Posts Tagged ‘1%’

Extinct, Enslaved or Empowered?

Wednesday, March 14th, 2012

Navigating between extinction and enslavement, brave humankind could very well avoid both to reach compelling new heights.

Neils Bohr once said that prediction is very difficult, especially if it’s about the future. Despite the words of caution from the pioneering quantum physicist, I’d like to offer you my take on the three potential futures that we, as a species, are facing.

The first is extinction. This is where the human race is no more because we’ve wiped ourselves out in some foolish conflict or scientific mishap. Either that, or the universe conspires to eliminate us using it’s vast arsenal. There’s not a lot we can do to avoid this, apart from building peace instead of war.

The good news, despite what the mainstream media may want us to believe, is that humankind is actually the most peaceful we’ve ever been. (more…)

Highball the 1%

Tuesday, March 6th, 2012

There’s a standard business negotiation tactic which has been brought into the realm of politics, used most effectively by right wing conservatives: ask for the stars and settle with the moon. So effective has this strategy been that the entire political spectrum has consistently shifted to the right over the past few decades.

Well, no more. (more…)

An Uprising is Imminent

Saturday, February 11th, 2012

Something wonderful is happening everywhere on earth. A people’s uprising is taking place, fueled by millions and millions of people who’ve awakened to see that a better future is entirely possible. Once it reaches fruition, this global social revolution will culminate in a redistribution of wealth and power, essentially liberating humanity from the shackles that far too many of us don’t even know exist.

The medium for this reformation is the online realm, which may soon prove to be the missing ingredient for a lasting freedom on earth.

With the threat of an upheaval looming, the stage is set for a huge struggle for dominance between the bulk of humankind seeking to be free and the system and its leaders desperately clinging to power. Our world’s tiny yet powerful minority (along with their cronies) will do everything they can to prevent their house of cards from toppling.

This means crushing internet freedom using a range of attacks, enhancing the already well-entrenched all-seeing surveillance system, and expanding the increasingly militarized police state, the end goal of which is to trap humans into perpetual servitude by eliminating all means of revolution.

But we wont let that happen now will we?

As long as we can keep our precious internet uncensored, we’ll be able to leverage massive populist sentiment into real political clout. Instantly interconnected social media is fostering what is essentially a real democracy, one that hears all voices and not just those at the top. And when the system caters more to everyone, what we get is a more just global civilization.

The whims and wants of a handful of wealthy tyrants will prove no match for tens or hundreds of millions of engaged individuals working towards a shared goal.

We are, on some level, transcending nationalities and cultures, expanding our own personal identities to include ourselves amongst the global village. One beautiful and amazing side effect of this great awakening will be the eradication of wars. Major armed conflicts will all but evaporate once enough of us see them for what it they really are us fighting ourselves.

With each passing day, what is becoming more evident is that the only enemies left for us to fight are the violent extremists seeking to hurt society and the oligarchs seeking to enslave us, both of which our species will be better positioned to confront the more united and empowered we all become.

Poverty in the World’s Richest Country

Sunday, December 25th, 2011

The Grinch is alive and well in America. Only instead of stealing presents from under the tree, modern day Scrooges have been pilfering the pockets of entire populations.

In his latest article, Les Leopold unveils 6 sneaky ways corporate elites function as reverse Robin Hoods, stealing from the poor to give to the rich:

1 in 2, have fallen into poverty or are scraping by on earnings that classify them as low income. 1 in 5 American children live in poverty. What’s going on here? You would think we were a poor country.  But we’re not. We’re filthy rich, but the money is hidden away by the 1 percent while poverty rises all around.

Just how are the richest of the rich getting away with the greatest robbery of all time? Leopold breaks it down for us:

1. Productivity continues to rise but the 99 percent doesn’t share in the benefits. The productivity lines and wage lines have pulled apart so that trillions of dollars that once went to the average American are now going almost entirely to the super-rich.

2. Large corporations pay next to nothing in state and local taxes. A recent joint report reveals that 265 large corporations avoided $42.7 billion in taxes from 2008 to 2010.

3. Money that should go toward the common good pours into the pockets of the 1 percent. The overall tax rate for the super-rich has plummeted from 70% to less than what the average secretary pays.

4. The biggest corporations are sitting on a mountain of cash, yet they refuse to invest more than $1 trillion in cash because of the lack of consumer demand.

5. Hedge funds have over $1.917 trillion in misused investment capital. Most of this speculative capital serves no broader economic or social purpose, jumping in and out of the markets in nanoseconds using high-speed automatic trading techniques that extract hidden taxes from the rest of us.

6. Many of the 1 percent cheat on their taxes. The tax revenues lost in the U.S. are estimated to be $337 billion a year according to a November report by the Tax Justice Network.

So there you have it. While the rest of us are sipping our egg nog and enjoying the company of our friends and family, behemoth businesses are tirelessly enriching the wealthy few while systematically crushing the middle and lower classes.

Santa might be tempted to give these corporate fatcats a well-deserved lump of coal in their stockings, but they’d probably just use it as a tax write off.

Not All One Percenters Fear the Uprising

Sunday, December 11th, 2011

It can be easy to label every rich person as a tyrannical scrooge type pinching every penny, but it’s simply not true. Most multi-millionaires and billionaires don’t fear the Occupy movement or the impending redistribution of wealth. A lot of them, when asked, said they’d be willing to pay more in taxes. Some, like Warren Buffet, even go so far as to deliver eloquent speeches pleading for us to do so.

But there are a select few of the super-rich who tow the line for the rest of the financially fortunate. These individuals (and their cronies and paid-for politicians) are the ones responsible for a system-wide shift which has incrementally stripped entire populations of wealth and power.

It is this minority of the 1% – those with an insatiable greed – who must be reigned in. Not only do they need to be held accountable, steps must be taken to prevent others from doing the same. Whether it’s through public awareness or regulation, the processes by which today’s oligarchs have amassed their dangerous concentrations of power needs to be disrupted.

This won’t happen without a fight, which is why we have to rise up. But in the end, the majority of the super-rich will capitulate and cooperate without too much of a fight, so long as they get to remain amongst the wealthiest people on earth.

Batman’s Message to the 1%

Sunday, November 13th, 2011

Watch as a young Batman tackles the growing concerns over income inequality and corruption in the upper echelon.

Gotham City’s ruling class, just like the 1 percent of 1 percent of humans who control insane amounts of the world’s wealth, have gone unchecked for too long. And now they’ve gone rotten.

So here comes Batman – much like the Arab spring, the riots in Europe, and the Occupy Movement – rising to the occasion and taking out the trash. Not necessarily because he wants to, but because it has to be done.

Take heed, super-rich people. Your days of exploitation and oligarchy are coming to an end. Be like Bill Gates and Warren Buffet before it’s too late!

Corporatist Network Exposed – How the 1% Rule

Monday, October 24th, 2011

The 99% of the world who’ve been getting the shaft by today’s system now have a definitive target on which to set their sights, thanks to a team of Swiss mathematicians.

An analysis of the relationships between 43,000 transnational corporations has revealed that a relatively small group of companies, mainly banks, control a disproportionate power over the global economy.

The team found that a core of 737 companies (mostly financial services companies) control almost 80% of the global economy. See #occupy haters? The world is controlled by just a few corporations!

To get a better understanding of what this corporatist network can look like, check out the excellent visualization tools available at theyrule.net. There you can delve into the US’s ruling class and explore the inner workings of the American oligarchy.

One of the criticisms of the Occupy movement is that most of the protesters who are speaking out against corporations are clearly consumers of corporate products themselves.

But the issue shouldn’t be about whether or not we need corporations. Instead, the discussion should be what kind of relationship with corporations do we want to have?

In the not so distant future, we won’t be so dependent on corporations like we are today. We’ll have the means to produce our own energy with residential renewable solutions. We’ll be able to grow our own food in automated greenhouses. And we’ll manufacture whatever products we need with our very own 3D printers.

Yet, until this day arrives, we will need corporations around to provide us with the stuff we need to live. We can’t simply get rid of them without devastating consequences. But that doesn’t mean we have to endure the tyranny of corporatism.

Instead, we can hold these international businesses accountable to the people. Treat corporations like part of the public commons. Make these big businesses a shared resource, necessary for our world to function, but kept on a very tight leash for our security.

Now that the face of our foe has been exposed, there’s nothing left to do but declare all out war. It’s time to take the power back and usher in a more just civilization for everyone, not just the lucky ones.

Reasons to be Upset

Wednesday, October 19th, 2011

If you aren’t outraged at the current state of the world today, it’s probably because you aren’t paying attention.

Check out this graph, showing how everybody has been losing wealth, except the extremely rich who’ve been making record earnings.

If everyone were growing richer, there wouldn’t be such an outpouring of discontent. But that is clearly not what’s been happening. Instead, the 1% have been gaining their wealth by systematically stripping it off everyone else.

There’s a whole host of infographics supporting this notion, in case you need to see more. But, simply put, mega-banks, corporations and CEOs are looting the public coffers with the help of their hired politicians and lawmakers. This is what has been allowing the world’s wealthiest to run away with all the chips.

But that’s not all, we have a trillion dollar military industrial complex, harvesting wars to secure corporate interests and rob entire populations of desperately needed infrastructure, all the while murdering millions of innocent lives.

As well, nearly a fifth of the human race is starving to death. Humankind already has the means to alleviate much of this suffering, but the powers that be seem more concerned with cementing their positions rather than improving the world in which we live.

Such pressing issues are not just going to simply go away. And neither is the discontent they provoke. In fact, these are the very woes which are fueling the great social awakening.

We’ve been discussing the problems, and we’ve discovered practical solutions. Now, finally, we are coming together to really do something about it.

How the .01% rule us and what can be done about it

Saturday, October 8th, 2011

70,000 ultra-high net worth individuals – the richest 1% of the richest 1% – control the media, government and big business. This gives them tremendous influence over the lives of every single human.

The only way regular people have a chance is through unity. The more communities come together, the stronger they become. Thanks to the Internet and social media, humans everywhere can embrace solidarity like never before.

Evidence of this can be seen in the uprisings taking place all over the world. The Occupy movement, the protests across Europe, the Arab Spring – in every single case, it’s regular people simply wanting a more just civilization.

These localized movements are culminating in something greater, something global. Recognizing a common struggle, people everywhere are coming together as a world community, and by doing so, will eventually form a group with enough power to rival that wielded by the wealthiest 70,000.

Wealth will be redistributed more equally. Wars will no longer be tolerated. Humankind will be set free to limitless potential.