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October 25, 2013 at 8:15 PM #20821October 25, 2013 at 9:44 PM #767303
CA renter
ParticipantWow, I’m impressed! Who would’ve thought Russell Brand could be so eloquent and astute.
Of course, we do need to identify more specific ways in which to fix things, but there is no doubt that people are finally beginning to wake up.
October 26, 2013 at 1:39 AM #767307ucodegen
ParticipantBetter link: (to src)
Disagree with several things said.. starting at the source of apathy.
October 26, 2013 at 1:00 PM #767311Jazzman
ParticipantGood on Russell Brand. Comedians can be smart. Borat (Baron Sasha Cohen) and most of Monty Python’s cast went to Cambridge, which ironically is part of the class system Russell is railing against. I don’t believe that is the problem though. If it were, how does it explain the same problem of environmental issues vis-à-vis corporatism in different countries around the world.
October 26, 2013 at 3:37 PM #767308ParticipantYou mean his thoughts on why people are apathetic? I tend to agree with him on that. Many people say they don’t vote because they don’t feel as though it makes a difference. We are given pre-determined “choices” of candidates who have all been vetted by the same elite puppet masters. Elections only give the illusion of choice in many cases.
October 26, 2013 at 11:18 PM #767315paramount
ParticipantWhat Russel Brand speaks of is class struggle/warfare which has been going on since the earliest civilization.
I think progress has been made (at least in the US); I’m just an average joe and my life is quite comfortable.
October 27, 2013 at 12:19 AM #767317Participant[quote=paramount]What Russel Brand speaks of is class struggle/warfare which has been going on since the earliest civilization.
I think progress has been made (at least in the US); I’m just an average joe and my life is quite comfortable.[/quote]
You think this is “progress”?
WASHINGTON — The gulf between the richest 1 percent and the rest of America is the widest it’s been since the Roaring ’20s.
The very wealthiest Americans earned more than 19 percent of the country’s household income last year — their biggest share since 1928, the year before the stock market crash. And the top 10 percent captured a record 48.2 percent of total earnings last year.
U.S. income inequality has been growing for almost three decades. And it grew again last year, according to an analysis of Internal Revenue Service figures dating to 1913 by economists at the University of California, Berkeley, the Paris School of Economics and Oxford University.
One of them, Berkeley’s Emmanuel Saez, said the incomes of the richest Americans surged last year in part because they cashed in stock holdings to avoid higher capital gains taxes that took effect in January.
In 2012, the incomes of the top 1 percent rose nearly 20 percent compared with a 1 percent increase for the remaining 99 percent.
The richest Americans were hit hard by the financial crisis. Their incomes fell more than 36 percent in the Great Recession of 2007-09 as stock prices plummeted. Incomes for the bottom 99 percent fell just 11.6 percent, according to the analysis.
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I included that last paragraph because it’s extremely important. Contrary to your claims about pensioners, paramount, the reason for all of the bailouts and asset price manipulations is that the wealthy elite control our economy and political system (not the workers, as you like to claim). The huge wealth/income gap has been growing because our legislators have been bought by the wealthy and have done everything possible to create the tremendous (and ever-growing) wealth/income imbalance.
If we had allowed the “financial crisis” and asset price deflation to run its course while providing jobs programs for workers and nationalizing the banking industry (as necessary), our economy would now be in a much stronger, more sustainable place, IMHO.
October 27, 2013 at 12:22 AM #767319Participant[quote=Jazzman]Good on Russell Brand. Comedians can be smart. Borat (Baron Sasha Cohen) and most of Monty Python’s cast went to Cambridge, which ironically is part of the class system Russell is railing against. I don’t believe that is the problem though. If it were, how does it explain the same problem of environmental issues vis-à-vis corporatism in different countries around the world.[/quote]
True. Comedians, at least many successful ones, are probably much more intelligent than the average person. They often have a very keen understanding of human nature and the political/economic systems we’ve created as a result. George Carlin was another one who had a tremendous grasp of how the world works.
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