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You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / Monday Morning Open Thread

Monday Morning Open Thread

by Anne Laurie|  June 30, 20146:16 am| 102 Comments

This post is in: C.R.E.A.M., Don't Mourn, Organize, Open Threads

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Nick Hanauer, “Seattle-based entrepreneur”, decided to tweak his fellow Point-Zero-One Percenters in Politico:

The Pitchforks Are Coming… For Us Plutocrats
…[L]et’s speak frankly to each other. I’m not the smartest guy you’ve ever met, or the hardest-working. I was a mediocre student. I’m not technical at all—I can’t write a word of code. What sets me apart, I think, is a tolerance for risk and an intuition about what will happen in the future. Seeing where things are headed is the essence of entrepreneurship. And what do I see in our future now?

I see pitchforks.

At the same time that people like you and me are thriving beyond the dreams of any plutocrats in history, the rest of the country—the 99.99 percent—is lagging far behind. The divide between the haves and have-nots is getting worse really, really fast. In 1980, the top 1 percent controlled about 8 percent of U.S. national income. The bottom 50 percent shared about 18 percent. Today the top 1 percent share about 20 percent; the bottom 50 percent, just 12 percent.

But the problem isn’t that we have inequality. Some inequality is intrinsic to any high-functioning capitalist economy. The problem is that inequality is at historically high levels and getting worse every day. Our country is rapidly becoming less a capitalist society and more a feudal society. Unless our policies change dramatically, the middle class will disappear, and we will be back to late 18th-century France. Before the revolution.

And so I have a message for my fellow filthy rich, for all of us who live in our gated bubble worlds: Wake up, people. It won’t last.

If we don’t do something to fix the glaring inequities in this economy, the pitchforks are going to come for us. No society can sustain this kind of rising inequality. In fact, there is no example in human history where wealth accumulated like this and the pitchforks didn’t eventually come out. You show me a highly unequal society, and I will show you a police state. Or an uprising. There are no counterexamples. None. It’s not if, it’s when…

Of course, quite a few of his fellows — not to mention the vast majority of the Robber Barons, fReichtards, and Talibangelicals in the GOP gated community — immediately yell, “Hey, sounds good, bring on the security forces, dude!”

But it’s interesting that Politico, aka “Tiger Beat on the Potomac” (thank you, Mr. Pierce) should suddenly find it fashionable to devote four pages to this latest high-centrist “middle out” theory of economics…
***********
Apart from rolling your eyes, what’s on the agenda for the start of another weeke?

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Reader Interactions

102Comments

  1. 1.

    satby

    June 30, 2014 at 6:25 am

    I’m torn here, should I complain that I have to go to work in a hot dirty place now that I found a job that pays about 1/5 what I used to make per hour, or should I just be grateful to have a job, like the oligarchs want?

  2. 2.

    Central Planning

    June 30, 2014 at 6:41 am

    Complaining is a perfectly acceptable thing to do around here.

    I’m off to Boston with the family, stopping by the Herkimer Diamond Mine (quartz, IIRC) before continuing the journey. My wife has some relatives that came over on the Mayflower, so we’re doing a day of that this week, and then other (hopefully) less popular tourist attractions like the Salem Witch Museum and John Adams house.

    I hope museum reciprocity works with temporary membership cards. The membership cost at the Rochester Museum and Science Center is $83. Admission to the Science Museum in Boston is $155. A trip to the RMSC is the last thing to do this morning before we head out.

    We’re using hotel points for our hotels (2 rooms per due to family size). We stick with Hilton properties because of work travel, and we’ve been pretty happy with them, especially the ones that have pools for the kids to wind down at the end of the day. Hilton credit cards help build up the balance too.

  3. 3.

    MattF

    June 30, 2014 at 6:47 am

    It’s mildly amusing that he refrains from making any actual suggestions to his fellow plutocrats. Probably because it would, y’know, mean sharing the wealth– and that’s just not done.

    ETA: Also, looking at D’Souza’s ugly visage in an ad… There really is nothing a winger can do that will permanently damage his reputation. Just keep saying bad things about the Kenyan Usurper, and all is forgiven.

  4. 4.

    OzarkHillbilly

    June 30, 2014 at 6:52 am

    what’s on the agenda for the start of another week?

    I’m sharpening pitchforks.

  5. 5.

    danielx

    June 30, 2014 at 6:55 am

    You show me a highly unequal society, and I will show you a police state. Or an uprising. There are no counterexamples. None. It’s not if, it’s when…

    To borrow the phraseology of a guy who used to (thankfully) sit in the Oval Office, some would say that the police state is already here. Wholesale surveillance, militarized cops, detention without charges, etc etc etc…..granted it’s a police state more or less wrapped in cotton candy as long as you don’t make too many waves or waves that are too large.

  6. 6.

    cermet

    June 30, 2014 at 6:57 am

    Just waiting for the inferior court to gives its ruling on the healthcare issue and return this society to the dark ages.

  7. 7.

    SFAW

    June 30, 2014 at 7:02 am

    @satby:

    or should I just be grateful to have a job, like the oligarchs want?

    I had a boss, a long time ago, who often reminded me of that, in his own inimitable fashion. Job market wasn’t as bad then as it’s been for the last 5 years, but it was the worst I had seen since college (and I wasn’t a kid any more, at that time). Worst boss I ever had, and not for that reason, either.

    So, find something else to try to keep up your spirits, and keep networking like hell if you can – I imagine you’re already doing that – and I’ll keep my fingers crossed that you get something good, soon.

    And fuck the oligarchs. Not literally, of course, unless you have a rusty pitchfork with which to do it.

  8. 8.

    PurpleGirl

    June 30, 2014 at 7:03 am

    I’m watching Discovery ID. The 20/20 story on right now is about a boy whose existence and illness is faked, involved a book and an HBO movie deal, etc, etc. They haven’t yet mention that it must be the inspiration for a L&O Criminal Intent episode. That episode very closely parallels the original story, except for the murder that gets the cops involved. Armistad Maupin maintained a telephone friend with the fake boy and later wrote a book about it (The Night Listener).

  9. 9.

    Chris

    June 30, 2014 at 7:06 am

    A little class war would be vastly preferable to the poor- and the middle-class grovel-fest we have now. When the revolution finally comes and I’m up against the wall, I will not be wailing how they don’t understand, my money helped lift all the boats in the rising tide; I’ll probably be asking them what took them so goddamned long.

    – John Scalzi

  10. 10.

    Cervantes

    June 30, 2014 at 7:06 am

    Point-Zero-One Percenters

    When did you switch from “One Percenters”?

    Both groups are problematic qua groups, but I agree that the smaller is a (slightly) more serious threat than the larger.

  11. 11.

    SFAW

    June 30, 2014 at 7:07 am

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    I’m sharpening pitchforks.

    Now that brings up an interesting discussion: do you want them really, really sharp, so that they’re more effective at piercing skin? Or not-quite-so-sharp, so that they inflict (theoretically, at least) maximum pain. Or perhaps sharp points with quasi-serrations on the rest of the tine?

    Inquiring minds and all that.

  12. 12.

    Cervantes

    June 30, 2014 at 7:10 am

    @SFAW: The real question: what pathogen do you infect those pitchforks with?

  13. 13.

    kindness

    June 30, 2014 at 7:12 am

    When I see these stories I always flash back to that scene in A Tale of Two Cities where the old crone is cackling ‘Guillotine, guillotine’.

    It won’t happen with pitchforks nowdays.

  14. 14.

    cermet

    June 30, 2014 at 7:18 am

    To hell with pitchforks – use drones equipped with [edited to prevent nutcase from doing this] – these devices are the preferred method used by the 0.001% to enforce their will upon the brown/black lower classes. By the way, the 0.1% is a joke compared to the real power in this country – the 0.001%.

  15. 15.

    OzarkHillbilly

    June 30, 2014 at 7:25 am

    @SFAW: It all depends upon your purpose. If torture and pain are what you want, leave them dull. If however you want to maim and kill as many as possible, sharpen them. I should mention that just before use, it is very helpful to dip the tines in fecal matter. That way if the wound itself is not fatal, the infection will be.

  16. 16.

    Iowa Old Lady

    June 30, 2014 at 7:25 am

    The Supremes’ decision on the Church of Hobby Lobby case is due today. Maybe we can practice our pitchfork techniques there. Oh wait. There’s a buffer zone.

  17. 17.

    Mustang Bobby

    June 30, 2014 at 7:32 am

    The start of the workweek is the last day of the fiscal year for me, so I’ve been compiling EOY reports for various folks in my department, then bracing myself for “Are you SURE those are the right numbers?” Yes, based on the parameters you gave me, they are. I could make something up — I’m a playwright, after all — but the auditors would not be amused.

    Have a groovy day.

  18. 18.

    Betty Cracker

    June 30, 2014 at 7:33 am

    Hanauer is right to predict pitchforks, but it’s very unlikely to happen in his lifetime or any of ours. A critical mass of desperation is required to spark a revolution. Absent some disaster that exponentially increases the misery quotient, the fat cats will continue to fatten while the middle class evaporates slowly for decades to come, distracted by bread and circuses until the last crumbs are snatched from their children’s mouths.

  19. 19.

    JPL

    June 30, 2014 at 7:34 am

    @Iowa Old Lady: The other ruling has to do with unions, so this could be a good day for plutocrats.

  20. 20.

    MattF

    June 30, 2014 at 7:38 am

    @JPL: The ‘Reversed Hand With Middle Finger Extended’ emoji:

    http://blog.getemoji.com/post/66758553792/middle-finger-emoji-its-happening-in-2014

    will get a nice workout.

  21. 21.

    Baud

    June 30, 2014 at 7:40 am

    And so I have a message for my fellow filthy rich, for all of us who live in our gated bubble worlds

    The pitchfork market is way undervalued and is ripe for short selling. And don’t forget derivative markets, such as heavy metals and blade sharpeners. If you invest now, you can really make a killing when the Revolution comes

  22. 22.

    Baud

    June 30, 2014 at 7:43 am

    @Iowa Old Lady:

    The Supremes’ decision on the Church of Hobby Lobby case is due today

    If Jesus only had limited liability, he’d be alive today.

  23. 23.

    Baud

    June 30, 2014 at 7:44 am

    @Betty Cracker:

    Yep.

  24. 24.

    Betty Cracker

    June 30, 2014 at 7:46 am

    @JPL: Yeah, Alito & Co. have got to be salivating over the opportunity to strike such a major blow to unions. A few years ago, I might have thought such a move would prove to be a disastrous overreach for conservatives since public sector union members make up such a large part of the GOP base. But after what happened in Wisconsin, I’m not so sure.

  25. 25.

    Baud

    June 30, 2014 at 7:59 am

    @Betty Cracker:

    since public sector union members make up such a large part of the GOP base

    They’ll get what they deserve. Everyone else, not so much.

  26. 26.

    PurpleGirl

    June 30, 2014 at 8:00 am

    @Betty Cracker: The problem is all those civil servant union members who vote against their own interest. They forget they are union members and not only speak against unions but because they now feel that they’ve made it, they become Rethuglican and vote that way. I saw it happen with construction unions in NYC; the members became comfy with what they had they forget how they got there and became Reagan Democrats. I hear the ideas of people in my own non-profit Co-Op.

  27. 27.

    Chris

    June 30, 2014 at 8:01 am

    Of course, quite a few of his fellows — not to mention the vast majority of the Robber Barons, fReichtards, and Talibangelicals in the GOP gated community — immediately yell, “Hey, sounds good, bring on the security forces, dude!”

    Yeah… that’s the thing. I don’t think the right wingers among his fellow robber barons are exactly unaware of the whole “welfare state as revolution insurance” concept. It’s just that they see it as extortion on the part of the poor and shiftless, bullying them for lunch money that they’re too lazy and immoral to earn for themselves. The New Deal, in this view, was basically the most gigantic hold-up in history, and those who benefit from the programs it instituted are gangsters living high on stolen money.

    They understand the idea that people like Nick Hanauer are trying to sell them, but the entire concept revolts them; if they’re going to pay, they’d rather for good bodyguards who can keep them safe from the thugs, than pay the protection money that leaves them at the whim of the mob.

  28. 28.

    Applejinx

    June 30, 2014 at 8:03 am

    The 0.1% would have to hide, to stave off a revolution. People will deal with a lot but their expectations are formed by the possibilities they see. If they don’t ever see wealthy entitled fatcats, they’ll ignore ’em, but the wealthy want to be worshipped and to be visible (to each other and to the serfs).

    Mind you, wealth ITSELF can hide very effectively, and it’s been happening. And when it’s just one guy with 50% of all the wealth, there’s a limited number of people his presence can offend. If it gets down to one bank account with 99% of all the wealth, that could hide very well but the whole system has become ridiculous.

    Wealth is ridiculous. It doesn’t translate to anything anymore, beyond rich people being treated as gods, but it just accumulates as numbers rather than doing anything.

  29. 29.

    brettvk

    June 30, 2014 at 8:04 am

    It’s strange to think that someone my age lived through both the high noon and the death of the US middle class. Social change on that scale used to take our species centuries; now it can happen in a lifetime. Empires ain’t what they used to be.

  30. 30.

    Botsplainer

    June 30, 2014 at 8:07 am

    Trolled my facebook wall using Jethro Tull’s Hymn 43 this morning and gave a shoutout to the Tealiban.

    http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1_LF9NFKPlo&feature=kp

    I’m now eagerly awaiting the squid cloud of butthurt.

  31. 31.

    DTOzone

    June 30, 2014 at 8:07 am

    @PurpleGirl: .

    I saw it happen with construction unions in NYC; the members became comfy with what they had they forget how they got there and became Reagan Democrats.

    Racial politics also played a role here.

  32. 32.

    Mr. Twister

    June 30, 2014 at 8:08 am

    Good article on the weaponization of the 1st Amendment.

    http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/the_breakfast_table/features/2014/scotus_roundup/scotus_end_of_term_the_supreme_court_s_conservatives_are_using_the_first.html

  33. 33.

    Kay

    June 30, 2014 at 8:12 am

    @Betty Cracker:

    Something will replace unions, though. People have been joining together to exert leverage for hundreds of years and there’s a recognition they need an advocate outside government.

    All the union-bashers may wish they had the tame, rule-bound, regulated unions back once they’re gone.

    Treat people like shit, and there’s a response.

    Organizers are expecting up to 500 Uber drivers – supported by Teamsters Local 986 – to hold a demonstration Tuesday morning in front of the Uber offices in Santa Monica.
    Uber calls its drivers “partners,” but Joseph DeWolf, a spokesman for drivers who are trying to organize says they often feel they get the short end of the stick.
    “From almost all accounts – at least from the driver’s perspective – [Uber is] not a very good partner,” said DeWolf. “It’s very difficult for drivers to express their viewpoints or to complain without the fear that there’s going to be some form of punitive reaction from Uber.”
    DeWolf cited a recent mandate from Uber requiring all Uber Black drivers with cars older than 2010 to switch over to UberX within two weeks (they later switched it four), where they will make less money. He also said the system where passengers rate their drivers is unfair.”

    I sometimes think “fair” is the most powerful word in the English language. One of the ME drivers feels he was inspired by the Arab Spring :)

    This is an OLD idea. It’s way older than the US Supreme Court. I’m not sure they can kill it. If they weren’t so greedy they would have realized they had a good deal with it bound by federal law and tamed by teams of lawyers. They don’t know what comes next, and they might not like it much.

    http://www.scpr.org/blogs/economy/2014/06/23/16892/with-help-from-teamsters-la-uber-drivers-try-to-or/

  34. 34.

    Baud

    June 30, 2014 at 8:14 am

    @Mr. Twister:

    I’ve long theorized that the First Amendment would be how the conservatives bring back much of Lochner era jurisprudence, when the Supreme Court read the constitution to prohibit a lot of public welfare and worker protection laws.

  35. 35.

    Botsplainer

    June 30, 2014 at 8:15 am

    @Kay:

    We may need to return to strike violence – exact a cost from management and their retainers if management is so focused on getting 100% of its way.

  36. 36.

    WereBear

    June 30, 2014 at 8:17 am

    @Kay: I sometimes think “fair” is the most powerful word in the English language….This is an OLD idea. It’s way older than the US Supreme Court.

    Yes, thanks for putting it so well. Toddlers who can barely walk and talk enforce FAIR on each other. It’s baked in.

  37. 37.

    redshirt

    June 30, 2014 at 8:17 am

    I’ve been tinkering with robotic pitchforks.

    It’s been a prickly development.

  38. 38.

    Iowa Old Lady

    June 30, 2014 at 8:17 am

    @Kay: Kay, you are, in so many ways, a comfort to me

  39. 39.

    Baud

    June 30, 2014 at 8:18 am

    @Kay:
    @Botsplainer:

    If you take the conservatives’ current First Amendment views seriously, I don’t know why the federal ban on secondary strikes is constitutional.

  40. 40.

    satby

    June 30, 2014 at 8:19 am

    @SFAW: Thanks! Most of my network got shown the door about when I did. But I like making new contacts at least. And the new job is ok, as far as jobs of this type go, just won’t pay the bills even if I cut to the bone.

  41. 41.

    beth

    June 30, 2014 at 8:20 am

    I’m just shaking my head in amazement today. My daughter started a crappy new part-time retail job and was told by her 30-something supervisor that he was going to call her “hon” because that’s what he calls all the girls. She told him “my name is (blank) and you can call me that so I know who you’re talking to”. Come on men, really? In 2014 women still have to deal wifh this shit????

  42. 42.

    OzarkHillbilly

    June 30, 2014 at 8:22 am

    @Kay: I hope so Kay, but that is just the optimist in me. The cynic…. Well, let’s just not give him equal time right now.

  43. 43.

    Botsplainer

    June 30, 2014 at 8:24 am

    @Baud:

    If you take the conservatives’ current First Amendment views seriously, I don’t know why the federal ban on secondary strikes is constitutional.

    Because Freedom and Sweet Baby Jesus.

    QED

  44. 44.

    SFAW

    June 30, 2014 at 8:26 am

    @Cervantes:
    @OzarkHillbilly:

    See, I’m just a lowly engineer, so it hadn’t occurred to me to think along those lines. My (sick) mind goes along the lines of “how many times does one need to poke them, in order to allow the steam to escape when you microwave them?” (Kids! Don’t try this at home!)

    Anyway, thanks very much for the helpful tips! I hope I don’t have to use them, but at least I’ll have a semblance of a plan in case I do.

  45. 45.

    Hal

    June 30, 2014 at 8:27 am

    “Our country is rapidly becoming less a capitalist society and more a feudal society. Unless our policies change dramatically, the middle class will disappear, and we will be back to late 18th-century France. Before the revolution.”

    This is what I’ve tried to say to conservative friends/coworkers of the let’s privatize everything variety. Some of these people have bought wholly into the idea that the more money the wealthy make, the better off we all are. As long as you don’t touch their guns or duck dynasty they’re fine.

  46. 46.

    Patricia Kayden

    June 30, 2014 at 8:28 am

    @cermet: Absolutely dreading that decision. I guess it will hit us around 10:00 am this morning. Perhaps it will spur a backlash by women voters though. That’s the only possible silver lining.

  47. 47.

    Suffern ACE

    June 30, 2014 at 8:28 am

    If you could finish this revolution by the 15th of July, I’d greatly appreciate it.

  48. 48.

    PurpleGirl

    June 30, 2014 at 8:31 am

    @DTOzone: Yes, racial issues were part of it, too.

  49. 49.

    OzarkHillbilly

    June 30, 2014 at 8:31 am

    @beth: Yep.

  50. 50.

    JGabriel

    June 30, 2014 at 8:32 am

    satby:

    I’m torn here, should I complain that I have to go to work in a hot dirty place now that I found a job that pays about 1/5 what I used to make per hour, or should I just be grateful to have a job, like the oligarchs want?

    If the oligarchs want it, that probably means it should be protested.

  51. 51.

    Hal

    June 30, 2014 at 8:33 am

    @beth: that’s interesting because I work in a hospital with all women in my office, and a couple of them refer to everyone as hon or dear. One day my coworker got chewed out by a Doctor who told her his name wasn’t hon, it was Dr so and so. She was deeply offended by his “arrogance”, but I told her hey, that man didn’t spend 15 years in med school and residency for you to call him hon. She was not amused.

  52. 52.

    Kay

    June 30, 2014 at 8:35 am

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Well, really what they’re trying to do is get rid of the whole idea of collective action. We’re all just independent contractors happily competing.

    I don’t think they can outlaw an idea.

    I’m reading a great biography of Cesar Chavez and the 4 priests who helped him were working from this ancient Vatican document, whatever those are called, the treatises or whatever. The idea that this started with Saul Alinsky and ended with Jimmy Carter is just very misguided. It predates the US by a mile. The whole reason for the elaborate federal scheme on labor unions was not to promote them, it was to tame them. This is a country of immigrants. They weren’t around for the firing of the air traffic controllers.

  53. 53.

    Betty Cracker

    June 30, 2014 at 8:36 am

    @WereBear:

    Toddlers who can barely walk and talk enforce FAIR on each other. It’s baked in.

    True. Dogs expect fairness too, possibly cats as well; you tell me. ;-)

  54. 54.

    Kay

    June 30, 2014 at 8:39 am

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    It’s shit like this that will get them. They’re greedy. They don’t want to pay people for the work that they do:

    http://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/columnists/sixel/article/Fissured-workplaces-can-affect-wages-working-5579358.php?cmpid=email-premium&t=6aefe9fe5218d1a0e4

  55. 55.

    WereBear

    June 30, 2014 at 8:42 am

    @Betty Cracker: Yes, cats are very big on Fair.

  56. 56.

    jcgrim

    June 30, 2014 at 8:42 am

    Maybe it’s not such a good idea for the 1%ers to keep their customers poor.

  57. 57.

    Betty Cracker

    June 30, 2014 at 8:43 am

    @Hal: I think people should make the effort to call others by their proper names, but if your coworkers called everyone — male and female — “hon” or “dear,” that’s less offensive that just calling “the girls” by those names, as Beth’s kid’s boss is doing.

    RE: “doctor” — I tend to call people by their formal names unless invited to address them more familiarly. It just seems the polite thing to do. But for someone to expect that he can call an office worker “Sally” while expecting her to address him as “Dr. So-and-So” — yeah, he’s an arrogant SOB.

  58. 58.

    PurpleGirl

    June 30, 2014 at 8:45 am

    @Kay: The documents you are referring to are encyclicals. They are philosophical and policy oriented treatises. One important issue dealt with is human dignity. Whatever one thinks of the RCC, there have been church leaders very concerned about human dignity and economic justice. There is a website about encyclicals — http://www.papalencyclicals.net/

  59. 59.

    WereBear

    June 30, 2014 at 8:46 am

    @Kay: I know very few of us even had grandparents who remembered strike-breaking and the Triangle Shirtwaist fire, but NOW there are a great many who remember that, once upon a time, there were affordable colleges, a wage one could live on, overtime, and pensions.

    And, as I love to point out to wingnuts, the country flourished when there were such rules. (Eisenhower tax rates, assholes!)

    So while the racists and misogynists are blaming all the wrong people, I hope there is a larger group coming to the right conclusions.

  60. 60.

    OzarkHillbilly

    June 30, 2014 at 8:49 am

    @SFAW: Happy to be of service.

  61. 61.

    Morzer

    June 30, 2014 at 8:49 am

    @SFAW:

    The pre-rusted rotating tine Black Death injection system pitchfork is the sine qua non of the aspiring revolutionary, comrade. I get mine from this boutique pitchforkerie a la mode in Manhattan and they come complete with a free hashtag for the truly committed activist.

  62. 62.

    Pogonip

    June 30, 2014 at 8:53 am

    @Chris: Aw, I’d give Scalzi a pass; also Stephen King, who has written an article similar to Hanauer’s, and Hanauer himself. They all seem like decent guys, and at least two of them were like us for a long time before they became filthy rich. In fact, maybe we should call people like them “clean rich” and save “filthy rich” for the sociopaths.

  63. 63.

    PurpleGirl

    June 30, 2014 at 8:58 am

    @WereBear: The building that was the site of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire was acquired by NYU at some point. It was the location of the chemistry labs and classrooms. As a chemistry major my freshman year, I spent a lot of time in it. It had elevators which were condemned and not used. NYU never tried to renovate them and use them. You got into the now-named Brown Building through the staircase in Main Building or the floor lobbies of the Waverly Building. When I realized just where my chemistry classes were, I began reading about the Fire.

  64. 64.

    WereBear

    June 30, 2014 at 8:59 am

    @Morzer: You don’t want to cheap out on your pitchfork choice; those cut-rate items just don’t last.

  65. 65.

    Morzer

    June 30, 2014 at 9:01 am

    @WereBear:

    I’m a repeat customer, so I get the Aspirant Club Card, a free bronze guillotine badge for my webpage and their monthly newsletter – all for free. La Petite Pitchforkerie really does make its customers feel loved and wanted.

  66. 66.

    PurpleGirl

    June 30, 2014 at 9:03 am

    @Pogonip: Considering that Scalzi is well-known for essays he wrote about growing up poor and white (male) privilege, without reading the whole post that paragraph came from, I’m thinking he was being sarcastic.

  67. 67.

    PurpleGirl

    June 30, 2014 at 9:07 am

    @WereBear:
    @Morzer:

    Good thing I haven’t started eating breakfast yet… my keyboard will stay clean and dry a while longer.

  68. 68.

    WereBear

    June 30, 2014 at 9:07 am

    @Morzer: We must support such proud independence… you just know Big Corporate Pointy Things, Inc is trying to muscle them out of business.

  69. 69.

    OzarkHillbilly

    June 30, 2014 at 9:11 am

    @Kay: This:

    The third-party companies that fill the gap – whether labor brokers, franchisers or independent management companies – are under intense pressure to provide the services at the lowest price, says Weil. To get the business, they have to do the work for less ,which pushes down wages and creates incentives to skirt wage and hour laws.

    My last job working as a union carpenter (my body just can’t do it anymore) I worked for a general contractor, one of their last carpenters. I was with them for 6 years and during that time they transitioned from “builders” to a “construction management firm”.

    They subcontracted everything out. My job was to make sure none of the carpentrey contractors fvcked anything up and fill the holes in the contracts. Eventually they found a way to write the contracts in such a way that I was superfluous. And gone.

    Anyway one sub was absolutely notorious for pushing their carpenters to the max, to the point that production was the only thing that mattered. You either produced or you were gone.*** The inevitable happened and a couple guys nearly killed themselves, and then got laid off for their troubles. And these were good carpenters. It’s all about reducing costs while maximizing profit.

    ***Over the years I worked for a # of drywall contractors like that. One I told the owner I was going to be needing some time off every now and again to help my dying mother. I got laid off the next day. My foreman said, “Don’t worry you’ll be back in a week.” I said, “No I won’t.” Most miserable fvck I ever worked for.

  70. 70.

    Cervantes

    June 30, 2014 at 9:12 am

    @Mr. Twister: Good with regard to analysis of Scalia and company, but re what Roberts, Ginsburg, Sotomayor, Kagan, and Breyer just did, Bazelon knows that her “worry” is not a counter-argument.

  71. 71.

    OzarkHillbilly

    June 30, 2014 at 9:15 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: Social!

  72. 72.

    WereBear

    June 30, 2014 at 9:18 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: Is that why all those McMansions are already falling apart?

  73. 73.

    PurpleGirl

    June 30, 2014 at 9:20 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: My father was a member of IBEW, Local 3. At one point the Union decided my father should take some classes and then they promoted him to a higher grade. His contractor initially didn’t like the idea because it meant he’d have to pay my father more. Then the contractor realized that with my father being an “A” electrician, he could bid on new construction work and not just repair/maintenance work. That meant, he, the contractor, would make more money. He was okay with paying my father more then.

  74. 74.

    gene108

    June 30, 2014 at 9:23 am

    @Betty Cracker:

    Hanauer is right to predict pitchforks, but it’s very unlikely to happen in his lifetime or any of ours.

    Representative democracies are not usually ripe for violent revolution. As long as there’s reasonable voter participation, the people have an outlet to demand change within the system.

    I do not look for a violent bloodletting, like what happened 100 years ago, when Labor demanded fairer treatment, but rather a longer, less violent, but sustained movement to demand less income inequality.

    The real challenge is to find candidates, who can get over the tribalism barrier in the South and Mountain West states, but will vote the right way on labor issues, at either the state, local or Congressional levels. Basically, we need to somehow rebuild the state Democratic parties in places like South Carolina and Mississippi.

    EDIT: The worst of the plutocrats, like the Koch brothers and Walton heirs, who want to create feudal state are probably banking their lives on the fact that enough gradual change can happen through democratic processes that they will never be up against the wall.

  75. 75.

    Kay

    June 30, 2014 at 9:31 am

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Their whole argument is “there are wage and hour laws!”. Despite the fact that none of those legal protections were just given to people, they’re getting around wage and hour laws.

    It doesn’t mean shit if it isn’t enforced, and they know it. We now have something called “wage theft” for God’s sake. They set it up so they can cheat them out of 7 minutes here, 21 minutes there. It’s just a constant battle. The idea that it was “won” is just bullshit.

    An employer can basically kill a worker now in Texas and there’s little recourse. They gutted all their state law, and are now relying solely on federal law. Who are we kidding? There aren’t enough inspectors and none of this will be enforced. When it isn’t enforced they’ll just get more brazen.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/29/us/the-state-has-a-record-of-high-worker-fatalities-and-of-weak-benefits.html

  76. 76.

    Kay

    June 30, 2014 at 9:33 am

    @gene108:

    But if they think government is not responsive they will turn to an outside collective action. That’s why unions formed in the first place. Government was captured. Is it better now? Really?

  77. 77.

    Kay

    June 30, 2014 at 9:39 am

    @gene108:

    There were three forces, government, the private sector and labor unions, and there was some equilibrium. Remove one and the power differential changes.

  78. 78.

    TriassicSands

    June 30, 2014 at 9:40 am

    @Betty Cracker:

    But, but, but the rich all got rich entirely on their own without any assistance from anyone else and without any good fortune (aka luck) that wasn’t of their own making.

    Yep, it takes a lot to get the sheep to go after the wolves.

    I recently re-watched Polanski’s The Pianist and watching Jews allow Nazis to murder them without the slightest opposition or protest is both difficult and painful. Yet, it’s not hard to imagine that kind of passivity when you observe the American middle class over the past 30-40 years. Like the Jews who helped the Nazis by becoming Jewish police, there are always people who will actively assist in their own oppression, especially if they think they can get a slightly better deal than the masses. Of course, the Nazi case is at the extreme end of the spectrum, but that just means it’s even harder to motivate people who face something less than their own murders.

    When the last remaining Jews in Warsaw finally oppose the Nazis’ violence with their own use of force and they are all slaughtered, Szpilman can’t even imagine a point to their fighting back. HIs non-Jewish female friend, Dorota, informs him that at least they died with dignity. She also thinks the Jewish opposition at the end will stand as a model for a Polish uprising.

    In the US, one of the ways the plutocrats strengthen their own positions is by pitting one group against another and demonizing certain groups of people. The tactics are transparent, yet somehow they’re successful year after year.

  79. 79.

    Morzer

    June 30, 2014 at 9:44 am

    @TriassicSands:

    It also helps the plutocrats that they now control a good deal of the media – and that so many people are exhausted by working longer hours for less. It’s hard to be an activist in a terrible job market, combined with a personal state of ongoing exhaustion and fear.

  80. 80.

    currants

    June 30, 2014 at 9:53 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: I got shovels and hoes, too, and a nifty little multi-use tool that I could swing to great effect. It shouldn’t need sharpening.

  81. 81.

    Paul in KY

    June 30, 2014 at 10:01 am

    @MattF: There’s only 1 thing they can do: Start throwing raises around.

  82. 82.

    Paul in KY

    June 30, 2014 at 10:03 am

    @Cervantes: Little feces on the points works wonders.

  83. 83.

    Paul in KY

    June 30, 2014 at 10:03 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: great minds!

  84. 84.

    srv

    June 30, 2014 at 10:06 am

    Anyone who thinks the pitchforks are coming for the 0.1% is an idiot.

    There are a whole lot of other folks who we have to go through first to get there. Pick a color, culture, religious faith (or lack thereof), whatever.

    And then rewatch Arthur Jensen’s speech in 1976.

  85. 85.

    SFAW

    June 30, 2014 at 10:11 am

    @satby:

    Most of my network got shown the door

    Then find a new network. Not trying to snark or be glib, honest! But, as an example: my current (primary) client, for whom I’ve done work for something like five years now, was the result of a post-church conversation. And considering I almost never go to church (since I’m an atheist), it was not part of my “standard” network. Now, I realize how lucky and fortunate I was, since if the timing were off, I might never have had that chat. But the point is that you never know when some random occurrence will turn into something, and talking to your non-work friends, may lead to something.

    Maybe you’ve been doing that all along, and I misunderstood the scenario you described. If so: sorry. But try not to get discouraged. And I wish I had better or more useful advice.

  86. 86.

    kc

    June 30, 2014 at 10:22 am

    I doubt Americans will put down their iPhones and take up pitchforks.

  87. 87.

    SFAW

    June 30, 2014 at 10:33 am

    And, apropos of the latest “decision” by the ScalitoRoberts “Court,” re: Hobby Lobby:

    ITMFA

    Impeach Those MotherFuckers Already.

    “This decision only applies to this one circumstance”? Fuck them, and everybody that looks like them. Scalia can’t go quail hunting with Cheney soon enough.

    ETA: I’m assuming that the pasted info below (stolen from Atrios) is first-party, not third-party, origination:
    “This decision concerns only the contraceptive mandate and should not be understood to mean that all insurance mandates, that is for blood transfusions or vaccinations, necessarily fail if they conflict with an employer’s religious beliefs.”

  88. 88.

    Woodrowfan

    June 30, 2014 at 10:34 am

    ARGH. I’ve been reading the vaccine thread on The Daily Banter. Makes you wish there was a vaccine for stupidity..

  89. 89.

    Woodrowfan

    June 30, 2014 at 10:37 am

    @WereBear: that’s why my wife and I, back when we went house-hunting, looked for an older house. Our realtor warned us against new homes put up in a rush. Of course, our 1946 house was also quickly put up as part of a boom, but it’s pretty damn solid.

  90. 90.

    Eric U.

    June 30, 2014 at 10:37 am

    I have grown to question the intelligence of the top 1% of the income ladder. At some point, the rest of us are going to take back what we made. What are they going to do, go Galt? Great, they can drive around in their armored vehicles hoping that an ied doesn’t get them.

  91. 91.

    SFAW

    June 30, 2014 at 10:45 am

    @Eric U.:

    What are they going to do, go Galt?

    I wish they would, already, so that the rest of us can get to work trying to turn America into the (idealized) version we think we remember. At least we’d have a chance; with them here, pretending that the fucking moocher Rosenbaum had anything of value to say, it’s that much harder.

  92. 92.

    Mike in NC

    June 30, 2014 at 10:54 am

    Last month we visited Saint Petersburg, Peterhof, and Pushkin. After seeing all the ridiculous opulence in those palaces, contrasted to what the normal people had to endure, even the wingnuts on our tour bus felt the Russian aristocrats got what they deserved in 1917.

  93. 93.

    WaterGirl

    June 30, 2014 at 11:19 am

    @satby: Do I recall correctly that your new job is in a thrift store? My first thought is that there probably aren’t a lot of contacts to be made there, but maybe that’s wrong?

    I say be as grumpy and frustrated with the new job as you like, when you’re not there. But give it 100% when you’re there, and maybe something great and unexpected will come out of it.

  94. 94.

    Archon

    June 30, 2014 at 12:26 pm

    A man of the one percent who got to the one percent slashing middle class jobs, a man who couldn’t even prove he regularly paid taxes, who basically wrote off half the country as moochers just got 47 percent of the vote 18 months ago for PRESIDENT.

    I acknowledge that sometimes things change quickly but forgive me if I don’t see pitchfolks on the horizon.

  95. 95.

    Ruckus

    June 30, 2014 at 12:36 pm

    @Chris:
    Yes they will pay for security. What will they think when their own security turns on them because it gets paid crap and a crap job/salary is no longer even a bad livable wage? Why do they think that their minimal wage security force will continue to protect them, minimal wages are minimal wages no matter the job.

  96. 96.

    JenJen

    June 30, 2014 at 1:07 pm

    @OzarkHillbilly: I’m bullish on pitchforks!

  97. 97.

    The Other Chuck

    June 30, 2014 at 1:51 pm

    @danielx:

    granted it’s a police state more or less wrapped in cotton candy as long as you don’t make too many waves or waves that are too large

    That is in fact how you run an effective police state. Clamping down on everything might work for Singapore, or even up to something as big as North Korea, but a large country that’s materially prosperous isn’t going to take it, as long as they’re not feeling threatened. You can always go to war, but keep it going too long and it starts to lose its luster. Manufacturing an enemy from within means having to put up with some of disorder so that a) you have that fear thing going for you, and b) when you clamp down on significant targets, you can paint them as extremists because hey, it’s not like the boot is on your neck, right? Only bad guys get their doors kicked down after all.

  98. 98.

    eyelessgame

    June 30, 2014 at 2:09 pm

    fashionable to devote four pages to this latest high-centrist “middle out” theory of economics…

    Middle class is still white, right? Just checking. At least it doesn’t mean any money goes to the poors.

  99. 99.

    David in NY

    June 30, 2014 at 3:50 pm

    @Baud:

    pitchfork market is way undervalued and is ripe for short selling

    I don’t trade on the market but isn’t that backwards? [Short sellers think stock overvalued, sell shares at current high price that they’ve “borrowed,” hoping to buy shares later at lower price to return to the lender of the shares, profiting from the spread. I’ve never understood that borrow part, how it works, and neither do the guys who skip that step and are called “naked shorts.” But I don’t know how they sell what they haven’t got.]

  100. 100.

    Aardvark Cheeselog

    June 30, 2014 at 4:35 pm

    @PurpleGirl:

    they now feel that they’ve made it, they become Rethuglican and vote that way.

    My Grandpa used to be fond of saying “The trouble with this country is that there’s too many people who get two ten-dollar bills to rub together, and all of a sudden they think they’re Republicans.”

    Grandpa was an FDR Democrat, and adjusting for inflation you’d have to update this from “two ten-dollar bills” to “three hundred-dollar bills,” but otherwise spot-on I think.

  101. 101.

    Skippy-san

    June 30, 2014 at 6:37 pm

    @Kay: This is what should be done to Mr Green of Hobby Lobby. His drivers should strike and other vendors should refuse to deliver to him. The only way to hurt this bastard is to kick him in the teeth.

  102. 102.

    The Other Chuck

    June 30, 2014 at 6:49 pm

    @David in NY: They’re selling a futures contract to someone who thinks it’s going to go up instead. Futures contracts are pretty essential for commodities since they smooth out price fluctuations by paying today’s price for tomorrow’s goods, though it’s always struck me as a shady side bet when it comes to stock shares. Some folks actually go short and long on the same stock and play arbitrage between them: it’s called a “synthetic position”, and it’s the sort of thing that makes you want to go back to cash on a barrel for everything.

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