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from the picthfork-futures-accelerate-to-new-highs dept.
Nick Hanauer, a self-described "plutocrat" says history shows that the current economic and governmental situation can't last, and the USA should should get busy changing before the system breaks down.
From the memo to his "Fellow Zillionaires":
I founded aQuantive, an Internet advertising company that was sold to Microsoft in 2007 for $6.4 billion. In cash. My friends and I own a bank. I tell you all this to demonstrate that in many ways I'm no different from you. Like you, I have a broad perspective on business and capitalism. And also like you, I have been rewarded obscenely for my success, with a life that the other 99.99 percent of Americans can't even imagine.
But let's speak frankly to each other. I'm not the smartest guy you've ever met, or the hardest-working. I was a mediocre student. I'm not technical at all - I can't write a word of code. What sets me apart, I think, is a tolerance for risk and an intuition about what will happen in the future.
If we don't do something to fix the glaring inequities in this economy, the pitchforks are going to come for us. No society can sustain this kind of rising inequality. In fact, there is no example in human history where wealth accumulated like this and the pitchforks didn't eventually come out. You show me a highly unequal society, and I will show you a police state. Or an uprising. There are no counterexamples. None. It's not if, it's when.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 03 2014, @01:44PM
history seems to be a bad beacon on this one.
in the past people were "confined" to towns and cities. the injustice and inequality was glaring. most importantly: everything was produced by humans. so it hurt alot if you had to give away your really really hard earned stuff, as in like 10% of your stuff. also wars were fought "hand to hand".
today a big portion of "stuff" is machine produced and the 99% is "getting by", mostly shuffling paper. everything comes from the supermarket and mega malls.
so whoever owns the machines will in the end automatically receive all money. even if they throw away the goods for jump change, the money will end up in their pockets anyways, like gold in river bends
the only way i can see a "revolution" happening (and it won't because it's a global market and you cannot organize a global revolution) is if the machine owners (rich people) get lazy, that is, the machines break down.
they cannot cash in ... every!
And they need to watch for other "machine owners", because if one gets complaisant, then this threatens them all and they will have to "get rid" of this bad cog-wheel FAST!
There ARE like 99% disillusioned people out there to denouce anyone for a quick buck!
as for culture and arts and other "useless" stuff, i think the "machine owners" are perfectly fine to live in a stealthed, near-invisible golden castle surrounded by high walls in the middle of a slum.
what do they care if people are friendly, educated and the biosphere is healthy?
I wouldn't worry as a rich person. the PR machine is spinning new lies and fantasies about the "scared 1%" everyday to placate the 99% ...