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The Servant Economy: Where America's Elite is Sending the Middle Class
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  • PierreBPierreB

    I think to call the US a democracy today, is a convenient bit of propaganda by the handlers...when you're buying votes and laws, democracy is history and what's the point of being the ruling class if you don't have a vast number of servants?

  • MirrorManMirrorMan

    A recent policy study from Princeton has been making headlines with the claim that the US is far more like an oligarchy than a representative democracy. Interestingly, their data set runs from 1981 to 2002, following the bust of the internet bubble and well before the 2008 crash. Such a large scale oligarchical system of course needs plenty of servants. http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/04/14/1292085/-DINO-New-Scientific-Study-Says-Yes-But-It-s-Not-What-You-Think#

  • brianlbrianl

    I live in this world. In my place, there's this overclass and then everyone who works for them. The people who work for "Them" are carpenters, maids, and even lawyers and doctors. The troubling thing for me is that the overclass, almost to a person, has this sense of entitlement. There's a sentiment that everything on this planet for their exclusive benefit. If they're called on it, the response is typically "Class envy". That's infuriating. It has nothing to do with envy. It's about social justice. Some recent research supports the observation with real data.

  • AriaAria

    I agree with everything that's been posted in this thread. It's slowly starting to become more widely know among the average U.S. citizenry, but still not enough to cause change. More books and reports in the media will help to spread the word and counter the propaganda from the monied interests pulling the wool over everyone's eyes.

  • jleojleo

    When Congressmen are among the richest...

    Each year since 1990, CQ Roll Call has reviewed the financial disclosures of all 541 senators, representatives and delegates to determine the 50 richest members of Congress. This year's report, derived from forms covering the calendar year 2012, shows it took a net worth of $6.67 million to crack the exclusive club. The wealthiest lawmakers with breakdowns of their assets and liabilities is found below.

    http://media.cq.com/50richest/the-50-richest-members-of-congress-113th-2013.html

    "Socialism for the rich, capitalism for the poor"

    Believed to have been first popularised by Michael Harrington's 1962 book The Other American which Harrington cited Charles Abrams, a well-known authority on housing.

  • jrdjrd

    One explanation why this trend is so marked in the U.S., as compared to other industrialized democracies, is the extraordinary support among the American upper income and super-rich, to cut government benefits and subsidies which go to anyone but themselves.

    Meanwhile, the U.S., among OECD countries, collects far less in taxes than our trading partners as a measure of GDP (only Mexico and Chile are below our levels), and yet still manages to offer most workers a lower standard of living than in most of Western Europe. It's even worse when you consider that these other countries provide health insurance for the price of their higher taxes. Which means in effect that taxes+medical costs as a percentage of income are as high or even higher on the American middle-class than in France or Germany, but without any of the social safety net benefits, while taxes on high wealth in the U.S. are far lower than in Europe.

    Put all this together, and it explains a lot.

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  • jleojleo

    The American Middle Class Is No Longer the World’s Richest

    The American middle class, long the most affluent in the world, has lost that honor, and many Americans are dissatisfied with the state of the country. “Things are pretty flat,” said Kathy Washburn of Mount Vernon, Iowa. “You have mostly lower level and high and not a lot in between.”.

    APRIL 22, 2014http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/23/upshot/the-american-middle-class-is-no-longer-the-worlds-richest.html?_r=1

  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

    Piketty's main point is simple enough even for business economists to understand: the rate of return on capital today is higher than GDP growth.

    Btw this numbers also tell that bank system must be eliminated like cancer.

  • jrdjrd

    Piketty's main point is simple enough even for business economists to understand: the rate of return on capital today is higher than GDP growth.

    So, every year, the rich get richer, creating family dynasties, and it's impossible for workers to ever catch up, because in a casino economy money makes more money than work does.

  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

    @karl

    Thanks, will check it soon.

  • karlkarl

    Another book on the same topic that was published in English this month: Capital in the Twenty-First Century by Thomas Piketty (currently Associate Chair at the Paris School of Economics).

  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

    Since Tiger Woods joined the PGA Tour in 1996, broadcast golf has enjoyed a decade-and-a-half-long financial boom. That same year only nine players earned more than $1 million. By 2012, that number had ballooned to 100. But even as the money in televised golf has grown, participation has shrunk. The sport loses about 1 million players per year. That dwindling pool of paying customers has made the competition to sell them equipment ever more fierce.

    http://grantland.com/features/a-mysterious-physicist-golf-club-dr-v/

  • jleojleo

    Is Our Future Going to Be Keeping Rich People Happy in a Servant Economy?

    http://www.alternet.org/our-future-going-be-keeping-rich-people-happy-servant-economy?paging=off

  • punditpundit

    Fascism is alive and well!

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