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The Servant Economy: Where America's Elite is Sending the Middle Class
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  • IMHO the comparison with France before the revolution does not fit in a number of ways:

    • The French aristocrats could not have easily fled the country within hours (by air), after an effort of only minutes to transfer significant parts of their wealth to whatever part of the world they wanted.

    • There was no total surveillance available to identify anyone involved in "revolutionary" activities early enough to get rid of those before they organize in groups of significant size

    • Providing food & entertainment to the poor today is simple and cheap enough that broad support from starving masses can easily be avoided

    Plus, there's a good chance that fully automated security enforcement / riot control becomes a reality before it becomes difficult to find enough human resources to suppress large scale riots.

  • The French aristocrats could not have easily fled the country within hours (by air), after an effort of only minutes to transfer significant parts of their wealth to whatever part of the world they wanted.

    System is made in such a way that if they do this they'll be eaten by their own comrades :-) And as it is global trend it can be only option to live on distant lone place.

    There was no total surveillance available to identify anyone involved in "revolutionary" activities early enough to get rid of those before they organize in groups of significant size

    Such system can also make false confidence and play opposite role.

    Providing food & entertainment to the poor today is simple and cheap enough that broad support from starving masses can easily be avoided

    In case of resources and energy issues coupled with rising population and degradation of soil it can be quite a challenge in quite short time.

  • Rich are feeling very good now:

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    Outside of health and education there has not been one net new job created in the American economy since July 2000! Yes, not a single new job—as in none, nein, nichts, nada, zip!

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    http://davidstockmanscontracorner.com/jobs-friday-how-bubblevision-misses-the-epic-failure-of-the-us-labor-market/

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  • You people do understand this is all connected, right ? ....the separation of the world into the haves and havenots, the rise of the stasi state, and the wars against those countries that don't signup to the program to handover their resources. The situation is much more critical than whether new businesses can get off the ground, or homesales. They're leading us like mules into wwlll, and millions will sign up just for the career opportunities !

    It's interesting how we seem to be following a script written by ourselves ...in science fiction books and films . This tells me the ptb can't really invent for themselves but have to chose possible narratives that are at their disposal....aka rand and orwell. Sadly at darpa they're following the terminator script !

    One crack in their plan is the unified response from security forces. If you read about the stanford prison experiment, it appears that some people who were chosen guards wouldn't play their game. And another flaw is the internet. When people are out of work...they have alot of spare time on their hands....to read ! Fifty million americans are on food stamps, and 40% have no emergency savings. Alot of brainwashed soldiers in those ranks ! But....if they can be educated while not working...instead of watching mindless media, they might learn who is their real enemy .

  • You people do understand this is all connected, right ? ....the separation of the world into the haves and havenots, the rise of the stasi state, and the wars against those countries that don't signup to the program to handover their resources. The situation is much more critical than whether new businesses can get off the ground, or homesales. They're leading us like mules into wwlll, and millions will sign up just for the career opportunities !

    I am very sad to upset you. No one is leading "mules into wwlll", no. As I see no mules. Yet, billions of hamsters will be happy to do anything media asks them for. Soon it'll be just more easy to ask them to get goverment provided dose and make a shot.

    And another flaw is the internet. When people are out of work...they have alot of spare time on their hands....to read !

    Where you saw hamsters who start to read? Hamsters can hang on facebook, consume alcohol, watch horrible TV. Read? No. If only bible or some satanic shit.

  • More Americans who do not currently own a home say they do not think they will buy a home in "the foreseeable future," 41%, vs. 31% two years ago.

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    http://www.gallup.com/poll/182897/fewer-non-homeowners-expect-buy-home.aspx

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  • This is the impact of zombie banking, QE, ZIRP and the promotion of systemic bank balance sheet fraud to break the link between interest rates, wages and house prices. It is the most significant machine to drive unearned wealth inequality in the developed World I have ever seen.

  • This is the impact of zombie banking, QE, ZIRP and the promotion of systemic bank balance sheet fraud to break the link between interest rates, wages and house prices.

    Well, no.

    It is fully planned system. Main goal of such system is to reduce population with constantly increasing diversification (in other words - stimulate births in lowest income families using stimulus).

    If you look at the charts it is exactly three main things that went nuts - educational costs, healthcare costs and cost of living place (or rent).

  • With the end of Australia's mining boom, a radio discussion last night provoked one listener to phone-in and mention the loss of working skills - saying,

    " All we are now is one big warehouse and a cafe ."

  • " All we are now is one big warehouse and a cafe ."

    Also ask people around to think about stability of such a system :-)

  • I'm not disputing that it's planned. If you look at educational costs, that has spiralled with increasing student loans. If you look at increased cost of living, that has spiralled with increased mortgage loans (supported also by a floor on rents from tax-payer subsidised housing benefit). Student loans and home loans being at the level they are at can only be because of the highly abnormal monetary policy in most G8 countries; and the tolerance by regulators for banks marking those debt assets at zero risk of default even though many are underwater.

    All those loans, all that non-recognition of default - comes from QE, ZIRP and bank balance sheet fraud. It is the mechanism to destroy the middle classes while enriching the 0.01%.

  • All those loans, all that non-recognition of default - comes from QE, ZIRP and bank balance sheet fraud. It is the mechanism to destroy the middle classes while enriching the 0.01%.

    Do not make things more complex :-).

    Things are simple now - only real thing that elites want is to somehow reduce population, as it is around 3x-5x more than they need. Under constant idiotic talks about cycles and history repeats elites and their servants hide facts that tell us that most of the population is no longer required. As they are doing repetitive (easy to outsource or automatize) jobs or checking/ruling/taxing someone who are doing such jobs.

    Of course elites also constantly take part in negative selection process, so it will be fun process to watch. I think they'll do something spectacular, instead of simple purges with weapons of mass destruction.

  • The world is full of idiots from the top to the bottom. There is no one big secret plan to control the people. People are stupid as is and do not need any help from the elite to make these stupid daily choices. The elite simply take advantage of the idiots.

    And even the elite are stupid. They have the ability to create a wonderful world but they are not as smart as you would believe. They are the same as the idiot next to you.

    Edit: I am not calling out anyone here an idiot.

  • There is no one big secret plan to control the people.

    Of course not :-) It is bunch of small and medium and quite public plans to fuck people :-)

    They have the ability to create a wonderful world but they are not as smart as you would believe. They are the same as the idiot next to you.

    You mean that they have the ability to go, find the rope and hang themselves? Well, it can be wonderful.

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    However you figure it, there are less than 2 million non-professionals making a middle class living via self-employment. That is roughly 1.5% of the 121 million full-time workers in the nation.

    http://charleshughsmith.blogspot.ru/2015/05/endangered-species-self-employed-middle.html

    I always wonder why Austrian guys are stupid sometimes.

    Actually, in properly developed capitalism such state is normal. As all such guys work in specific, and well known niches (all of them exist due to bad profits in them or inability to make any scalable model). All high profit places where it is possible to build medium to large business are taken.

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  • These are middle-class kids, on working-holiday visas to Australia - for whom there's often no work back in their home country.

    From the Doco's transcript:

    CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: What's happening to Mo and Kevin in Australia - and to more than 150,000 migrants on the 417 working holiday visa, here to toil in our factories and on our farms - is shameful.

    JOANNA HOWE, DR., SENIOR LECTURER, UNI. OF ADELAIDE LAW SCHOOL: It's not an Australia that we would put on the tourism brochures. It's not an Australia that we would talk about publicly. But it's an Australia that, where it exists, I'm ashamed to be a part of.

    TONY SNELSON, NATIONAL UNION OF WORKERS, SA: It is definitely the modern-day equivalent of slavery.

    (Excerpt from Coles TV advertisement)

    CURTIS STONE, ANNOUNCER (Coles ad): Coles is bursting with delicious, in-season Aussie fruit and veg...

    CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: It's a far cry from the glossy supermarket ads.

    CURTIS STONE (Coles ad): ...at Coles.

    (Excerpt ends)

    (Excerpt from Woolworths TV advertisement)

    ADVERTISING JINGLE: We're Woolworths, the fresh food people...

    (Excerpt ends)

    CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: The brands we trust, the food we buy and eat on a daily basis.

    (to Tony Snelson) If we were to be told where our food was really coming from, what would be printed on the punnets of our tomatoes and strawberries?

    Tony Snelson: It would say, "Picked and packed by exploited labour."

    (If you want to view full, original video [link below] from outside Australia, you may need a VPN or proxy connection, sorry).

    http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/stories/2015/05/04/4227055.htm

  • It is definitely the modern-day equivalent of slavery.
    "Picked and packed by exploited labour."

    It is usual capitalism. What are this authors so surprised about?

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  • Monopoly is a state-enforced scarcity. In our state-cartel economy, there are many monopolies or quasi-monopolies. While eliminating these would lower costs, that wouldn't reverse the wholesale destruction of jobs and profits--it would only speed the process up.)

    I always like in lovers of Austian school lack of ability to read, learn history or use science at all. It won't take long to understand that monopolies arise naturally in capitalism, it is normal flow.

    It is worth to check Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1916/imp-hsc/

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    After more than four decades of serving as the nation’s economic majority, the American middle class is now matched in number by those in the economic tiers above and below it. In early 2015, 120.8 million adults were in middle-income households, compared with 121.3 million in lower- and upper-income households combined, a demographic shift that could signal a tipping point, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis of government data.

    http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2015/12/09/the-american-middle-class-is-losing-ground/

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