The editors at Best Value Schools decided to research the topic of: Road to Riches: Tracking the Journey of the Global Superwealthy How Rich is Rich?
While nearly 1 in 2 people on this planet have a net worth of less than $10,000, a select few are worth more than a million dollars. And an even more select group is worth a billion or more …
Great little picto-graph-post.
The rich have it backwards.
The last shall be first and the first shall be last.
They’ll find out.
Eventually.
The bigger they (the megalomaniac and the psychopath) are the harder they fall.
Thank God for eternity.
Where all things come to pass.
And all lessons, duly learned.
Ned Lud
Words…….they can blind one to truth if wielded by the uncouth and immature soul.
“Wealth”, defined by such a soul can give those without it the gnawing impression that they lack something desirable. The word is superficially interpreted and then taken up by the majority as a truth…a way of life.
Power, that drunken bedfellow of “wealth”, is equally and egregiously misinterpreted by the most inane and immature of souls, but, what is worse is that the masses agree to these shallow definitions of such a hypnotic force. Why?
Perhaps, in a not too distant future, we will look upon such images or “wealth” and “Power” and shake our heads in disgust and dismay. Disgusted by our lack of a deeper understanding of what these words actually mean and a profound dismay of our acceptance of these hateful interpretations.
Perhaps we will begin to call things by their proper names by using an alternate method of discrimination and discernment rather than using the one that we unconsciously adopted.
Who knows…….stranger things have happened.
Well said friend, one can only hope for the day. The war that is waged daily in our lives is one of virtue. I hope one day the base of that pyramid shown will realize it’s force and simply move away and let it all fall. Win or lose the majority of those who populate our near future will be forced to decide what to do with this parasitic concept of humanity. Those who think they are the true representatives of our species fear the unity of those they oppress more than any other thing. Without us they are nothing and collectively our wrath is greater than anything they can bear. But until we are of one mind against this tyranny they will prevail.
In the last article, Warren Redlich raised the specter of a person like Cass Sunstein, Harvard Law professor and “regulatory Tsar” under Obama, who favors “cognitive infiltration” of sites like 9/11 truth. There should, said Sunstein, be control over thought so that revolt cannot arise. To that end, the sites should be monitored and strewn with comments by pro-government operatives. Even if there are not, it is plain that getting out this meme will sow distrust. It is just an up-to-date version of Cointel, which operated during the unpopular Vietnam War. This indicates to me that power for the sake of power, and not real safety of the people through finding out the truth about who commits crimes against them is the goal.
Once a story has been formed (sometimes sculpted out in real time, where chunks of it are visibly thrown away to be replaced by other chunks, altering evidence in your face), then there is no changing it or finding out more because this would threaten the unitary power of the executive.
How is this not like the neocon Straussian “noble lie” and how is it not a top-down vision of government, where the people are simply to be muzzled and whipped if they refuse to accept the party line?
If the government has actually done the terrorist act, it certainly must protect its flanks. Contempt for the people in dirty blue jeans or wooden sabots or at the computer instead of dining in fine restaurants with power brokers – it goes without saying. Truth is a highly flexible concept for the Kantian mind. Proof is unimportant in a world of plea bargaining. Twelve good men and true? Nonsense, they say. They haven’t much use for habeas corpus either. Show trials – once in awhile, sure. Blind justice with her scales? Liberty with her torch? No, shackles and hoods and wire taps, body searches and killer drones. This is what little dictators are made of.
If there is power at the base of the pyramid, it is power which serves the top while the top exists. Do strikes ever last long enough to cause serious harm to it? Some workers have more autonomy than others Some are utterly dependent on authority, so they will always back it. One illustration is that if you rely on tips to supplement minimum wage, you are going to love waiting on the rich if that is what will allow you to make a living. Moving aside is easier said than done. If you have seniority in police and fire departments, you are going to provide protection to those who keep you in that type of security.
I have noted before that Occupy Boston (which ran for about four months between Sept and Dec of 2011), camping out in Boston’s financial district in the shadow of the Federal Reserve building, probably got the local powers-that-be very uncomfortable, because who knew how far they might go? It could have become like the Bonus Marchers in Depression era Washington DC. I wondered if the reactionary bombings that launched the new advertising slogan for companies like Fidelity Investments and institutions like MIT, as well as for the police and fire departments of “Boston Strong”, arose out of this elitist fear that something would happen they could not control when the public decided enough was enough. So in a controlled burn sort of way, they created their own fire lanes to make sure there would never be another Occupy demonstration nor a Marathon without drones.
Steve, “wrath” is what we keep doing expecting different results. We perpetually seek the easiest route to personal satisfaction but find we are always short an exit strategy on the elite one-way “street”. They own that “Street” and we are but miserable, unconscious and obedient travelers upon it. We pay to use their well trodden path in more ways than can be ascertained with the untrained heart and eye.
As the old saying goes, “We have been here before”. No?
Ignorance is our greatest enemy ….not these un-evolved frat boys. They know this and this is why they control information and the dissemination of it. Once we become fully conscious ( and we are a very, very long way from that desirable state ) then, and only then, will we ( as a collective body ) be willing or able to make sweeping, irrevocable changes.
There will be no going back once we are fully educated, ( not the kind they impose in institutions ) awake and aware.
Pitchforks, torches and righteous indignation will no longer work when they ( the pathetically aberrant power elite ) possess scalar weaponry.
To understand the depth and breadth of the deceit perpetrated upon humanity one only need open their mind by reading everything they can get your hands on that has NOT made it on the NYT Best Seller List.
Sorry, but I won’t bite. And how do the charts “track the journey” of the super wealthy? I have no problem with wealth that is acquired legally and achieved through hard work, diligence, and sweat and long hours. Bully for those who are rich in that way. The blue whale and the hummingbird all have their place and both are necessary.
I believe the Bible and when it says the LOVE of money is the root of all evil, I know it to be true. It is all about priorities and having wealth is different from worshipping it.
Americans in flyover country should educate themselves as to who is responsible for murdering the Old Republic and transforming it into The Republic of Northern Brazil. Even more important, imo, is knowing where these people live.
Read “The New American Divide” by Charles Murray in the WSJ:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204301404577170733817181646.html
Then buy Murray’s book “Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010” from Amazon.
http://www.amazon.com/Coming-Apart-State-America-1960-2010/dp/0307453421
Top 10 SuperZIPs
In ‘Coming Apart,’ Charles Murray identifies 882 ‘SuperZIPs,’ ZIP Codes where residents score in the 95th through the 99th percentile on a combined measure of income and education, based on the 2000 census. Here are the top-ranked areas:
1. 60043: Kenilworth, Ill. (Chicago’s North Shore)
2. 60022: Glencoe, Ill. (Chicago’s North Shore)
3. 07078: Short Hills, N.J. (New York metro area)
4. 94027: Atherton, Calif. (San Francisco-San Jose corridor)
5. 10514: Chappaqua, N.Y. (New York metro area)
6. 19035: Gladwyne, Pa. (Philadelphia’s Main Line)
7. 94028: Portola Valley, Calif. (S.F.-San Jose corridor)
8. 92067: Rancho Santa Fe, Calif. (San Diego suburbs)
9. 02493: Weston, Mass. (Boston suburbs)
10. 10577: Purchase, N.Y. (New York metro area)
I trust this is the same Charles Murray who (co)authored The Bell Curve?
Used to pass by him when I worked by Shepherd College as a youngster. I think he was hanging out with Goldwater’s speech writer, Karl Hess. At any rate, Murray sure knew how to rattle cages. Oh, and contrary to the popular narrative, he’s no narrow minded dummy, even if one disagrees with his thesis in the Bell Curve.
Not implying anything concerning his cognitive ability, just that particular work and its implications.
Just to be clear, I strongly disagree with the Bell Curve’s thesis.
Yes, it is the same Charles Murray and The Bell Curve’s thesis, though highly politically incorrect, is settled science among specialists in the field.
Interesting summary of how we got to here. Lack of government oversight is biggest factor. The ‘Walmartization’ of big business explains the monopoly gambit. Ron Reagan (under Bush 1) was certainly wedded to runaway corporatism and his attitudes infused all administrations since his tenure.
The seismic leap in income of the upper l% in the past few years
is most telling. Something is clearly out of balance. We can’t claim progress when so many Americans are falling behind exponentially.
http://www.realecontv.com/videos/corporate-criminality–1/strangled-by-monopolies.html
Short video that may pinpoint some reasons why. When small companies are swallowed up by larger concerns, employment suffers.
That trend continues; we watch the middle class fade into the background of commerical success.