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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums4 Ways Greedy Capitalists Rig the System to Profit Off Our Misery
http://www.alternet.org/economy/4-ways-greedy-capitalists-rig-system-profit-our-miseryWater
The city of Detroit, which is positioned next to the greatest supply of fresh water between the polar ice caps, has lost its access to water because of bad financial deals that have left unsuspecting citizens with over a half-billion dollars in interest payments. Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr responded by putting the whole water system up for sale.
***SNIP
Housing
***SNIP
It's a perfect business, a well-designed process of predatory equity:
----1. Buy Foreclosures.
----2. Rent Them at Exorbitant Prices. Only one-third of Blackstone's Los Angeles renters are paying affordable rent, according to Department of Housing and Urban Development standards.
----3. Skimp on Maintenance. According to a Homes for All study, 46 percent of residents reported plumbing problems, 39 percent reported roaches or insects, and 90 percent of Los Angeles renters have never met their landlords.
----4. Package the Properties into "Rental-Backed Securities." These sound disturbingly like the mortgage-backed securities that crashed our economy a few years ago. Companies like Blackstone and Goldman Sachs are doing it to America all over again.
Savings
The financial industry indiscriminately targets all struggling Americans, from the impoverished class to the low-income class to the middle class. At the lowest level loom the payday lenders, with about as many locations in the U.S. as all the McDonalds and Starbucks combined, and with annualized interest rates that can reach 1,000 percent or more.
Justice Itself
With the highest incarceration rate in the world, and with imprisonment skewed toward minorities, our business-oriented society has effectively turned our poorest citizens into products, with an emphasis on product volume.
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4 Ways Greedy Capitalists Rig the System to Profit Off Our Misery (Original Post)
xchrom
Sep 2014
OP
malaise
(269,186 posts)1. Only four?
Nah in every sphere there are thieves waiting to steal every last penny of our pathetic paychecks.
Laelth
(32,017 posts)2. k&r for the truth, however depressing it may be. n/t
-Laelth
Turbineguy
(37,372 posts)3. They have no choice but to do that.
They have no skills other than looting.
xchrom
(108,903 posts)4. an obvious truth that we seem incapable of being able to talk about. nt
sorechasm
(631 posts)5. Didn't we have a revolution to get rid of people like these? NT