The overlords are getting nervous

[acmejack]

When Wall Street Journal business columnists start worrying about the unequal distribution of wealth in the United States, you really begin to believe that a tectonic shift in the political landscape is underway.

Alan Murray, the assistant managing editor of the Journal, starts out wondering much the same thing as did the New York Times' Eduardo Porter earlier this week: Why do polls of voters show discontent with Bush's handling of the economy? Unemployment is low, inflation is not too bad, the stock market is surging, and oil prices have come down from their highs. But unlike Porter, he gets to the point much faster.
snip>

On behalf of Wall Street Journal readers everywhere, Murray is worried -- not because of the rising inequality, per se, but because of what it could mean for business. "The danger for business is that the broad social support for pro-business and pro-market policies that has characterized American politics for a quarter century or more could be breaking down."

This could lead, warns Murray, to the rise of a Democratic candidate running for president in 2008 on an "anti-trade, anti-globalization, anti-immigration platform." Call it the Three Horsemen of the New World Order Apocalypse campaign.

http://www.salon.com/tech/htww/2006/10/25/murray/index.html?source=newsletter

[frankly_fedup2]

1. I saw a documentary regarding Cuba and how the distribution of

wealth went from the very, very rich to the poverty-stricken poor. All third-World Countries have a sharp distribution of wealth. Either very rich or so poor they cannot even feed their families.

Watching this documentary. they then showed a picture of just one of the communities.

There was a slum that had four streets around it. This slum was fenced in , the people living practically on top of each other. There were murders, fights, thefts on a daily basis. These people that lived there were able to come out of the slums whenever they needed to. Across each of these four streets, there were these huge mansions surrounding all four sides where millionaires lived. They all lived within site of each other. Of course, the rich had guards and their own paid protection. The poor could not pay for any help.

These two extremes are living side-by-side in the same area but no one crossed over the line.

Is that what we have to look forward to as the middle class slowly disappears. You only see these kind of extremes in third-World countries. Are we on our way?

[Poppyseedman]

2. Serious Question:

What makes you think a tectonic shift in the political landscape going democratic is going to equalize wealth ?

It hasn't in the past.

[acmejack]

4. Author's opinion, not my own.

The Democratic Party as of late with the influence of the "Third Way" corporatists has forgotten it's populist roots and abandoned the people. A lot depends on who the nominee is, doesn't it? It would depend on a number of factors coming together at the proper time, which is what obviously concerns the people at the WSJ. They certainly aren't worried about Hillary and her crowd either...

[Fovea]

10. google

the new deal
the fair deal

and check the top marginal tax rate under Truman.

[Poppyseedman]

11. Raising the top marginal tax rate

doesn't equate to a redistribution of wealth. It just means wealthy people pay more in taxes.

[Fovea]

12. When it hits the 90% mark, I think it does.

Which is the neighborhood it was at in the Truman years.
But if you want to do redistrubution at the point of a gun, I am up for that too, considering how
brutally inequitable it has gotten.

[Truthy Nessy]

3. People are waking up to the fact the good economy is for the

elites. There is a quiet erosion of the middle class. Lou Dobbs is bringing this out to the masses in his supper time newscasts. I found THE NATION had an interesting article.

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20061106/ehrenreich
Downsized But Not Out

excerpt:
"It's a largely hidden problem, this quiet erosion of the middle class. While the chronically poor have been highlighted by the living-wage movement, downwardly mobile members of the middle class get short shrift, even from people of conscience. True, the college educated are a relative elite, constituting 28 percent of the population and earning, on average, a lifetime total of $1 million more than those who lack a degree. But the middle class has been roiled in recent years by what the economists call "income volatility," or sudden changes in fortune, usually caused by layoffs. The discarded shrink off in shame--after all, they must have done something wrong--and vanish from the unemployment statistics by going to Circuit City or Starbucks and taking whatever job they can get. To acknowledge their existence would be to admit that the "knowledge economy" is a delusion and to raise a rude finger in the face of the American dream."

[lapfog_1]

5. how about adding an anti-American Imperialism plank

to that platform...

go for the whole Four Horsemen of the New World Order Apocalypse Campaign... and sign me up as a volunteer.

[bronxiteforever]

6. The great DEMOCRATIC Party of FDR started the country

on a expansion of the middle class.The benefits of that stability were great.

The GOP is bringing back Victorian British Class Structure that is exactly what fomented revolution in the hearts of Franklin and others. Class structure hardens the arteries of this Republic and will lead to a fatal stroke. So the Marketeers better worry about social inequality-right now my children don't seem to have the chance to even stand still in my spot.

[tanyev]

7. They hear the tumbrils coming....

[rman]

8. They have a selective view on the state of the economy

A Look at the Numbers: How the Rich Get Richer
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x2481315

IN 1985, THE FORBES 400 were worth $221 billion combined. Today, they’re worth $1.13 trillion—more than the GDP of Canada.

THERE’VE BEEN FEW new additions to the Forbes 400. The median household income has also stagnated—at around $44,000.

AMONG THE FORBES 400 who gave to a 2004 presidential campaign, 72% gave to Bush.

IN 2005, there were 9 million American millionaires, a 62% increase since 2002.

IN 2005, 25.7 million Americans received food stamps, a 49% increase since 2000.

ONLY ESTATES worth more than $1.5 million are taxed. That’s less than 1% of all estates. Still, repealing the estate tax will cost the government at least $55 billion a year.

ONLY 3% OF STUDENTS at the top 146 colleges come from families in the bottom income quartile; only 10% come from the bottom half.

BUSH’S TAX CUTS GIVE a 2-child family earning $1 million an extra $86,722—or Harvard tuition, room, board, and an iMac G5 for both kids.

A 2-CHILD family earning $50,000 gets $2,050—or 1/5 the cost of public college for one kid.


more...

[Zodiak]

9. I just saw V for Vendetta (so forgive me the hyperbole)

These people (the business elite) set into motion events that will play themselves out eventually. There is no stopping it for it was bourne on the blood and suffering of the needy and the most vulnerable.

They can hand-wring all they want, but their greed and selfishness has sealed their fate.

They had better pray that the people are more compassionate than they were.