Author of Be Ready for Anything and Bloom Where You’re Planted online course
In a nation that has prided itself on the “American Dream” – the dream that anyone can become wealthy if they work hard enough and make the right decisions – it’s probably a shock to learn that a lot of folks no longer believe in capitalism.
But the shock goes even deeper than that. A report from the Cato Institute that examined Americans’ opinions on wealth and the wealthy says that 47% of American socialists believe that “taking violent action against the rich may be justified.”
About the report
The Cato Institute is a think tank that performs independent, non-partisan research into a wide range of issues related to personal liberty, limited government, free markets, and peace. You can learn more about the Cato Institute here.
The new report is entitled What Americans Think About Poverty, Wealth, and Work.
The survey…investigates attitudes toward the rich and the poor and examines what Americans believe about work, welfare, and social mobility. (source)
Many of the results seem to be right down party lines and in this political climate, are frighteningly predictable.
Let’s take a look at the findings.
Socialism vs. Capitalism
Opinions have taken a shift since 2016.
In 2016, Democrats were about as favorable toward capitalism (58%) as socialism (56%). But after President Donald Trump took office, Democrats became more favorable toward socialism. Today, 64% of Democrats have favorable opinions of socialism and 45% are favorable to capitalism. Republicans continue to have overwhelmingly favorable views of capitalism (77%) while only 13% have favorable views of socialism. (source)
Why did this shift occur?
According to half of the Democrats surveyed, President Trump caused them to dislike capitalism and lean more toward socialism.
At the same time, 44% of Democrats say that Trump has not influenced their views on capitalism vs. socialism. 72% of independents and 64% of Republicans reported that President Trump has not influenced their views on the economic model.
Overall, 59% of Americans favor capitalism and 39% favor Socialism.
Thoughts on Wealth
Opinions on wealth were varied. Here were some of the findings:
84% of Americans believe “there is nothing wrong with a person trying to make as much money as they honestly can.”
- 61% want to raise taxes on anyone who makes more than $200,000.
- 53% want to raise taxes to a whopping 70% on those who make more than $10 million.
- 65% of Americans over age 60 oppose the increased tax on people making more than $10 million, while 62% of those under 30 support the increase.
A worryingly slim majority of Americans do not believe that wealth should be redistributed from the rich to the poor.
- 62% oppose the redistribution of wealth from the rich to the poor. (Where do they intend for that 70% millionaire tax to go?)
- Down party lines, here’s who believes in wealth distribution: 58% of Democrats, 36% of Independents, and 15% of Republicans think that money should be taken from the rich and given to the poor.
More than half of Americans (55%) believe that the distribution of wealth in this country is “unfair.” This is divided by age and political philosophy.
- 79% of Democrats find the distribution unjust.
- 55% of Independents find the distribution unjust.
- 67% of Republicans find the distribution just.
- 70% of people under 30 think the current distribution of wealth is unjust
- 61% of people over 65 think the current distribution is just.
The distribution of wealth (or lack thereof) will probably be a key factor in the next election. It was only a couple of years ago when a group went public about their desire to “expropriate” the assets of the wealthy and redistribute them to the poor.
Young people vs. old people
Let’s talk about younger people’s opinions versus older people’s opinions. Cato reports:
People under 30 are about 20–30 points more likely than Americans 65 and over to:
- believe the rich got rich by “taking advantage of other people” (52% vs. 27%)
- believe billionaires are a threat to democracy (51% vs. 26%)
- feel “angry” when they read or hear about rich people (44% vs. 11%)
- believe it’s “immoral” for society to allow people to become billionaires (39% vs. 13%)
- believe that citizens taking violent action against the rich may be justified (35% vs. 10%)
- support redistributing wealth from the rich to the poor (53% vs. 20%)
- support raising top marginal tax rates (62% vs. 43%)
Young Americans are about equally favorable toward socialism (50%) and capitalism (49%). In stark contrast, Americans 65 and over solidly prefer capitalism (76%) to socialism (34%). (source)
It is not out of line to blame our education system for pushing socialism and leftist professors who promote violence for these attitudes. In fact, the Democratic Socialists of America urge socialists to become teachers to accomplish just this.
However, it might be consoling to note that when a similar survey was undertaken in 1978, more than half (54%) of Americans under 30 believed that wealth should be redistributed from the rich to the poor. The young people who were 18-29 then are 59-70 now, and you can see how their opinions have changed. That should provide some hope that the attitudes of current young people will change as they become more mature and have more life experience.
People have wildly varying views on how rich folks became wealthy.
One of the biggest points of disparity was opinions on how rich people attained their money. Liberals and conservatives are completely at odds regarding this.
- Strong liberals say the top drivers of wealth are family connections (48%), inheritance (40%), and getting lucky (31%)
- Strong conservatives say the top drivers of wealth are hard work (62%), ambition (47%), self-discipline (45%), and risk-taking (36%)
- Strong Liberals say the top causes of poverty are discrimination (51%), an unfair economic system (48%), and a lack of educational opportunities (48%)
- Strong Conservatives say the top causes of poverty are poor life choices (60%), a lack of work ethic (52%), breakdown of families (47%), and drugs and alcohol (47%) (source)
With these differences in perspective, it is easy to see how difficult it would be for liberals and conservatives to come to a consensus regarding policy to “fix” the poverty in America.
What attitudes most influenced people’s points of view?
According to this report, there are two major factors that influence people’s points of view regarding capitalism vs. socialism: resentment and compassion. The report says:
Statistical tests find that resentment of high achievers has about twice the impact as compassion for the needy in predicting hostility toward capitalism and support for raising taxes on the rich. However, compassion is a better predictor of support for increasing welfare benefits. Both resentment and compassion predict support for socialism. (source)
At the same time, 69% believe that billionaires became wealthy by creating value for others, and 65% believe that the nation is better off when people become wealthy because they, in turn, will invest in businesses that create jobs.
Most Americans (82%) believe that people should be “allowed” to become billionaires. However, this really breaks down in the Democratic party, where 54% of them believe that billionaires are a “threat to democracy.” Unsurprisingly, 65% of socialists believe that “allowing” billionaires is immoral.
And this is where things get kind of scary.
There are more people than you might think who believe that “citizens taking violent action against the rich” is acceptable. Here are the people who believe that it is acceptable in some situations to be violent toward the wealthy.
- 17% of Americans in general
- 47% of socialists
- 36% of liberals
- 35% of those under 30
One must wonder what they mean by “violence.”
Do they mean that violence should be used to expropriate the wealth or violence should be used just for the sake of harming the wealthy for the audacity of being financially well-to-do? Do they want to use guillotines like the people in the French Revolution to enforce their goals of wealth distribution?
Conclusion
At this point, there’s a hard push toward socialism in this country.
Most folks who believe in socialism don’t see the correlation between those policies and the collapse of Venezuela for example. They don’t understand that every time in history that food production was collectivized, people died of starvation. On the other hand, a lot of the vocal people who are against socialism have views that appear to be condescending and judgmental, neither of which is going to win over hearts and minds.
As someone who has been dirt poor despite my very hard work, I find the opinions that cite laziness and drug use to be downright offensive. As someone who managed to dig myself out of poverty, I find the concept of having the results of my hard work “redistributed” to be equally offensive.
Also note: this article is based on the Cato Institute’s statistics – this isn’t an opinion piece.
What do you think of the results of this survey? Do you believe there will be violence against the wealthy? Do you think the push for socialism will continue until we no longer recognize the United States as the land of opportunity?
I’d love to hear your thoughts on the findings. Do they seem accurate to you? Do you have any personal experiences that support or contradict the survey? Please share those stories in the comments.
And try to keep it civil – this only has to be volatile if we allow it to be.
Please visit The Cato Institute to read more details of this survey on the state of our union, and share your thoughts in the comments.
About Daisy
Daisy Luther is a coffee-swigging, gun-toting blogger who writes about current events, preparedness, frugality, voluntaryism, and the pursuit of liberty on her website, The Organic Prepper. She is widely republished across alternative media and she curates all the most important news links on her aggregate site, PreppersDailyNews.com. Daisy is the best-selling author of 4 books and runs a small digital publishing company. She lives in the mountains of Virginia with her family. You can find her on Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter.
The people who believe it is okay to commit violent acts against the rich,are the people who believe they should be given everything for doing nothing.This is socialism at it’s worst.Socialism is the ruination of all societies.These people need to get off of their a**es,learn a trade so they can get a better paying job,earn more money and wisely invest,instead of poo pooing the rich who mostly started at the bottom and wisely worked their way to the riches they have through capitalism.#capitalismmakes #socialismtakes
Actually, many of the rich are also all for committing violence against other rich folks, especially the middle class. Socialism is just a convenient pretext for doing so. The so-called free market championed by other rich factions likewise often works out to being a pretext for economic raiding.
People seem to forget, real socialism is a form of capitalism. Under socialism, the government class participates more in critical free market middleman activities to determine the winners (and losers) for the public good.
In America, socialism is being conflated with hardcore Marxist communism. Communism is also a weapon of the rich against other rich folks, but unlike socialism its far more vicious. Totally suppressing free market price discovery means constantly having to fix outcomes often so irrational as to require great force.
However, Venezuela’s perceived failure is due more to the U.S. economic war against it, not ‘socialism’.
Real socialism works; Sweden under its former ‘third-way’ socialist governments, never had migration crisis and criminal ‘no-go’ zones of foreigners, for example. However, the government/political class got spoiled and taxed too highly, the main mechanism for Nordic socialist fail.
Nordics use a purely representative democratic system, which means there is almost no way to correct persistent corruption of elected representatives. Nordic socialism also had the misfortune of being in the middle of Cold War I, and so came under political and economic attack by aggressive proponents of crony capitalism and crony communism, both of which for their own reasons needed third way socialism to fail.
Your article is basically opinions about people with money. I have mixed feelings on that but here is what I have learned about getting ahead. First, you must avoid all self-destructive behavior. Second, you must learn how to protect yourself from people that will take what you have earned, by fair means or foul. Third, live frugally, don’t waste money on things you don’t need to further your goals of success (things like clothes, houses, cars, gadgets, trips, etc). Fourth, budget carefully and don’t splurge on the little stuff, especially the self-destructive stuff. Watch your dollars and the 100 dollar bills will pile up. Fifth, you must thoroughly understand the risk/reward ratio. Then you understand the risks and rewards of different types of investments and life itself. Sixth, you must have a fallback position. This is classic prepper actions and knowledge. This is in part about risk and reward. Some of your money and time must go to prepare for failure so failure does not destroy your family, your will to succeed, your health or you. Failure comes from many sources, most are not under your control, like the economy, government action or inaction, other people, theft, etc. So when failure happens, learn from it and don’t beat yourself up about it. . You must survive failure so you can stay alive and try again. Seventh, you can shine (attract attention) at work, when appropriate, but the rest of the time, be the gray man. Yeah, I know, writing blogs and comments to blogs are not gray man actions.
“Public” schools deserve their reputation for pushing socialism given in this article. Every time I see a yellow school bus connected with a “public” school, I’m reminded of Thomas Jefferson’s statement that forcing people to pay for ideology with which they disagree is tyranny. “Public” schools have never been religiously or ideologically neutral. This survey backs up the “public” school aspect in pushing socialism.
Another reason for this hostility against billionaires is that some high-profile billionaires have been less than ethical in their acquisition of their billions, names which have appeared repeatedly in columns also on this site. One of the big reasons for Linux and programs connected to it were the actions of Microsoft. Google and Facebook are infamous. Berkshire Hathaway belongs in this list. Monsanto is here. Of course, we cannot forget George Soros, a man who has caused much suffering in the world by his actions, then uses his billions to undermine this country. This is not a complete list of those who have been less than ethical in their acquisition of their billions and fuel much of the hostility towards “capitalism” and billionaires.
“Crony capitalism” is identical to fascism, a type of socialism that is practiced also in China and Russia today. They are behind many of the laws and rules that restrict honest competition and make it harder for upward mobility. They call themselves “capitalists” but are really socialists. They give “capitalism” a bad reputation and fuel anger.
I have been dirt poor too, but I blame socialism for much of the poverty I see today. Often what looks good on paper, ends up bad in practice, and almost all of those are socialist ideas.
The biggest problem is morality. Socialism is by its very nature immoral. It’s a perfect example of “the road to hell is paved with good intentions”.
Socialists tend to be dishonest. Look at how they call followers of Karl Marx, namely fascists, “right wing” and foster violence against them. Or how they lie about and foster violence against anyone with whom they disagree. With this as a background, are the results of the survey mentioned in this article any surprise?
Alex, I’ll take “Things I would have said myself ” for $2,000 !
Followers of Karl Marx are Marxists. If you don’t know the difference between Marx and Hitler, then there isn’t really much hope for you.
Well I suspect I am wasting my time on Pat Meadows but the political line doesn’t go from Right to Left like your Socialist School Teachers taught you. It’s a circle that meets at extreme Left and extreme Right.
Fascism and Communism are two sides of the SAME COIN. Both destroy free will and result in failure in every historical governmental attempt to date.
So maybe you should look at real historical records instead of “Talking Points” from your Media Masters.
I have Hope for you, your are still alive and this article points out statistically that old saying “If your not a Socialist at 18 you have no heart, If your STILL a Socialist at 40 you have no Brain”.
Folks early on in their learning of the REAL WORLD ™ think the Rainbows and Unicorns of “Every person according to their need, doing according to their abilities” Doesn’t WORK in the Real World. Lazy People Take more than they need and produce NOTHING, talented people soon learn that their hard work is NOT Rewarded. Socialist-Communist System FAILS due to Human NATURE ™.
Pat Meadows: Hitler was a Marxist. So were Mussolini and Franco. There were two main branches of Marxist socialism in the 1930s: one was Leninism, the other fascism. Part of the dishonesty of modern Marxists is that they want to disown fascism as a branch of Marxist socialism, therefore lie about it. Communist China is a good example of fascism in practice today.
Karl Marx hated the fact that he was of Jewish ancestry, and so was rabidly anti-Semitic. As a result, Antisemitism is integral to Marxist socialism. Look at the Jewish followers of Karl Marx today, they want nothing to do with their Jewish heritage, among them George Soros and Bernie Sanders. Hitler was a Marxist socialist.
I didn’t write the text above, although it seems to have my name on it. Maybe this indicates that the writer is answering me; I don’t know.
It is important to realize that socialists and communists are not Americans. They might physically meet the requirements, but their allegiances are elsewhere. So, in effect, they are enemies within the gates, and we should not expect them to adhere to the Constitution or American social norms because they don’t believe in them.. Even a fair number of liberals fit the same category.
The paragraph about the Democratic Socialists encouraging their members to become teachers is an exact duplicate of what the Communist Party urged their members to do in the mid 60s in Callfornia. Try to get a copy of the “Operation Abolition” video that showed how the riots at City Hall in San Francisco, in about 1964 were instigated to make the House Committee on Un American Activities (HCUA) stop their inquiry into that tactic. Where is the HCUA now?? When we need them??
The first American Revolution had under 20% of the population supporting it. Lenin took over Russia with the support of about 17% . I am not a math whiz, but I believe that 17% of America is around 50 million Commies. A Civil War needs three elements, #1 Friction between races/tribe/ religions, #2 Friction between the Haves and Have Nots, and three Political friction.
We got all three!
Sorry Daisy, I don’t believe any statistics produced by an organization like the Cato “Institute”. Its name sounds impressive but when you do some research into what sort of policies they espouse, you see the agenda they’re pushing. No thanks.
I personally love their libertarian agenda. But then again, that aligns my own philosophy. Encouraging the free market, doing away with the Fed and IRS, and allowing more personal freedom are all things I staunchly support.
You beat me to it. I’m generally conservative, but I have a few libertarian leanings. You’re right that Freedom should be the guiding principle…as is highlighted by our Highest governmental Authority, The Constitution.
2 Corinthians 3:
17: Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
We may not always agree, but on this we are of one mind!
Daisy, naturally you do since you’re a Libertarian 🙂 Encouraging the free market and allowing more personal freedom sound good in principle, however, there are some policies the Cato Institute reportedly supports that I just can’t agree with, including, but not necessarily limited to, the following: “The institute opposes minimum wage laws . . . It is opposed to expanding overtime regulations . . . It opposes child labor prohibitions. It opposes public sector unions . . . It opposes universal health care . . . It is against affirmative action . . . It has also called for total abolition of the ‘welfare state’ . . . and argues that private charities are fully capable of replacing it. Cato has also opposed antitrust laws. Cato is an opponent of campaign finance reform . . . Cato also supports the repeal of the Federal Election Campaign Act”.
All sounds good to me. I guess I’m strictly Libertarian. Libertarians believe in self-sufficiency to a huge degree. The federal government should stick to what is “enumerated” to it in the Constitution – and nothing else. But it has overstepped it’s authority and, I predict we’ll never get it trim it down.
Not meaning to be a WORRY WORT, but I’ve discovered over the last 50 years, that “POLLS” are becoming TOTALLY BIASED NOW, (by recent experience)…AND!
GROUPS & ORGS. are getting SOOOooooo BIASED that it will SOON be LITERALLY IMPOSSIBLE to PROVE any of them LEGIT…(note: “Sarrows”? etc.)….
I DEEPLY APPRECIATE your hard work VERY MUCH…and refer my friends to your site; but I SEE in our near future “INFLUENCES” & “CRITTERS” that WILL fulfill Biblical PROPHECY & thus create a TOTAL CHANGE in America, (as well as GLOBALLY); & DANIEL 11: 32 – 35; & MATT. 24 [entirely], & ESPECIALLY verses 9 thru 13 AND 42 thru 47 are RAPIDLY & AMAZINGLY coming into FOCUS!!!
My COUNSEL is to:
BE AWARE! BEWARE! PREpare! & CARE!
Mark Twain famously said, “There are three kinds of lies…lies, damned lies, and statistics”. I think we need to amend that for today’s world and add polls to the list!
;o)
Very true Charles! Poll results are, I think, prone to being skewed by such things as sample size, choice of people to be polled, phrasing of the questions, “massaging” of the data, etc., etc., etc.
Daisy said, “…a lot of the vocal people who are against socialism have views that appear to be condescending and judgmental, neither of which is going to win over hearts and minds.”
That may be true…it probably IS true…but hardly anything in this world is monolithic, cut and dry. As my parents always cautioned me, “Always consider the source”. If a poor person were opining on the laziness of poor people I would be far less inclined to take offense (as a poor person myself).
What REALLY makes me laugh are the rich people saying “I wish the Government would tax me more”. We’ve all heard this at one time or another…usually around election time. Yeah. I guess they never learned that the IRS accepts donations out of pocket. They are free to give ALL their money to the IRS if they are so inclined…but they don’t. They seek out every loophole and tax shelter they can find.
I think it all comes down to the moral vs. the immoral. There are moral rich people and moral poor people. The same is true of the immoral. I try not to think about a person’s financial standing in the same way I try not to think in terms of skin color or ethnic origin. Morality is my litmus test. Socialism, being the baby brother of Communism, has never been known for its morality… despite its strident claims to the contrary.
*”Injustice is relatively easy to bear; what stings is justice.” – H. L. Mencken
*the same can be said of Truth
“The problem with Socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money” – Margaret Thatcher
As for the age difference issue I’ve heard it said that “If you are young and you’re not a liberal, you have no heart. If you’re old and you’re not a conservative, you have no brain.” I think that pretty much sums it up. Older people have a larger knowledge and experience base to work with than young people. There is no denying it. Some folks wise up as they age, others never do…and I don’t think “education” has a thing to do with that.
Not really anything new. During the 1930s depression, Many people worldwide questioned the status quo. Capitalism and feudalism became very suspect. This was the beginning of the rise of National Socialism, Communism, and Democratic Socialism. “The more things change the more they stay the same.”
During overthrows of smaller European countries in the late 20th Century, communist activists were surprised at how quickly the overthrows went, particularly with calls to trash the rich. That went very, very well. If you give humans who are not rich an opportunity to envy and covet, they will do it. If you promote envy and coveting, they will do it very quickly. Communists know this and use it at will.
What makes me laugh is the number of VERY wealthy people (especially celebrities!) who champion socialist “values”, yet seem to conveniently forget that when the “glorious revolution” takes place their wealth will be amongst that being redistributed.
Seeing as how so many Democratic politicians and their supporters are millionaires, perhaps in light of this poll they had better reassess their sucking up to the socialist elements in their party.
The guillotine has no opinion on the people it kills; it merely does the bidding if the executioner.
I’ve always wondered why the “rich” who support Socialism don’t just donate all of their money to the poor and live like the rest of us. Or those who support illegal immigrants don’t just take them into their homes and commit to becoming permanently financially responsible for them.
Quite the contrary, super-rich crony capitalists are high-maintenance leviathans constantly on the verge of starvation.
Under real capitalism, the non-competitive are eventually tossed from grace. Real capitalism is far stronger than crony capitalism; as the ancient pagan Greek wrote, “The mills of the gods grind slowly, but they grind small.” In the interim there’s a lot of messy racing ahead of the curve.
Communism is to some crony capitalists, the lifeline guaranteeing continued privileged socio-economic status. Communism’s currency is political power to which monied wealth is subject, not master.
Socialism vs. Capitalism? Tell me, has a poor person ever offered you a job?
Yes, it didn’t pay well though, lol.
17% if the overall population of the US means that nearly one out of five people advocates for violence against those who THEY PERCEIVE as “wealthy”.
Meaning that ANYBODY who has something that they want is “wealthy”, comparatively speaking.
Who do you think that the “revolutionaries” will target first, the average suburban homeowner with two cars and a nice house, or SOROS with his multimillion dollar mansion and the armed security to go with it? Or Robert “F-U!” De Niro in his secure apartment? Or any of the hypocritical politicians who bleat about “for the people!!” and pull down massive paychecks and sweet benefits packages for doing little if anything they were actually elected to do?
Charity begins at home, so these Communist shills should be the first to be stripped of their wealth and power and privilege.
Well said.
Even the most peaceable person can justify violence against the rich (or the poor) when the question is posed properly: self-defense is always a sufficient reason. If you put a poor person in a position where they are in fear of substantial physical harm coming their way, then they are entitled to prevent it, and it doesn’t matter how rich or poor the person posing the threat.
The Cato Institute was founded by the Koch brothers (along with others) in the 1970s. It’s *their* think tank.
On the subject of socialism (obviously, a precursor to communism), just read the old novel, Animal Farm! You will see it being laid out right now. And I bet they don’t give the students this book to read in public school because it would expose their agenda and cause the students to then think for themselves. Oh the horror! (sarcasm here).
Sorry Dee, you’d lose that bet. George Orwell’s classic novel “Animal Farm” definitely is still being given to public school students (usually High School students) to read and discuss.
Generally speaking, we have failed our children. We have enabled them and dumb-ed them down across all social economical levels of our society. Children have access to equal opportunity schooling in our country and parents at all levels are “too busy” to care about what’s going on there to make sure it represents their values. The system will educate them on the basics, but being a government run system it has little control and too much overreach with our children. The base for learning values and attitudes comes from the home and that is where we have failed.
Those who are stuck in the cycle of being entitled through programs that don’t require work have created generations of dependence. Many have lost the skills and the mindset to raise their children with the right perspective to be successful. Our society is at fault for enabling them. Many of the programs started out with good intentions and were meant to be temporary, but that went sideways just like most things that government does when it interferes into peoples personal lives. Social Security has become a government entitlement and look how far away they’ve gotten from the original intention of that “program”.
Then you have the hard working “middle class” and “rich” who treat their children like we have treated the poor, give them everything at any expense. Going into debt for bigger homes so they don’t have to share rooms, nicer clothes, phones and college educations. This creates the same issue as the poor. An attitude where their children believe everything grows on trees and should be “given” to them. They get into high school and think that grades and sports should get them a phone, car and spending money. They graduate and think they should have a high paying job and a nice house right off the bat.
Of course there are some parents, regardless of wealth and how much extra time they have, that prioritize being a part of raising their kids with values and a work ethic that supports success. Those people are obvious when you meet them. But in general we are now the “me” society, don’t take responsibility for ourselves, and lack in self control. It’s like giving a kid a calculator but never teaching them math. We have lost our skills to cope with real life, we are all princes and princesses. We want what we want and everyone must agree with us or we have a fit. Sometimes it feels like we are primed for a Civil War and I’m sure our enemies are just waiting for that!
Well said!
Historically oppressed classes of people always attempt to rise up against their oppressors. Most of the time they fail.
Governments today are way too strong to fall to such uprisings in the “first world”, unless they want to fall….
So you should consider the possibility that they want to fall.
Targeting the wrong people. Not to say the rich are guiltless but those in power who are guilty. I don’t care if they are sociopaths or scoundrels, deranged, deluded. and aligned with a certain political party that has proven they are of the former.
The crime is still TREASON. Fleecing the American people whilst simultaneously trying to disarm them and turning them over to the enemy.
UNFORGIVABLE!
But Blather, the rich (and their cronies) ARE the ones in power.
Killing the Rich is not the answer. Exposing them is. Money is the problem. Ancient Tribes had no money and survived fine. The UBUTA communites are the answer
https://ubuntuplanet.org
Ron, to which Ancient Tribes are you referring? When I got my degree in Cultural Anthropology back in college, I studied many ancient tribes and cultures. While not all of them used coins as a means of exchange, they all had some item(s) of personal or real property of value, the accumulation of which gave a person status in their community. For example: herds of cattle, goats, camels, sheep, horses, precious minerals and/or gemstones, fertile fields, orchards, irrigation ditches, spices, salt, bound servants, etc. From what I learned, just as the poor have ‘always been with us’, so have the rich.
Trust me…. they will NOT go after the Socialist-Billionaires that fund them.
When THEY interfere with Your Right to Freedom of Association, Speech, Privacy, They relinquish Their Property Rights.
The Billionaires think they have a right to use their wealth to interfere in Our lives with their “social engineering programs”
We have the SAME right to interfere in their wealth.
“Funny” how these BILLIONAIRE Leftwingers believe in Socialism and Sharing (YOUR) property……….
but Their’s is THEIR’S ….. no WAY are they gonna share. Look how jealously they squeeze every PENNY of revenue with patents and lawyers, while preaching sharing and “inclusiveness”.
These SCUMionaires do not GIVE to charity. They establish tax free “trusts & foundations” where THEY control the money and get paid to do so and you actually subsidize them because you pay higher taxes to replace what they avoid. “The more money communists accumulate, the more they preach morality to others”
Socialism is a con-game to get the workers to think they should work for free.
Quit drinking the Kool Aid You,,your children, are being programmed to be docile SERVANTS.
“In a free society, only actions are crimes. In a slave society, thoughts and words are crimes.” — Michael Rivero
—– Do not “question authority” ….. be AFRAID to “offend” anybody at all……grovel & bow. Tolerate those who DO NOT Tolerate you or your culture. You are ordered to not be judgemental …. but They are judgemental as all get out about you and everything you do or think.
Paying it forward,Giving back, spend your vacation “helping others” spend 9/11 GIVING …….
All pushed by RICH people & politicians who sacrifice NOTHING. The Rich write off their time, the politicians are getting you to fix THEIR problems and take pressure off them.
parting thought …. how have Americans been seduced into training their own children to be SERVANTS. “pay it forward/back” work for others on your vacation, give this, donate that, yield YOUR culture and beliefs to any failed trash that comes along becuse for some unexplained reason You are “inferior” ………….. ”
It only stands to reason that where there’s sacrifice, there’s someone collecting the sacrificial offerings. Where there’s service, there is someone being served. The man who speaks to you of sacrifice is speaking of slaves and masters, and intends to be the master.” Ayn Rand
Who is funding all these Socialist Groups that hate Our Freedoms and Our beliefs? The Rothschild’s, Rockefeller’s, Mellon’s, Kuhn’s, Vanderbilt’s, and the CRIMINAL BANKING FAMILIES, Kochs, Buffett, Soros, Bezos, Gates, Zuckerberg not happy with their riches they wish to OWN you.
When they decide to step across Our threshold/line with Their wealth to interfere in OUR lives, it is the same as trespassing into Your house and we have the Right to TAKE their wealth.
What I think is unfair are companies that pay workers the smallest amount they can, close plants, lay off large numbers of workers and then give the CEO a huge ($20+ million) bonus.
My belief is that people need to work hard to be successful and part of that is taking care (ie providing well compensated employment) to the people working for them. Most of the families living in poverty are single parents working 2 or 3 jobs to try and make ends meet. The other group that lives in poverty are people on disability. The disability amount is a lot less than they made as a salary when able to work. Plus they have high medical bills. The medical bills often take most of the disability check.
A lady I know was living below the poverty line is a single mother with 3 kids. She had an injury at work and ended up needing 3 surgeries to bring things back as close to normal as possible. She was getting workman’s comp while she was out of work. They paid all of her medical bills and a portion of her salary. It wasn’t enough for her to continue pay rent on the small house they had lived in for over 10 years. The family became homeless. Technically she was still employed, so the family did not qualify for food stamps or any other program that might help them stay in their home. The injury prevented her from being able to continue to work at any job. The company did help her with all the paperwork for Social Security Disability and gave her a nice severance package after she was approved. This allowed her to move from her car into an apartment. During the 3 years all this took place, her oldest child graduated from college, her middle child was living with a relative while she was in college, and the youngest child was still living with her from the car into the apartment.
My friend owns a company valued in the millions. She talks about her start and how the business came about. A few weeks after she gave birth to twins, her husband left her. A year later she was barely making ends meet and was within in 90 days of having her home foreclosed. She was given an opportunity to try something new and she took the risk. Today, she employs hundreds of people in multiple states. She values her employees and pays them well. Anytime she has an opportunity to move into a new area, she or her 2nd husband take a few current employees and then hire when they arrive, because it doesn’t take long for the word to get out that this company is hiring, she is able to hire top notch employees. Most people who work for her company stay. With the exception of people who have left to retire, she still has most of original workforce with her. She pays them well and treats them with dignity and respect. That is what is missing in a lot of work places today.
CORRECT….I do a lot of contract work at many large corporations and companies. This desire to “Eat the Rich”
does NOT come out of thin air. Work for peanuts busting your ass while your manager and CEO make big bucks
sitting on their backsides and you would be amazed at how fast you become a “socialist”. Merit and hard work
are NOT rewarded in most companies now…
DDDD NN You are so right! I have seen (and experienced first hand) many employers get ahead on the backs of their workers. Not all employers are like that, of course, but almost all of them I have known (both individuals and corporations) were! They treat employees like disposable, interchangeable cogs in a wheel. Companies don’t have “personnel offices” any more, they have “human resources” offices. Employees are no longer people to them, just faceless “resources” that can be paid peanuts, denied benefits, and discarded at will. Hiring “part-time” employees so they don’t have to offer their workers benefits anymore, and laying off employees just before their pension rights would vest, are just two examples of the abuses I have seen employers do time and time again in this country in the past 20 years.
I agree a lot of employers do not treat their employees well. But this isn’t always the case. Can I provide some perspective from my side as an employer?
1) It currently costs me more than $1650 for an employee to clear $1029. I would much rather pay the extra money to my employee but I have to pay it to the government on their behalf.
2) The average cost for an employer to provide healthcare benefits to an employee is $13,927 a year. That’s more than $1000 a month in additional expenses!
Now multiply that by a huge number of employees. While I’m not defending businesses that mistreat employees in the way it is rumored that Amazon and Walmart do, it isn’t always greed that causes employers to work around giving benefits and raises.
I’m assuming that, as (I presume) an employer with fewer than 5 employees, the money you’re paying to the government on your employee/s’ behalf is for Worker’s Compensation Insurance and Unemployment Insurance. I expect your employee/employees is/are glad to have that coverage. Unless an employer has 50 or more full-time employees, I don’t think they’re required to provide health benefits for those employees. Hopefully if your business grows to the size where you have that many full-time employees it will be generating enough income to afford at least a modest health benefit plan for them.
If you ask me, which I know – you didn’t lol – this is a direct consequence of a lack of morality. Plain and simple. Enlightening article.
The rich started violent behavior against the poor and middle class since the 70s. Who came to their aid? Nobody. So if you were the poor, wouldn’t you start to defend yourself against the violent rich? You obviously have dementia as you deny history is ALWAYS Rich wages n violence against the poor.
Wow! This is the kind of attitude that will lead to a real civil war. Our current civil war is limited to using words to hurt the other side. But this survey shows that some people are willing to take it a step further. I’d encourage readers, if u live in an area where you’re in the political minority, to move to an area where you’re part of the majority. For ex, I would not want to be a gop’er in a dem county, or a dem in a gop county. If & when actual fighting breaks out, you want to be part of the majority. If you’re a moderate or don’t want to take sides, get rid of anything with political labels, such as a bumper sticker, etc. Keep your head down, & don’t express your political opinions publicly.
Good points Chris.
@Chris,
Yeah, I said something similar.
And got blasted for rolling over, or not manning up and fighting till the end, going out in a blaze of glory.
Well said on the interwebs.
Not so much in real life when you have incoming.
I wonder how many people had the first thought of “Bring it on”.
I’m definitely not in the rich category by any means.
I don’t have a problem with people being rich. (Criminals are the one exception to that, civilian and govt.)
Since most of the Antifa types are cowards and only attack in mobs, my suggestion is to stay away from crowds. That’s a good idea in general.
.
Are we heading for a massive bruhaha? Maybe.
As they said way back when, Keep your powder dry.
Not news what Marxists think, what they will do.
The Cato Institute is in no way, shape, or form a non-partisan organization. Started by Charles Koch, heavily funded by Kochs and others who think like the Kochs.
I don’t tend give much credence to any articles or other media when I see the word “socialist”. It is being used as a scare tactic and to raise campaign donations.
Violence against the rich has happened more than once in the history of the world. The French Revolution is probably the best known. Those with nothing left to lose, regardless of political or religious affiliation are a threat. And the number of those with nothing left to lose are increasing. Not just in the US but all around the world.
Yes Selena, very true.
What happens if the “rich” not only offshore their wealth, but take their wealth and leave?
Sure Warren says she will tax 40% of their net wealth before they leave.
But is that Constitutional?
A few studies suggest even 40% of wealth will only fund all these freebie programs for a few years.
Then what?
They have to tax those who cannot leave. Meaning the middle class.
In order to give us economic equality, means to bring everyone down.
1stMarineJarHead, I doubt they’d want to live elsewhere for long. For all her faults, ours is still (IMHO) the most beautiful, wonderful Country in the world. That’s why so many people want to immigrate here.
Actually socialism is a tool of the politically connected rich against other rich folks, and including if not especially the middle class, the most hated of rivals.
A commie or fascist (the original Nazis were ‘national socialists’) revolution would have no financial backers otherwise and go kaput from a lack of sponsorship. Arms and especially effective comms and propaganda don’t come cheap.
Many grunt-rank Western lefties raging against the rich fail to realize, they ARE in relative terms rich people (albeit sometimes failed rich people) and been fooled into hating their own middle class, especially the most successful ‘rich’ ones.
I don’t espouse violence against the rich, but the idea that people gained their wealth by hard work and ambition is not always all of the story. They often have gained a world of knowledge from their parents–about education, life skills, business and making money. In other words, the middle and upper class have absorbed a lot of values that will work to their advantage as they navigate life and the work world. When they were been born, they were already several rungs up the ladder. In contrast, a young girl born in poverty in Appalachia will not be groomed to make the choices that will propel her into the middle class. The belief systems of the lower class will tend to keep her in it. In America, a lot is determined by class, and if you are in the upper class, you had a lot going for you before you ever entered the workforce or inheritied your fortune or whatever. To really understand this, I suggest borrowing a book from the library: “A Framework for Understanding Poverty–a Cognitive Approach” (6th ed.) by Ruby Payne (ISBN# 978-1948244183).
If you don’t know the “hidden class values” that exist, you won’t understand the choices somone in another class will make, nor how you can help them get out of poverty. In addition, you can see these hidden values at work in your own life, and make choices that help you advance. Because these values are so ingrained, they are very difficult to recognize and to change. Hence the difficulty in helping people get free from poverty.
As one example of what I am saying… Bill Gates is often trotted out as the guy who started a business in his garage. However, he was born into a privileged family and was invited to speak at IBM because his mother was on the board. Yes, he worked hard and had a vision, but he already had people in his corner who championed him, gave him great skills, and helped him to succeed. He was not exactly an unknown black kid from Harlem–who by the way, probably would not even know what a corporate board was and what those directors could do for him. You can read more about Bill Gates here (watch for the skills he had because he was born into the upper class): https://www.biography.com/business-figure/bill-gates
In my opinion, the problem we have now is that the current version of capitalism really does not work with the increasing globalization in the world. We are losing the middle class and need to figure out ways to help people get out of the lower class so we don’t become even more divided. Without that, I believe you WILL see violence eventually. Get a copy of Ruby Payne’s book and see if you have any ideas about how to make this happen.