"(The elites) are trying to steal as much as fast they can on the way out the door"

[marmar]

Richard Wolff's discussion with Chris Hedges:


Listen to the complete show at: http://rdwolff.com/content/economic-update-social-turmoil-coming


Updates on CEO pay, the assault on social security, Maggie Thatcher, and "job creation." Interview with Chris Hedges on deepening social crisis, divisions, and turmoil coming. Response to listeners: on French socialists, hidden money, and workers coops paying taxes.

[NYC_SKP]

1. K/R. (nt)

[canoeist52]

2. Who thinks the elites are going out the door?

I see no signs of this not continuing.

[leftyohiolib]

3. yea they can do their destruction anywhere - they want the us to the new wage slaves paying pennies

for hours. they are doing it now making people scared of losing their things so they work very hard cause the boss already let people go and they dont want to be next - so productivity soars while salaries plunge. they want us to be bangladesh and sell our slave labor goods to india and china. why? b/c americans are largley tapped esp when compared to the emerging middle classes in india and china

[awoke_in_2003]

7. Americans are in a dream world...

as long as they keep sleeping, the rich will continue plundering.

[stillwaiting]

4. The agenda being enacted is global.

I really do think that behind closed doors elected officials believe (but could NEVER publicly state) that they have to level the middle classes throughout the world for sustainability reasons. We can't continue to grow (population wise) at current trends while also letting more and more individuals lead lifestyles like the average American was able to lead for a few decades during the 20th century. They can't create lives of stability throughout the first world because that would encourage continued population explosion trends that would have devastating consequences. In short, I don't believe that the power structures in place globally WANT to create stability, economic security, and prosperity for the masses. Of course, they would have to muddy the waters successfully enough, and with enough propaganda, to allow for each "side" to blame the other (when, in fact, those in power all want to enact the same agenda - the neoliberal agenda). Their goal would be to keep the masses severely divided so that they can recreate society in this manner (with which they seem to be doing a brilliant job).

I just hope that if they are successful in destroying the middle and working classes and purposefully creating financial insecurity around the globe that the 99% doesn't let the economic elite continue to lead lives like kings and queens. I have no idea why so many Americans passively accept the economic conditions that continue to unfurl year after year in this country.

This theory would give the asshole elite "moral justification" for what they have been doing, and it would allow for them to sleep much easier at night I'm sure.

I'm not saying I always believe the above to be true, but there are often times when I believe it very well MIGHT be true.

[OnyxCollie]

5. +1. nt

[ljm2002]

6. Yes, I agree, that is part of it...

...although sadly, their idea of leveling the middle classes means pushing the middle class down to a much lower level than we are used to here in the US, rather than raising up the middle classes elsewhere. At the same time, the elites become more and more piggish, hoarding the wealth and living like -- I can't say kings, I can't say emperors, because really, never in history has anyone lived the way our top elites live now.

Anyway, I agree that our lives must become more sustainable. We could start with manufactured goods, and go back to making things to last rather than creating things to discard. Our current economic models mandate the throwaway culture, and that of course is the very definition of not sustainable.

There are so many ways we could be addressing the issue of sustainability rather than what we are doing. But I think you are 100% correct, that is part of what the idiot elites think they are doing, and it helps them sleep at night.

[HiPointDem]

9. the first world is at zpg & has been for a long time. the *world* is damn near at zpg. stability

*lowers* population growth, it doesn't increase it.

it's perfectly possible to reduce consumption overall while raising living standards generally and increasing financial and social stability generally.

[ohheckyeah]

8. They aren't on their way out the door

and this has been planned for a long time.

From 2009:

American Wages Out of Balance

By EDWARD HADAS, MARTIN HUTCHINSON and ANTONY CURRIE
Published: November 10, 2009

American workers are overpaid, relative to equally productive employees elsewhere doing the same work. If the global economy is to get into balance, that gap must close.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/11/business/11views.html?_r=3&

[marmar]

10. When Chris Hedges says 'on the way out the door'

...... I don't think he's referring to exiting the country -- My take is that's he's referring to a collapse of the economy.