[The_Toecutter]

Cry me a river...

The ecological footprint of each ultra-rich or just plain rich person outweighs that of the average American by orders of magnitude. The same could be said about the average American, and someone from Bangladesh.

This drive for more, when this planet doesn't have more, will only lead to dieoff. It really need not be this way...

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I')n the last 25 years that role has changed and the balance has shifted dramatically away from the people and towards big money. So far, I don't see the long term upside to that.

[IanC]

FYI: interested in your approximate ecological footprint, at least for carbon emissions? Go to Slate.com and search for their Green Challenge, register, take the quiz. It's interesing. I scored 9,164 pounds of carbon a year, 1/5 of the 44,000 average for Americans!

-IanC

[rogerhb]

This should not be unexpected, most doomer literature refers to the wiping out of the former middle class.

The only things that trickle down are piss and rain.

[Novus]

It is rather common knowlege in historical circles that the prividege of the rich is protected by the middle class. The middle class act as buffer to keep the poor from the throats of the rich. What is happening in America right now is starting to parallele Russia in 1917. There is a rapidly widening gap between the rich and the poor and the middle class are being squeezed out. There is an unpopular war going on that is increasingly being seen as a massive con. The poor are dying by the thousands so the rich can get richer. All it takes is a few lower uppers to rally up the poor and it would be all over for Ultras. Could you immagine how much support there would be for confiscating the Walmart fortune and giving it back to the workers would be? If just a few lawyers and other lower uppers started talking about it then it would happen faster then you can say "Viva La Revolution."

[chris-h]

In order to be free you need to be educated.
Just a thought.

[Kristen]

as the the first nobel truth claims: life is suffering. If everyone would stop focusing on material things and focus on more important things like food water and shelter, we would be better off. the super rich are outnumbered and i doubt their gated fortresses could stop a million starving mob in absolute desperation.

[mmasters]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('benzoil', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('mgibbons19', '
')The interesting question to me, which your post suggests is How much wealth concetration can capitalism stand and still work for the whole society?

[americandream]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('benzoil', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('mgibbons19', 'C')uts both ways though. That there represents a lot of shipbuilders' jobs, resource jobs, marine operations jobs, ship's crew, and wait jobs.

[Zardoz]

More on the mega-yachts: There are so many of them now, there's a shortage of marina slips for them. Not to worry, though, a Turkish developer is going to build a marina for them on Watson Island in Miami:

Miami Plans Island Home for Mega-Yachts

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I')n the area's marinas and canals, yachts 200 feet, 300 feet, even 400 feet long are not unusual. They can command prices over $50 million. Even at that price, there's a shortage of boats -- and a shortage of places to keep them.

"There's just so many of them being built and there's just nowhere in South Florida to put them all," says Dave Culver, manager at Fort Lauderdale's Sunrise Harbor Marina. "They have to call months ahead to even get a spot here."

[AgentR]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Kristen', ' ')the super rich are outnumbered and i doubt their gated fortresses could stop a million starving mob in absolute desperation.

[The_Toecutter]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I')t is rather common knowlege in historical circles that the prividege of the rich is protected by the middle class. The middle class act as buffer to keep the poor from the throats of the rich. What is happening in America right now is starting to parallele Russia in 1917. There is a rapidly widening gap between the rich and the poor and the middle class are being squeezed out. There is an unpopular war going on that is increasingly being seen as a massive con. The poor are dying by the thousands so the rich can get richer. All it takes is a few lower uppers to rally up the poor and it would be all over for Ultras. Could you immagine how much support there would be for confiscating the Walmart fortune and giving it back to the workers would be? If just a few lawyers and other lower uppers started talking about it then it would happen faster then you can say "Viva La Revolution."

[Carlhole]

Jon Stewart's guest on The Daily Show tonight was Lou Dobbs of CNN who is touting his new book, War on the Middle Class.

The upshot of the discussion was that our economy no longer values WORK. It values, instead, INVESTMENT, which precludes the vast majority of Americans.

Lately, I've been reading some ME history. The chapter discussing the Iranian Revolution went into class warfare reasons for the success of Islamic Revolution. It would not have been possible without the enormous wealth discrepencies that had reduced even professional classes to second-class status.

We all know what happened to the Shah.

[AgentR]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('The_Toecutter', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'B')etween the make up of the US armed forces, and the creation of internal "police" departments (blackwater/swat weapons), I think they'll be more than capable of stopping a mob of a million starving rioters.

[The_Toecutter]

It is not impossible for the "Zombie Horde" to obtain nukes, however. One is all they need.

Not to mention what fun a rail gun would be. Give an engineer enough money to play with...

[AgentR]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('The_Toecutter', 'I')t is not impossible for the "Zombie Horde" to obtain nukes, however. One is all they need.

[The_Toecutter]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')hey need one nuke for each and every enclave or marina containing some few ultrarich. They aren't just going to cluster up and paint a sign on the gate that says "we're all here, come kill us."

[The_Toecutter]

Sounds like something for pay per view. Didn't Jerry Springer do that 10 years ago?

Hey, at least it didn't devolve into scat humor.



Putting things back on to topic, this new class war probably won't end. As peak oil's effects become more pronounced, the professional classes will find they must settle for the living standard of the lower middle class of today. The lower middle class of today will by then be gone, replaced with a vast swath of working poor and chronically un/underemployed. The top echelon, however, will keep on increasing their consumption even in the face of declining resources. When the wealth of the 400 wealthiest individuals in the U.S. exceed the combined incomes of the world's poorest 2.5 billion people, we have a big problem. That is where our resources are going. Our overshoot appears conditional(so far).