Ruling Class

Davos: Oxfam Reports The Gap Between Rich And Poor Grows, Fuels Global Anger

January 22, 2019 Hereward Holland, News.trust.org Educate! Class Struggle, Inequality, Ruling Class

NAIROBI, Jan 21 (Reuters) - Tax systems that put a high burden on the poor mean public services are underfunded, stretching the gap between rich and poor and fuelling global public anger, Winnie Byanyima, executive director of Oxfam International, said on Monday. The Nairobi-headquarted charity said in a report that a new billionaire was created every two days last year, just as the poorest half of the world's population saw their wealth decline by 11 percent. The report, released on Monday as political and business leaders gather for the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, said governments are increasingly underfunding public services and failing to clamp down on tax dodging.

Dreams Deferred: How Enriching The 1% Widens The Racial Wealth Divide

January 17, 2019 By Dedrick Asante-Muhammad, Chuck Collins, Josh Hoxie and Sabrina Terry, Inequality.org/ Educate! Inequality, Racism, Ruling Class

January 15, 2019, the release date of this report, would have been the 90th birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Dr. King envisioned a future in which deep racial inequalities were eradicated and he worked tirelessly towards that mission. His tragic assassination occurred while he was organizing the Poor Peoples Campaign, his last great effort to ensure economic justice as a cornerstone of civil rights. In light of Dr. King’s pursuit of economic justice, this report highlights how historic racial wealth disparities have been perpetuated and increased by the trend towards extreme inequality in the United States. It also puts the racial wealth divide in the context of overall wealth inequality trends.

Billionaires Vs. LA Schools

January 17, 2019 Eric Blanc, Jacobinmag.com Educate! Class Struggle, Education, Los Angeles, Ruling Class, Strikes, Teachers

Unlike many labor actions, the Los Angeles teachers’ strike is not really about wages or benefits. At its core, this is a struggle to defend public schools against the privatizing drive of a small-but-powerful group of billionaires. The plan of these business leaders is simple: break-up the school district into thirty-two competing “portfolio” networks, in order to replace public schools with privately run charters. As firm believers in the dogmas of market fundamentalism, these influential downsizers truly believe that it’s possible to improve education by running it like a private business.

Do We Really Need Billionaires?

January 11, 2019 By Lawrence Wittner, Historynewsnetwork.org Educate! Inequality, New Economy, Ruling Class

In March 2018, Forbes reported that it had identified 2,208 billionaires from 72 countries and territories. Collectively, this group was worth $9.1 trillion, an increase in wealth of 18 percent since the preceding year. Americans led the way with a record 585 billionaires, followed by mainland China which, despite its professed commitment to Communism, had a record 373. According to a Yahoo Finance report in late November 2018, the wealth of U.S. billionaires increased by 12 percent during 2017, while that of Chinese billionaires grew by 39 percent. These vast fortunes were created much like those amassed by the Robber Barons of the late nineteenth century.

Research Shows Affluent Americans Barely Recognize US Income Gap

January 8, 2019 By Anthony DiMaggio, Truthout.org Educate! Income, Income inequality, Inequality, New Economy, Ruling Class

A new report from the Federal Reserve highlights the bleak economic prospects for young Americans, concluding that millennials are in much worse financial shape than earlier generations (at the same age) in terms of their relative income and wealth. These findings are not encouraging for those concerned with the problem of growing inequality. Despite the rise of populist anger in President Trump’s USA, inequality received little attention in 2018 from both major parties. But make no mistake, the story of early 21st century US is one of record inequality – and a growing divide between two groups: the haves and the have-nots.

Time For A Maximum Income: Jeff Bezos Has Enough

January 1, 2019 By Mark Engler, Dissentmagazine.org Educate! Amazon, Income, Jeff Bezos, Ruling Class

For Republican members of Congress and cable news pundits, a cap on the earnings of the super rich might sound like a dystopian nightmare. Yet, as author Sam Pizzigati argues in his new book, The Case for a Maximum Wage, those who are not ardent free marketeers should give the idea some serious consideration—not only as a desirable policy, but also one that might be more practical than some imagine.

As Tax Scam Turns One, Critics Say Law Is ‘One Of The Biggest Transfers Of Wealth To Richest 1% In US History’

December 21, 2018 By Jake Johnson, Commondreams.org Educate! Reform, Ruling Class, Tax cuts for the rich

"A year later, we can safely say that Republicans' tax overhaul was a huge payoff to donors, and a scam for average Americans." Massive corporations are "flush with leftover cash" and Wall Street banks are raking in enormous profits. CEOs and the wealthiest Americans are getting even richer. Average workers are seeing crumbs. That is the state of the American economy on the one-year anniversary of the passage of the GOP's $1.5 trillion dollar tax scam, which Americans for Tax Fairness said on Tuesday will go down as "one of the biggest transfers of wealth to the richest one percent in U.S. history."

The Fund For Needy Millionaires

December 18, 2018 Meagan Day, Jacobinmag.com Educate! Government, New Economy, Ruling Class

Many people imagine the state as a kind of referee — a transcendent mediator enforcing theoretically neutral rules, arbitrating as fairly as possible between different interest groups in society. This faith in the state’s basic neutrality leads even people who care about inequality to miss the big picture, which is that the capitalist minority is absolutely pummeling the working majority and has enlisted the referee to assist their victory. From the Supreme Court’s assault on unions, to cities shamelessly prostrating themselves before corporations, to big companies taking gobs of public money and then instituting mass layoffs, to bank bailouts to regulatory capture to deadly austerity...

Pierre Omidyar: A Dangerous Billionaire-Backer Of The “Resistance”

December 8, 2018 Danny Haiphong, Blackagendareport.com Educate! Electoral Politics, Ruling Class

One of the most disturbing trends in the era of Trump has been the flock of billionaires that have come rushing into the Democratic Party to pose as leaders of an opposition movement to the “fascist” predations of the real estate mogul. These billionaires, which include capitalists such as George Soros, Michael Bloomberg, and Tom Steyer are the architects of a “Big Tent” strategy first outlined by Black Agenda Report Editor Glen Ford. This strategy was devised by the Hillary Clinton Presidential campaign of 2016. The strategy has two components. The first component is the promotion of “diversity” to distract from the fact that the Democratic Party can no longer appeal to the interests of the poor or working-class...

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman Arrives In Tunisia Amid Protests Against Him

November 28, 2018 Tarek Amara and Ulf Laessing, Reuters.com Resist! Middle East, Protests, Ruling Class, Tunisia

TUNIS (Reuters) - Hundreds of Tunisians staged the first protests of the Arab world against Saudi Arabia’s crown prince as he arrived on a visit on Tuesday, denouncing him as a murderer involved in the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. People chant slogans and hold banners as they take part in a protest, opposing the visit of Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Tunis, Tunisia, November 27, 2018. REUTERS/Zoubeir Souiss. The protests were a rare occurrence for Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom’s de facto ruler who faces no overt criticism at home and who received lavish receptions earlier in his tour in visits to Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt.

Barbara Boxer’s Son And California Powerbroker Found Bilking Indian Tribe

November 20, 2018 Peter Byrne, Consortiumnews.com Educate! California, Electoral Politics, Indigenous Peoples, Ruling Class

Darius Anderson and his business partner, Douglas Boxer, preyed upon Native American clients who were too intimidated by their political connections to seek recourse. Darius Anderson is one of California’s most powerful men. He promotes himself as a champion of liberal social causes, a philanthropist, a public servant, a man of integrity who cares about his community—especially racial minorities. That image has not survived judicial scrutiny. A panel of arbitration judges has found that a company controlled by Anderson and his partner, Douglas Boxer, the son of former Senator Barbara Boxer, defrauded its Native American clients in a Bay Area casino deal.

Six Recent US Antiwar Demonstrations Your Rulers Don’t Want You Talking About

November 17, 2018 Caitlin Johnstone, Medium.com Resist! Anti-War, Protest Demonstrations, Ruling Class

A friend told me yesterday that he hadn’t seen an antiwar protest in America in ten years. It was a sincere comment; he genuinely hadn’t seen any coverage on any peace activism in his country during that time. And of course he hadn’t; it is mainstream media’s job to distort public narratives in favor of the war-hungry plutocratic class which owns the media outlets. But I’ve actually been noticing a lot of antiwar activism lately which, while often far from the spotlight of mass media attention, has given me much hope for the future. It is true there was a noticeable lull in vocal demonstrations against military violence since George W Bush left office, largely due to mainstream US partisan dynamics.

Palestinians Denounce Hollywood Stars’ $60m For Israeli Army ‘Terror’

November 16, 2018 By Zena Tahhan, Local Peace Economy Educate! Gaza, Israel, Nationalism, Palestine, Ruling Class

RAMALLAH, West Bank - As Hollywood stars celebrated at a fundraiser for the Israeli army last week in Los Angeles, halfway across the world Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip were waking up for another Friday of protest and bloodshed. The gala on 1 November, organised by Friends of the Israeli Defence Forces and attended by actors such as Ashton Kutcher, Gerard Butler and Andy Garcia, was praised by Israel and its supporters for raising a record $60 million and bringing together more than 1,200 people. A memorandum of understanding signed between Israel and Barack Obama's US administration in 2016 included a record $38bn deal to provide Israel with military assistance over a ten-year period, the largest such pledge in American history.

EU Responds To US Midterm Elections With Calls For Military Build-Up

November 16, 2018 Alex Lantier, Wsws.org Educate! Electoral Politics, Europe, Inter-Imperialist Rivalry, Ruling Class, United States

Europe’s political and media establishment is responding to the 2018 US midterm elections with calls for a military build-up to confront Washington and for legitimizing far-right politics. It is ever clearer that the breakdown in trans-Atlantic relations following Donald Trump’s election and his trade war measures against Germany and China was not a coincidence or a passing blip. European ruling circles are widely interpreting Trump’s ability to extend Republican control of the Senate, though he lost control of the House of Representatives to the Democratic Party, as a sign that growing US-European conflicts reflect a deeper crisis than they originally believed. They are calling for their own aggressive military policy in response.

Billionaires, Not Voters, Are Deciding Elections

November 12, 2018 By Sonali Kolhatkar, Truthdig.com Educate! Capitalism, Electoral Politics, Ruling Class

The recent midterm elections offered an opportunity for America’s moneyed elites to spend their ridiculous wealth on a catalog of their favorite causes and candidates. We are locked in a vicious cycle, where billionaires continue to amass wealth due to policies their influence has bought, which in turn enrich them with even more resources with which to shift the American polity in their favor. Part of the problem is that billionaires’ control over our democracy is largely invisible. As a recent study by The Guardian showed, high-profile wealthy elites like Warren Buffett or Bill Gates are anomalies. To that point, “[M]ost of the wealthiest US billionaires have made substantial financial contributions...

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