The Pitchforks Are Coming… For Us Plutocrats

[VanishingPoi]

Yes, the pitchforks are coming and I will be one of the ones holding it!

You probably don’t know me, but like you I am one of those .01%ers, a proud and unapologetic capitalist. I have founded, co-founded and funded more than 30 companies across a range of industries—from itsy-bitsy ones like the night club I started in my 20s to giant ones like Amazon.com, for which I was the first nonfamily investor. Then 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. Multiple homes, my own plane, etc., etc. You know what I’m talking about. In 1992, I was selling pillows made by my family’s business, Pacific Coast Feather Co., to retail stores across the country, and the Internet was a clunky novelty to which one hooked up with a loud squawk at 300 baud. But I saw pretty quickly, even back then, that many of my customers, the big department store chains, were already doomed. I knew that as soon as the Internet became fast and trustworthy enough—and that time wasn’t far off—people were going to shop online like crazy. Goodbye, Caldor. And Filene’s. And Borders. And on and on.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/magazine/sto...#ixzz363vlD3ul

[bobabode]

Indeed. He offers sound advice to his fellow 1%ers.
"And so I have a message for my fellow filthy rich, for all of us who live in our gated bubble worlds: Wake up, people. It won’t last.
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."


Read more: http://www.politico.com/magazine/sto...#ixzz363zkhM9R

[donquixote99]

The excellent article is about why to raise the minimum wage. It's very readable, and makes tons and tons of sense! Here's another paragraph from it (understand, Hanauer wrote this piece as if he's talking to a group of fellow billionaires):

So forget all that rhetoric about how America is great because of people like you and me and Steve Jobs. You know the truth even if you won’t admit it: If any of us had been born in Somalia or the Congo, all we’d be is some guy standing barefoot next to a dirt road selling fruit. It’s not that Somalia and Congo don’t have good entrepreneurs. It’s just that the best ones are selling their wares off crates by the side of the road because that’s all their customers can afford.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/magazine/sto...#ixzz3642StzrM

[bobabode]

Here's a companion piece about the philanthropy of the rich that I was reading, (over a cuppa Costco joe ,) at the Washington Post. Enjoy.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/postev...money/?hpid=z3

[VanishingPoi]

This is really worth an hour of watching time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWeX...em-subs_digest

[VanishingPoi]

An analysis by researchers at the University of Michigan shows a drastic increase in wealth inequality since 2003.

The analysis, performed by researchers at the University of Michigan, shows households in the 95th percentile of net worth had 13 times the wealth of the median household in 2003. By 2013, this disparity had increased almost twofold, with the wealthiest 5% of Americans holding 24 times that of the median.

In dollars terms, the median wealth of a US household was $87,992 in 2003, and by 2013 had decreased 36% to $56,335. In contrast, the richest 10% actually saw their net worth increase from 2003 to 2013, with the highest gains going to the top 5%. The median wealth of the households in the top five percent grew over 12% during the same time period, from $1,192,639 to $1,364,834.

http://time.com/money/2917709/wealth...s-study-finds/

[4-2-7]

Sick minds of the ones that dwell in envy of others.

[donquixote99]

Originally Posted by 4-2-7

Sick minds of the ones that dwell in envy of others.

Thank-you for sharing your feelings.

Let's say you and two business partners enjoyed great success, and made a billion dollars. However, one of them got some slick lawyers, pulled some dirty tricks, and rigged things so he got 99% of the money, and you and the third partner just got to split what was left. It's a done deal, legal avenues exhausted, there's nothing you can do about it, expect complain.

But complain you do. You feel you were treated unfairly, and it's true. You were.

Do you suppose the partner with all the money might say "alas, my former partners are now just sick minds who dwell in envy of others?"

[bobabode]

Did you even read the OPs link Dan? I suspect not.

[VanishingPoi]

Yes, and some folks are thickly afflicted with psychopathy.

I have no idea how to feed this lizard that is crawling up my wall. I hope he doesn't dry up or starve.