OK, I will say it… Rich motherfuckers don't deserve any more god damned money

[MrScorpio]

Last edited Tue Jan 20, 2015, 09:42 AM - Edit history (1)

Over half the world's wealth? Are you fucking kidding me? In a world where misery abounds, where poor and distressed people are turning to radicalism in order to alleviate their suffering, where the environment is being ravaged for profit, where the world around us is crumbling, we want to fatten the already overflowing coffers of the greediest of the greedy?

Fuck that noise.

This isn't about jealously, or envy… It's about basic survival.

Our economies have been stagnant for decades, wages frozen as the cost of living rises, becoming more and more expensive for those who earn wages to live. We've forgotten how to prosper. We've learned that empathy is for suckers. It's now our duty to love our rich masters at the detriment of ourselves and our loved ones.

I could go on all day about this, but I won't. The balance of power has been bought and paid for by the people who have stolen our futures. Little do they know that these things always require a correction, a reckoning. Forcing one will not make it any more palatable for anyone. It'll create general suffering to impel action.

At that time, after the chaos and the aftermath, people will look back and wonder why we let this go on for so long. They'll say that they've came to their senses where we have not. And after some time, in a moment of comfort and absence of due diligence, they'll start creeping into the same old mistakes that got us where we are now.

Past is prologue.

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

George Santayana

[TreasonousBastard]

1. Of course they don't but...

this is in a way the natural order of things as they are.

Once, we had kings who owned it all and the rest of us were chattel. Now, it's a little better but with free enterprise there will always be a few with the will and ability to take over. Why and how does one guy with a hardware store live and die with one or two stores and another guy turn his into Tru-Value? With mail-order catalogs being over a hundred years old and internet shopping around for years, how did Amazon suddenly pop up as if they invented something new?

Aside from that, there are still a few sheiks and sultans who legally own the nation's wealth, and there are plenty of dictators and oligarchs who stole theirs. Europe and Japan are sorta working on letting things not get too out of hand, but the rest of the world just lets the money pile up, whether it's legal money or not.

Anyway, the question now is what do we do about it? If Congress had either balls or decency it would raise taxes, particularly inheritance and investment taxes, and get down to legally redistributing at least some of the wealth. But, aside from that not happening any time soon, are we going to depose the Saudi royal family or invade Mexico to get Carlos Slim's money?

[daleanime]

3. Right now, they don't even have the guts to suggest it.....

with out the political cover of a tax cut.

[jwirr]

64. Both the Saudi and Mexican ruling families are under attack. It is only a matter of time for them.

You are talking as if it is still ruling families that hold most of this money. It is bank and corporate stockholders that hold the money in most of the developed world. We don't even know most of their names. I wish it were kings then we would know our enemy.

[DeSwiss]

2. There should not even be such a concept as rich motherfuckers:

[center]

PLANS NOBODY'S USING RIGHT NOW
This is how we get there: Resource-based Economy
This is what we do when we get there: The Venus Project
We are human beings of the planet Earth. This planet belongs to us in-common, as we belong to it. Until we all understand this, things can only get worse than they are now.
There is no other way.[/center]



- K&R

[JEB]

24. Thanks for posting and the links. Bookmark.

[KG]

4. deserve's got nothing to do with it

[Nye Bevan]

5. JK Rowling is richer than the Queen of England, and is writing a new book.

http://www.hypable.com/jk-rowling-cormoran-strike-number-of-books-planned/

Having read and enjoyed her first two Cormoran Strike books I am looking forward to this one.

[closeupready]

6. And she gave away so much wealth, she is no longer a billionaire.

Did you know that?

[link:http://www.tampabay.com/blogs/juice/content/jk-rowling-drops-forbes-billionaire-list-because-she-gave-so-much-away|

[nxylas]

10. She also refused to become a tax exile

She remained in the UK and pays all her taxes because she was on welfare when she was a single mother, and wants to give something back to society now that she is in a position to do so. A non-psychopathic 1%er, how refreshing. I wish there was a spell to magically transform all copies of Atlas Shrugged into Harry Potter books.

ETA: How sad that I should feel the need to applaud someone just for fulfilling the regular obligations of a citizen. JK should be the rule rather than the exception, but we all know that's not the case.

[jwirr]

65. It is not about how they make their money unless it is illegal. It is more about what they did with

it when they had it. Those Kings the OP mentioned could have ruled in a way that shared the wealth and they would not have been beheaded. It is the fact that they avoid paying their fair share of taxes and that they take over the government using it to do the exact opposite of what the people want. That is what got the kings killed and that is what will end this gorging in the end.

[Ilsa]

17. I bet her Cormoran Strike novels and probable movies

will make her a billionaire again. I wonder who they'll get to play Strike. And I suppose there'll be some special effects unless the actor is an amputee.

I love her new novels.

[Nye Bevan]

28. Good question. They did a good job making Gary Sinise appear legless in Forrest Gump.

And most of the time Cormoran's stump is covered, so I guess they will use special effects.

Cormoran is a great character and I am looking forward very much to the next book.

[SammyWinstonJack]

8. Atleast JK Rowling earned it.....unlike the Queen of England.

[JEB]

26. I believe it is something other than greed

that motivates her to create her books.

[Dont call me Shirley]

32. The royal family hides a lot of their wealth.

[SammyWinstonJack]

7. Wealth hoarding is what this is. It's Sick!

[hifiguy]

42. Greed is the most powerful, pernicious and dangerous addiction

known to humankind. It never has been, is not and never will be self-regulating, which is why responsible societies take steps to curb it.

[freshwest]

9. "I can hire one-half of the working class to kill the other half." ~ Jay Gould

The great Southwest railroad strike of 1886 was a labor union strike against the Union Pacific and Missouri Pacific railroads involving more than 200,000 workers. In March 1886, railroad workers in the Southwest United States conducted an unsuccessful strike against railroads owned by Jay Gould, one of the most ruthless industrialists of the day. The failure of the strike led directly to the collapse of the Knights of Labor and the formation of the American Federation of Labor.

At the time of the strike, Gould owned all the elevated rail lines in New York City, the Western Union telegraph service and the Union Pacific, Missouri Pacific, Missouri Kansas & Texas (M-K-T) railroads. In total, Gould owned almost 12 percent of all railroad track in the U.S.

The strike began when a member of the Knights of Labor in Marshall, Texas was fired for attending a union meeting on company time. The local chapter of the Knights called a strike.

Soon, more than 200,000 workers were on strike in Arkansas, Illinois, Kansas, Missouri and Texas. Although the dismissal of the leadman in Texas had sparked the initial strike, wages, hours and unsafe working conditions motivated most of the strikers.

From the start there were problems. The Brotherhood of Engineers refused to honor the strike, and its members kept working.

Meanwhile, Gould immediately hired strikebreakers to work the railroad, allegedly declaring, "I can hire one half of the working class to kill the other half."

Pinkerton detectives were employed to protect railroad property.

On March 19, 1886, Grand Master Workman Terence V. Powderly of the Knights of Labor met in Kansas City, Missouri with other leaders of the Knights, the governors of Kansas and Missouri, and railroad officials to try to bring an end to the strike. The meeting continued for two days, but the parties were unable to reach an agreement.

After several incidents of 'union violence' occurred, Gould requested military assistance from the governors of the affected states. The governor of Missouri mobilized the state militia; the governor of Texas mobilized both the state militia and the Texas Rangers. The governor of Kansas refused after local officials reported no incidents of violence, despite claims by railway executives that mobs had seized control of trains and rail yards were burning.

The exercise of state police power on behalf of the railways led union members to retaliate. Switching houses were burned, mechanic shops wrecked and trains uncoupled. Shots were fired at a moving train in Missouri. A favorite tactic of the rail workers was to let steam locomotives go cold, forcing the railroad to spend up to six hours slowly reheating the engines for use.

As the violence spread, public opinion turned against the workers. The physical attacks by the Pinkerton agents scared thousands of workers into returning to work.

The strike petered out during the summer of 1886. By September, the strike was over.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Southwest_Railroad_Strike_of_1886

200,000 strikers beaten by 1 rich mofo and his paid friends. But here is an inspirational quote:

...'Rise like Lions after slumber
In unvanquishable number -
Shake your chains to earth like dew
Which in sleep had fallen on you -
Ye are many - they are few.'

~ Percy Bysshe Shelley - The Mask of Anarchy

And that is a romantic fantasy penned from afar, that century's version of a keyboard revolutionary. Written after a slaughter Gould might have applauded. And still it goes on.

America nor the West is not unique or exceptional in evil, but they are our ideological root. The process of obtaining the necessaries of human survival is one to which most people turn a blind eye. This has been going on ever since life forms on Earth began to compete for resources. Empty bellies and empty souls do not listen to cries for justice, they just want to be filled.

[oberliner]

11. What are you suggesting should be done about it?

How would you want to address this situation?

[Vinca]

13. I don't blame a person for becoming rich if they've done it ethically.

It's the weasels who cheat their workers and stash loot offshore and otherwise mooch off the rest of us who piss me off. The morons who squander millions on crap rather than doing good with it drive me nuts. Did you read about the guy who recently paid more than 2 million for a postage stamp? I think I'd be the world's worst lottery winner if I ever won because I'd give most of it away.

[goodword]

14. Who Helps Them Get Rich?

Do you go to the movies? Buy the latest cell phone? Go to a sporting event or concert? Buy name brand clothes?

Every time you spend YOUR money you are helping someone else get wealthy. Stop. Save your money. Quit giving it to others and then complaining that they are rich. I don't help support Hollywood or professional athletes. I don't buy expensive clothes or anything endorsed by a celebrity.

Look around you. Most of the things you own aren't really necessary. You've spent your money and someone else is benefiting from it. Think before you spend.

[The_Commonist]

18. That's pretty much what I was just thinking.

Actually, it's even worse that this.

So many people borrow money from the wealthy, in the form of debt, in order to buy more stuff that they don't really need anyway. Then they pay back that money with interest, which is how new wealth is created. And as we've learned, most of the new wealth goes straight to the top.

Stop borrowing their money to buy stuff you don't need, or even really want, when it comes right down to it. The first step, is to stop giving them more money. Then the next step is to somehow get them to start giving the money back to us.

Well, of course that's not gonna happen. It's all going to blow up soon into full-scale bloody global revolution, and I for one don't mind at this point. There are more of us than there are of them. The problem, however, is that once we're done with the guillotine, we will turn on each other, since we've been so propagandized to think that WE are the problem that we have with each other.

[truedelphi]

49. I very much agree, but do want to point out that if our

Nation did not have one of the most regressive tax situations in the universe, coupled with a President and Congress who continually siphon off Main Street wealth and transfer it over to Wall Street, then no one who works for a living would need to borrow anything.

Look t how many decent nations across the globe allow their young people to attend college free of charge. Meanwhile here in the USA, we have a university system that usually costs a person tens of thousands of dollars, and then the person needs to pay back the loans at exorbitant amounts through student loans.

And the corruption in Congress is such that most of the jobs servicing the student loans have been outsourced! So you can't even get a job servicing student loans to pay back your student loans.

Coming soon - huge arrays of drones and robots to replace warehouse stockers and delivery drivers!!

[Dont call me Shirley]

33. Oh good, blame us victims of the hoarders/thieves.

[JDPriestly]

57. Good advice. People don't realize the power they have.

On the other hand, consumption drives job development. We don't get lots of jobs unless people buy things.

On the other hand, everyone has the responsibility to try to save for the future even if they have almost nothing. It is just a habit we should all develop.

In Austria and Germany when we lived there, the government matched the savings of small savers.

[ND-Dem]

61. don;t eat, don;'t live anywhere, don't wear clothes, don;t work. sounds like a great plan.

in other words DIE

that'll fix em -- no more cheap labor

[marym625]

15. couldn't agree more

And sorry, I know that the ACA has helped countless people, but I am paying $700 a month for insurance now. That's with a high deductible and an enormous out of pocket. If I got the cheaper one, I wouldn't be able to go to Northwestern and I live in Chicago. That's where all my doctors are.

The insurance companies are still making a killing and broke people like me are hardly making it

[HughBeaumont]

16. Awwwww, your troll got dropped!

I was about to address his moronic wingnut argument

How are we defining "rich" here?

By global standards, the rich includes you. So unless you're willing to give up everything and live like most people do in the third world, whining about how "rich motherfuckers" are greedy and don't deserve more money only makes you a hypocrite.

with this:

http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Not_as_bad_as

There are a few different reasons someone will want to pull a "not as bad as" comparison. Consider a generic argument about something, A, and the reasoning below:

B happened, and is worse than A.
Therefore A is justified.

This is the most blatantly fallacious form of the argument and is a hindsight version of the "not as bad as" argument that states past actions can legitimise current actions. The existence of a worse atrocity in the past, however, does not actually justify anything — it merely points out that there have been similar things in the past. People who use this as a justification may be well aware that it's logically fallacious, and use it purely as rhetoric, or as a distraction.

Wingnuts use this "not as bad as" canard to denigrate America's poor, admonishing them if they have TVs and Refrigerators, as if an appliance is some indicator of great wealth. They figure "Weeeeeellll, if you can buy this TV, then why should my hard-earned tax dollars go to feed your nine crack babies???"

I always want these knobs to tell someone in the rural south or homeless in America's worst urban areas how great they have it and how rich they are compared to someone in Jakarta. Are we really going there?

[MrScorpio]

30. What's pathetic is that winger trolls will kiss their asses all day long...

And get the exact same shitty treatment from the rich as the rest of us.

What's worse about it is that they don't care either way, just as long as they can contradict us whenever we point these issues out.

Wingers will cut off their own noses simply to spite the truth of this world.

[JackRiddler]

46. Yeah, brother, solidarity with the Kochs!

We're all in this together with Gates and Slim and Bloomberg! Push back those huddled masses, that wretched refuse from these shores!

[ND-Dem]

62. we go there often and so does the internet

[jwirr]

66. Yes, hunger is hunger and feels the same no matter where it is. Same with homelessness and

lack of health care etc.

[rbrnmw]

19. kick

[NightWatcher]

20. Have you ever been to a really poor country?

It's no fun, even if you've got (when compared to the locals) a shit ton of money. I've been to some very dirt poor island countries and I've also been to some islands where the residents have a higher quality of life. It's no fun to be the only guy with money in a dirt poor country. I'd much rather visit, spend time in, or live in a place where everyone else is doing ok. I don't understand why the rich want to live in a place where the "staff" and "help" are miserable.

It seems like the rich would want a nice country to live in, but that's just me I guess.

[HughBeaumont]

21. Only when the troops and police that guard them begin to starve will the hoi polloi wake up.

[closeupready]

22. That's my experience, as well. Pre-Chavez, Venezuela was like that.

Lots of things to love about the place, but not the incredibly sad legions of children begging on the main commercial street. Lots of petty and violent crime then, too.

[ND-Dem]

63. the well off people i've known seem to like looking down their noses at others -- and kissing

the asses of those better off.

it's some kind of psychological defect I think

[hunter]

23. In a just, healthy, economy the uber-wealthy would be taxed out of existence.

.

[MrScorpio]

25. Relatively, of course nt

[Deny and Shred]

35. Estate Taxes

I always felt a deep hypocrisy in the conservative narrative that on the one-hand, you should get rewarded for hard work, and when you consider their "taker" concept, rewarded ONLY for hard work, then on the other hand, eliminate Estate Taxes to allow multi-generational familial wealth inheritance. Much of the income of the descendants comes from investment income, dividends, etc., not from delivering on the myth of the American entrepreneur / job creator.

The tax code should striate much higher than the hundred thousands. 300K vs 3 million vs 30 million vs 3 billion. These incomes should be taxed very differently, but aren't.

[KansDem]

27. And if they *do* want more money, they can get a second job...

That's the way we do it in the heartland.

[DesertDawg]

29. *Sarcasm* Ahead

You know, if you poor beggars would just WORK harder and get an extra minimum wage job or two then eventually someday maybe you will be wealthy, too. Don't hate the wealthy because they stole from you, just work twice as hard and make some more money!

*Sarcasm turned off*

[The2ndWheel]

31. It's not about deserve

Deserve is just another subjective human word.

[moondust]

34. One can only wonder

how much abject poverty and human suffering could be alleviated if most of that money was used for that purpose rather than greedily piled up in private accounts where it provides greater and greater leverage if only to create an even bigger pile. It's fucking stupid and inhumane.

Thanks, Reagan Republicans and Democrats, "economic royalists," financializers, globalizers, offshorers, and "trickle-down" suckers.



K/R

[hifiguy]

41. i have seen plausible estimates that the global ultra-rich

have some $25-35 TRILLION stashed in various financial black holes around the world. That is trillion with a T.

[moondust]

43. It's ridiculous.

Somebody call the Bolsheviks!

[hifiguy]

44. Coming up, one dozen communist revolutions!

Start the video at 1:30

[moondust]

45. Ha!

[johnnyreb]

36. K&R

[edhopper]

37. Just read

my signature line.

[MrScorpio]

38. Damn Skippy! nt

[bvar22]

39. You, me, and Huey Long all agree.

[hifiguy]

40. Not only that, a hefty share of them deserve

a close shave from the French National Razor:

?w=280&h=319

[Dirty Socialist]

47. Fucking A!!!

You are correct, sir.

[Half-Century Man]

48. There is no logical reason for any society to allow billionaires to exist.

There are hundreds of reasons not to.

Let this generation of billionaire be the last. Cap lifetime wealth at some ridiculous level, be it 20, 50, or 100 million.

[kairos12]

50. You just hate the "job creators."

Sarcasm for all. Nevertheless, that is what the rethugs will spew tonight. Break out the shots every time they say "small business, job creators, or class warfare." You won't be able to get off the floor.

[gopiscrap]

51. I totally agree FUCK rich people

I am totally for re-distributing the wealth.

[olddots]

52. the turd maggots create jobs for robots

NT

[blkmusclmachine]

53. ,

,

[Spitfire of ATJ]

54. Don't you know your boss WANTS to give you a raise but "the government" is making him broke?

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

55. Especially if they don't earn it

If they are taxed at 90% and still can end up owning half the world, and if it's for having done something uniquely valuable, then I won't object too much. If they can invest their billions in developing a new rocket drive that takes mankind to Mars or to the asteroid mining belt, or if they can develop new compounds to slow or reverse aging in humans then maybe they're brilliant enough to deserve being mega wealthy. But don't let them earn their money through hedge funds or credit default swaps or mortgage scams or something else that produces nothing and hurts people and involves nothing more than sitting on their CEO ass all day manipulating their buddies on the Board of Directors into paying them ever high bonuses for things that contribute nothing.

[whereisjustice]

56. KICK!!!!!

[lovemydog]

58. Tax individual wealth above a billion at 90%

Democrats should take the lead on this as policy.

Or something like it.

[joshcryer]

59. Share Our Wealth

[ND-Dem]

60. I'll say it too. K&R. and yeah, it's about survival; that becomes clearer every day. maybe if

people live in a little protected enclave they can pretend its not the case