"5 Reasons the Super-Rich Need Government More Than the Rest of Us" By Paul Buchheit at AlterNet

[applegrove]

5 Reasons the Super-Rich Need Government More Than the Rest of Us

By Paul Buchheit at AlterNet

http://www.alternet.org/economy/156413/5_reasons_the_super-rich_need_government_more_than_the_rest_of_us?page=entire

"SNIP................................

Wealthy individuals and corporations want us to believe they've made it on their own, without the help of government or the American people. Billionaire financier Sanford Weill blustered, "We didn't rely on somebody else to build what we built." He was echoing the words of his famous predecessor, the formidable financier J. P. Morgan, who spouted, "I owe the public nothing."

That's the bull of Wall Street. There are at least five good reasons why the wealthiest Americans need government as much as the rest of us, and probably more.

1. Security

In his "People's History," Howard Zinn described colonial opposition to inequality in 1765: "A shoemaker named Ebenezer Macintosh led a mob in destroying the house of a rich Boston merchant named Andrew Oliver. Two weeks later, the crowd turned to the home of Thomas Hutchinson, symbol of the rich elite who ruled the colonies in the name of England. They smashed up his house with axes, drank the wine in his wine cellar, and looted the house of its furniture and other objects. A report by colony officials to England said that this was part of a larger scheme in which the houses of fifteen rich people were to be destroyed, as part of 'a war of plunder, of general levelling and taking away the distinction of rich and poor.'"

That doesn't happen much anymore. Of course, the super-rich aren't taking any chances, with panic shelters and James Bond cars and personal surveillance drones. But the U.S. government will be helping them by spending $55 billion on Homeland Security next year, in addition to $673 billion for the military. The police, emergency services, and National Guard are trained to focus on crimes against wealth.

......................................SNIP"

[lib2DaBone]

1. The super-rich write the laws.. control the Congress and Senate...

The Golden Rule: "He who has the gold makes the rules".

What is "right" or "Fair" or "Just" for Americans.. is the LAST thing on the mind of any Congressman or Senator.

35,000 lobbyists swarm Capital Hill daily.. and YOU are the last thing they are concerned about.

[treestar]

2. I had wanted to get clear a point about how the same people who rail against the government

and how they don't need it thought we should all spend a ton on security including preemptive wars right after 911. And they had not problem with the government paying for all that and the rest of us therefore paying it.

[OmahaBlueDog]

3. K & R