter condemnation of what could be happening. They are not meant to look in that direction. But I think there is wisdom in this collective detachment. Our time to stand has not yet come. Unfortunately too many people fall asleep while they wait.


[edit on 24-10-2008 by Maxmars]

[edit on 24-10-2008 by Maxmars]

reply to post by DimensionalDetective


YES!! Great find and good job!!

I've been saying this for years, and nobody listens... glad to have some expert types back me up on this!

S & F for sure...

Originally posted by Ambient Sound

Why not let them tell you themselves?......

Thank you..excellent reading. Will be interested if the "powers that be" pretend to be at all shocked by this study.

Really, I don't see how they could even pretend to be. I mean, you can only keep moving both blue and white-collar jobs overseas, skimming the financial markets, etc for so long.. eventually people will not even be able to afford to buy the junk we sell each other at Wal-mart. Which is, of course, another cycle. Make it cheaper to be sold cheaper - which leads to more outsourcing, labor cuts, lost jobs, lower wages, etc..

Sigh.. I ramble..

When reading your post Ambient Sound, I was struck by the thought "They want to be like the kings of old." Absolute rulers. Not just of a country - but of the world. Some have came very close and held most of the world for a time. Thus far, history seems to indicate the more the grip on the world by a ruler(s) has expanded - the more tenious that grip becomes.

These seem to be trying engineer a global grip that will last.

reply to post by DimensionalDetective

Starred and Flagged!
Don't lose hope though DD......remember:

Towards the end of the movie Return of the Jedi and after the defeat on Hoth the Rebel Alliance reforms most of its command and gathers new funds and weapons and under the command of Han Solo, Chewbacca, Princess Leia, Lando Calrissian, and the knowledge and help of various planetary creatures such Ewoks they conquer the Empire's main base on Endor and liberate most of the galaxy, also leading to the defeat of the Empire which results in the death of Darth Vader, Darth Sidious and most of the Imperial hierarchy and the complete destruction of the Death Star and the Empire's fleet of ships.

There's always hope.

Originally posted by Frogs
When reading your post Ambient Sound, I was struck by the thought "They want to be like the kings of old." Absolute rulers. Not just of a country - but of the world....

These seem to be trying engineer a global grip that will last.

This is EXACTLY what they want. The majority of the real power elite come from money that is a few or more generations old. These people are bred to lust for power, believe they deserve it, and take pleasure in the continued acquisition of it. In essence, it is their true religion. I think that most of these people have been programmed by their own high society to believe that the ends justify the means, as author Jim Marrs often points out.

I recommend his books, BTW.

The 20th Century was truly the Century of Unlimited Greed. The whole of what we think of as Modern Western Civilization has been shaped and molded by the grasping materialism and self-gratification beyond all excess that true Rulers practice and propagate. Our society has corrupt values. They have made it so.

Now in the 21st Century, we must pay for the excesses of the previous one. The true beauty of what they have done, in their view, is that they have rigged the game such that in the end, the rest of us will end up paying the cost of our own financial and literal slavery. How nice for them when we ask for and don the chains they have for us, as we have done.

Well this isn't too surprising. Of course there will be unrest if such an unfair difference can be seen between two places.

I am 55 years old and as far back as I can remember I have heard, "the rich get richer and the poor get poorer." But, I suppose there must be a threshold reached where people actually do something about it all.

reply to post by DimensionalDetective


I was most disturbed by this...

A tiny elite layer comprising less than 1 percent of the population has amassed unprecedented levels of wealth over the last three decades through various forms of speculation and financial parasitism. But this wealth, largely concealed through tax evasion schemes and other mechanisms, is difficult for economists and statisticians to accurately measure.

We are being herded into poverty. One class...and then us.

Wonderful DD. Perhaps this might shed some light on the steps taken to get here....

www.thirdworldtraveler.com...

Hey DD good thread, respect. I really appreciate the many injustices you bring to our attention. Knowledge is a powerful weapon, and in our current situation I believe it to be the most important.

Great posts Ambient, I share your opinion. The current system was founded on corruption. With the help of the internet, a few insiders and many intelligent, dedicated researchers and writers, it has become glaringly obvious just how disgustingly corrupt it really is.

Maxmars my amigo, eloquent as always. You should be a writer fighter.
If they do provoke or fabricate unrest I don't think it will break the camel's back. So much wickedness has been perpetrated in plain view, yet the show goes on.

I want to be optimistic but the 7 headed tyrannimechanical machine they have built up around us seems almost indestructible. Where are it's weak points??? I'm keen to start chipping away.

Peace

reply to post by Ambient Sound


REPLICATOR FOR EVERYONE

The problem with Internet is that the said "nameless" have caught themselves into an ambivalent situation. Internet is a kind of "replicator" (this expression is from 'Star Trek', remember, the machine which produces all you need directly from energy). Now, Internet is, as such a replicator, an ideal place for sharing information and experience without charging for it, therefore it is only adding to everyone's energy level and not making people poor as is normal withing the given economic system. It is not about money and getting rich by means of numbers.

This kind of sharing where there is only adding and not subtracting is directly in opposition to the "official" science as represented by creations like AOL and such. By means of torrents, or forums and open libraries on Internet all that this 'official' ideology strives for is negated.

Maybe you have noticed that this economic crisis is heavily affecting doing business by using credit cards and electronic transactions? Guess what, this could be the end of this era of electronics. Think about this possibility...

There have been many iconoclasm in history and perhaps the time for another one - the Internet-clasm - has come?

Internet is the true communication incorporated - connects people from around the world. One simple blow could cut it off. And if that happens, what are we going to do? How to fight, how to prepare for this possibility, which is pending in the murky waters that the patocrats stir?




There are other things that are going on, practically unnoticed.

Genetics. Have you noticed where one of the biggest efforts go? To find a gene responsible for any of human perks: like, there is a gen for ethics, a gene for criminal bias, a gene for womanizing, a gene for whatnot... Isn't this all about creating human beings whose behavior is totally explainable by means of genetic programming - and therefore a human being totally deprived of responsibility for his or her acts?

So, here we go: instead of electronics there should be more genetics in our lives. Think about consequences, like a whole new bunch of laws and measures to regulate this kind of reality with huge data-banks of our genomes to aid them in distribution of our "usefulness" (of us) - and so on (like in the Brave New World).


Chemistry. Why not, drugs, viruses, in combination with nano-technology: this could make miracles, radically change our perception... I am serious about this. We may not be able to even notice when it starts happening.

Perception can be re-modelled - re-calibrated, that is. And really, we all know that, but think of moving the emphasis from electronic media, or movies, into the new media created by genetical, chemical and nano-technological means. This day is not far, if it already isn't behind.

***

And one more thing, related to the quoted Rockfellas... I haven't noticed that any of them has mentioned purpose.

They don't have purpose, they have 'dreams'.

Now, in dreams, one can only see the dreamed. But what about those who are awake?

Can they see what is in stock for them, the dreamers, coming from the needle of reality? When the bubble blows, they will be the ones who have lost everything.

reply to post by Maxmars


Cool avatar by the way max, suits you

What do you mean by wisdom in collective detachment? Do you mean it might be a good thing we aren't fighting back because we aren't ready? When/if our time to stand does come, how do you think things will go down? Surely there are many 'groups' out there, like most of ATS, that have not fallen asleep, watching the sheep graze hungrily in their pasture....

peace

Originally posted by DimensionalDetective
But that's why we have the jack-booted cops marching up and down the streets crushing all dissent, and MILITARY units deployed domestically, already in place...

Where are there "jack-booted cops marching up and down the streets crushing all dissent"?
No where I've been lately in the last 60 days.

New York, DC, Las Vegas, Dallas, Ft. Walton, Atlanta, London & Seoul.
Didn't see any "jack-booted cops" crushing anything - I did notice that no matter where you go in the states, cops love donuts ...

[edit on 10-25-2008 by intelgurl]