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Seattle billionaire calls for other billionaires to come back down to earth

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  • Seattle billionaire calls for other billionaires to come back down to earth

    Originally posted by Politico
    The Pitchforks Are Coming… For Us Plutocrats

    Memo: From Nick Hanauer
    To: My Fellow Zillionaires

    You probably don’t know me, but like you I am one of those .01%ers, a proud and unapologetic capitalist. I have founded, co-founded and funded more than 30 companies across a range of industries—from itsy-bitsy ones like the night club I started in my 20s to giant ones like Amazon.com, for which I was the first nonfamily investor. Then I founded aQuantive, an Internet advertising company that was sold to Microsoft in 2007 for $6.4 billion. In cash. My friends and I own a bank. I tell you all this to demonstrate that in many ways I’m no different from you. Like you, I have a broad perspective on business and capitalism. And also like you, I have been rewarded obscenely for my success, with a life that the other 99.99 percent of Americans can’t even imagine. Multiple homes, my own plane, etc., etc. You know what I’m talking about. In 1992, I was selling pillows made by my family’s business, Pacific Coast Feather Co., to retail stores across the country, and the Internet was a clunky novelty to which one hooked up with a loud squawk at 300 baud. But I saw pretty quickly, even back then, that many of my customers, the big department store chains, were already doomed. I knew that as soon as the Internet became fast and trustworthy enough—and that time wasn’t far off—people were going to shop online like crazy. Goodbye, Caldor. And Filene’s. And Borders. And on and on.

    Realizing that, seeing over the horizon a little faster than the next guy, was the strategic part of my success. The lucky part was that I had two friends, both immensely talented, who also saw a lot of potential in the web. One was a guy you’ve probably never heard of named Jeff Tauber, and the other was a fellow named Jeff Bezos. I was so excited by the potential of the web that I told both Jeffs that I wanted to invest in whatever they launched, big time. It just happened that the second Jeff—Bezos—called me back first to take up my investment offer. So I helped underwrite his tiny start-up bookseller. The other Jeff started a web department store called Cybershop, but at a time when trust in Internet sales was still low, it was too early for his high-end online idea; people just weren’t yet ready to buy expensive goods without personally checking them out (unlike a basic commodity like books, which don’t vary in quality—Bezos’ great insight). Cybershop didn’t make it, just another dot-com bust. Amazon did somewhat better. Now I own a very large yacht.

    But let’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.

    Many of us think we’re special because “this is America.” We think we’re immune to the same forces that started the Arab Spring—or the French and Russian revolutions, for that matter. I know you fellow .01%ers tend to dismiss this kind of argument; I’ve had many of you tell me to my face I’m completely bonkers. And yes, I know there are many of you who are convinced that because you saw a poor kid with an iPhone that one time, inequality is a fiction.

    Here’s what I say to you: You’re living in a dream world. What everyone wants to believe is that when things reach a tipping point and go from being merely crappy for the masses to dangerous and socially destabilizing, that we’re somehow going to know about that shift ahead of time. Any student of history knows that’s not the way it happens. Revolutions, like bankruptcies, come gradually, and then suddenly. One day, somebody sets himself on fire, then thousands of people are in the streets, and before you know it, the country is burning. And then there’s no time for us to get to the airport and jump on our Gulfstream Vs and fly to New Zealand. That’s the way it always happens. If inequality keeps rising as it has been, eventually it will happen. We will not be able to predict when, and it will be terrible—for everybody. But especially for us.

    ***

    The most ironic thing about rising inequality is how completely unnecessary and self-defeating it is. If we do something about it, if we adjust our policies in the way that, say, Franklin D. Roosevelt did during the Great Depression—so that we help the 99 percent and preempt the revolutionaries and crazies, the ones with the pitchforks—that will be the best thing possible for us rich folks, too. It’s not just that we’ll escape with our lives; it’s that we’ll most certainly get even richer.
    http://www.politico.com/magazine/sto...l#.U7AMQ7EvCSo

    Check out the actual article, this is just the first page of four.

    Nick Hanauer does a great job of laying out exactly how ridiculous the current situation is becoming. He sees that without a strong middle class the 1% don't get to exist any more. If you're only going to read one long article today, make it this one, it's very worth it.

  • #2
    Hopefully, these people all try to escape to Dubai... and then get killed by rampaging Islamists.

    That's really the best scenario here.
    To us, it is the BEAST.

    Comment


    • #3
      I don't think there will be pitchforks anytime soon. He should have left that part out since it's too easy a target to scoff at.

      Raising the minimum wage would be good. Ideally it would be gradual over a few years to get it back up to the cost of living curve.

      The bigger problem is wages for people actually at the bottom of the economy ... the ones living in other countries or illegal immigrants off the books.

      Comment


      • #4
        If the demand for pitchforks increases, that just seems like an opportunity.

        The new order will be run by the pitchfork moguls.
        To us, it is the BEAST.

        Comment


        • #5
          For anyone that feels they aren't taxed enough by the US government: http://www.treasurydirect.gov/govt/r.../gift/gift.htm
          I make no bones about my moral support for [terrorist] organizations. - chegitz guevara
          For those who aspire to live in a high cost, high tax, big government place, our nation and the world offers plenty of options. Vermont, Canada and Venezuela all offer you the opportunity to live in the socialist, big government paradise you long for. –Senator Rubio

          Comment


          • #6
            For anyone that understands it's pointless to pay more taxes if others aren't:
            Communist party of USA
            In Soviet Russia, Fake borises YOU.

            Comment


            • #7
              Originally posted by Oncle Boris View Post
              For anyone that understands it's pointless to pay more taxes if others aren't:
              Communist party of USA
              Where those policies lead: Venezuela Is Running Out of Toilet Paper
              I make no bones about my moral support for [terrorist] organizations. - chegitz guevara
              For those who aspire to live in a high cost, high tax, big government place, our nation and the world offers plenty of options. Vermont, Canada and Venezuela all offer you the opportunity to live in the socialist, big government paradise you long for. –Senator Rubio

              Comment


              • #8
                DinoDoc doesn't understand the difference between price controls and taxes.
                In Soviet Russia, Fake borises YOU.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Actually I was referring to the Communist Party link you posted in general.
                  I make no bones about my moral support for [terrorist] organizations. - chegitz guevara
                  For those who aspire to live in a high cost, high tax, big government place, our nation and the world offers plenty of options. Vermont, Canada and Venezuela all offer you the opportunity to live in the socialist, big government paradise you long for. –Senator Rubio

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    In any case you were wrong.

                    Venezuela has price controls, therefore, even if they run out of something, they're just running out at a certain price point. Of course you would love it if people couldn't afford basic stuff - that's your political project.
                    In Soviet Russia, Fake borises YOU.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Originally posted by Oncle Boris View Post
                      Venezuela has price controls, therefore, even if they run out of something, they're just running out at a certain price point. Of course you would love it if people couldn't afford basic stuff - that's your political project.
                      Here's the results of your political project: Haunting pictures show desperate struggle to survive in last days of USSR
                      I make no bones about my moral support for [terrorist] organizations. - chegitz guevara
                      For those who aspire to live in a high cost, high tax, big government place, our nation and the world offers plenty of options. Vermont, Canada and Venezuela all offer you the opportunity to live in the socialist, big government paradise you long for. –Senator Rubio

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Raising the minimum wage would be good. Ideally it would be gradual over a few years to get it back up to the cost of living curve.
                        Minimum wage increase by x percent.

                        COL increase by x+y percent.
                        Scouse Git (2) La Fayette Adam Smith Solomwi and Loinburger will not be forgotten.
                        "Remember the night we broke the windows in this old house? This is what I wished for..."
                        2015 APOLYTON FANTASY FOOTBALL CHAMPION!

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Originally posted by Ben Kenobi View Post
                          Minimum wage increase by x percent.

                          COL increase by x+y percent.
                          But that isn't what fits the evidence.

                          JM
                          Jon Miller-
                          I AM.CANADIAN
                          GENERATION 35: The first time you see this, copy it into your sig on any forum and add 1 to the generation. Social experiment.

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Originally posted by DinoDoc View Post
                            For anyone that feels they aren't taxed enough by the US government:
                            Billionaires are lucky to have such a cute little pup eager to plunge his tongue up their *******s.
                            To us, it is the BEAST.

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Originally posted by DinoDoc View Post
                              I must be such a fan of the USSR.
                              In Soviet Russia, Fake borises YOU.

                              Comment

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