The Economic Elite Have Engineered an Extraordinary Coup

[FourScore]

The Economic Elite Have Engineered an Extraordinary Coup, Threatening the Very Existence of the Middle Class
The economic elite have robbed us all. The amount of suffering in the United States of America is literally a crime against humanity.
February 15, 2010
By David DeGraw

...Before exposing exactly who the Economic Elite are, and discussing common sense ways in which we can defeat them, let's take a look at how much damage they have already caused.

Casualties of Economic Terrorism, Surveying the Damage

The devastating numbers across-the-board on the economic front are staggering. I'll go through some of them here, many we have already become all too familiar with. We hear some of these numbers all the time, so much so that it appears as if we have already begun "to normalize the unthinkable." You may be sick of hearing them, but behind each number is an enormous amount of individual suffering, American lives and families who are struggling worse than they ever have.

America is the richest nation in history, yet we now have the highest poverty rate in the industrialized world with an unprecedented amount of Americans living in dire straights and over 50 million citizens already living in poverty.

The government has come up with clever ways to downplay all of these numbers, but we have over 50 million people who need to use food stamps to eat, and a stunning 50 percent of U.S. children will use food stamps to eat at some point in their childhoods. Approximately 20,000 people are added to this total every day. In 2009, one out of five U.S. households didn't have enough money to buy food. In households with children, this number rose to 24 percent, as the hunger rate among U.S. citizens has now reached an all-time high.

We also currently have over 50 million U.S. citizens without health care. 1.4 million Americans filed for bankruptcy in 2009, a 32 percent increase from 2008. As bankruptcies continue to skyrocket, medical bankruptcies are responsible for over 60 percent of them, and over 75 percent of the medical bankruptcies filed are from people who have health care insurance. We have the most expensive health care system in the world, we are forced to pay twice as much as other countries and the overall care we get in return ranks 37th in the world.

In total, Americans have lost $5 trillion from their pensions and savings since the economic crisis began and $13 trillion in the value of their homes. During the first full year of the crisis, workers between the age of 55 - 60, who have worked for 20 - 29 years, have lost an average of 25 percent off their 401k. "Personal debt has risen from 65 percent of income in 1980 to 125 percent today." Over five million U.S. families have already lost their homes, in total 13 million U.S. families are expected to lose their home by 2014, with 25 percent of current mortgages underwater. Deutsche Bank has an even grimmer prediction: "The percentage of 'underwater' loans may rise to 48 percent, or 25 million homes." Every day 10,000 U.S. homes enter foreclosure. Statistics show that an increasing number of these people are not finding shelter elsewhere, there are now over 3 million homeless Americans, the fastest-growing segment of the homeless population is single parents with children.

One place more and more Americans are finding a home is in prison. With a prison population of 2.3 million people, we now have more people incarcerated than any other nation in the world -- the per capita statistics are 700 per 100,000 citizens. In comparison, China has 110 per 100,000, France has 80 per 100,000, Saudi Arabia has 45 per 100,000. The prison industry is thriving and expecting major growth over the next few years. A recent report from the Hartford Advocate titled "Incarceration Nation" revealed that "a new prison opens every week somewhere in America..."

MUCH MORE:
http://www.alternet.org/economy/145667/the_economic_elite_have_engineered_an_extraordinary_coup%2C_threatening_the_very_existence_of_the_middle_class

[yourout]

1. A great deal of this could be changed by simply ending the lie that is "Free Trade"

[villager]

2. Yes, but the "two different" political parties have both signed on to that lie

n/t

[vssmith]

18. And, among others, Bill Clinton

[sasquuatch55]

24. All the jobs are gone except service industry........We will ALL be.....

....the servants of the few elitists. And we will beg to serve them!

[snot]

3. Great article, with supporting links at the URL in the OP. Can't wait for Part II.

[rhett o rick]

4. k & r

[Goldstein1984]

5. "Coup" is the perfect word

We should keep in mind that the working class is, indeed, the victim of a coup.

And, as another post in this thread points out, both the Democratic and Republican parties are participating in the coup. The working class owes neither party its allegiance.

We can fight back. Just because our government has committed to support "free trade" and to allow jobs to be exported while goods that were once made in the U.S. are now imported, it doesn't mean that we are obligated to support the treaties they negotiate. We don't have to buy the imported goods. We can buy American; we can do without goods that are no longer made in the U.S. We can pull the economic (and probably imported) carpet out from under those who are selling us out.

More than that, we can engage in a general boycott of all nonessential goods. If, for only a few months, U.S. citizens bought nothing they don't absolutely need for survival, in a nation with an economy based 70% on consumption it would send a powerful message.

Coups can be reversed. The nice thing about economic coups is that they can be reversed nonviolently.

And you'd be surprised at how easy it is to stir things up. I attended a Super Bowl party, and during the National Anthem I was a little surprised to see everyone stand up and put their hands over their hearts (in a private residence). That's fine. But what I did, which was to stand, turn by back on the television and the National Anthem, and fold my arms across my chest, resulted in an angry response that led to an argument that took attention away from the game. I even changed a few--very few, but still a few--minds in the room.

We are not powerless; we're just too willing to be victims.

[lunatica]

19. This coup has been quite overt since Bush was selected

I've been aware of it since then and trying to voice my concerns. It's been as relentless as the Borg taking over but in slow motion and without violence. It won't last though, just like Hitler's thousand year Third Reich fell apart. The days of Empire are much diminished now.

[inna]

6. KR. This is an important article, hopefully more people will read it.

Thank you for posting this!

[dysfunctional press]

7. "America is the richest nation in history"...that WILL be changing soon.

china is a juggernaut, and this is going to be THEIR 'century'.

[Hannah Bell]

9. that's why 99% of their electronics exports are wholly foreign-owned,

& much of their patent activity as well.

[Political_Junkie]

8. K&R

nt

[GeorgeGist]

10. Without a middle class ...

all will be poor. Heckuva coup, Richie.

[FourScore]

11. kick

[donheld]

12. k & R & B

[rocktivity]

13. "Corporate Welfare Queens" is good enough for me.

:mad:
rocktivity

[troubledamerican]

14. Wait a MINUTE -- Nobody could have foreseen

the Business Plot of 1933.

After THAT, it should have been obvious that they want U.S. fascism.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_plot

[Technodaoist]

26. Agreed...

But we all know what happens to those who fail to learn from history...

[havbrush]

29. Business plot url

This url has good information but so much is left out about the plotters. The American Liberty League was the front organization for the planned coup. Smack dap in the middle of it was Prescott Bush, yes sir, grandfather to George W. Bush and father of George H.W. Bush (see this link, http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/july2007/240707fascistcoup.htm). This all unfolded in the early-to-mid 1930s. Funding came mostly from the Du Pont family, as well as leaders of U.S. Steel, General Motors, General Foods, Standard Oil, Birdseye, Colgate, Heinz Foods, Chase National Bank, and Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company. It reached over 125,000 members and supported the Republicans in 1936. Go to this link for further information on the American Liberty League and pass it on, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Liberty_League. This information needs to be out there and known by everyone and then maybe we won’t have so many Americans voting against their own economic interests, unless they prefer to be cannon fodder for the endless wars that rethugs and the neocons had planned. These plotters were foiled back then. Roosevelt outsmarted them by threatening to expose and jail them if they didn’t go along with his New Deal programs like Social Security, Unemployment insurance and the Wagner Act (The Wagner-Connery bill was signed into law by the 32nd President of the United States Franklin Delano Roosevelt on July 5, 1935. The Act encouraged the rationalization of commerce and industry by establishing minimum wages and maximum hours of work<3>. It established a federal agency, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), with the power to investigate and decide on charges of unfair labor practices and to conduct elections in which workers would have the opportunity to decide whether they wanted to be represented by a union). This is why to this day Rethugs still try to get rid of Social Security and unions -- remember Reagan and the Air Traffic Controllers, and W. Bush trying to privatize Social Security. Without these programs there would have been no middle class. And it almost seems that referring to the middle class in the past tense is correct because the right has almost destroyed it here with shipping jobs overseas and leaving many with no option but to join the military. And they never gave up on their desire of installing facism here. With the merging of the government, corporations and the military (the definition of fascism) they may have achieved it. After all, what is/was the Iraq war but the government sending the military overseas to look after and secure Iraq oil fields for the oil companies while the media companies cheer led aand raked in million of oil company advertising dollars. It’s a much more sophisticated and disguised form than Hitler Nazism and Mussolini and Franco fascism but that makes it even more dangerous as it’s so much harder to detect. You can’t see the forest for the trees of the media and rethug misinformation campaign. Ever heard of Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck?

[theFrankFactor]

15. A Place to Start - We Have to Do It OUT HERE! In The Real World!

The Collusion of Government & Big Business Spells the Death of Democracy
http://thefrankfactorspace.ning.com/profiles/blogs/restoring-democracy-and-taking


It may be helpful to you or your friends that have been disillusioned by what we are witnessing in our Federal government. Please feel free to share and forward the article. Please bear in mind, the thrust of this article is not an action plan but and admission and examination of the problems.
I am requesting your help to draft some ideas that we can push that will actually help initiate the change that must take pace. So let's brain storm and set our sights on the job ahead.

Here is my quickly drafted outline:

Restoring Democracy and Taking Control of Our Nation Away From Corporations

Thesis: Elected officials from the present two party system represent the interests of corporations over and above the Constitution and the electorate. America has been lead into a dangerous and unstable condition due to the exploitation of the People’s government by corporate influence. There must be an accountability system that punishes public servant behavior that subverts electorate representation for corporate favoritism. The separation of corporations, as well as church and state, must be initiated and enforced.


Objectives

1. Make elected representatives answer to the electorate.
2. Remove corporate influence from all levels of public governance


Suggested Goals to Accomplish These Objectives

1. Publicly fund elections
2. Eliminate corporate person-hood
3. Initiate instant runoff voting
4. Eliminate electoral college
5. Ban exiting public officials from accepting lobbyist positions
6. Oversight of the Federal Reserve
7. Tax reformation
8. Budget reformation


Citizen Actions to Accomplish These Objectives

1. Strengthen and expand alternate media
2. Infiltrate existing party systems to affect changes
3. Exploit current means to pressure representatives
4. Prepare, support, and run Liberal/Progressive candidates

[maryf]

28. You should make this an OP

Always good to get ideas out, may not be what everybody thinks is best or what is needed, but gets the discussion going

[xchrom]

16. Kick

[upi402]

17. "Free" Trade, Clinton Republicans, the media, and corporate campaign cash

glub glub goes the sinking ship.

kick/rec

[olegramps]

20. The Workers screwed themselves.

When they drank the Corporate Koolaide that unions were their enemy they were put themselves on the Race to the Bottom. Some of it was fueled by greed; why pay union dues when I can get the same benefits. Admit it the managers did a great job in snowing the workers and when the workers had lost any protection they outsourced their jobs, cut their pensions and canceled their health insurance and awarded themselves with million dollar bonuses.

[earth mom]

21. The workers were brainwashed to believe that Unions were evil by the corporate media.

This all started back with Reagan when he spewed his Union hatred all over the airwaves. :puke:

[arthritisR_US]

27. I think you are both right. n/t

[indepat]

22. All this is culmination of the RW's orgasmic wet dream for America

:P

[Karmadillo]

23. K&R

nt

[Desertrose]

25. This needs to say at the top of the page...K&R

The truth hurts...at least this truth does.....