This posting will serve the "Poverty & Despair" and "Neoliberalism" series of this journal/ blog. What inspired the posting, is the widening poverty and the historically unprecedented wealth, as well as several people that I have talked to over the last several years, that simply thought that all these folks with the largest wealth, are patriotic heroes of sort, for all that they contribute through their foundations/ charities and investments, for all the regular people/ working classes, to the poor and overall society. So I went seaching for some articles and video to help make my point, and include them below. Each of the 2 videos are 42 minutes long, that look at low end poverty to high end wealth, to show the contrast, and Thanx to DW Documentary. I opened below with a couple articles I found, that explains what all this philanthropic stuff is really about, which is also importante ... I have talked to several folks, that had no bloody idea, on how these are used as tax shelters, is why ... some folks may think that's just a cynical view. But this posting or links, is not to be cynical or unfair, it's about questioning and using common sense and reason ... after all, it's senseless and pointless to worship that, that has no consideration for you, eh? At the bottom, I'll add a few of my views/ opinion.
***** THE NATION | Chuck Collins: The Perils of Billionaire Philanthropy ... (newsread)
***** THE GUARDIAN | Owen Jones: We don't want billionaires' charity. We want them to pay their taxes ... (newsread)
How poor people survive in the USA | DW Documentary ... Thanx to DW Documentary
Luxury for the super rich | DW Documentary ... Thanx to DW Documentary
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***** PD/ RCJ: "POVERTY & DESPAIR" ... PART'S 10 THRU 1
***** PD/ RCJ: "NEOLIBERALISM" ... PART'S 10 THRU 1
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Thomas Hudson Pickering/ Ranch Chimp
With all the new housing/ office/ commercial development, all the new millionaires, high numbers of people taken out of extreme poverty in a country like China, the endless media of the bustling markets, and the most robust market and economy in history, and even all the well paying tech jobs and new middle class in America ... you may think that we are in paradise ... and some folks are. But most of what we see force-fed to us through media, just shows/ sells the glamour ... same as all the prime time tele commercials (approx every 6-7 minutes of programme airtime), showing all the pharma commercials, insurance company comedy skit commercials, to those of the financial/ retirement investors, with all the happy clients and families incorporated. But at the same time, the inequality gap between the wealth and poor is growing, and those extremes are beginning to clash, as well ... you can fudge figures any way you like, for whatever purpose or agenda. But you still can't miss the reality you see every day in our cities to rural areas, and that reality is expanding quickly ... overriding all the glamour that you are fed, whether by politicians, corporations, or Hollywood celebrities. More often, when we are shown homelessness in most cases, it is the worst of such, such as the Central City East area of downtown LA, which has been saturated for years and years ... yet now, just in the last few years, has nearly doubled. Rents have been becoming so expensive, and so restricted as far as who can lease/ rent, folks can't afford it ... even folks up in the Silicon Valley area, that have decent paying tech jobs, now have a growing amount of employees, using cars, vans, to used U- Haul trucks they buy to live in.
Over the last several years, you have seen a growing homeless population of working class, some are people that were able to afford to keep a car, and use their cars as their home. Those in San Diego, as you see in the first video, who have a vehicle, are lucky enough that they were provided a place to cook, and get water, or whatever ... and the reason they are more likely to help those, is because they see those as more valued homeless, because they work and spend more. The more extreme impoverished, like the skid- row types, aren't of the same value, besides to lock them up through criminalizing homelessness, and if they're healthy enough to work, they work them while incarcerated, for a company, or for the city/ county/ state, or whatever else they can use them for, it's actually a similar mentality in America today, as the former Nazi era of Germany. More like a corporate type fascism, even incorporating religion/ church, waving flags demanding patriotism to it, invading and occupying foreign lands, using economics, militarizing police forces, ignoring the rights of people and Constitution, creating more Gestapo type methods of policing, and criminalizing the poor, immigrants, mentally ill, etc ... similar in design to what Adolf Hitler done in Nazi Germany. Those homeless/ impoverished that are convicted on something like petty drug offenses, and are not an escape risk or danger to anyone, they make profits for investors through the private prison industry off state/ county taxes, free to buck ($1) a day labour, and/ or offer them to fight forest fires for $2 per day and a $1/ buck an hour (CNBC). This is how to make everything, including human life, a commodity in a market ran society.
One of the things that some may get mixed up here, is the "real economy" and "financial economy" ... and what we have been experiencing over the last several years, is how neoliberal economics been working fine in the financial economy, to where it's much stronger in growth and numbers, than the real economy. Even any economy booming off the charts, one bad hard hit to it, say a recession with huge stock losses (Seeking Alpha), mega investors take advantage ... while most consumers/ workers hurt and lose, the top wealth can/ will buy up whatever at bargain basement prices ... even a recession creates millions/ billions for few ... money/ capital doesn't disappear, it changes hands. We as workers and consumers are in a tighter regulated atmosphere, in our individual countries, like US, England, Germany, Italy, etc ... the financial economy, that also interacts with the real economy, good or bad, is swallowing us, and overpowering us, neoliberal economics is designed to simply grow wealth, then the trickle down theory is supposed to kick in ... been in the works for decades. As far as the explosion of wealth of the top 1/ 10th of a percent and the financial economy, it can be of little significance to our real economy, yet really hurt us in bad times and crashes. The wealth explosion basically comes from investing only, and the return they get from those investments, these are all your big money players, and the personal high paid investors that work for them, planning their strategies. These investment strategists (for the wealthy, not the same kind for the working classes, like retirement investors), use computer algorithms that invest for short term quick and mass investments, and to also shelter the money from governments and taxation, for wealthy individuals, families, and connected foundations/ groups. These investments are pretty much worthless for the 99%, they create nothing, they are simply wayz to generate large amounts of money quickly, for a very few.
If a country has forest land, or any natural resource that become available (through pre- paid legislation/ bought politicians) for purchase, even public land/ assets, because of the desperate need and scramble for money, you'll have 50 investors lined up to buy immediately, and interest rates being low, with tax loopholes and shelters, makes it more attractive. So it's basically like a board game of buy, sell, trade, and make all the money you can, while building private power ... not by producing or developing anything, but just personal interests. Many have so much money, that they are running out of places to invest, because all the wealth is buying up everything they can find, and trying to beat each other to it. That end of the economy is strong, and powerful enough to drain governments, milk taxes, and dictate public policies/ legislation, and big banks help to impose austerity, to influencing our campaign financing in America, and increasingly in EU countries. Much of the homes/ apartment/ commercial private investing, we are likely to tax subsidize, cloaking it as public/ private partnerships, but the public loses on it. And many of your bad investments, maybe too risky or simply bad planning, to unethical politicians ... it may be tax subsidized and failed to pay off, the public ends up shelling out through tax revenues for losses, like with much else. None of these homes/ apartments become affordable for working classes, until maybe 20+ years ... after the property/ asset been sold multiple times, and requires improvements/ maintenance, etc. New places go up in Dallas faster than seasons change, they are all higher priced leasing/ buying when new. Investors are for short term, after 5 years or less, as repairs become needed, they sell, then it gets sold again, again, etc ... eventually after a couple decades or so, the development/ asset devalues, these places are nice, but not built like those for the upscale buyers/ leasees, nor to retain value.
Like the Public/ Private Partnership scam, all these other deals that they create through legislation, directed by private money influence, are all designed to take, and give nothing ... and the public loses, from tax revenues, publicly owned assets and institutions, to anything of actual value. This is also the case with these mega philanthropies, which is why I included the articles on them. For years I have criticized them, some folks think I was unfair to criticize those that do so much for arts, charity, or whatever else. What we are doing by allowing these philanthropies to remain "as is", is basically letting all the wealthiest people decide what our revenues/ taxes are spent on. That multimillionaire/ billionaire not only gets a tax haven to hide money, they decide who makes the list for help, and what they require those to do, to get help. Pay taxes like the rest of us do, and "let us" decide what we do and help with our own tax/ fees revenue intake, stay the Hell out of our business ... you are not our partners, or even our friends. In fact, stay out of everything that don't involve you ... you have your business to care for, we have ours, and it is none of yours ... be grateful that we even consume, manufacture, and contribute to your success. Nor do you create any significant job growth, the majority of jobs in this country are created by consumer demand and the smaller companies. Take away their tax shelter, see how fast they change. We can give tax incentives to those with wealth that are drafted by us, we have our own advisors, that are in our interests, and fair to the corporation at the same time. They want to destroy and replace our social services with private charities approved by them, then they take all the public's funds/ taxes/ assets ... we don't need your help, we can do for ourselves, with our own money, and not by giving most to you.
Some same people of mega wealth, demonize taxation ... yet indirectly use our taxes to feed and subsidize them with welfare for the wealthy and corporations. They say they want to abolish taxation, yet are first in line to take all our taxes they can, and by spending them for us. They try to make us believe that government and taxation are the ultimate evil ... but understand, besides things like the power of the vote (which they want to eliminate and rig, too), these institutions from education, to environmental protection, to social safety nets, etc, etc, are all that we have in a system of capitalism designed like this, to support and secure our interests. I seen Bill Gates in a recent tele interview, say that Presidential candidate, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, would want to impose a tax, if President, that would take 90%, of his $106/ $107 billion in taxes, and leave him with a measly $10 billion or whatever. This is all a LIE, and to try to scare the public like this through mainsteam media corporate controlled news, is shameful misinformation, trying to make the average working people think, that 90% of their paychecks would go to taxes, if she was voted in as President. And Gates knows it, and knows how ridiculous that statement was ... that is NOT how even the percentages of taxation worx, and never did. These folks of high wealth should be grateful that we pass their legislation, to have the general publics taxes help generate, maintain, and sustain their wealth, and bail them out every time they fail ... in a more sane society, they may have some of their ridiculous privileges revoked, and rightfully so. I myself am all for tax breaks, but within reason, nor do I give any praise or worship to which is not deserving, nor do I feel we should all be financially equal, in this type system, reward creates incentive and strengthens innovation. In the type of healthy and robust economy that we've had, with expanded safeguards for market failure, by any math, should not create more poverty.
Some of the extreme wealth, not all, are even getting more cocky and bold, and want to penalize or punish the 99%, saying that they're being attacked unfairly by working classes, who they look at, like an inferior species, ignoring all that those working classes contributed to their wealth and success. People around the globe rebel for a reason, many top wealth, have chosen to make enemies with us, and corrupt our economies, societies, rights, and goverments. These hoarders and manipulators of wealth, governments, and markets, are basically useless to us/ society ... they're "elite"? ... no, they're more like a household "pest", and about as useless to us as tits would be to a bull ... we do everything, why in Hell would we need them? Rebellion/ civil disobedience, in just about any form, is in order and justified, including violence. This has happened time and again throughout history for the same reasons, when they step on society the way they do, and slap the hand that feeds ... this time we have far more people with far better strategies, and weapons/ tools to fight back. Much top wealth, on the other hand, are concerned, and worried ... they know that we have big- big problems concerning inequality, and is a top growing issue at the Davos World Economic Forum year after year, to the World Bank, and several top figures even want change. They also have a slew of other problems that came from this neoliberal economics model, which also created the environmental problems and global warming, to the concerns of war activity, mass rebellion, to higher market volatility, etc, etc They're increasingly having to build luxury bunkers, increasing their security whenever in public, and trying to rathole all wealth and assets possible, to buy and secure more protection, because of their uncertainty, of what may come. You can bet, that even some top world leaders and financial institutions are going to propose modifications to this neoliberal economic model of current. Economic models come and go ... below, I added a short video of an alternative economic model.
Word Out ....
Introduction to a Resource Based Economy ... Thanx to The Venus Project
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***** barbaraehrenreich.com
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***** RANCH CHIMP JOURNAL "WELCOME" POST
***** RCJ MUSIC/ ART'S HONOUR ROLL SOCIETY (my hand- selected music/ arts picks)
***** "THE RESISTANCE | PERILS OF THE POWER POSSE" ... ( a 2 part futuristic Ranch Chimp Journal dream to dream on )
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and leave him with a measly $10 billion or whatever
ReplyDeletePeople just have no sense of how big these numbers are. If you spent a million dollars a day, $10 billion would last almost thirty years -- actually much longer, because of interest that would be accumulating all the time. I don't know if I've spent a million dollars in my whole life, never mind one day.
The homeless problem in Portland is terrible and does seem to have gotten worse in the last two or three years. You see tents in almost every vacant lot downtown or anyplace where somebody could possibly put one and hope to have it remain. Some areas under bridges and suchlike are packed with them.
Infidel: Actually, your homeless problem in Portland/ PDX had increased in only the last few years, from what I read and viewed. Not long back I was viewing a programme, can't recall what channel off hand. It focused on San Francisco, and the Pacific Northwest cities, north, of Portland and Seattle. But this is occurring all over the country too, but yes, Portland had some real problems trying to accomodate the issue. Even in the Dallas area, it's growing so much, here it's all over your large suburbs too, and my guess is, in your town too, not just the central part of town. In Dallas, it's East, West, North and South, in the city, suburbs like Garland, Irving, Arlington, have had homeless issues for at least 20 years, but now the street homelessness in those suburbs, as well as tents areas have really boomed ... these are suburbs though, with populations from 240,000 to about 400,000 ... Fort Worth, same. The thing about the Dallas area, is it is so spread out, with large undeveloped areas of open land, and many forest areas, lots of space to set up camp. So when going down the freewayz, you will see tent cities back off in the wooded areas, to under freewayz, etc. All your most strong GDP cities and most expensive in the country it's growing, and the expense to live, is one of your biggest problems. There are small scale efforts going on to build housing in these towns, and you see small projects here and there, but government needs to get more involved, too. It's tough, even though cities are bustling with growth and revenues, your municipalities are alwayz strapped for cash (actually, lousy spending and planning priorities).
ReplyDeleteYes, the numbers are mindblowing, eh? ... as far as what some of these folks make and spend. In our "real economy", this is why I say we are so tight. California approved like $2 billion for homeless help back in 2016, and the problem is increasing faster than they can try to house homeless, and LA been working aggressively on it.
Talking about numbers though ... what is amazing to me, is the "math", on how so much money is being generated in these cities and country, and the amount of new development, yet, the poverty is increasing and homelessness, faster than ever ... try to explain that? ... this shows that the problems is not any lack of money, it has to be this economic model, lack of regulation, irresponsible spending, etc ... this should not happen, looking at the math.