Saturday, September 14, 2013

Getting the Working Class to enslave itself

The 1% have been incredibly successful at convincing a significant segment of the United States to abrogate their rights and accept less. Those they have not convinced to accept the chains of corporate bondage and wage slavery they get their Republican Attack Dogs to marginalize and demonize.

Thus while most Americans have at best tread water as the Nation attempts to come out of the Great Republican Recession America's Moneyed Masters have increased their share of the Nation's Wealth. Because 90% of Wall Street stocks and dividends are owned by the Richest Americans, Capital Gains and deferred income and the Housing recovery for mansions has allowed the top 1% to appropriate 22.5% of all income earned in 2012 while over 50% went to the top 10%.

A Rising Tide drowns those in lower part of the torn social safety net first, while their money and benefits float up those safely ensconced on top of the backs of the Working Class.

This is not some new phenomenon but the work of 30+ years of Neoliberal policies. Faced with the victories of the Labor Movement, and the rise of the secure Working Class, the Plutocracy reorganized and began their Counter-Offensive.
"The standard of living of the average American has to decline." Paul Volcker, Chairman of the Federal Reserve 1979-1987.
And with the elevation of President Ronald Reagan, the mentally-addled, terrorist-loving, cut-and-run, chickenhawk, tax-raising, war criminal to the Presidency we entered an era of Ultra-Reactionary Domination of the Nation.

The Ultra-Reactionary Neo-Feudalist dream state is one in which Child Labor Laws are abolished (see Republican Senator Mike Lee and Newt Gingrich), in which SNAP benefits are eliminated, in which the Clean Air and Water Act of 1972 is stricken from U.S. Law and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce gets taxpayer welfare for Foreign Oil Conglomerates while Working Class Americans tax relief is voted down.

So, while the Chamber of Commerce fights to destroy the Social Safety Net they receive $236 million from the Koch Brothers to craft legislation ensuring Middle Class taxes are rerouted as Corporate Welfare winding up in bank accounts in the Cayman Islands and Switzerland.

And this is what the duped and battered conservative voters don't understand. The Koch Brothers message of Smaller Government is one which fits inside their breast pocket; to be brought out to destroy Unions, quash Domestic Dissent and viciously open up Foreign Markets for exploitation.

The Neo-Feudalist Plutocracy uses many avenues of approach in their Class War to subjugate and oppress the American populace. Fix-the-Debt is one of the most insidious. The same CEOs who have made Corporations "profitable" by stealing worker's pensions and slashing company overhead by eliminating American jobs and factories while voting themselves massive multi-millions are behind the push to steal Social Security benefits and ensuring that no future American can count on either pensions or social security.

Right-Wing Think Tanks employ Libertarians as the intellectual puppets of the Plutocracy. They exist to proclaim the Good News of Free Markets and Personal Liberty but their true purpose is to get the Working Class to fasten the chains of Wage Slavery upon themselves.

And how do they do this? By Divide-and-Conquer. The CATO institute continually pushes the meme that Poor families have it too good in the US and list all the possible assistance programs in existence and pushing ancedotal stories which are picked up by Republican Congressmen about men built like brick-shithouses eating lobster. Of course, the CATO "study" always acknowledges, in small footnotes, that a majority of poor people don't actually benefit from the programs,
Due largely to the fact that eligibility requirements have already become harder to overcome, these programs are helping fewer poor families get by. In 2009, around three out of four poor families with kids weren’t getting any TANF benefits. At the height of the economic crash, about 25 percent of those eligible for food stamps weren’t receiving them; during better times, that number hovers around 40 percent. And as the CATO study concedes, six out of seven poor families aren’t getting housing assistance.
But, those points are always ignored by the duped Right-Wingers who want to, and need to believe that America is the Land of Opportunity and it's only the lazy poor and evil Government programs keeping them down.

And that is the Goal of the Plutocracy to sow division amongst the 99%. So, that one day soon Americans will wake up and realize that we are enslaved in Corporate Bondage.

Update:

7 comments:

Patricia said...

You said it so much better than I ever could. Ronald Reagan and his "Star Wars" program, funded by the Social Security benefits to widows and surviving children. Kurt Vonnegut actually wrote about that, he was so mad. These criminals in our government are causing Americans to turn on each other like feral animals. I just read on The New York Cranks blog that the Koch brothers are funding the conservative candidate for mayor of NYC. Thank you for writing about our future enslavement. Actually we are already wage slaves now. But most of people in America don't know it. We all must wake up.

Kulkuri said...

For years I've wondered why rich bastards spend so much money (millions) to try to influence policies, then it just occurred to me, all those organizations they give money to are tax deductible so it hardly costs them anything. It's all a tax write-off and in the end we are paying for it!!

Grung_e_Gene said...

Patricia and Kulkuri,

It seems the Rich are getting a little bit nervous about the effects the predations are having on the Nation.

Thus they've tasked their two biggest gasbags Racist Limbaugh and Bill O'Reilly, whom despite their mendacious ways still reach the largest audiences of duped conservatives.

So, along with the rest of Faux News and buoyed by CATO and Heritgage "Studies" those millions happily declare there is no poverty in the United States.

And Patricia there goal is to turn us against one another, black v. white, religious v. secular, working class v. middle class because as we go after one another they consolidate and acquire more and more wealth which further soldifies and strengthens their hold.

ChickenHammer said...

...there [sic] goal is to turn us against one another, black v. white, religious v. secular...

And who made the divisive statement, "If I had a son, he'd look like Trayvon."?

Grung_e_Gene said...

ChickenHammer

I can always count on your to either be obtuse or willfully despicable.

Institutional Racism and Decades long demonization of the Poor are what the Rich have done and what they continue to do.

"I can hire one half of the working class to kill the other half." Jay Gould, Robber Baron

BB-Idaho said...

"And with the elevation of President Ronald Reagan, the mentally-addled, terrorist-loving, cut-and-run, chickenhawk, tax-raising, war criminal to the Presidency" ..too kind for a B movie star that started the decline of a great country.

the yellow fringe said...

One side of my extended family: one in military, one discharged on disability, one school teacher, one prison guard, one works on a military base, two are retired defense black hole project people, one kid disabled. Recent get together they rant about too many people on welfare and government hand out. I said hey, tell me which one of you are not that person right now. Silence except for the disabled teenager, "oh, that's weird, our whole family is on government payroll.
Duh.