While those on the right accuse us on the left of waging a class war against the wealthy, the truth is, the wealthy have been for years and still are, waging a very destructive war against the middle class and the poor, and they are winning big time.
That's an old trick. If you preemptively accuse the other side of doing something that you are doing, it makes them look less credible when they accuse you of doing it. Makes it look like an "I know you are, but what am I" type complaint.
It's amazing that this same trick works over and over again. They have been waging this class war since Reagan but if anyone mentions the ever growing disparity between the top 1% and the rest of us or the fact that the middle class is disappearing, turning into the working poor, they accuse you of waging class warfare, and redistributing the wealth. Anyone who complains about all the country's wealth being transfered to an elite ruling class consisting of less than 1000 people is labeled a communist/socialist/marxist/nazi (which apparently all mean the same thing now).
My concern is really not the top 400, although I do not wish them well, it is the other 150 million idiots that want to accede to their status and are helping get rid of the middle class and expand the poor. What the fuck are they thinking? Do they actually think they have a snowballs chance in hell of becoming a billionaire?
Yep. They are allowing themselves to be manipulated, sold on a dream they are never actually going to achieve.
The perfect example of this was Joe the Plumber. He wanted the government to cut spending that potentially would benefit him so we could give tax cuts to the rich. He thought that since he'd be a millionaire from his own plumbing company that he could really use those tax cuts. Never mind the fact that he wasn't actually a millionaire. Never mind that he didn't own a plumbing company. Never mind the fact that he wasn't even an actual plumber. He had a dream. It didn't matter that this dream was an extremely improbable snow ball's chance in hell. He was convinced it was happening and voted accordingly.
This isn't the case of one person, poor/middle class republicans all over the country believe in this same dream. It's a mass psychosis plaguing America. The ironic thing about their views are is the way they vote, it actually makes it harder for them to achieve these delusions of grandeur. The policies they favor slow social mobility, insuring the wealthy stay wealthy and working class people stay working class.
Like TopR says "The rich exploit the poor like the CIA has been selling crack. Although occasionally a few people might slip through the crack, the majority never does so lets just leave it at that".
Even if 10% of them made it, that still leaves 135 million wannabees that are voting against themselves.
Compared to Europe, the US has an extremely low rate of social mobility into the upper classes. So it's a very small portion of them moving up into the top 10%. So out of that 150 million, it's likely more than 149 million of them will stay poor.
They just can't see that corporations are not their friends, and would fuck them over in a heartbeat.
Sorry, but this is one of my pet peeves with the left. Corporations are things. They aren't self aware. They are a tool, like a hammer or a computer. They aren't out to get us. Corporations are efficient tools of commerce which is good. They create jobs, distribute money, goods, and services.
It's not the tool, it's the people wielding the tool - AKA - the ultra wealthy. I know that's what you meant, but for some reason I always feel the need to correct people when they say that.
That billionaires don't give one fuck about them or their families, and are trying to get more money out of them and everyone else untill we the people are broks ass.
And they've been extremely successful at doing so for the last 30 years. They are why the middle class is disappearing. They are why unions are being busted. They are why the economy crashed and no one has a job. They are also the reason no one will actually do anything meaningful about illegal immigration. Illegal labor is cheap. Exploiting foreign nations lowers the demand for labor in America, which lowers workers wages across the board.
It is the wannabees that are fucking this country up, a pox on them and all they attain to. I Know a few, and even while they are being destroyed by wall street, the banksters, and the billionaires, they blame it all on Obama, Idiots all.
If it's not Obama it's Mexicans or Black folks. If not them they just pronounce working class people as "lazy" and undeserving of anything except being poor.
The real problem is the redistribution of wealth to the upper class. These constant tax cuts we keep giving to them at the expense of everyone else are literally destroying what the country used to be.
The disproportionate power the upper class is the reason all the American middle class manufacturing jobs. It's the reason we have illegal labor. It's the reason we have debt. It's the reason no one can find a job. It's the reason we have this recession. It's the reason this generation is the first to do worse than their parents. They are stealing the American dream. They are turning this country into a nation of two classes. Soon it will be a 1% class of rich elites, and a 99% class of working poor.