When the U.S. began to overtax the rich to appease the masses and fund everything the federal government provides, no thought was given to where this was headed.
Then when the nation’s central bank, the Federal Reserve Bank, divvied out near-free money to the financial classes in the 2008 financial/credit/home loan crisis to cover the losses of lenders but not home mortgage holders, little did anyone realize how this would not only crush the middle class but create super-wealthy oligarchs that now demand government do their bidding by virtue of the fact how much government relies upon them.
Then the Supreme Court, in United Citizens v. Federal Election Commission decision, ruled the First Amendment protected the right to donate to politics. Corporations and unions could spend unlimited amounts of money on political activities, as long as it was done independently of a party or candidate. Political Action Committees sprang up and the wealthy could now influence like the days of robber barons.
America simply does not have a democracy any more. The super-wealthy have been able to buy the 4th estate, the nation’s news media, and create propaganda of their own. Just six corporations control 90% of the news outlets in America. [Business Insider] If you frequent the internet you have probably seen the videos of the TV news anchors parroting the exact same phrases in their news stories. [YouTube] News is produced and controlled.
Why are the most advertised Gold and Silver coins NOT the best way to invest?
The U.S. is now considered an oligarchy, defined as a small group of people having control of a country. [The New Yorker April 18, 2014] This is fascism by another name.
Americans could only watch as their country was taken away from them.
The country has now polarized. The underclasses protected by welfare and the financial classes using near-free money with the middle class squashed in between.
According to the Census Bureau, in 2012 there were 103,087,000 full-time year-round workers in the U.S. and 109,631,000 Americans receiving federal welfare benefits. The welfare-takers outnumbered full-time year-round workers by 6,544,000. [CNSNews.com]
Government sources say unemployment is ~5%, but in the real world it exceeds 23%. (Source: ShadowStats.com) The chairman of Gallup polling group recently posted the official 5.6% unemployment rate is “a big lie.” [Gallup]
More than half of the bachelor’s degree-holders under age 25 are jobless or underemployed (2012). [The Atlantic] More young and middle-aged adults are now living with their parents and grandparents, a record 60+ million Americans (19%) versus 42.4 million (17%) in 2009. [MarketWatch Aug 14, 2016]
While more Americans joined the ranks of the unemployed, tax revenues rose from $2.54 trillion at the height of the financial/credit collapse in 2008 to $3.5 trillion in 2016. You don’t hear any politicians saying “no new taxes” any more. It’s obvious, the working class has had to bear the burden for the growing class of permanently unemployed.
Overtaxed, under-taxed
In 2008 about 51.6 million or 36% of tax filers had no income tax obligation. [TaxFoundation.org] In tax year 2015 45.3% of American households, or roughly 77.5 million Americans, will pay no federal individual income tax. [MarketWatch.com]
Meanwhile, 86.8% of total federal income taxes are paid by the richest 20% with an average income tax bill of $50,176 per person.
Middle class crushed
The so-called middle class, defined in 2006 before the Great Recession as those households (family of 3) that earn between 25,000 and $75,000/year, now falls in the $42,000-$125,000 range (2014).
While those American households that achieve a six-figure income are considered wealthy, due to inflation it really takes an income of $365,000 today to equal what $125,000 in purchasing power in 1980. A six-figure income looks big to those who earn $40,000 a year, but the middle class is not getting ahead.
The bottom 90% of income earners have very little savings while the so-called middle class is able to save about 10% of earnings. But that is being eroded by less than 1% interest on banked money, which is less than the 2.2% target rate of inflation or the 4+% real inflation rate (source: ShadowStats.com).
The middle class is saving ~10% only to see it erode via inflationary erosion (less buying power). And the middle class is bearing the tax burden for the growing number of unemployed Americans.
Wealth at the expense of the middle class
The rich are not only getting richer, what’s most noticeable is that more people are becoming wealthy. Since the millionaire population plunged in 2008, the U.S. has gained or added back more than 3.5 million millionaires.
The number of households worth $5 million or more also set a new record, jumping to 1.3 million from 1.24 million in 2013. And there are now 142,000 households worth $25 million or more, up from 132,000 in 2013. [CNBC]
The total number of millionaires in the U.S. was 9.2 million in 2007 before the Great Recession, dropped to 6.7 million in 2008 and now there are over 10 million millionaires (net worth). [L A Times March 12, 2014] The U.S. now has 536 billionaires. [Wikipedia] There were just 49 American billionaires in 2000. [Statista.com]
The billionaires are trying to keep you from being one
What does not dawn upon Americans is that those entrenched oligarchs who control the status quo are working against anyone ever competing against them. When we hear of the Bilderberg meetings of a small number of elite people in industry, finance, academia, and the media, do we realize the super-wealthy are being briefed on how they can maintain their wealth and how to keep others from competing with them?
Where can we see oligarchy?
We can see an oligarch when Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says she relies upon the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) for consultation (but her own daughter and husband are members!) The CFR is an elitist organization that personifies oligarchy.
Is the President an oligarch? Much like a king who issues proclamations, the Presidency now issues Executive Orders that skirt around Congress and become policy. [NY Times, Aug. 13, 2016] Ironically, while Barack Obama derides contender Donald Trump as a demagogue he issues executive orders like pancakes. [Yahoo.com] Executive overreach puts American freedoms at risk. [The Daily Signal]
Profound and historical change in America
Americans really don’t recognize fascism when they see it. Today America is seen through the lens of what it once was. America has a great heritage but a despoiled future.
In school American students learn of the three balancing branches of government. But in reality, the Executive branch is headed by the President who is the leader of his/her political party, and when that party controls Congress and appoints new federal judges, particularly to the Supreme Court, and the President appoints the Attorney General and FBI chief who are supposed to police government including the Oval Office, in reality you don’t have checks and balances.
What Egyptians did
Americans might get a hint from Egypt of how to take their country back. When Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pressed forward Mohamed Morsi as President, Egyptians felt their country was being handed over to the mob (The Muslim Brotherhood) that was now constitutionally above judicial review. [LA Times July 15, 2012]
So millions of Egyptians took to the streets in protest but millions more, fearing street riots only foment instability, pulled couches from their homes into the streets and sat on them. Complacent Egyptians had had enough. This served as a signal for the military to oust Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood. [Egypt Independent] The “couch party” prevailed in Egypt. In 2015 Morsi was jailed for 20 years. [Zerohedge]
Class warfare
Those who hold control of power do so by turning Americans against each other. Class warfare is at the center of this year’s Presidential election. [US News] In 2012 there were 235 million eligible voters in the U.S., but only 129 million voted (54%). The complacency party would prevail if it demonstrated its might in any way.
Should Americans vote?
Obviously, a lot of Americans don’t vote. I can’t blame them. Consider the carving out of Congressional districts in North Carolina, what is called gerrymandering, where the majority voted for one party’s Presidential candidate in a recent statewide poll but in 10 of the State’s 13 House congressional districts the other party got elected. [LA Times Aug 15, 2016; NY Times Feb 2, 2013] Both sides do this. How much gerrymandering goes on to negate your vote where you live? Some libertarians suggest voting only gives the establishment license to do what they do. Why participate in a deceitful and corrupt process?
Bring on the couch party
The least that disgruntled yet apathetic Americans can do is pull their couches out into the front yard, which will say they won’t take any more of this. You don’t have to leave home. The lazy man’s party can win. The couch party convention need only last one day. Some dispirited American out there must know how to roust out lethargic Americans via social media to stage a 1-day couch protest. American Americans just need to send a message. Americans’ homes were taken away, their jobs evaporated, the value of their money diminished, and Americans are incongruently told unemployment is low, inflation is down, the gross domestic product is rising, and they live in the greatest country in the world. Maybe there is little we can do, but we can tell the oligarchs and controlled politicians without going to the voting booth and without taking to the streets to throw rocks and confront police officers, that we know what they are doing and they aren’t fooling all of us and WE WANT OUR COUNTRY BACK!
