Cutting "entitlements"...blah blah..How about leveling the playing field fir$t?

[NRaleighLiberal]

This is universal - applies to Greece, Spain, UK, US - everywhere. With so few holding on to so much...how can any politician say with a straight face that we need to cut social safety net programs, which totally screws any chance of economic recovery, but hold sacred the incredible excesses that so few individuals/so many huge corporation in each country hold onto (and through "tax laws", somehow escape paying their fair share?)

This makes no logical sense at all, yet somehow a whole political ideology and much of the media falls for it....



How about if we makes things fair and even, get the money back that is being hoarded/"stolen", then see what else is needed to make things work....oh yes, bad idea - the ultra greedy will have to give up some of their excesses.

[MyshkinCommaPrince]

1. Capitalism was going to lift everyone...

When I was younger, the story was that capitalism would lift everyone to a better standard of living, improving the poorer parts of the world. Now the apologists for global corporate capitalism say the standard of living needs to fall to a level where we, and presumably the other western nations, will be "competitive" with populations in the poorest, most underdeveloped parts of the world. Even Neil deGrasse Tyson is stating that we shouldn't try to change that dynamic, but rather need to invent our way out of it. (Tyson at least acknowledges that the R&D funding for this needs to come from governments, because that isn't the sort of thing corporations are designed to do.)

That seems to be the plan, whether populations like it or not. I hope we can alter that course somehow, but we also seem to be working only on creating a world designed to maximize the profits of the corporations.

[Flashmann]

2. Well,if you can't

Amass more money,than you can spend in 100 lifetimes,and at the same time deny essentials to almost everyone else,then I ask you,What good is it?.....