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[Name removed]

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[RichM]

1. They represent the ruling elite of US capitalism at a time when the

system is no longer able to conceptually face, let alone solve, mounting social crises. 95% of the population has been experiencing a deterioration of living standards for 25 years, now. All the "growth" in the economy is going to the top few percent. The US economic dominance in the world has deteriorated substantially since the highwater mark of the postwar period, & the only way it sees to hang on is by application of military force.

All aspects of policy are laughable; the numbers just don't add up. There is zero chance that more tax cuts for the rich will help the overall economy. The federal budget is falling apart. The states are going broke, & the school & health systems will deteriorate with them. Iraq is a hideous & increasingly expensive quagmire. Lying on a daily basis has become standard government operating policy.

All these things are natural results of what happens when the rich are able to buy the government. And this, in turn, is inevitably what happens in a society where there are enormous wealth disparities. And this, in turn, is an inevitable result of capitalism. Even if you are able to pass laws to regulate corporations, with the very best & most honorable of original intentions, when the rich get rich enough, they become able to buy the necessary congressmen, to re-write all the laws. Then you get Bushism. Plutocracy is end-stage capitalism. I see no way around it.

[Name removed]

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[jpgray]

4. You need to read Adam Smith's book

:7

[RichM]

9. You need to read Karl Marx's book. (or Kevin Phillips', which in many

ways supports the same argument, even though it comes from a member of the US Establishment).

[carolinayellowdog]

6. If Bushism is the inevitable result of capitalism, why...

is the rest of the developed world horrified and outraged? I usually like your rants, but all this inevitability stuff makes it sound like you are too certain about your answers and not very questioning about why things are they way they are.

[sirshack]

8. Whoa!

"95% of the population has been experiencing a deterioration of living standards for 25 years, now."

Ummm, that doesn't sound like a very realistic statistic!

[RichM]

10. Here's a CBO chart reprinted in Kevin Phillips' book - p 137 of

the hardback edition. (labelled "Chart 3-14")

It shows the percent change in after-tax income for different sections of the population, from 1977-94. The sections are the lowest 4 quintiles (each being 20% of the population); then the 81-90th percentiles, 91-95, 96-99, & the top 1%.

The numbers show decreases or virtually no change until you get up to the 81-90 range. Then they are

percentile......% change in income
===================================
81-90 ..............9%
91-95 ..............14%
96-99 ..............25%
top 1%..............72%

However: this was 1994. Other data show that the trends merely strengthened over the next 6 years. And as the accompanying text makes clear, in many cases the measured income was achieved only by having 2 wage-earners in the family, rather than one. And there were rising costs for things like medical care. On balance, the great preponderance of gains went to the top 5%.

Here for example is a sentence from p 408 in the afterward: (In the 2000 presidential campaign)"...How the top 1% garnered over half of late-twentieth century US income gains went essentially unremarked upon..."

[jpgray]

2. Don't give them too much credit

They are just ruling class dilletantes who want to enrich their own people. That those policies would seem evil to ordinary Americans is a matter of course.

[midnitemoleman]

5. You need to list Darth Vader or the Anti-Christ also.

And I personaly don't think Bush could handel a saber! O8)

[Clete]

7. My opinion is that they are a bunch of closet Nazis,

who if they are allowed anymore largesse, will drag this country down for decades to come. I don't just blame the Bush regime but the whole conservative wing of the GOP. Republican moderates should move to kick them out of their party before it is too late. Fortunately, history had born out that facist type regimes usually go down in flames but not soon enough to curtail a whole lot of damage. We still have the opportunity to rid ourselves of them before they become too entrenched.

[Iverson]

11. clues

secret governments, indefinite detention without charge or trial, pre-emptive invasion, hypernationalism, spying on libraries, the list goes on ...