Tax the Super Rich now or face a revolution

[Donnachaidh]

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/tax-the-super-rich-now-or-face-a-revolution-2011-03-29?pagenumber=1

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. (MarketWatch) — Yes, tax the Super Rich. Tax them now. Before the other 99% rise up, trigger a new American Revolution, a meltdown and the Great Depression 2.

Revolutions build over long periods — to critical mass, a flash point. Then they ignite suddenly, unpredictably. Like Egypt, started on a young Google executive’s Facebook page. Then it goes viral, raging uncontrollably. Can’t be stopped. Here in America the set-up is our nation’s pervasive “Super-Rich Delusion.”

We know the Super Rich don’t care. Not about you. Nor the American public. They can’t see. Can’t hear. Stay trapped in their Forbes-400 bubble. An echo chamber that isolates them. They see the public as faceless workers, customers, taxpayers. See GOP power on the ascent. Reaganomics is back. Unions on the run. Clueless masses are easily manipulated.

Even Obama is secretly working with the GOP, will never touch his Super Rich donors. Yes, the Super-Rich Delusion is that powerful, infecting all America.

More at the link --

[Davis_X_Machina]

1. Two things....

...you only think you want a revolution. But they don't always end the way the people who start them foresee:

And second -- you might be short-handed. This is America, where's its hard to revolt because you've got a remote in your hand, and that makes it impossible to pick up a pitchfork and torch -- it's either one or the other. And at that point, you know it doesn't really seem that important....

Do let us know into which mountains you and your intrepid band of guerrillas have gone, so we can send food, mail, etc.

[rhett o rick]

3. Two things

I dont believe the OP was promoting a revolution only predicting one.

I agree the results will be disastrous, but I also believe one will happen. I guess you need to decide if you are in or out.

The Revolution is Waiting.

[Davis_X_Machina]

4. Out.

All but the best revolutions are worse than all but the worst regimes.

[readmoreoften]

9. Really? The Paris Commune was worse than the Royals? The German Revolution worse than the Kaiser?

The American Revolution worse than the British colonies?

[Davis_X_Machina]

12. Napoleon. Hitler. Andrew Jackson.

These things get out of hand....

[readmoreoften]

33. So we'd be better under monarchy. Gotcha.

Yes, if after a revolution the "centrist" forces win (like the SPD cowards who killed luxemberg) they will kill the left and be too weak to fight the right. Kinda like what's going on here. If the reactionary obscurants would get out of the way, there'd be a lot less chance of counterrevolutionary forces gaining the upperhand. But by all means, go back to feudalism if that's what you want.

[lapislzi]

36. Paris Commune had nothing to do with the first French Revolution

It arose in 1871 after France's disastrous defeat in the Franco-Prussian War, and the excesses of Napoleon III--a self-styled royal. It was a true workers' uprising, but short-lived and contained mainly to Paris.

[rhett o rick]

18. Those that revolt will not be paying attention to your strange statement.

They wont care what you think.

[Ikonoklast]

20. Because most of them will be DEAD.

Those in the front lines will lie bloody in the streets, while the plotters that shy away from personal danger will take over the revolution and steer it to their own ends.

[rhett o rick]

22. I agree, so what's your point? nm

[gkhouston]

23. The ones most likely to be in the front lines are the ones who

perceive (rightly or wrongly) that their lives are already endangered. If you've lost your home (or are about to), if your food supply is insecure, if you have no job, then personal danger doesn't mean much.

Will there be people around trying to take advantage of such a revolution? Of course. After carnage, thieves. It certainly happened to the French and the Russians, but there will be dead aristocrats as well as dead peasants and that's something the 1% don't grasp. I'm hoping they sense the danger before the country reaches flash point and do something to avert the crisis, but that's a hope, not a prediction.

[rhett o rick]

27. Smart capitalists would take Machiavelli's advice and never leave your enemy

with nothing to lose. But greed precludes intelligence, or humanity.

[dkf]

7. The people who are worried are the seniors. Is this going to be armed revolt by the 62 and up?

[rhett o rick]

17. You must be joking. Have you spoken to anyone other than seniors?

Most unemployed are not seniors. Those living in tents and cars are not seniors. Look around, dont trust CNN.

[ljm2002]

5. I'm sorry, can you please point to the part...

...where either the OP, or the cited article, said they wanted a revolution?

Thanks.

[liberal N proud]

2. Clicked on this thinking this was just a DU shout out - WOW!

Someone is actually talking about this.

[LiberalEsto]

6. Our Corporate Masters WANT a revolution

I think they are daring us to revolt against them.

This will be their perfect excuse to send in their mercenaries, round up whoever isn't killed, and put us to work in their private prisons as cheap domestic labor.

I suspect there are other ways we can effect change without bloodshed. I think Anonymous has the right idea.

[Name removed]

25. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[rhett o rick]

28. I agree with you 100%. But I dont think there is a chance the masses will ever understand

what you said.

[a simple pattern]

37. The agenda is what it is

whether we revolt or not.

[Lint Head]

8. The fascists in power have the heavy weapons. We just have

good morals and ethics on ours. Unless.......

[tcaudilllg]

26. Unless the Army breaks up. Under the right arguments, it would.

We might see a coup by the left, a sneak attack upon the Right to destroy those generals.

[OhioChick]

10. Rec

Thanks for posting.

[gordianot]

11. How many even have a clue to the identity of the super rich?

The Investment class ( a subset of the super rich) use surrogattes usually GOP politicians and can buy Democrats whenever they want a few. So how do you revolt against the super ultra rich?

[rhett o rick]

29. You dont need to know the names of those your revoting against, just their addresses. nm

[sasha031]

13. k/r rec.

[obama14]

14. Revolution? LOL

Yes when 75% of the population worries more about which cellphone they have.

The masses are pacified by bullshit.

That shit is over in the United States.

There were 1000000% more protests and street action under George Bush and ZERO came from it.

Everything protested is still going on right now, with a different name.

[Synicus Maximus]

15. If we took the super rich, the Fortune 400 and

If we confiscated their wealth, not tax, confiscated, houses, cars, bank accounts everything it would be about equal to the expenditures of this year. What do we tax next year?
Revolution sounds good, but exactly who would we rebel against? The "super rick"? What does that mean? To have a revolution work you need something solid to rebel against and you need to know what you want to accomplish with the revolution.

[B Calm]

16. It's past time to EAT THE RICH!

[FiveGoodMen]

21. Cook them thoroughly, first!

Don't want to catch anything in the process.

[Poiuyt]

24. It's a cookbook!!

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_9udfncYtHlw/TFxJ1QBLKLI/AAAAAAAADZg/ozFLmk4XLGM/s1600/11.+To+Serve+Man.png

[guruoo]

35. snork snork...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVWUynJ2604

[RandomKoolzip]

19. The really fucked up thing is that this editorial is from MARCH. Things have gotten

exponetially worse since March. The pro-rich p[eople arguments in the comments are just....bizarre. "If you don't like it, get creative, start a business and stop whining!" Seriously? Start a business in THIS economy? With what money? I can barely pay my fucking rent!! Not everyone is an entrepreneur - so does that mean the rest of us, the 85% who aren't entrepreneurs, should starve to death or work in overseas sweatshops? Seriously? That's the republican vision for America? That's RADICALLY fucked up.

[HughBeaumont]

31. It's Marketwatch . . . which will inevitably attract the Faux/Yahoos who only speak in sound bite.

I mean, a cutesy little sound-bite like "START YERZ OWN BIZZNEZZ, BECUM RIHC AND KWIT WINING@!!1!" is, like all Repub/Libertarian sound-bites, nothing more than just another slap-easy solution to a long standing and complicated problem.

Yes it's a romantic, rugged individualist-like notion. It, like Horatio Alger, is also a crapshoot, something that completely escapes the low-info Cheeto-munchers because many of them aren't doing it themselves. Yet they'll yap up and down: "Lux gotz nothin t'DO with it, yew stewpid lib! Yew just ain'ts WORKIN HARD enuff!!1!1!!"

Lots of other people who are smart also worked hard and put in long hours at their business venture of choice. Why are they not at the upper echelon?

You may not have the audience for the product you thought you would have. Your service may become obsolete literally overnight. What if you don't have the needed start up capital? Tax laws may change. Economic climates change. Something like an unforseen illness, financial setback or workplace accident may happen. A corporation's powerful lawyers could sue your claim to prior art or patent. You may be undercut in price by a corporation. Not even the most fireproof plan can see these things coming.

Saying that luck doesn't factor in veers into the territory of justifying the "Horatio Alger" myth, and in turn, the right wing canard of "ANYone can make it big! The only thing stopping you . . . is YOU". This is not only patently false, it's poisonous. That's just not the way life works anymore. There are many, many reasons people aren't successful that don't always have to do with them, but with circumstances beyond their control.

I'm not saying "Don't thrive for anything better", but know you're playing against a stacked deck. That's not to say the old quote "The secret of a great success for which you are at a loss to account is a crime that has never been found out, because it was properly executed." applies to everyone who was ever successful. But to be successful, some luck IS required. For every person who could at the very least make a living without a corporation's assistance, there are about 10,000 or so that couldn't.

[jpak]

30. "Even Obama is secretly working with the GOP" - this belongs in the 9/11 forum

yup

[Township75]

32. Who gets these stupid fucking ideas?

?

[guruoo]

34. It will be a "different kind of war" nt