The Peasants Need Pitchforks

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Robert Scheer
TruthDig

A “working class hero,” John Lennon told us in his song of that title, “is something to be/ Keep you doped with religion and sex and TV/ And you think you’re so clever and classless and free/ But you’re still fucking peasants as far as I can see.”

The delusion of a classless America in which opportunity is equally distributed is the most effective deception perpetrated by the moneyed elite that controls all the key levers of power in what passes for our democracy. It is a myth blown away by Nobel Prize winner Joseph E. Stiglitz in the current issue of Vanity Fair. In an article titled “Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1%” Stiglitz states that the top thin layer of the superwealthy controls 40 percent of all wealth in what is now the most sharply class-divided of all developed nations: “Americans have been watching protests against repressive regimes that concentrate massive wealth in the hands of an elite few. Yet, in our own democracy, 1 percent of the people take nearly a quarter of the nation’s income—an inequality even the wealthy will come to regret.”

That is the harsh reality obscured by the media’s focus on celebrity gossip, sports rivalries and lotteries, situations in which the average person can pretend that he or she is plugged into the winning side. The illusion of personal power substitutes consumer sovereignty—which smartphone to purchase—for real power over the decisions that affect our lives. Even though most Americans accept that the political game is rigged, we have long assumed that the choices we make in the economic sphere as to career and home are matters that respond to our wisdom and will. But the banking tsunami that wiped out so many jobs and so much homeownership has demonstrated that most Americans have no real control over any of that, and while they suffer, the corporate rich reward themselves in direct proportion to the amount of suffering they have caused.

Instead of taxing the superrich on the bonuses dispensed by top corporations such as Exxon, Bank of America, General Electric, Chevron and Boeing, all of which managed to avoid paying any federal corporate taxes last year, the politicians of both parties in Congress are about to accede to the Republican demand that programs that help ordinary folks be cut to pay for the programs that bailed out the banks.

It is a reality further obscured by the academic elite, led by economists who receive enormous payoffs from Wall Street in speaking and consulting fees, and their less privileged university colleagues who are so often dependent upon wealthy sponsors for their research funding. Then there are the media, which are indistinguishable parts of the corporate-owned culture and which with rare exception pretend that we are all in the same lifeboat while they fawn in their coverage of those who bilk us and also dispense fat fees to top pundits. Complementing all that is the dark distraction of the faux populists, led by tea party demagogues, who blame unions and immigrants for the crimes of Wall Street hustlers.

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BANKER ON HOW TO SOLVE DEBT CRISIS: The Public Needs To Work Harder For Less Money And 50% Fewer Benefits

BUSINESS INSIDER-An investment banker from BarCap recently told the Forum of Economic News that he's got the solution to bring "competitiveness" back to the European Union.

Cut benefits by half, and make everyone work harder.

The comments from Hans-Jörg Rudloff, the head of the Management Board of investment bank Barclays Capital, will obviously infuriate the public, who will remember that BarCap paid out bonuses that were so good this year that bankers gathered at a bar immediately after work for a champagne toast to everyone receiving "at least a £600,000 bonus."

Here's a transcript of what he said:

"Europe is carrying a social rucksack, which makes us uncompetitive in this world. We have provided living standards for our populations which are unheard of, which no one ever thought would be possible, for the last 50 years."

"People do not want to give up these living standards."

"Populations are not ready to voluntarily discipline themselves in more work, less rewards, and less security. And it's only [natural] that the population would react like this and here, its a question of democratic leadership and a question of whether indeed we are able to reinvigorate ourselves and to state public ally in this world that that we want to be competitive."

This is what Rudloff says the EU has to do:

• Half of the social benefits have to go 
• People have to work more, longer hours, longer years.
• Otherwise, it is impossible to continue to fund the present system of today. 
• Promote communication and the free movement of people and the immigration from all European countries will push us to a much strong union.

Watch a video of his speech by clicking here

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