Wealth, Prosperity, & Inequality

From ZNet:

Curiously, the reflections on poverty are rarely, if ever, related to the reflections on wealth. Yet wealth and poverty are intrinsically linked, as if they were two sides of the same coin. ... Proposing to reduce global poverty without touching the structures of global wealth is quickly becomes a meaningless task. ... Poverty can only be abolished by way of transforming the very political, economic, cultural and military structures in place to perpetuate it. ... There are also military structures in place to safeguard the system from acts of defiance or resistance to this modern-day, post-colonial pillage.

And they quote Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations:

“Wherever there is great property, there is great inequality. For one very rich man, there must be at least five hundred of the poor, and the affluence of the few supposes the indigence of the many. [. . .] It is only under the shelter of the civil magistrate [read, the police] that the owner of that valuable property, which is acquired by the labor of many years, or perhaps of many successive generations, can sleep a single night in security."

That is one of the largest reasons I wanted (and to some extent still want) to move to another country. As I have become more successful I feel exceptionally guilty paying taxes on bogus national debt to arbitrary privatized for profit central banks that not only rob this country, but have sophisticated schemes which make the poorest countries poorer year after year after year.

And that guilt feels even worse after experiencing the military lifestyle (which should have likely lead to my death, and I don't know how I got past it) and knowing how intertwined the military is in the wealth consolidation scheme.

It gets even more bothersome every time I think about it.

And to quote a Carl Sandburg poem from The People, Yes which I quoted before:

I pledge my allegiance,
say the munitions makers and the international bankers,
I pledge my allegiance to this flag, that flag,
any flag at all, of any country anywhere
paying its bills and meeting interest on loans,
one and indivisible,
coming through with cash in payment as stipulated
with liberty and justice for all,
say the munitions makers and the international bankers

I realize part of the reason I have been successful was innovation and investment associated with the military-industrial complex fraud, but it scares me to think that some people in power think we can have endless growth, and that we are so willing to externalize our own faults when we are trying to control others...to be the most powerful nation in the world you think we would be a bit more just in our actions, but becoming powerful is often the result of being unjust.

Even within the United States wealth consolidation is speeding up:

Since the late 1970s wealth inequality, while stabilizing or increasing slightly in other industrialized nations, has increased sharply and dramatically in the United States. While it is no secret that such a trend is taking place, it is rare to see a TV news program announce that the top 1% of the U.S. population now owns about a third of the wealth in the country. Discussion of this trend takes place, for the most part, behind closed doors.

And the endless growth and wealth consolidation can only continue as long as you can make the average person believe in equality and think that the world is an endless resource. To do so will require more and more mind control manipulation unless something reverses the course of wealth and power consolidation.

Posted at October 25, 2006 12:01 AM