Posts Tagged ‘plutocracy’

World’s Wealthiest Stealing From the Rest of Us

Saturday, July 21st, 2012

Imagine winning a 20 million dollar lottery. Pretty sweet, right? Enough cash to live in the lap of luxury for generations.

Now times that by a thousand. This is what the world’s billionaires contend with – a net worth thousands of times bigger than what most humans would consider a fortune.

And now that you have this tremendous sum in your head, multiply it by another thousand. That makes 20,000,000,000,000 – 20 Trillion dollars! – which is the amount of money the world’s super-rich have been hoarding in secret, shielded from any taxes.

Unbelievable, isn’t it? Despite being the richest humans on the planet, they still want more for themselves. Billions of dollars just isn’t enough. It’s like they have the same fear we all share, and all the money in the world won’t get rid of it.

Still, as nice as it would be to temper the growing gap between the super-rich and the rest of us, it seems there aren’t enough elites, like Buffet and Gates, willing to fetter their own expanding wallets for the sake of the planet.

This puts the onus on the rest of us – those of us who aren’t the 1% of the 1% – to stand up and say NO! This economic model simply will not suffice! We want a more just world for everybody, and if you aren’t going to make it happen we will do it ourselves!

Bill C-38: A Mockery of Democracy

Tuesday, June 12th, 2012

Conservative ethos tends to embody efficiency, which can be highly effective in the business world. When it comes to handling democratic rule, being too efficient brings the people on par with dictatorship.

Why even waste precious time debating and voting on issues when it’s so much easier to just have one guy make the final decision? Way less red tape that way.

The Tories Omnibus bill is a fine example of this mentality. Slash environmental protections, supersede food safety, gut the fisheries act, bilk old age security, change dozens of laws, then wrap it all up under the pretense of pertaining to the budget. Fast track it through parliament and voila! A more corporatist Canada without all the fuss.

Over the next few days, something like 1000 amendments will be voted upon – the oppositions’ vain protest over the bill – while we get to watch as they all get shot down one-by-one by the majority government, our democracy violated with every silenced critique.

But don’t just take my word for it. Listen to none other than Stephen Harper himself, who in 1994 criticized the use of Omnibus bills saying:

I would argue that the subject matter of the bill is so diverse that a single vote on the content would put members in conflict with their own principles. How can members represent their constituents on these various areas when they are forced to vote in a block on such legislation and on such concerns?

The bill contains many distinct proposals and principles and asking members to provide simple answers to such complex questions is in contradiction to the conventions and practices of the House. Dividing the bill into several components would allow members to represent views of their constituents on each of the different components in the bill.

Eloquent words. If only Harper would listen to his younger self.

 

So Long Privacy, Hello Transparency

Saturday, April 14th, 2012

Patsy politicians pandering to plutocratic priorities threaten to pilfer our precious privacy. Lousy legislation like ACTA, SOPA and now CISPA have come to the forefront of this fight, and these bills will all be, hopefully, crushed without mercy beneath  the feet of millions of vigilant citizens.

Still, as disheartening as it may be to hear, these exercises could ultimately prove pointless because privacy is fast going extinct. (more…)

Keep Wealth and Power in Check

Monday, July 25th, 2011

The notion that the rich keep getting richer has gained new gravitas, thanks to a recent peer-reviewed publication. The study shows that wealth accumulation, if left unchecked, “can lead to unlimited concentration of wealth, such that the percentage of all wealth owned by a few entrepreneur eventually approaches 100%.”

In the US, the wealthy have been growing wealthier while the rest of the population has not. This trend has been happening for over 40 years, as per this diagram (click for a bigger version):

The wider the income gap grows, the greater the risk of democracy being comprimised. If left unchecked, a handful of people and entities might completely take over as the United States succumbs to tyranny.

But it’s not too late. If middle class Americans rise up soon and reclaim their lost voice, which they seem poised to do, then their economic system will not run away on them.

The clock is ticking, and what comes of it will impact the entire planet. Come on, people of America! Show the world what humans are capable of!