[dolanbaker]

From another thread, but it may make more sense to start a new one.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Loki', 'A')nother dirty little detail about the chimerical recovery:
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '
')95 percent of the income gains reported since 2009 have gone to the top 1 percent. That compares with a 45 percent share for the top 1 percent in the economic expansion of the 1990s and a 65 percent share from the expansion that followed the 2001 recession.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/top- ... e-20213135

[americandream]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('dolanbaker', 'F')rom another thread, but it may make more sense to start a new one.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Loki', 'A')nother dirty little detail about the chimerical recovery:
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '
')95 percent of the income gains reported since 2009 have gone to the top 1 percent. That compares with a 45 percent share for the top 1 percent in the economic expansion of the 1990s and a 65 percent share from the expansion that followed the 2001 recession.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/top- ... e-20213135

[Paulo1]

While all this is true, many folks are sleepwalking through life....glued to their phones and reality tv shows. No anger yet, and the banksters still freely show their faces, nay, parade centre stage with their political minions. Nary a pitchfork in sight. So adept have the thought makers re-worded the contract to include 'entitlements' and scared the common man in to accepting that 'maybe we didn't deserve' affordable health care or dignified retirement, protests are non-existent. People are keeping their heads down, working more, and hoping to get through and get by.

Perhaps the student loan debacle will kick start change. The king makers were so big on globalisation, but failed to appreciate that in a gobalized world there is no place to hide forever. Can you imagine if US or Europe unravelled like Egypt? Things could get ugly pretty fast. I am surprised it is so quiet.

regards....Paulo

[BobInget]

Many of us from a generation of 1930's labor movement parents who were peace or civil rights activists in the 1960's fully expected a period between 1990 and 2000 to be another time of protest. Wrong!
War parties learned valuable lessons from Vietnam. Getting rid of the draft was absolute brilliance.
How many teach-ins, demonstrations, peace marches, did you hear about during the last decade of war?
But cracks are beginning to show. It was a Republican Congressman from Virginian Military District, who First circulated the letter among others in Congress that forced Obama's hand permitting public input on a planned, ill conceived IMO, Syrian intervention. THAT certainly has never happened before.
There seemed no doubt this Congressman was prompted by his military constituents to do what he was asked to do. By delaying the strike, 'The People' from Left to Right had their say. I know, I know much of the rhetoric was inspired by distrust of the current President.. But, wait up.. it's not like President Bush was THAT popular before he took America to a ruinous war that, like Obama's, was only expected to last a few months.

Watch the effects of so called social media, late night and cable TV comic relief. When Jon Stuart organized a rally in Washington three years ago over a hundred thousand showed up. I met several young people on my flight from Salt Lake, going to DC for that Rally Against Fear and Hate. For myself it was the other book-end for me . The March on Washington being not my first civil rights march but by far most memorable.

Don't give up hope on the American People. Even rank and file Tea Baggers really believed they could make difference. While sharing no Tea Bagger ideology, one can't say they aren't all riled up.
For folks to get 'off the couch' they need a strong issue with a charismatic leader to go with.
Instead, we get a right of center, politician who wants to please everyone.

[americandream]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('BobInget', 'M')any of us from a generation of 1930's labor movement parents who were peace or civil rights activists in the 1960's fully expected a period between 1990 and 2000 to be another time of protest. Wrong!
War parties learned valuable lessons from Vietnam. Getting rid of the draft was absolute brilliance.
How many teach-ins, demonstrations, peace marches, did you hear about during the last decade of war?
But cracks are beginning to show. It was a Republican Congressman from Virginian Military District, who First circulated the letter among others in Congress that forced Obama's hand permitting public input on a planned, ill conceived IMO, Syrian intervention. THAT certainly has never happened before.
There seemed no doubt this Congressman was prompted by his military constituents to do what he was asked to do. By delaying the strike, 'The People' from Left to Right had their say. I know, I know much of the rhetoric was inspired by distrust of the current President.. But, wait up.. it's not like President Bush was THAT popular before he took America to a ruinous war that, like Obama's, was only expected to last a few months.

Watch the effects of so called social media, late night and cable TV comic relief. When Jon Stuart organized a rally in Washington three years ago over a hundred thousand showed up. I met several young people on my flight from Salt Lake, going to DC for that Rally Against Fear and Hate. For myself it was the other book-end for me . The March on Washington being not my first civil rights march but by far most memorable.

Don't give up hope on the American People. Even rank and file Tea Baggers really believed they could make difference. While sharing no Tea Bagger ideology, one can't say they aren't all riled up.
For folks to get 'off the couch' they need a strong issue with a charismatic leader to go with.
Instead, we get a right of center, politician who wants to please everyone.

[radon1]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('dolanbaker', '
')It seems to me that the economic world is reverting to a pre-industrial status quo, one where you have a small elite followed by a relatively small professional class, tradesmen and then the rest(workers)!

[dolanbaker]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('radon1', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('dolanbaker', '
')It seems to me that the economic world is reverting to a pre-industrial status quo, one where you have a small elite followed by a relatively small professional class, tradesmen and then the rest(workers)!

[Paulo1]

re: "I don't see a return to an anarchic lifestyle, rather an eventual reduction in consumerism with a simplified lifestyle that would go with it."

I sure hope so. And some of us have done this already, by choice. Many have embraced simplified life change for different reasons, but underlying whatever motivation lies the fact that consumerism is a hollow waste-filled life.....quite meaningless. Having said this I wonder how a reduced lifestyle will be received by those who do not choose to live this way? Will there be a sense of failure, anger, or bitterness? Will this play out in supporting a newer version of Hitler and convenient scapegoats? Many people wish to be told what to think and how they must behave.

My wife and I have reduced in many ways in how we live, but I still marvel at how comfortable and full our life has become. Tonight our supper was totally from our garden and efforts...potato salad, roast chicken, broccoli, wine; everything but the spices. Rain beginning to fall prompted a fire in the woodstove. The yellow cedar and hemlock is popping loud, and we are both reading and working online. What else could we possibly hope to do this Sunday evening?

Here is to simpler lives and the benefits incrued.

Paulo

[Timo]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Paulo1', 'r')e: "I don't see a return to an anarchic lifestyle, rather an eventual reduction in consumerism with a simplified lifestyle that would go with it."

I sure hope so. And some of us have done this already, by choice. Many have embraced simplified life change for different reasons, but underlying whatever motivation lies the fact that consumerism is a hollow waste-filled life.....quite meaningless. Having said this I wonder how a reduced lifestyle will be received by those who do not choose to live this way? Will there be a sense of failure, anger, or bitterness? Will this play out in supporting a newer version of Hitler and convenient scapegoats? Many people wish to be told what to think and how they must behave.

My wife and I have reduced in many ways in how we live, but I still marvel at how comfortable and full our life has become. Tonight our supper was totally from our garden and efforts...potato salad, roast chicken, broccoli, wine; everything but the spices. Rain beginning to fall prompted a fire in the woodstove. The yellow cedar and hemlock is popping loud, and we are both reading and working online. What else could we possibly hope to do this Sunday evening?

Here is to simpler lives and the benefits incrued.

Paulo

[JV153]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('americandream', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('dolanbaker', '
')


During the second half of the 20th century workers were in great demand and were able to obtain a much larger larger share of the cake which in turn bumped of the share to the tradesmen & professionals, this trend has now stopped and has been in reverse ever since globalisation took hold in the 1990s

[Pops]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Paulo1', 't')he banksters still freely show their faces, nay, parade centre stage with their political minions. Nary a pitchfork in sight. So adept have the thought makers re-worded the contract to include 'entitlements' and scared the common man in to accepting that 'maybe we didn't deserve' affordable health care or dignified retirement, protests are non-existent.

[Timo]

I wonder if there's any connection between the world-wide shift toward legalizing marijuana, and that drug's use as a pacifier of the people. People who are stoned don't tend to get out and march in protest of pretty much anything. Plus, there's money to be gained by starting your own brand of cannibis. Just place all of your faith in the 1%, and they will dope you up to your heart's content. Nothing to worry about. Here. Have another toke.