1% vs. 99%

Well, here I am again. I was watching the movie "Wall Street" with my son the other day (not having watched it really since it came out) and realized how the rhetoric was the same then as now...the 1% owns everything and the 99% get screwed. -- But is that true in America? 

It got me thinking, Gordon Gecko explaining the 1% owning all the money in the world... So what's new?!? If you think about it, all the way back to the beginning of civilization, there has always been a small group of men/women who controlled everything. It's not about the money, it's about the power. Look at all the known civilizations, from the Babylonians, Sumerians, and Chinese to the Egyptians, Greeks and Romans. There was always "the man". A king or Emperor that all other leaders wanted to do business with or conquer: You had the King/Ruler, then the nobility, merchants, and peasants (called by various names of course, but these are the ones I'm using)...

All through history you can see this. Even with the democratic experiment of Greece and the Republic experiment of Rome, there were always the 1% at the top...even in "barbarian" societies there was someone who had more and everyone worked for them... until the United States experiment with a democratic republic based in capitalism. In the USA (at the beginning) the lowest immigrant with nothing but sheer will could become the richest of men; the farmer could become the merchant; the paper boy could become a manager; the lowest could move upward...perhaps not to the top, but America was/is the only place that you can leave the station you were born to and become something more.

Will the 99% ever become the 1%? Probably not. They are and always have been an elite group...secret society if you will. The power was and is always at the top. It seems to me though that the 99% in America and the west have been brain washed without even realizing it. While they fight the 1% and see the truth behind it, they give up their freedoms thinking it will somehow defeat them. "Tax the rich"; "Regulate the rich"; "punish the rich"; etc., etc. ... but does that ever hurt the 1%? No. Who ends up getting hurt when the government gets the power to over regulate business (not the 1% because they're the ones buying the politicians)? Who gets hurt when the rich (not the 1% because they never get touched) get over taxed? Who really gets punished when the rich get punished (never the 1% because they are above it all)? The middle class gets hurt. Yes, those making over $250,000 and own businesses and small banks and small business get taxed, but then the worker loses his job, or loses his benefits, or gets his hours cut. The job creators become poor; the middle class becomes poor; the poor stay poor; and the 1% has everything with the added bonus of control over the whole 99%.

I think the conspiracy theorists, the libertarians, the occupiers, the anarchists, etc. have it so wrong. They all have this idea that if we all just have "freedom" to do whatever we want then there will be no 1%. Everyone will be equal and able to thrive as they will. But THAT is the lie. The 1% will always have power, they will always rule the world...they always have; but for one brief moment in history; for 200 odd years America showed that the 99% could thrive even with the 1% out there. Then the 1% figured how to take the 99% down. It is called Social Security; Medicare; Welfare; Unions; Progress; Equal Outcomes; Public Schools which equals getting something for nothing...having no responsibility for our own outcome.

As I understand it 3% of the population won the Revolutionary war. 3% created the possibility of freedom for all, and they didn't do it by whining, and they didn't do it by decrying the 1%, and they didn't do it by coming up with every conspiracy around, they did by having faith in God and faith in the ability of men based in traditional, Judeo-Christian  rules. God was infinitely important to the founding of our country. Morality was infinitely important to the founding of our country. Honour was infinitely important to the founding of our country. We, Americans, have taken God, Morality, and Honour out of our lives and replaced it with selfish ambition (and I'm not just talking about the rich and politicians...look within yourselves), immorality (anything is okay as long as I do it myself...society be damned), and dishonour (not just the rich or politicians...we all skirt around things that we personally dislike). 

The 1% will always be there. The question is not will you resist them, the question is will you resist the promises (lies) they have instilled in our way of life? Will you put God first, the good of others first (that does not mean giving people stuff), and putting forth an honourable image (even though we are imperfect) before your personal joy? The 1% has made the 99% slaves again. They choose the nobility. They choose who gets to be a merchant. And the population has chosen to be the peasantry. The 1% must sit up and laugh as those who think they are fighting the man are actually putting themselves under their control...

...Return to God! 


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