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The Whole World Is Rioting - Why Aren't We?

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Laboryes	Posted: Sun Feb 08, 2009 4:46 pm
Joined: 29 Jan 2006 Posts: 1959	Americans are rightfully angry about the economic decline, but with a few small exceptions, quietly so. Why? Quote: Mark Ames, author of Going Postal: Rage, Murder, and Rebellion -- From Reagan's Workplaces to Clinton's Columbine and Beyond, argues that Americans have been beaten down to a degree that they're now a pacified population, largely willing to accept any economic outrage its elites impose on them. In a 2005 interview with AlterNet, Ames said the "slave mentality" is stronger in the U.S. than elsewhere, "in part because no other country on earth has so successfully crushed every internal rebellion." The Whole Story _________________ "When people refuse to obey, then democracy comes alive." Howard Zinn
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wm pasz	Posted: Mon Feb 09, 2009 4:09 pm
Joined: 29 Jan 2006 Posts: 1219 Location: Toronto	I've been thinking about this a lot over the past few days. It's amazing how passive the American public is considering the indignities and humiliation that is visited on hundreds of thousands of people on a daily basis. The stories about the foreclosures (here's another story that I came across on the subject yesterday), the line-ups at food banks, people living in their cars or moving about aimlessly staying at the homes of friends and family - fortunate enough to still have them. The foreclosure scandal (and it really is a scandal) is what strikes me the most. I can think of few events in a person's life that would be more dehumanizing than to be put out of your own home, yet it's happening all over the map! I think about the effect that this must be having on the people who are uprooted this way and shudder to think what will become of the generation of children who have been subject to this callous and inhumane treatment. It's shocking that it goes on and bewildering that people just quietly go on living in these ghastly Dickensian conditions (well, you could say it's even worse - at least the poor in Dickens' era had roofs over their heads) and that their fellow citizens do little to help, some choosing instead to scavenge what's left of their dispossessed neighbours' lives (as in the I linked from the NY Times). I don't think that the reason for this has a lot to do with overt state repression. The uprisings that Ames mentions happened a long time ago. They were brutally put down, no doubt about that, but the repression that has taken place since then has been far more subtle and way more effective. It's more like brainwashing than repression through fear of physical harm or imprisonment. There are many factors at play and they all mesh, forming a veil or barrier that keeps people immobilized sort of like a cocoon. You have myth piled up on top of myth in North America (I don't think it's fair to single out the US as we have much the same kind of thing in Canada, times are just not quite as bad here, not yet anyway) and lie piled on top of lie. The biggest lie is the one about our economy and its mysterious workings in which we all must have blind faith. I have to say that I find myself aghast at just how much obvious hocus pocus people are willing to swallow even when a boatload of facts to the contrary are staring them in the face. I cringe every time I hear about the free markets (which have never existed in any real sense), market volatility (which just means it's been a busy day at the great economic casino), bailouts (think of all the good that could be done will all those billions - housing, health care, education - but nooooo, it's all going to line the corporatists' pockets), the stimulus (gawd how I do hate that word - sounds like something you shove up your ass), the frozen credit markets (which are only frozen because most of us have been bled dry) the whole thing is a horrible deception and a sham. But people are so sucked in to it or so afraid to imagine an alternative (other than the failed alternatives of the 20th century). What will it take to turn this around? What will it take to get people to open their eyes? Well, I think you have to take some aspect of this system - something that people can understand and relate to - and turn it on its head. For quite some time I've been thinking that exploding the debt myth might be a useful place to start. One of the things that keeps people - even those who are no longer brainwashed and know that what's going on isn't right - is the yoke of debt. It's not just fear of what will happen if they lose their jobs but there's something else that the debt industry has achieved. Debt has become the "sin" of the modern age. If you are in debt, it's like having a stain on your soul. Even if you're keeping up your payments and your credit rating is good, you still feel this sense of being unworthy. There's something about this that I think is worth further discussion. People feel ashamed because they are indebted to these big corporations. I'm surprised that to this day - despite everything we know about the predatory lending practices and concerted effort by the financial industry and government to persuade people to get into debt over their heads - discussion about the causes of skyrocketing indebtedness tends to focus on the irresponsibility of the people who got suckered into these debt traps. We are too busy wagging our fingers at the victims to see the truth which is that the corporatist economic empire depends on entirely on people borrowing pretend money and paying it back at usurious rates with their own hard-earned real money. Yes people, it is a fact that most consumer loans, credit card accounts and lines of credit are not even based on real money. Consider that plus the predatory lending practices, the manufactured "needs" (that entire industries work hard to create) and you have a situation where I think that human beings might just be justified in saying, "Fuck you debt industry. Take your bill and shove it." People in foreclosure situations should just refuse to leave their homes. Bolt the doors, sit down on the floor and refuse to get up. Better still, get your friends, neighbors, maybe even some homeless people to come in and join you. Put up signs and banners making the property unattractive to buyers. If you're physically removed, camp out on the lawn. Let the real estate industry try to sell the place then. I'm sure a lot of people will find this a radical idea but it isn't. I believe similar actions happened during the 1930's. I also think it's appalling that you have entire subdivisions of abandoned housing while people are living in their cars or out on the street. Instead of looting these places or seeing entire neighbourhoods become nests for drug dealers or other criminals, why not just claim squatters rights and move in. Once you're physically there, it becomes more difficult to remove you. Other ideas include ways to screw up the credit reporting agencies with challenges, complaints and lawsuits. I'm really quite horrified at the extent to which these businesses are now able to control human behavior with their numbers (the number of the beast is...your FICO score). Now, some people will be horrified to hear this. We cling tenaciously to the belief that it is some kind of moral imperative for us to behave honorably with the corporatized loan sharks and extortion artists whose imaginary money we pay back with real money and consider ourselves blessed for having the chance to do so. But really, look at this system. There's no honor among these thieves. They don't play by the rules they impose on the rest of us. They take the money and run. They don't make good on their commitments. The scale of their looting and stealing grows as the days go by. Yet, people helplessly give up their shelter, they go without food, they live like animals - quietly hoping that someone or some mysterious force of the market will come and sweep them back towards a decent life. I have read that rebellion begins when people take some deeply held, tenaciously believed value of their oppressors and walk away from it - just refuse to believe in it anymore. In the context of the North American slaves of the 21st century, this may mean saying to the financial empires, "Fuck you. This is mine and you're not taking it." _________________ Time is on the side of the oppressed today, it's against the oppressor. Truth is on the side of the oppressed today, it's against the oppressor. You don't need anything else. - Malcolm X
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SharynS	Posted: Mon Feb 09, 2009 5:51 pm
Joined: 28 Jan 2006 Posts: 2883 Location: the 'puter	Awesome write wm, thanks. _________________ Free speech is the whole thing, the whole ball game. Free speech is life itself. - Salman Rushdie
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skywalker	Posted: Mon Feb 09, 2009 6:39 pm
Joined: 16 Apr 2007 Posts: 592 Location: California	wm pasz wrote: rebellion begins when people take some deeply held, tenaciously believed value of their oppressors and walk away from it - just refuse to believe in it anymore. In the context of the North American slaves of the 21st century, this may mean saying to the financial empires, "Fuck you. This is mine and you're not taking it." Thanks WP..... It cannot be stated any better than this! _________________ Seek the Truth
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SharynS	Posted: Mon Feb 09, 2009 8:08 pm
Joined: 28 Jan 2006 Posts: 2883 Location: the 'puter	I think that North Americans aren't rioting because the rest of the world is rioting. People have learned that as bad as they think it may be, it could be worse. And nobody but nobody rocks a tilting boat for as long as they still believe it is a boat. So, it's just a matter now for North Americans to learn the difference between a boat and a pool noodle. _________________ Free speech is the whole thing, the whole ball game. Free speech is life itself. - Salman Rushdie
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GRUMPY	Posted: Tue Feb 10, 2009 1:07 pm
Joined: 19 Feb 2006 Posts: 197	WP, I agree with most of what you state, and it was done well. Now what about those of us that have lived within our means. Don't get me wrong, there are things I would like in this world that I know I will probably never be able to afford. I have come to grips with that. Should we have to bail out the "dip shits" that new they were spending more than they had ? I say FCK THAT. I would bet that the majority of these forclosers were the people's own falt. If they lost there jobs, that is different. I will never be "rich" and I can honestly say, I never wanted to be. I only ever wanted my piece of pie in this world and to leave me alone. I have had my share of toys, but I'll be damned if I ever over extend myself to the point where I can't put a roof over my kids head. I may not have a big ass SUV, SKI BOAT, Time Share in some foriegn country, but I am comming close to getting my shit together. No bling for this dude. If people want to get help, why don't they ask for all the back pay from all the companies shit they have been wearing around town and advertising for them, for free. Let Hollywood, be Hollywood. There are enough freeks down there. Don't pretend to be something you are not.*
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Laboryes	Posted: Tue Feb 10, 2009 3:41 pm
Joined: 29 Jan 2006 Posts: 1959	wm pasz wrote: People in foreclosure situations should just refuse to leave their homes. Bolt the doors, sit down on the floor and refuse to get up. Better still, get your friends, neighbors, maybe even some homeless people to come in and join you. Put up signs and banners making the property unattractive to buyers. If you're physically removed, camp out on the lawn. Let the real estate industry try to sell the place then. I'm sure a lot of people will find this a radical idea but it isn't. I believe similar actions happened during the 1930's. I also think it's appalling that you have entire subdivisions of abandoned housing while people are living in their cars or out on the street. Instead of looting these places or seeing entire neighbourhoods become nests for drug dealers or other criminals, why not just claim squatters rights and move in. Once you're physically there, it becomes more difficult to remove you. " Squatters' Rights More on Squatters' Rights _________________ "When people refuse to obey, then democracy comes alive." Howard Zinn
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skywalker	Posted: Tue Feb 10, 2009 3:58 pm
Joined: 16 Apr 2007 Posts: 592 Location: California	GRUMPY wrote: All I ever wanted was my piece of the pie in this world and to leave me alone. Grumpy, my guess is that that is the only real dream of perhaps 95% or so of us Americans/Canadiens....and others in our so called Civilized/Industrial/capitalistic world. But the problem is that the greediest 5% have rigged the entire system so that you don't even get to have your small piece of the pie.....and these 5% certainly don't leave anyone alone......never! What are the masses to do.....we can either crawl into a hole and die.....or we can collectively stand up and fight back and make sure we get to have and keep our little piece of the pie.IMHO The problem is that these greedy 5% have fucked up things so bad that they have burned the whole fucking pie because they forgot they had it in the oven at 350 degrees...... and its become Dog Eat Dog in the worse possible scenario. Neighbors.....buying a foreclosed home from a former neighbor who lost their job or got sick or was wrongly fired and couldn't afford the mortgage anymore......sick brother, really sick! It is no better than a scab during a worker strike.....taking a job at someone else's expense. Only here you got a neighbor taking someone else's roof after they get thrown out onto the cold rainy street with kids in tow........Fucking Sick! Revolution doesn't begin to state what is really needed.......IMHO _________________ Seek the Truth
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wm pasz	Posted: Tue Feb 10, 2009 9:31 pm
Joined: 29 Jan 2006 Posts: 1219 Location: Toronto	The thing you have to keep in mind grumpy is that the vast majority of the people who are losing their homes or drowning in consumer debt don't fit the stereotype of the reckless, fast-living, free-spending materialists who just had to have that third SUV or time share condo. Large numbers of people fall into a couple of groups: The working poor who must live beyond their means because they can't afford to live any other way. As secure jobs with decent pay have dried up, what has evolved is a large group of people who can't afford the basic necessities of life - rent, food, clothing, transportation (which in the US almost invariably means having a car of some sort) and let's not forget about health care. This group has increasingly relied on easily available consumer credit to make ends meet. Why is this? Because it beats the shit out of going hungry or getting evicted. Why don't they all just get better jobs? There aren't any and many are already working 3 crappy minimum wage jobs just to come close to making ends meet. So who's really at fault for the astounding indebtedness of these people? Are the people themselves just being irresponsible by wanting to keep a roof over their heads or feeding their kids? Or is it the corporatists who won't pay a livable wage (and have gone out of their way to destroy secure employment) but have gone out of their way to wave easy credit under the noses of this group as they've slid deeper and deeper in to poverty? Please people, let's open our eyes and check out the exploitation here. You send credit cards and blank checks for cash advances to people in impoverished areas - what are you doing? It's all a calculated move to make zillions in interest and other fees off of people who you know will eventually default. The defaults are all factored into the business plan and open the door to other money-making schemes (like the credit counseling racket, the consumer bankruptcy racket and other lucrative rackets that are predatory enough to make a mafioso blush). Then you have the working poor who got suckered into the home-ownership scheme promoted by the President of the United States and his corporatist cronies who made zillions off of something that anyone with half a functioning brain should have known would eventually end in a rash of foreclosures. Here is just one of many speeches made by GWB as part of his homeownership roadshow in 2002 wherein he touted homeownership as the "American Dream" and even set a goal of 5.5 million more homeowners by 2010 - most of them people who didn't qualify for conventional financing. His none-too-subtle signals about "removing barriers" were the green light for regulators and the financial industry to get the ball rolling on high-risk lending (which had now become a presidential imperative - so, as we Canadians say, why not eh?). The speech at the link that I included is actually an interesting piece of work. If you analyze it at bit you can see that POTUS is actually pitching homeownership as the antidote to most if not all of the nation's problems. Heady stuff. It's important to note that many of the people who initially got involved with these high risk (or as they came to be called "subprime" loans) were not getting in over their heads. They could afford the monthly payments. In many instances, these payments were no more than (or even less than) the cost of renting. What got them in trouble were the predatory practices that the lenders had up their sleeves. These included substantial increases in interest rates, service fees and refinancing options that would give some temporary relief and then trigger the whole exploitive cycle all over again. Sometimes these tricks were in the fine print and sometimes they weren't. In any event, the bewildered borrowers were told not to worry. Their properties were increasing in value and so they were doing alright. The whole thing was just a scam and again, anybody who understands the basics of mortgage lending, could see that. But because there was so much money to be made on the scam, nobody was talking about that. Thousands of wheeler dealers in the construction industry, real estate industry, investment banking and lending industry made millions and millions of dollars on what was happening. When they started packaging up these high-risk debts and selling them as "asset backed commercial paper", people in the financial industry would make humungous commissions every time the bag of bad debts got passed from hand to hand. All of them knew - or should have known had they bothered to think about it - that sooner or later the whole thing would collapse. But none of them gave a damn because when it did, they'd still have their millions in commissions, bonuses and profits. The poor suckers who they'd fished in would be out in the cold - too bad for them. Can we really wag our fingers sanctimoniously at these nouveau homeless? I think this kind of finger-wagging is misdirected. This group was by and large the kind of people we like to hold up as good examples - hard-working, people with modest lifestyles and realistic expectations. But hey, with the POTUS himself telling them to get out there and buy houses and with the low, low interest rates and easy terms that were being dangled in front of their noses, what could we realistically expect that they would do? You don't toss a hungry person a steak and then wag your finger at him for eating the damned thing. Yes, there were people who lied about their income or their employment to get these loans, but are not the majority of this group and who approved them in the first place? The name of the game here was to make zillions of dollars on the interest and other fees and then scoop up the properties through foreclosures, sell them at a profit to buyers who would need your easy sleazy financing, find themselves in over their heads, refinance...you get the cyclical nature of this scam? Then there were people who had some measure of job security and lived modest lifestyles but who got into the debt trap because of unfortunate circumstances like health problems, the exorbitant cost of college tuition, job loss or well-intentioned efforts to start their own businesses (another American Dream venture). Look, when you need $50,000 for surgery or college tuition so that your kids can have a shot at something other than poverty, you're going to pony up the funds even if you have to borrow them. And for these people there was a whole predatory venture called home equity lending. If you need money for some kind of emergency, hey there's a ton of "equity" sitting in your home just waiting to be tapped. This was another bill of goods that a lot of people were sold. The snake oil was in the fine print and in the myth of perpetually increasing real estate values. The sales pitches were misleading and exploitive (people would actually find blank checks in their mail boxes inviting them to tap the value in their homes by writing in an amount and signing the check - that's how easy it was to put a mortgage on your house!) Who can blame them? If it's a choice between having the important surgery or putting your kid through college so he or she can have a chance at the American Dream, well it would be wrong not to do it. Of course these people were to find out sooner or later what the predators knew all along: They would become mired in more debt than they initially took on and lose anything of value - to the predators who would then peddle it to the next sucker. Then you have the people who perhaps should have known better - the ones who were comfortably off, had a mortgage that they could manage and didn't need to take on piles of additional debt. But they ended up doing so anyway because they wanted to renovate their homes or buy bigger homes or buy more stuff, bigger cars and so on. In their defense I will say this: The entire corporatist universe and its cheering section encouraged and promoted this behaviour, all the way up to POTUS himself. Spending, buying, consuming have been and continue to be touted as the solutions to our economic problems - even right up to this very day all you hear the economic gurus and soothsayers yapping about is the need for consumers to consume more stuff. In the corporatist universe, consuming is the means and the end, the only pathway to happiness and contentment, to respect and worthiness in the world. If you don't have the latest this or that, you're a loser. In this kind of environment it's understandable that people will get suckered in to the sleazy credit hawking schemes that have abounded for the better part of the last 20 years but which really went over the top in the post 9/11 era. Don't get me wrong: I'm not advocating that people thumb their noses at their debts. I believe that everyone should make good on honest and real debts - debts among equals, where real consideration changes hands and where nobody is bamboozling or misleading anyone or changing the terms in mid-stream and where enforcement of the bargain, should the borrower default, should not inflict more pain and suffering on the borrower than the default will inflict on the lender. Consider this: Suppose you take out a $100,000 home equity loan. You sign on the dotted line and put your house up as collateral. Yet the $100,000 you've just borrowed isn't real money. It's what some guy tells you you might get for your house (in addition to what you paid for it when you bought it) if you were to sell the place today. Oh sure, his assumption is based on a whole bunch of factors that sound solid enough but the reality is that this money isn't going to be real until you sell the house and actually pocket the money. It could be that down the road you might do this or it's just as possible that you might have to sell for a lot less and never realize the $100,000 you just borrowed. While you've just borrowed $100,000 imaginary dollars, you have committed to paying them back - with interest - with real dollars. If you don't, the lender will seize your house and put you and your family out on the street. The lender will not wait until you sell the house and realize the $100,000 of equity that his appraiser said was in it or take only the part the you renovated with the money you borrowed, or cut you any other slack. Sound fishy? Inequitable? It should because it is. Now some of you may be saying that "Oh yeah, sure the 100K wasn't real but you went out and bought real things with it or you gave it to some other lender to whom you owed money". This may be so, but it doesn't change the fact that the money wasn't real to begin with but you collateralized it with something that is very real - your home. It actually compounds the problem because when you think about it, we have an economy that is kept afloat by a lot of pretend money. This can't be good. The system words as long as enough imaginary money is being "deposited" into enough business and personal bank accounts - this means that there have to be enough people earning and spending real money to prop up the fictitious nonsense that is the global capital market. But when there aren't, well the whole thing falls apart like the big Ponzi scheme that it is. Many societies have prohibited the lending of money with interest or any other fees. This practice (called "usury" way back when) continues to be off limits in the Muslim and Hassidic communities (and there may be others). Even Adam Smith advocated tight control of interest rates (see a good overview of the history and practice of usury here.) It's interesting that Smith was concerned that allowing speculators to control the money supply by charging high interest rates would disadvantage low risk borrowers who were likely to undertake socially beneficial investments. What concerns me the most about the current state of indebtedness of our citizens is that most will never get out of debt. It's impossible. No amount of credit counseling or finger-wagging is going to change that. They don't have the money and aren't ever going to have the money. The interest and other fees will continue to pile up leaving the yoke around their necks for the rest of their lives. Debt will become something their children inherit (think about those 40 year mortgages). This creates conditions where it is less and less likely for rebellion of any kind against the predators. British Labour Party politician Tony Benn puts it this way: People who are shackled with debt, have no hope. People who are hopeless don't vote." - or otherwise participate in civic life). Keeping people shackled with debt is an integral part of the corporatist paradigm. Keep people hopeless and frightened and they'll just hang on quietly hoping things will somehow get better. This I believe describes the North American citizens' current condition. This is why I advocate a seemingly radical solution to the debt problem. _________________ Time is on the side of the oppressed today, it's against the oppressor. Truth is on the side of the oppressed today, it's against the oppressor. You don't need anything else. - Malcolm X
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ross53	Posted: Wed Feb 11, 2009 5:28 pm
Joined: 24 May 2006 Posts: 1434 Location: california	wm pasz wrote: "Fuck you debt industry. Take your bill and shove it." People in foreclosure situations should just refuse to leave their homes. Bolt the doors, sit down on the floor and refuse to get up. This is mine and you're not taking it." SoCal man briefly resists home foreclosure The Associated Press 6:04 p.m. February 10, 2009 http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/feb/10/ca-foreclosure-resistance-021009/?zIndex=51406 _________________ " I always wondered why somebody doesn't do something about that. Then I realized I was somebody" Lilly Tomlin.
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skywalker	Posted: Wed Feb 11, 2009 6:38 pm
Joined: 16 Apr 2007 Posts: 592 Location: California	wm pasz wrote: British Labour Party politician Tony Benn puts it this way: People who are shackled with debt, have no hope. People who are hopeless don't vote." - or otherwise participate in civic life). Keeping people shackled with debt is an integral part of the corporatist paradigm. Keep people hopeless and frightened and they'll just hang on quietly hoping things will somehow get better. WP, While in principle I agree with his statement, I have always believed and history teaches us that the best rebellions and revolutions have occurred in times when the masses have had no hope or had nothing left to loose because they had lost it already. Once you have starved out your enemy(the people) but you haven't killed them........doesn't that create the potential for massive societal retribution if the forced starvation has occured on a massive scale and isn't just one or two random people but millions of regular law abiding...ethical and moral folks just minding their own business but became victims of a monumental scam beyond their control? _________________ Seek the Truth Last edited by skywalker on Wed Feb 11, 2009 6:44 pm; edited 1 time in total
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wm pasz	Posted: Wed Feb 11, 2009 6:43 pm
Joined: 29 Jan 2006 Posts: 1219 Location: Toronto	True enough, but something always has to happen to spark the rebellion (history also shows us that humans are capable of living in abject misery for an awfully long time). Typically, it's something that turns some especially sacred cow of the oppressors on its head. A couple of informative articles I found about beating debt collectors in court and more about foreclosure resistance. _________________ Time is on the side of the oppressed today, it's against the oppressor. Truth is on the side of the oppressed today, it's against the oppressor. You don't need anything else. - Malcolm X
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wm pasz	Posted: Wed Feb 11, 2009 7:35 pm
Joined: 29 Jan 2006 Posts: 1219 Location: Toronto	Here's an article about the bailout bankers being called to account. It's heartening to see the rising public anger about their thieving and the loss of confidence in their ability to steward the economy. I see in many of the comments posted on blogs and web sites that carry news of the latest developments in bailout land, a withering of faith in the corporatist system and calls for spreading of the wealth. Encouraging developments. Here's another good web site about the web of debt and our deceptive monetary system. _________________ Time is on the side of the oppressed today, it's against the oppressor. Truth is on the side of the oppressed today, it's against the oppressor. You don't need anything else. - Malcolm X
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skywalker	Posted: Thu Feb 12, 2009 6:59 pm
Joined: 16 Apr 2007 Posts: 592 Location: California	With the way economies world over are tanking, especially places like Russia, my concern is the rise of 1930s style "Facism" As the fabric of the system breaks down and people kill each other for the food in their mouth.....this Obama socialism model just won't hold...... It may....but it will require taking away freedoms and squashing opinionated folks. Don't get me wrong, I like Obama, I voted for him, and I think he means well......I really do! I voted for Obama because he is a Socialist and not despite him being one. But we are perhaps one 9-11 style attack and some more severe economic pain away from people flocking over to a Facist model the first chance they get. And my fear is that the next 9-11 will really be home grown but of course blaming it on the Arabs... to create the fear that will force the people to embrace....Facism....IMHO We really are looking a lot like Early 1930s Europe.....only with i phones and lap tops and a few more modern conviences and a better organized police force......which won't stand a chance if millions begin to riot in the streets. I think Obama and his team have a small window to make Socialism work and then if it doesn't my guess is that all hell will break loose. IMHO This is Socialism's last stand.....if it can't work here with Obama it will never be tried again perhaps for centuries well beyond our life time and our kids's and grand kids's lifetime. Obama is the best face "Pure" Socialism has had since Karl Marx wrote the book on it and its best chance at success but only time will tell. The Utopian vision is a good one, I mean that with true sincerety......I just don't see it working with the forces at play. But who knows? _________________ Seek the Truth
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gordon	Posted: Sat Feb 14, 2009 12:22 am
Joined: 11 Sep 2008 Posts: 67	The elitists, the top 5% that control 80+% of the US wealth, aren't stupid. They have their boot on the necks of the American sheeple simply by getting them IN DEBT! What do you think all that zero interest rates was all about? All those daily credit cards in the mail? Make no mistake about it, it's a grand conspiracy. While $12 Billion goes out the back door to Iraq each month, payroll taxes every week run the government. The top 60% of major corporations paid an EFFECTIVE corporate tax rate of 7% in 2007. Goldman Sachs disclosed an EFFECTIVE (after writeoffs) tax rate of ONE PERCENT in their latest quarterly earnings. NO OUTRAGE WHATSOEVER in the media,(sheeple don't know this stuff, they're all 2 working adults trying to keep afloat) because they're owned by conglomerates. They still call for corporate tax rates to be lowered. All the tax laws are written with huge loopholes for the corps.
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The Whole World Is Rioting - Why Aren't We?


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