By-Tor.com

An interesting article here with some historical perspective...

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123396621006159013.html

Not sure what my thoughts are yet (other than my usual distaste for class warfare). But I found the article thought provoking and thought I'd share.

Few 21st-century Americans have any real experience with economic populism. That appears to be changing fast. In the 1930s, the demonization of the upper class did not really begin until almost two years after the stock-market crash. We are now six months into our own economic crisis, and signs of populist resentment are already visible: in the perverse fascination with Bernard Madoff's remarkable fraud, the popular outrage at the tax problems of public officials, the growing contempt for the many overseers of the credit markets, the ruined investments of millions of ordinary people, the growing army of the unemployed (still far below the 15% to 25% unemployment of the 1930s, but 7.6% in January and growing fast), the likelihood of a recession that could last not just for months, but for years. These are the preconditions of populist revolts. Mr. Obama's chastisements of bankers and CEOs have been relatively mild compared to the routine denunciations of "economic royalists" in the 1930s.

I guess I can understand why desperate, hungry, homeless, hopeless, jobless people with no way out feel a bit of animosity toward the rich folks who make the world spin or grind to a halt. It probably makes it even worse for them that they have been given billions (and more to come) of the American publics' money to recover, only to use the money for redecoration and bonuses.

Big Blue Owl wrote: It probably makes it even worse for them that they have been given billions (and more to come) of the American publics' money to recover, only to use the money for redecoration and bonuses.

*nods*

I have a neighbor who is fond of saying, "Why is money from the $10 an hour guy like me being used to bail out the $75 an hour guy?"

As you well know, I am completely opposed to both the Bush and Obama bailout plans. If a business is failing it's because there's something wrong with their business plan and they need to be allwoed to fail so they can fix the business plan. Unless they're failing because of government meddling, then the goverment needs to get out of their way.

Liberals have spent years complaining about "corporate welfare", yet they're the ones supporting the bailout plan now. Well, I've never seen bigger corporate welfare than this. Are they opposed to it or not?

In all fairness, the "redecoration" that Obama was so publicly outraged about actually took place in January of 2008. It had nothing to do with TARP money. The bonuses... not so much.

But back to demonizing the rich... the old saying goes, "I've never seen a poor man hiring people." Demonizing any group of people for what they earn... all that can do is sew discontent among the population. I'm not fond of demonizing any group be it because of they're earnings, their skin color, or their religion.

I'm not fond of demonizing any group be it because of they're earnings, their skin color, or their religion.

So only their political leanings, then?

Big Blue Owl wrote:

I'm not fond of demonizing any group be it because of they're earnings, their skin color, or their religion.

So only their political leanings, then?

*SNARF*

Big Blue Owl wrote:

I'm not fond of demonizing any group be it because of they're earnings, their skin color, or their religion.

So only their political leanings, then?

Pretty much, yeah.

ElfDude wrote:

Big Blue Owl wrote:

I'm not fond of demonizing any group be it because of they're earnings, their skin color, or their religion.

So only their political leanings, then?

Pretty much, yeah.

Ok, me too.

This makes me uneasy because I see so much of what I have heard from my elders of Hitler and his rise to power. He used the discontent the people had and promised them a better day to come (and even his opponents conceded he did give them much of that better day). He re-distributed wealth forcibly by law.

I'm not saying that Obama is Hitler or that our leaders in Congress are Nationalist Socialists, just that I am uneasy because I see how far and how wrong this can go and don't want to see our nation destroy itself.

You may be onto something there, though...

Ya know, I just don't see it that way. I won't classify him with Hiter because I don't think that he has the same motivations or evil beliefs that Hitler did. I think he really wants to do well by our nation (although I disagree with his methods) and I don't think he wants to wipe out races or groups of people.

Big Blue Owl wrote:

I'm not fond of demonizing any group be it because of they're earnings, their skin color, or their religion.

So only their political leanings, then?

D'oh! Yes... I do know the difference between their, they're and there.

awip2062 wrote:This makes me uneasy because I see so much of what I have heard from my elders of Hitler and his rise to power. He used the discontent the people had and promised them a better day to come (and even his opponents conceded he did give them much of that better day). He re-distributed wealth forcibly by law.

I'm not saying that Obama is Hitler or that our leaders in Congress are Nationalist Socialists, just that I am uneasy because I see how far and how wrong this can go and don't want to see our nation destroy itself.

Too late. We are too lazy as a nation to stand up to this garbage.

zepboy wrote:
Too late. We are too lazy as a nation to stand up to this garbage.

Phew! Finally. Now we can get some recovery and work done.