You nailed it.

I saw that in women I worked with in the day when the glass ceiling was made of steel. I had one tell me that I should not waste my time with anyone who could not further my career and when she was through using me she stuck a knife in my back to get a bonus I deserved.
rated with love

I have my own dreams. America is a nest of scorpions.

interesting

Every time I hear that America "needs" a thriving middle class I wonder why? The poor can't afford the goods and the services provided by the middle class. The middle class is costing the rich in salaries, and the rich control the jobs the poor have to take.

So the rich and poor need each other. Only the middle class needs a thriving middle class. Climbing on others was the American Dream.

I wonder what will happen when the middle class figures out what lower prices and healthy competition mean for them? Micron (local chip mfg) sent engineers on one and two year jobs overseas to train their replacements. I wonder what will happen when people figure out the jobs aren't ever coming back?

angry cat? It is bad programming! or lack of programming! What made Clinton want to be British so badly? Wnanananananabeees!
Obama? And a million others....me included. When I was 20 I would have done anything for the wealth and access dangled in front of my silly face. Had I read one book less, I would have had both, and been dead now as well. Just that close...one book.

"the ladder climbers who will sell out their fellows for a buck"

You nailed it, Sky. For pretty baubles and a "chance" to get in on a pyramid scheme we've been the perfect ennablers of plutocracy.

Was vernünftig ist, das ist Wirklich; und was wirklich ist, das ist vernünftig.socialiam. mARX.

 What is reasonable is real; that which is real is reasonable.upside yer head.

 Variant translation: What is rational is actual and what is actual is rational. On this conviction the plain man like the philosopher takes his stand, and from it philosophy starts in its study of the universe of spirit as well as the universe of nature. If reflection, feeling, or whatever form subjective consciousness may take, looks upon the present as something vacuous and looks beyond it with the eyes of superior wisdom, it finds itself in a vacuum, and because it is actual only in the present, it is itself mere vacuity. If on the other hand the Idea passes for 'only an Idea', for something represented in an opinion, philosophy rejects such a view and shows that nothing is actual except the Idea.
 Preface
the idea before the world. ya?

phyllis45
Actually "they" nailed me!


Poetess,
For centuries some women have bypassed the "glass ceiling" by marriage and/or inheritance. Some men have too, by the same means. By and large, however, we bought into the pyramid scheme (thanks Nana). I wonder just how we were made so blind that we didn't even see it when the whole doggone system that we live in 24/7 is built in the shape of a pyramid!!


Jan,
Good on you! You called it.



Kathy,
Uh..... thanks..... I think.


bleue,
In a system built on the pyramid model, the middle class is necessary as a "facilitating class" that allows the top few to send down the orders the wish followed, and as a "goal" for the poor to try to encourage their children to achieve. What we really don't need is the top few and the bottom poor. We could do quite nicely if we all had a secure income from birth, based on shares of the wealth of our society, and were all comfortably "middle class" without having to climb any damn ladders made of the faces of each other.


Snowden,
I tried and failed so many times it was ridiculous. I was a true believer all right. But I rejected the idea that it MUST be done on the backs of others. Eventually I found a way to "make it" without losing my honour as a human being.


Nana,
Indeed we have! In fact, without us they couldn't be where they are - couldn't exist at all. We don't need to demand that they pay higher taxes or give back what they have amassed. All we need to do is walk out from under them. Once we are no longer under them, holding them up, they fall of their own accord. We, the middle class, are our own worst enemy. That huge, rough dildo stuck up our nether regions is ours! In fact we're so goddamn dumb that if we didn't have an elite class, we'd create one!
Beware the socialists who want to keep the pyramid so they can occupy the chairs of the present elite. A master is a master is a master, be they capitalist, or otherwise; as the people of the USSR found out much to their dismay after 1917 and are finding out again today.


James,
As usual, I fail to understand most of what you say and understand nothing of what you mean.

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The very reasons that social climbers are held in such disdain.

Miguela,
"Social climbers" may be held in disdain but economic climbers are our heroes. Horatio Alger is our high priest of the god of lucre. Unlike other nations where social rank derives from hereditary blood lines, in the US (and in my Canada), social rank derives from bank balances and political power. Some few become social pariahs by over-reaching themselves and exhibiting disdain for those not as well off as themselves - Conrad Black (Canadian) and Donald Trump(Amerikan) come to mind.

Those more cautious have become our new royalty.
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Money is pointless unless turned into power.
Hanging on to it is the trick and that's not easy either.
A good post as usual.

It's not called "Class Warfare" for nothing!
R

Yep.

Money was "invented" as a simple means of trade. It was not "intended" to be a pathway to power. Somewhere along the long road since it was invented we changed it from a useful tool to a horrible master. It has, in our minds, become very desirable in its own right - not necessarily to trade with - just for itself. Whatever we so desire becomes our goal and our master.

To hold something so highly in our esteem is not the problem, if the thing held - such as ability or talent or education, etc., is of value in and of itself. It becomes insane when it has no intrinsic value of its own but only the false value we place on it, and THEN holds such value in our own minds that life itself is of lesser value and becomes subservient to it.

We might do well to return this particular genie to its bottle.
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Yes, it is a form of "class warfare." Not perhaps what goes by that name but that's as good a name as any for the middle class making war upon itself - within its own class, as it were. It does this in order to "climb the ladder" and to avoid falling down to the lower class status it so despises.

This makes that middle class vulnerable to the blandishments of the top class. Since they aspire to that top class, they must, of necessity, support the concept of "classes" and work to maintain a class society.

For some unknown reason, they do not ever seem to become aware of how they are made into tools of the top class and become slaves to their own desires. They look up and see a status they'd like to enjoy. They look down and see a status they'd like to avoid. Then they fight like hell among themselves while giving their war-on-self cute names such as "progress" and "competition" and even "survival of the fittest." That last borrowed from the theory of evolution and a total misnomer. Most of them don't even know that the term "social Darwinism" was coined by Adolph Hitler to excuse his racist ideas as "in line with natural science" and thus "scientific"
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Hi Linnn,
Your lengthy and detailed comment is too much for me to deal with in this short blog......;-)
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yep. rated and watch any Mucinex add. I'm not kidding.

Thanks Jon,
I don't know what Mucinex is. I don't see many ads. I got rid of my TV a few years back - same with newspapers that are full of propaganda in place of news. If I see any at all it is on-line and I have ad-block installed so I see precious few even then.

I can get a better, more complete, sense of what is going on by reading the blogs of people like yourself and others right here on OS for a few hours every day.
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Is it an American problem or human nature? A power thing? Seems like modern feudalism.

Sky, true, and to the country "America" it makes no difference, living standards only matter to the inhabitants. There is enough technology and machines to do the work, there's less and less need for human hands even though more products are being produced. It doesn't benefit the rich to have millions making over 20-30 thousand a year, people can stay alive on that. If they can't and die off, no matter, they are not all needed except to their loved ones.

The poor will not protest to help the middle class, there's nothing in it for them if the middle class gets their standard of living back. They will still have to flip burgers and clean toilets at the mall for low wages so the middle class can have cheap goods and nice homes. They will still be looked down on and be told they need to pull themselves up or resented if they do get help. The middle class can't count on the poor to protest to help the middle class, they're on their own in this fight unless the poor think their lives will improve too.

Miguela had a lovely comment, it reminds me of a time when it wasn't acceptable to climb on others. A time when people understood if it could happen to someone else, it could happen to them. No one can predict the future. Like those who wish the big banks would change but it's too much hassle to close their accounts, if they lose their jobs and the banks forclose on them then they will understand what a danger the banks are.

When enough of those who haven't learned yet experience the truth of our system and wind up losing their comforts, then there will be revolt. It will come, sadly many will never rebound. Pulling yourself up is a hundred times harder than staying there. First you have to hit bottom.

Your post is a sad truth.

Holy Christ. Original take! If I jump off of the ladder what becomes of me?
R

Ash,
If you jump, fall, or are pushed off the ladder, you can wind up down where the iguanas play (Mythical Kings & Iguanas - Dory Previn) or find an independent place to stand that is out of the rat race.
As long as you don't bring with you an attitude of "natural entitlement", you'll find that those "at the bottom" are one hell of a lot more human and humane that your erstwhile companions on the ladder. Relax. Something other than monetary "success" may now have a chance to emerge as true success.
.

You are right. You make sense. I understand what you are saying.

R♥

Matt,
Sorry for missing you!

It is exactly feudalism that is at work. We brought with us, into capitalism, some elements of feudalism and they've been at work ever since, eating the heart out of what should be the Rolls Royce of economic systems. Another part that was brought from feudalism and has done untold harm is direct-line inheritance. This one thing, all by itself, has destroyed capitalism since for capitalism to be successful the wealth must keep moving amongst the population. Massive inheritances that just get bigger generation after generation pull too much wealth out of the society to areas where it doesn't move properly. Can you spell"crash"?!

Major banks are also sitting on too much wealth that doesn't move properly. They too have played, and are still playing, a major role in our economic problems. Talk about killing the goose......!!!
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Hi Fusun!!!

Glad you made it over! I'm very glad it makes sense to you. My mind works in an odd way and sometimes what seems clear to me are things that I can't find ways to explain very well.
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It goes under the benign-appearing term "individualism."