"Industrial Psychopaths - "The 1% are the very best destroyers of wealth the world has ever seen

[kpete]

The 1% are the very best destroyers of wealth the world has ever seen
Our common treasury in the last 30 years has been captured by
industrial psychopaths.
That's why we're nearly bankrupt

.....................
industrial psychopaths
quite the apt description, isn't it.


If wealth was the inevitable result of hard work and enterprise, every woman in Africa would be a millionaire. The claims that the ultra-rich 1% make for themselves – that they are possessed of unique intelligence or creativity or drive – are examples of the self-attribution fallacy. This means crediting yourself with outcomes for which you weren't responsible. Many of those who are rich today got there because they were able to capture certain jobs. This capture owes less to talent and intelligence than to a combination of the ruthless exploitation of others and accidents of birth, as such jobs are taken disproportionately by people born in certain places and into certain classes.


In their book Snakes in Suits, Paul Babiak and Robert Hare point out that as the old corporate bureaucracies have been replaced by flexible, ever-changing structures, and as team players are deemed less valuable than competitive risk-takers, psychopathic traits are more likely to be selected and rewarded. Reading their work, it seems to me that if you have psychopathic tendencies and are born to a poor family, you're likely to go to prison. If you have psychopathic tendencies and are born to a rich family, you're likely to go to business school.- the guardian

MORE:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/nov/07/one-per-cent-wealth-destroyers

[BeyondGeography]

1. This is the best thing I'll read all day

Big K&R.

<snip>What has happened over the past 30 years is the capture of the world's common treasury by a handful of people, assisted by neoliberal policies which were first imposed on rich nations by Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan. I am now going to bombard you with figures. I'm sorry about that, but these numbers need to be tattooed on our minds. Between 1947 and 1979, productivity in the US rose by 119%, while the income of the bottom fifth of the population rose by 122%. But from 1979 to 2009, productivity rose by 80%, while the income of the bottom fifth fell by 4%. In roughly the same period, the income of the top 1% rose by 270%.<snip>

[midnight]

2. K&R. Another great read...

Scott Walker fits the bill for the new generation of snakes in suits.....

[WinkyDink]

3. 30 years. Let's see, now; who was President? Hmmmmmm

[Demeter]

4. And then, there's the Fraud

The insider trading, the cheating, the buying of regulators and regulations that don't, etc...

[treestar]

5. That is a good article

I've had that thought, that recently, capitalism seems to reward people with bad traits. Some conservatives don't realize that - they think of the old times when perhaps it did reward good traits. But that does not mean it does now.

[hughee99]

6. I 100% agree, we need to stop sending the 1% to repreresent us in congress

and I'm NOT just talking about the repukes. Government is our best chance to combat the corporations and we keep sending the 1% to defend us against the 1%. No wonder it's not working.

[Laelth]

7. k&r for the truth, however depressing it may be. n/t

-Laelth