The predators at the top, billionaires and millionaires, are pitting ordinary workers against one another. So we’re left with the bizarre situation of unionized workers with a pension being resented by nonunion workers without one. The swells are in the background, having a good laugh.
That’s why what this country needs is a good old-fashioned populist uprising, because such uprisings are neither left nor right and are instead focused against a few exploiters at the top.
Sure, those without pensions might well resent those who have them, especially when the pensions are public, cushy and threatening the financial stability of states. Public pension reform is needed, no question about it. But it’s our system at large that increasingly has no safety net, is the only industrialized country without affordable healthcare,, and which has been plundered recently by two bubbles (dot com and real estate) in which a few elites siphoned more money from the rest of us. The public union employee is not the enemy.
The Wobblies got it quite right a century ago (Click image to view in its full-sized glory)
I met a Wobblie yesterday at the US Uncut rally. They’re still getting it right.
Yeah, you gotta be careful of the economic elite, that Top 10% who live on the backs of the rest of the people.
There’s just one problem: In a globalized economy, you can’t stop at America’s borders. Expanding that pyramid out, you’ll find that the Top 10% are those elites who:
* Earn household income of $8,900 per year or more (adjusted for Purchasing Parity – the raw number is $5,500)
* Have $61,000 or more in assets
* Own or lease an automobile, SUV, or light truck
Hey, wait a minute – that’s me!! And probably you, too.
Well, last time I checked, you and I weren’t getting hundreds of billions from the federal government and being allowed to mark-to-fantasy our assets.