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Bonobo

(29,257 posts)
Wed May 15, 2013, 10:36 PM May 2013

It IS 80%-20% in America, but not for the reasons some say.

Keep your eye on the ball, the ball of limited wealth and resources that is. Not the shiny bouncy ball of political gamesmanship that you can never catch -that ball is being thrown about, in fact, by the 1%.

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It IS 80%-20% in America, but not for the reasons some say. (Original Post) Bonobo May 2013 OP
This! Anansi1171 May 2013 #1
So the obvious question is... Bonobo May 2013 #2
Culture wars. nt rrneck May 2013 #3
I could not possibly agree more. Bonobo May 2013 #4
Have you seen this message board lately? We can hardly agree on a thing! Anansi1171 May 2013 #6
And it is entirely through planning that it is that way. Bonobo May 2013 #8
That's an essential point you made. Newest Reality May 2013 #10
Yeah, it is a system that has found success. Bonobo May 2013 #12
*snort* I thought this was a... madinmaryland May 2013 #5
The difference is one of Bonobo May 2013 #7
Heh! madinmaryland May 2013 #9
K&R defacto7 May 2013 #11
Kick grahamhgreen May 2013 #13
Kick. nt Bonobo May 2013 #14
Since this number keep popping up. Kick! nt Bonobo May 2013 #15

Bonobo

(29,257 posts)
2. So the obvious question is...
Wed May 15, 2013, 10:54 PM
May 2013

With 80% controlling just 7% of the financial wealth, why does THAT 80% have an easy time finding political representation in a democracy?

80% should be a cake walk in an election -all things being equal at the voting booth.

80-20!! 80-20!! I think I'll make it my new sig-line!

Bonobo

(29,257 posts)
4. I could not possibly agree more.
Wed May 15, 2013, 11:01 PM
May 2013

Which is not to say the issues themselves are not important. They are in many cases.

But the way they are seized upon smells entirely like brand identity and tend to lack the whiff of intellectual honesty, usually, on both sides.

Anansi1171

(793 posts)
6. Have you seen this message board lately? We can hardly agree on a thing!
Wed May 15, 2013, 11:08 PM
May 2013

People call each other names. Proselytize. Condescend. Impugn each others motives. Don't listen. Talk past and at others. And engage in cliquishness, as if this was high school. We cannot even share ideas, in good faith, much less common ground. We in the 80% are as divided as ever.

Bonobo

(29,257 posts)
8. And it is entirely through planning that it is that way.
Wed May 15, 2013, 11:13 PM
May 2013

God forbid the masses of people getting screwed should realize they are in it together.

"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary."

H. L. Mencken

Newest Reality

(12,712 posts)
10. That's an essential point you made.
Wed May 15, 2013, 11:37 PM
May 2013

I would suggest that more people here watch the BBC documentary, The Century of the Self.

While it is by no means exhaustive, there is no hidden conspiracy about the fact that, as Chomsky states, and no matter how it might appear to the contrary, consent is manufactured, opinions are heavily manipulated, perception is subject to propaganda the skillful use of appeals to emotion and of deliberate logical fallacies.

The medium IS the massage/message, as well.

When we look at that chart and contemplate its implications, how is possible to feel "free" or reasonably consider yourself a citizen of a "democracy" when it has come to the point that, if money walks, we are becoming nothing more than renters on our home planet owned by a small handful of people.

We are on the verge of being the equivalent of owned livestock for the few who's "manifest destiny" has given them enough money, power and technology to not only do as they please, but to assure you that you and your progeny will do as they are compelled to, eventually.

No conspiracy necessary. It is more obvious as this goes on in various ways and to different degrees.

Bonobo

(29,257 posts)
12. Yeah, it is a system that has found success.
Wed May 15, 2013, 11:50 PM
May 2013

Like animals subjected to evolutionary pressure, among the forms of manipulation that "manufacture consent", it is the successful ones which survive and thrive.

It has always seemed obviously fraudulent that there are two political parties with roughly equal numbers of votes ALWAYS. A suspicious person (or a person with half a brain even) would quickly come to the conclusion that there is manipulation and collusion behind making it so.

Imagine two contractors in a small town, both competing for all the building projects in that town. Do they beat each other over the head senseless and risk that THEY will be the one that winds up with nothing? Or do they grab the phone and make a call, coming to some agreed upon method of sharing the more-than-plenty of business? Occam was no idiot.

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