This is a very well made video, and I urge you to share it far and wide.
I don't think that most of us understand that the policies of the Republican party have ALWAYS been to make the rich folks richer and to keep the burden of supporting the government squarely on the backs of the working class.
And they have proven to be frighteningly adept at accomplishing that feat.
Today we are seeing a virtual destruction of the Middle Class and STILL the Republicans are not satisfied, and are continuing to work to strip away the government programs that keep these people from falling into abject poverty.Is it any wonder that the President wants to raise the minimum wage in this country?
Wow. Now that's depressing. We have a Congress that can't stop a sequester that was planned to be so stupid it would never, ever happen and we are supposed to believe they are capable of addressing the massive disparity between the very, very wealthy and the poor and middle class? Very illuminating video but it feels like a tough slough with the system we are working in.
ReplyDeleteWow. And you know, if I sent that to my 'conservative' relatives, they would call it 'rigged,' and 'some liberal prooaganda.' That is, if they even watched it, which they wouldn't. And most of them are not even middle class, or are barely there, and whining every day about Obamacare and socialism, while they continue to vote in more of the oppressors. The issue is that these people are no longer THINKING. They are reacting to the garbage Fox thows them, like pack animals who are grateful for the bone at the end of the kill. They no longer expect any meat. And if they just have any gun they want, and can just get God back into their kids' clasrooms, they will be 'safe' and 'secure' from the only entity that can change this: the big bad government.
ReplyDeleteAnd therein lies the problem, Sally. It's an age-old technique.
DeleteKeep the "ignorant masses" fat and happy for long enough to get past the point of no return and then slam them with everything you have given yourself as authority
It's the primary reason that the intelligentsia of both Russia and China were eliminated during their revolutions.
Bill Maher And Panel Go After CPAC For Rejecting Chris Christie In Favor Of Gingrich And Palin
ReplyDeleteBill Maher tonight took on the upcoming Conservative Political Action Conference that panelist Steve Schmidt has previously likened to the bar scene in Star Wars. Maher pointed out that CPAC this year is supposedly about the future of the Republican party, but he asked if that’s the case, why did they invite figures of the past like Newt Gingrich, Rick Perry, and Sarah Palin, while not inviting the widely popular Chris Christie.
http://www.mediaite.com/tv/bill-maher-and-panel-go-after-cpac-for-rejecting-chris-christie-in-favor-of-gingrich-and-palin/
Absolutely mind boggling and very depressing on this cold March 2.
ReplyDeleteThe Weather Channel keeps showing the "worst" cities and states (meaning "worst" off citizens), without ever acknowledging the greed that has created the vast differences between the very few at the top in this country and the rest of us. Every time I log on to check our weather I get irritated by these inane lists. Michigan and its cities, Detroit and Flint, appear as the dregs of the country every week. Michigan is a beautiful state full of hard-working people who are rarely, if ever, recognized as such. I commuted to downtown Detroit for over 13 years and never encountered a mean or unpleasant Detroiter.
I cannot, alas, say the same for some residents of its wealthiest suburbs whom I came in contact with for a 9-year period when my job took me to Bloomfield Hills, a community that was so mean spirited that they refused to support the public library of the neighboring community that they had helped support for years ("We buy our own books if we want them" was the attitude). The same wealthy suburb refused to pay a modest increase to continue public bus service (used by the day help that commuted from Detroit to work in the houses, country clubs and restaurants of the rich) so the workers had to get off the bus before entering the community or just after leaving it and then figure out how to get to work. The wealthy in this country are the meanest people around.
Beaglemom
Bloomfield Hills is where Anne Romney is from, and where the Romneys used to live.
DeleteTo anon 7:22 am. Not surprising, is it? It is a very wealthy enclave.
DeleteBeaglemom
How do we get out of this mess when so many are not paying attention (or are just listening to Republicans and FOX)? I would imagine that many are just trying to get through their daily lives and provide the best they can for their families.
ReplyDeleteI honestly feel as though there is nothing I can do except vote (not Republican) and volunteer to help in elections or for a specific candidate. I worry for the poor across our country - the school systems that many have or barely have and on and on. This truly is frightening!
It makes me sick to watch our government in D.C. (Congress/House and Senate) not even work at creating new jobs. They could care less what happens to the American people. I sincerely believe that President Obama and VP Biden are trying to do the best they can, but the continued obstruction has halted everything.
In the next two election cycles, vote the Republicans back there out of office! Same on the state levels across the nation - we have some governors and Legislatures (Republican majority) that are doing horrid things to their citizens. People need to wake up!!!!!!
I think it is very well made too. However, I can't find any information to check the source of the statistics. I wanted to send it to some Republican friends, but I know their first responses will be to ask where the statistics originated. Does anyone have more info?
ReplyDeleteI agree. I do post videos like this on my facebook and some emails, but not without the source to back it up.
DeleteThat would be too much like the conservatives that email and post whatever comes their way and never doing any research to find out if it's true or not.
Having said that, I do believe it is probably correct. Just need the ammunition for the naysayers.
Watch the very end of the video. It listed the links to the docs/articles that the info was culled from.
DeleteThat was my very first impression as well. Who is this professor from Harvard? Where did this study come from? And that soothing voice just about drove me up the wall. I don't doubt the validity of the wealth distribution (or non-distribution). It just hit me as entirely too vague. I didn't go to the end and check the links as mentioned above, but I didn't really feel motivated to listen to any more. I probably will do that now, but how many others would do what I did? Those things should have been out in front.
DeleteOkay, I went back and looked at the links, but I don't consider Mother Jones and Think Progress, etc. the same thing as going back to the source. Don't get me wrong. I regularly read and like both websites, but those aren't what I had in mind.
DeleteWe Need Schools... Not Factories
ReplyDeleteWe need a pedagogy free from fear and focused on the magic of children's innate quest for information and understanding.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sugata-mitra/2013-ted-prize_b_2767598.html
I think you mean schools that are not like factories. My immediate reaction was that we need factories as well as schools. The middle class in this country came to be when factory workers got benefits (result of unionization). That resulted in the "golden age" for public education in this country. We need to get back to that ideal but the very wealthiest have got to be willing to give up just a tad of their wealth and bring jobs back to the US.
DeleteBeaglemom
I think this video is based on this study by Michael Norton of the Harvard Business School.
ReplyDeletehttp://harvardmagazine.com/2011/11/what-we-know-about-wealth
Here is Norton's original paper with some references:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.people.hbs.edu/mnorton/norton%20ariely%20in%20press.pdf
Speaking of wealth inequality, the 'It's our Turn' pair is whining up a storm:
ReplyDeleteChris Wallace recently scored Mitt and Ann Romney's first interview since the 2012 election, and is speaking about their reactions to losing in a preview of the exchange.
In a preview, Wallace told Politico's Patrick Gavin that Ann feels the pain of the loss.
"I'd say he is in a better place than she is," Wallace said, reflecting on the interview. "Not to say she’s bitter — and she enjoys her life. Look, they live on the beach, north of San Diego and a bunch of their grandkids are around. You know, they’ve got a pretty great life. But she I think feels the pain and the what-ifs and the hurt more than he does. And it comes through in the interview. There’s a lot of emotion that comes through in the interview, and she’s more open about it — the ‘what might have been."
The Fox News host said that Romney "obviously thinks he made some mistakes," but is "very defensive and very supportive of his campaign." He also said Romney pointed to a liberal media bias and a "long and expensive" primary battle as factors in the loss, but described the former candidate as "at ease" and "serene about it."
In the interview, Romney compared the experience to being on a roller coaster. "We were on a roller coaster, exciting and thrilling, ups and downs. But the ride ends," he said. "And then you get off. And it's not like, oh, can't we be on a roller coaster the rest of our life? It's like, no, the ride's over."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/01/chris-wallace-mitt-romney-interview_n_2790798.html?utm_hp_ref=politics&ir=Politics
Wake Up,
ReplyDeleteReferences are at the end of the video. Also, Rachel Maddow recently showed some charts that are related closely to the topic as well, which showed the inequity of income and how the gap has increased over the past 30 years.
Similar in concept, except that the income disparity is the cause of the personal wealth distribution being as skewed as it is today. The income distribution also identifies the trends that show this problem is becoming greater over time, and it identifies the events that had impact on making the disparity even greater. These include wars and how they are financed, Bush Tax cuts, etc.
I'm sorry I don't have the links handy and can't copy them here for you and others, but I believe Gryphen posted a copy of the chart that Rachel talked about on her show, so source data and references are available.
This stuff is hard hitting and the horrible results are inevitable if we do nothing to flatten the curves of these trends by pushing for major changes in public policy. The long-term situation is frightening, and the social miseries we experience today are a direct result of policies which favor the extremely wealthy. It is a complicated story to explain the true ramifications of things like the Ctizens United Supreme Court case on public policy and our economy, but it is just another change in the rules of the game allowing the haves to make rules favoring themselves by putting more money into politics.
I hope this helps you a little to find the info you need. It's troubling to me that there's too much shoulder shrugging and inattention to these critical issues, and the problems are only blurred by all of the noise and propaganda which are designed to desentisize us to real problems and issues. Corporate-owned media is not our friend, although clearly all are not as bad as others because they are competing entities. I welcome al-Jazeera with open arms. Your moniker says it all. We do need to wake up ourselves and others who need to see and hear what is happening today and what has brought us to this point. I personally don't think more guns are the answer, by any stretch of the imagination, but I understand the fears and insecurities that people have put them into a defensive, survival mode of thinking. We can't allow our public policy makers to keep kicking this can down the road. The road they're kicking it down is the wrong direction, and nothing is getting done to reverse the direction. Best wishes.
BBB
I've seen this before, presented in different ways.
ReplyDeleteBut there is never a solution presented.
There is never a proposal as to how to redistribute this wealth. Obviously it needs to be done slowly and equitably.
I think the best way to approach it is to amend the "death tax" and close a lot of tax loopholes.
But you know that isn't going to happen.
It's not surprising. It takes money to make money. Those with great wealth have many more opportunities to invest that wealth and reap dividends. Those who are just getting by still have to consume the goods and pay the interest that the wealthy profit from. I have nothing against successful people but the playing field should be level. It is not, and the gotp endeavors to keep it that way.
ReplyDeleteHere are world standings for 11 developed countries"
ReplyDeletehttp://www.conferenceboard.ca/hcp/details/society/income-inequality.aspx
This video goes chillingly well with this NYT piece on internships ripping off young adults. Esp read the top Readers' Comments for a scary picture of Amerika today.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/03/fashion/for-20-somethings-ambition-at-a-cost.html?pagewanted=all
Beagelmom, I agree with you, however the young people of this nation, do not believe in unions and prefer to believe in the right to work, which translates into work for less get less medical,less time off less of everything.These young, have no memory of working for less. I think tho- they will be learning that very important lesson soon, very soon. As more and more States are applying the right to work law. Not a good law in my book but never the less being done, all over the country. Thank you Republicans again,They will not be satisfied until, the rich have control of everything.
ReplyDelete