"Becca Vargo Daggett" scribes, in part:
It is true that pension funds hold 25 to 30 percent of financial assets in
the U.S. Yet the Congressional Budget Office estimates that over half of
corporate profits go to the wealthiest 1 percent of tax payers. Only about
8 percent goes to the bottom 60 percent.
<<<<<
GH: The so-called "free market" is not free. It is carefully arranged for
the benefit of a few at the expense of the many. Manufactured consent is an
important part of capitalism. When the wealth disparity grows to the point
that some start to question the arrangement, it is especially helpful to
have some of the slaves really believe the dogma of the ruling class.
It may be that the living wage issue comes up here because it is so
successfully suppressed elsewhere in the political system.
Becca Vargo Daggett again:
The Federal Reserve's Survey of Consumer Finance shows...(snip)
Investments in the stock market that have actually jeopardized the pension
assets of the not very wealthy. Think Enron. Think United. (snip)
(There was also the matter of that stock bubble.)
<<<<<
GH responds:
Yes, indeed! Northwest Airlines is a good example of corporate welfare --
sucking tax dollars from the citizens in multitudinous ways to enrich a
few -- and now pensions are likely to shrink and be added to the pile of
pensions laid at the feet of taxpayers as more big corporations "externalize
costs" through bankruptcy.
My, isn't the corporate world efficient? Isn't the free market wonderful at
distributing money to people who have actually worked a lifetime while
making sure that those who do not work don't make anything? Golden
parachutes for "shrunken men, stuffed up with greed" don't count for
anything do they?
And the bubble. Yes, the bubble. Money chases the fantasy of easy money.
Money for nothing. We don't have any such bubbles in our economy, do we? As
Enron's Kenny Lay used to like to say "It's all good." Reassuring, isn't
it?
My guess is that politicians are bought out by the time they make state or
federal office. Mostly at the city level too. Once in a while "we the
people" accidentally overcome the fog of manufactured consent.
But don't worry. The politicians are legally bought and paid for. Nothing
will change.
Living wage a local issue? Not at all. Not even newsworthy. Got Blimp?
-- pedaling a different sort of Blimp from Lynnhurst -- Gary Hoover
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