Sparking a Populist Revolt Against the Billionaire Bailout Society
It's just sitting out there.
Talk to your neighbors and you can sense how angry they are about the rich gaining ever more wealth during the Great Recession. They understand that the bailout money -- our tax dollars -- went to the largest financial institutions in the world which had caused the crisis in the first place. They sense that the middle class is getting screwed yet again.
What a teachable moment! But what are we teaching?
It looks as if this resentment may reinforce a conservative resurgence. The tea party storm troopers are but the tip of the renewed revulsion against big government that is likely to send many a Democrat to defeat. People will blame the government for its failure to reign in Wall Street. If they government won't punish Wall Street, then the public will punish the government.
If progressives don't intervene decisively, we'll soon return to the faith-based ideology that got us here in the first place. But what can we do in the face of so much wealth, so much lobbying power and so much weakness on the part of so many political leaders?
We can do the basics that every other movement in our nation's history has done. We need to work on three fronts:
1. We need a clear cut analysis and narrative that explains the problem in ways that everyone can understand.
2. We need a concise set of solutions that captures and directs the anger toward bold reforms.
3. We need a broad movement that takes the agenda door to door to build an organized, sustained response.
What's our Narrative?
This crisis is the direct result of a two-pronged, failed experiment starting in the late 1970s that supposedly was intended to lift all boats. The first part of the experiment was to set "free" the financial sector by taking away most of the strong controls put in place during the Great Depression. This was supposed to unleash financial innovation that would make our system stronger and richer.
The second part was to demolish the progressive tax system so that money would concentrate in the upper income brackets - the investor class. They supposedly would invest in new goods and services that in turn would create more jobs and increase incomes.
This experiment in deregulated finance and redistribution of income to the super-rich failed spectacularly.
Instead of an investment boom in the real economy, the super rich poured their money into Wall Street's deregulated fantasy finance casino. They got much richer. We didn't.
The last time our income distribution was this bad was 1929-28 when a similar fantasy finance casino exploded. One factoid tells it all: In 1970 the ratio of the top 100 CEOs compensation to that of the average workers was 45 to 1. By 2006 it was 1,723 to 1! (The Looting of America p.167)
The casino was betting on risky debt and pawning it off by claiming that the risk had been engineered away. When housing prices stopped climbing, the risk was revealed and the investments turned toxic. The financial sector froze up and pushed the real economy off a cliff. Unemployment rose rapidly and is continuing to rise.
To prevent another Great Depression, we poured trillions into the financial sector. Unfortunately we asked for and got little in return. The billionaire bailout society is still intact and we're paying for it.
What's our Agenda?
It's time for Wall Street and the billionaires at the public trough to pay their fair share:
a.) The President's Wage Cap: Until unemployment returns to below 5 percent, no one in the financial sector should earn more than the President of the United States: $400,000 a year. Why? Because the entire sector is on welfare to the tune of $13 trillion in TARP funds, liquidity programs, and various bond/asset guarantees. (See Nomi Prins ) This proposal calls for shared sacrifice. The super-rich can afford it more than the 29 million who are unemployed or stuck in part-time work because they can't find full time jobs.
b.) Windfall Profits Tax on Wall Street Profits: Until unemployment returns to below 5 percent, profitable Wall Street firms should return 90 percent to the US Treasury rather than to their shareholders and bonus pools. To make record profits during the deepest recession since the Great Depression is both obscene and impossible without tax payer support. It's time to pay us back.
c.) Wealth Tax of 5 percent a year on those with a net worth of over $500 million. Again, until unemployment goes below 5 percent, the super rich should pay their fair share. They benefited mightily from the billionaire bailout society that has unemployed so many and gutted the middle class. They can easily pay without suffering.
d.) Break up all institutions that are too big too fail so that they are small enough to fail. This is a no-brainer. Unless we do so, we'll always be bailing them out, making the billionaire bailout society permanent.
There's no need to be defensive about this kind of agenda. It's about as radical as the policies of Republicans like Teddy Roosevelt, who busted the trusts, and Dwight D. Eisenhower, who presided over an era where the marginal tax rate on those earning more that $3 million (in today's dollars) was 91 percent. These Republicans actually believed that a fairer income distribution was better for our country. These Republicans actually believed that concentrated power was a threat to liberty.
Obviously this agenda is not set in stone. Rather it could be a starting point for a discussion with our neighbors and other agenda creators. Only through a robust dialogue will we learn enough to formulate a final program that truly strikes a common cord.
How do we mobilize?
Ah, this is the hard part. We seem to have forgotten how to mobilize ourselves outside of elections that then disappoint us. But the civil rights and anti-war movements of a generation ago show that it can be done. However, it requires hard work and leadership by labor and church organizations that have sufficient resources to support a giant educational effort.
Somehow we have to get to a point where many progressive organizations are working in common to conduct a mass door to door canvassing campaign. The key is talking with our neighbors. I think you'd be surprised at how many people want to talk about how to end the billionaire bailout society and who currently are only hearing the voices of the Neanderthal talk shows. They know the system is messed up, and they know that Palin and Beck have some screws loose. But if those are the only critical voices they hear, then eventually those voices start sounding sensible. It's been a long, long time since we've had a door to door dialogue about the common good. (If we need devices to facilitate those encounters, it would be easy to come up petitions to deliver to congress and the media.)
I know, I know, many of us thought that by electing Obama, it would all change (and what, Paul Krugman would be economic Czar?). But it's never that easy. Nothing much of substance will happen unless we organize a mass debate around a common agenda and a definition of the common good.
Two things are certain: If we actually talk with our neighbors all over the country, our alternative agenda will become much, much stronger. And if we don't, we'll be stuck inside of the billionaire bailout society for decades to come.
Les Leopold is the author of The Looting of America: How Wall Street's Game of Fantasy Finance destroyed our Jobs, Pensions and Prosperity, and What We Can Do About It, Chelsea Green Publishing, June 2009.
Follow Les Leopold on Twitter: www.twitter.com/les_leopold
The optimist in me says Obama can pivot off a health-care victory and launch some new initiatives that palpably and quickly spur job growth. The realist says there aren't any such initiatives.
Loading comments…
Want to reply to a comment? Hint: Click "Reply" at the bottom of the comment; after being approved your comment will appear directly underneath the comment you replied to
Why do you proscribe "the Democrats" as being the subject of your predicted doom? Why not "the Republicans?" Why not "both?"
Consider this: when the authors of our Constitution wrote the lonely sentence called "Article 2, Section 4," they intended it to be the linchpin of law-enforcement in what they (vacuously, as it turns out...) declared to be "the Supreme Law of the Land." They intended to say that "any civil officer," from the highest to the low, "shall be removed from office for" ... any offense from the highest to the low.
But they went on: they actually NAMED two offenses. And there is no coincidence here: both "bribery" and "treason" are forms of Betrayal. Both have the power to hand-over the entire Republic to the hands of its enemies: the enemy without, or within.
Bribery is the "enabling crime." If we do not confront and extinguish it somehow, the barn WILL burn down, and with all the prize horses still in it. If someone knows that he can waltz into Washington with millions of dollars in his pocket, and he knows he will be called a "lobbyist" or a "campaign contributor" or even (very soon now...) "exercising a Constitutionally protected corporate right to Freedom of Speech," then there's a great big flashing red light in our sky: "GAME OVER."
Let's be honest about our situation here: We've lost control of our government. We need high powered lobbyists to represent the "people" because our elected reps do not. The only way we can regain control of government and thus our lives is to go after the entities that control our reps and thus our governement. For example, health care reform: completely backwards -- 71% of the voters want a robust public option (most really want single payer, but our overlords said that we were not allow to discuss that at all!) and yet Congress acts as though it is just the opposite. Solution: Put together a grass roots protest that gets 10 to 20 % of consumers to drop their health care policies. The powers that be (the corporations) would respond very quickly. Stop complaining about your reps, they don't work for you! They only pretend to be on your side to get reelected.
There's been a populist revolt going on for well over two years, but because it is being built by true liberals, true conservatives and libertarians and because the issue driving it is 'Opposition to Big Government, both Federal and Global', the mainstream media either ignores it, ridicules it, or demonizes it, and slanders everyone in it as 'conspiracy theorists', 'militia types', 'racists', or 'religious wackos'.
Any real populist revolt is going to come from people who have awakened and then discarded the phony paradigm of the two major parties, and since the primary mission of the mainstream media ( and plenty of the 'internet new media' as well ) is to keep people trapped in the prison of the two corporate parties, anybody who wants in on this populist revolt better not expect any help from the MSM.
The mainstream media will try and hijack populist movements and then drive them off a cliff, though. ( But hey, if people can't recognize that someone like Glenn Beck is an infiltrator bringing sabotage to any populist movement, they deserve what they get. )
Sometimes, the Water announces its powers in the form of a crashing tidal wave that in one stroke washes everything away.
But what the criminals in our Government ... the many hundreds of them ... should fear is a Rising Tide. The waters that slip around you while you sleep, cutting off all avenue of escape before they drown you. The waters that engulfed you only because you were secure in your own thoughts that such an end could never come; that you could sleep in peace anywhere you wanted to. That the only outcome that could happen would be one that was duly accounted-for in all your smug spreadsheets and prognostications.
There are less than 1,000 people in the Beltway who have repeatedly abdicated any sense of duty or concern to any of the 307.7 million people who put them there. But the country, itself, is much prized by them, and the system of government that our great, great, great-grandfathers put in place for us still works. The problem here is: the thousand. And the literally-millions of vacuous dollars with which they stuff their faces each day ... as the Tide slips quietly in.
The last thing that we need to do is give government more money, they don't know how to spend it. I'll be very clear, we need to end the Federal income tax on the lower and middle classes. 100% of the Federal income tax is spent maintaining the interest on the Federal Deficit. Want to scare the billionaires shitless, end the federal reserve and give Americans sound money. Most of the Elite even Gooberment don't know how to make an honest living.
That's right. Anyone preaching populism who ignores the Fed or who thinks that the economy can be repaired around the private central bank is, at best, delusional and spreading false hope, or, at worst, intentionally poisoning the populist movement.
are you telling us? Didn't we already vote for this in 2008? Jee
Sorry, but I live in Texas. Since most of the population cannot read, we rely on the rich to do all the reading. We just couldn't live without them.
The first thing we need to mobilize for is to make bribery (private campaign finance) illegal. Bribery is one of the main sources of power for the rich. It is the main obstacle to democracy. If we make bribery illegal, all of the following fights against the oligarchy will me much easier.
I would simplify it even further.
Starting with Ronald Reagan, the government began deregulating the financial sector. Without regulation, the Wall Street Profiteers made up their own rules. Having received favorable tax treatment, instead of investing in jobs for Americans, they made gigantic bets with their newly acquired wealth. They paid the ratings companies to lie about the safety of home mortgage junk bonds and give them Triple A ratings (They call it "innovation"). When home values began to go down, the bonds lost value. Because deregulation allowed the Wall Street Profiteers to leverage their bonds at 30 to 1, once home values fell more than 5%, the bonds became toxic and Wall Street firms began losing value, eventually tottering on the edge of bankruptcy.
The American taxpayer stepped in to bail out Wall Street by guaranteeing their debt and lending them money. Rapid government action prevented another Great Depression, but the money and power of Wall Street has so far held off reforms to make them pay for their misadventures and prevent another future economic meltdown.
People will still stand for personal liberty against crushing taxes, even if the individual makes $50 mil a year. However, nobody these days is really a fan of the large corporations - Republican, Democrat or whatever. So, why don't you rephrase your demands to call for a 90% tax on revenues at large corps above a certain amount? This will automatically limit the effective size of the "Too Big To Fail" banks and insurance companies. Nobody is going to take a public political stand for the wealth of a fictional entity. CEO salaries and bonuses would automatically be adjusted to the revenue cap, more competition would result as companies are subdivided to get around the cap, and taxes would increase as the larger firms bumped up against the cap. The resulting inefficiencies would also allow for more employment and economic activity.
And, it's a political win across the board. Nobody likes dealing with a monster company.
Voting clearly changed things. Obama turned business as usual into worse than usual.
Perhaps, the only way for real change to occur is to make the taking of bonuses hazardous to family and the life of a CEO or senior executive terminal. This is why our Republic will fall as voting means more money for the very, very few. We're talking about the top 1% of the top 1%.
I don't see how voting in the future will change the rapid transfer of assets since Clinton deregulated the finance industry.
In our lifetime this will not change. We will watch actors be paid tens of millions, watch sports stars paid tens of millions, work if we are lucky for companies that pay their top tier tens of millions amounting to billions. We allow Jobs to pretend he only earns $1 a year to avoid taxes and Gates can set up a charity to avoid paying estate taxes. These Oligarchs only give if there is a tax advantage.
Americans will never deal with this issue. They will just watch TV, get drunk and shoot their families before the Sheriff comes to reposes their homes.
Oh and let's not pretend that ordinary share holders benefit. 50% of Goldman Sachs profits are going to a tiny few. There's no special dividend for investors. The greed can only survive if the pool is tiny. Obama's cabinet is corrupt to the core and nothing will change.
these post is my bible Fanned. But since you are so true I got to leave this country: it is doomed to nothingness.
The American sheep are still focused on Muslims as their mortal enemies.
If they engaged in critical thought, we'd be sicking the drones on Wallstreet.
It's up to Obama to make the first move and give the country the signal to revolt. The current system is designed in a way that makes all forms of dissent punishable by one form or another.
Obama's biggest mistake (that is, he is honest in his rhetoric) is trying to negotiate with business oligarchs as opposed to tearing down their empires.
These are for sure not the times for "negotiattions".
"It's up to Obama to make the first move and give the country the signal to revolt."
Nice fantasy, but the elite aren't stupid and they're not going to install a President who will blow up in their face. They have fail safes in place to prevent this 'signal from the top' scenario, anyway.
It's a bad idea to wait for signals from 'leaders'. Besides, the signal has been given, long ago. The founders issued warnings about what events would precede the collapse of the republic, and those events are happening. A global banker-controlled government that micromanages you financially, biologically, and psychologically is on the move. There's the signal. The elite have stated that they plan to create just such a society. They've been building it for over a century behind a shroud of propaganda, and now it's breaking through the surface fast, like the Monster From The Bottom Of The Sea.
As average citizens without lobbyists, we can only respond with the limited power we have.
I have a small business and I'm closing all my bank accounts and opening new accounts at my credit union. If enough people did the same, things would change.
I write to my senators regularly, both email and snail mail. (SNAIL is more effective). I emailed the White House (via their online site) twice last week.
Because we're competing with the interests of rich and powerful lobbyists, we feel powerless.
Well I'm taking my power back. I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore!
Being the eternal optimist I am, I am inclined towards proposing that the answer to your key question
How do we mobilize?
is to ask instead: Who do we mobilize?
It's a question of understanding the lessons of 1989. Surprised? Why?
The reason is that the key metaphor is that of the 'lifting of all boats'. You mentioned theologians and some other species. Which is perfectly right and valid. The crucial species is the absent one: those who act according to the knowledge that there are limits to the 'lifting of all boats' when the method of choice for that purpose neglects the fact that so far no human being, no institution, no market, no ideology and no narrative has managed to actually calculate the tipping point of beneficial aspects of enlightened self-interest versus destructive ones.
The question of national and global wealth impacts of the playing field (leveled vs tilted) is open.
The battle is won at the very instant that enough of those who are affected by this openness start to realize that it is in their own best interest to redefine the rules of the game.
There's a short version of this: just make meritocracy happen, and all ills will be cured. But don't take simplistic shortcuts. Trickle-down is one, deregulation is another. The challenge of not fighting yesterdays wars is to find a playing field that it is immune to all of these degenerations at once.
A worthy cause, indeed.
Money and credit will be made into a utility, and all people will be guaranteed the right to shelter, food, water, medical care, and transportation. Our taxes will be used for improving all our lives with shared wealth and a firm safety net. We will end the privatization of the money creation and stop paying interest on the money created. And our currency will be tied to tangible resources including, but not limited to, gold and silver. Finally, as we move into the future, we will simply abandon the more excessive abuses of overconsumption, focusing on creating things that are renewable, reusable, durable, and beautiful. People will still have the ability to open a business or capitalize on their talents, but profit will no longer be the driving force behind aspects of society in which profit becomes counterproductive to the end goal--like in the health care and justice systems.
America will finally deserve its name and live up to its ideals.
The bullies always win.
It's good to know that this is not true. Did you read about Angela Merkel's speech in Congress?
You must be logged in to comment. Log in or connect with
