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Thom's blog
Welcome to the New Corporate Feudalism
Feudalism is back, with a vengeance.
Right now, the Wisconsin legislature is considering a bill that would make Wisconsin the nation's 25th right-to-work-for-less state. All signs point to this bill becoming law. The state senate passed it by a margin of 17 to 15 last week, and Republican Governor Scott Walker, who supports right-to-work-for-less laws, said he will sign it if it reaches his desk.
The line from Wisconsin Republicans, of course, is that the proposed right-work-for-less law will improve their state's economy and help build the middle-class. But in reality, the exact opposite will happen. That's because right-to-work-for-less laws bring capitalism a lot closer to its natural, unregulated state, and capitalism, in its natural, unregulated state tends toward massive levels of inequality that we usually associate with feudalism.
It looks a lot like this:
At the top, there is a very small class of superrich oligarchs and financiers. They're the monarchs of capitalist society.
Below them, there is a slightly larger, but still very, very small, class of professionals and mercantilists - doctor, lawyers, shop-owners - who help keep things running for the superrich and supply the working poor with their needs. They're nobles or knights of capitalist society.
And at the very bottom there is the great mass of people who make up the working poor. They have no wealth - in fact they're typically in debt most of their lives - and can barely survive on what little money they make. They're the peasants of capitalist society.
So, for average working people, there is no such thing as a middle class in "natural" capitalism. Wealth accumulates at the very top among the elites, not among everyday working people. Inequality is the default option, just as it was in Medieval Europe under feudalism. The only ways a true middle class can emerge in a capitalist society are by massive social upheaval - a middle class emerged after the Black Plague in Europe in the 14th century - or by government intervention.
-Thom
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Tonight on The Big Picture on RT TV at 7pm and 10pm... Obamacare opponents should be careful what they wish for (check your local listings for stations or stream at RT or Free Speech TV, and catch past shows on Youtube)
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Wednesday's Daily Stack 
Article: " 10th Amendment" " The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people".
Article: " 2nd Amendment". A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.
Live from the Families USA / SCOTUS radio row- Eleanor Clift, Daily Beast 
Article: " 4th Amendment". " The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.". Article: " 5th Amendment" (double jeopardy, witness against self, due process, taking clause, due compensation).
Hour Three: Live from the Families USA / SCOTUS radio row- Sister Simone Campbell, Attorney / NETWORK (a National Catholic Social Justice Lobby) |
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Thursday on The Thom Hartmann Program, 3-6pm ET
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Thom's Poll
Will SCOTUS rule that tax subsidies only apply in state-run exchanges?
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Order Thom's latest book, Death in the Pines: An Oakley Tyler Novel, at Amazon or Barnes & Noble now! |
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Watch & Listen to Thom
Why Economists Are Demanding Universal Health Care
Politics Panel: ObamaCare - People will Die if SCOTUS sides w/GOP
The Good - The Bad - and the Very Very Appetently Ugly
Crazy Alert - Our New Vegetable Overlords
Politics Panel: Why is anybody listening to Bibi about Iran?
War...brought to you by climate change
How Did WI Become Ground Zero For Right-Wing Union-Busting?
Or watch the Full "Big Picture" Show...
Full Show 3/3/2015: America Needs a Single Payer Healthcare System
In tonight's show, Congressman Mark Pocan (D-WI) joins Thom on set to discuss the DHS funding bill and Gov. Scott Walker's war against unions.
The Big Picture politics panel discusses Israeli PM Netanyahu's address to congress, Arizona GOP fighting for more gerrymandering, the King vs. Burwell Supreme Court case, Right-to-Work Laws, Corporate Dems shift away from Sen. Warren, and the Department of Homeland Security bill. Hughey Newsome of Project 21 Black Leadership Council, Mike Malloy, host of "The Mike Malloy Show" and conservative commentator for The Blaze and the Washington Times, Jennifer Kerns, join Thom on set.
Thom gives his Daily Take - America Needs a Single Payer Healthcare System. Plus, Your Take My Take Live, Crazy Alert, Geeky Science, and The Good The Bad and The Very Very Ugly.
Jeb Bush and Where the Republicans are Going in 2016...
ObamaCare Opponents: Careful What you Wish for...
Another ObamaCare Challenge Before SCOTUS...
Caller: I got Screwed by a For-Profit College!
Universal Health Care takes Away the Fear Factor...
ObamaCare has Improved Medicare...
What Happens if Insurance Exchanges go Away?
Boehner Caves on DHS Funding...
Patients over Politics: Health Care for All...
Could One Sentence Derail ObamaCare?
Bill Bratton: People are Killing Each Other over Pot...
Sen. Sherrod Brown: Our Health Care System isn't Serving us. |
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Order The American Revolution of 1800 by Dan Sisson with Thom Hartmann at Amazon or Barnes & Noble now! |
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