Fucking Peasants

A “working-class hero...” John Lennon told us in his song of that title, “...is something to be... Keep you doped with religion and sex and TV... And you think you’re so clever and classless and free... But you’re still fucking peasants as far as I can see...”

"Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat, but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires."- John Steinbeck

The delusion of a classless America in which opportunity is equally distributed is the most effective deception perpetrated by the moneyed elite that controls all the key levers of power in what passes for democracy. It is a myth blown away by Nobel Prize winner Joseph E. Stiglitz “Of the 1 percent, by the 1 percent, for the 1 percent,” Stiglitz says the top thin layer of the super-wealthy controls 40 percent of all wealth in what is now the most sharply class-divided of all developed nations: “Americans have been watching protests against repressive regimes that concentrate massive wealth in the hands of an elite few. Yet, in our own democracy, 1 percent of the people take nearly a quarter of the nation’s income"

That is the harsh reality obscured by the media’s focus on celebrity gossip, sports rivalries and lotteries, situations in which the average person can pretend that he or she is plugged into the winning side. The illusion of personal power substitutes consumer sovereignty — which smartphone to purchase — for real power over the decisions that affect our lives.

“The top 1 percent have the best houses, the best educations, the best doctors and the best lifestyles,” Stiglitz concludes, “but there is one thing that money doesn’t seem to have bought: an understanding that their fate is bound up with how the other 99 percent live. Throughout history, this is something that the top 1 percent eventually do learn. Too late.”

Adapted from here


In recent years, we've been hit with a barrage of statistics, charts, and even full-length books, documenting how inequality is on the rise in America. Over 11 million housing units (of a total stock of about 128 million) have the value of their mortgage higher than the value of the property. Some 4.6 million homes are more than 30 days delinquent. It is forecasted that there will be an additional one million foreclosures at least in 2011. Housing prices have fallen relentlessly in the past few years and are now back at levels seen in 2002. New home sales are down roughly 70 per cent from levels seen in 2006 and there is over seven months of supply available. Existing home sales are down 25 per cent from 2006 levels and there is eight months of supply available. Housing inventory is roughly where it was in 2006.
job growth is the slowest on record coming out of any recession and is failing to keep up with population growth. The official unemployment number of 8.8 percent is from the Bureau of Labour Statistics (BLS) U3 report. The BLS U6 unemployment figure was recently reported at 15.7 per cent; U6 includes long-term unemployment and those working part-time who want full-time work. If unemployment were calculated as it was before 1994 the rate is closer to 22 per cent, according to www.shadowstats.com. This includes those unemployed for over one year. Since the recession bottomed in late 2010 these numbers have barely budged. The average duration of unemployment before the recession started was around 17 weeks. Today it is approaching 40 weeks and still climbing.
According to the CIA, the US has a coefficient of 45, which is higher than Russia, China and Iran, and on a par with Uganda, Jamaica and Argentina. These levels are for 2007; it is suspected that the Gini coefficient for the US has since risen. 20 per cent of the US population controls 84 per cent of the wealth. Over 44 million Americans are on food stamps – 14 per cent of the population. The bottom 90 percent have seen their income rise only by a tiny fraction of total growth, while income for the richest 1 percent has exploded by upwards of 275 percent. The already super-rich have vastly increased their share of the pie--at the expense of everyone else.