RESTORE AMERICAN DREAM

After ~1980, something dramatically changed.  Instead of increased productivity bringing up wages and prosperity for everyone, the extremely wealthy banded together to put ALL profits in their own pockets, keeping wages of their workers stagnant.  

 

The Koch Brothers created the Koch Network (holding secret meetings of ~ 500 wealthy power brokers, CEOs, and Libertarians; "ultra-Conservative" organizations paying $100,000/year membership). Koch wrote the book on monopolies, trained Koch Network in takeovers, eliminating pensions/medical care, capping wages, driving inflation.  They constructed layers and layers of a lobbying and monopoly-policy training Kochtopolis to buy government leaders to change laws to favor the extremely wealthy. Citizen’s United allowed corporations to give $B to GOP elections to obstruct social legislation. Tax breaks reduced corporate taxes to ~zero. Privatization and emasculation of anti-trust regulations gave the Network $10Ts control, enough funds to buy all media and buy/threaten/control the entire Fortune 500.   Monopolies are illegal,… but dominate the whole economy in 2024.

 

https://www.justice.gov/d9/pages/attachments/2016/01/05/211578.pdf

https://www.ftc.gov/advice-guidance/competition-guidance/guide-antitrust-laws/antitrust-laws

antitrust.complaints@usdoj.gov

 

Costs of fuel, food, healthcare, and education, doubled many times over. Poverty /homelessness soared, eliminating upward mobility.  Medical emergencies and failure of corrupt adjustable sub-prime mortgages caused 10 million bankruptcies. A mega-asset manager cartel drained assets from our pension funds. College was untenable as the Middle Class was wiped out.

 

Print media was soon 90% owned by oligarchs.  Social media and TV were manipulated by oligarchs. Each industry reduced competition to ~3 dominant cooperating companies (monopoly cartels) by aggressive take-overs. The companies capped wages, stripped benefits, and doubled prices, and doubled prices again on fuel, food, rent, college tuitions/loans, schools, and essentials.  Government oversight tasks were taken over by very expensive third-party privatization.  Prisons, immigration detention, tech, media, natural resources, and government offices were bought and staffed by corrupt corporations. The objectives were clear.  The fascist oligarchs wanted all money, all power, laws that allowed corruption and fraud; making 99% of Americans powerless and poorer.

 

The Monopolization of America ►► https://youtu.be/KLfO-2t1qPQ

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/07/28/trump-tariffs-koch-network-747469

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_activities_of_the_Koch_brothers#cite_ref-55

https://prezi.com/5xzibopikc3a/ifgs-kochtopus-mapping-the-influence-of-koch-cash/

https://www.washingtonpost.com › education › 2019/10/16 › koch-network-..

 

The Galbraiths (economists):  researched immoral destabilization (& deletion) of the American Middle Class:

For many decades America fell prey to a wealthy, government-controlling "predatory class". John Kenneth Galbraith said the common factor in boom-and-bust is the creation of debt to finance speculation, which "becomes dangerously out-of-scale” compared to their means of payment.  Instability led to market crashes, bank failures, 10,000 jobs lost, bankruptcies, … government bailouts of “too big to fail” institutions, and buy-backs re-inflating stock prices at exponential profits.  Galbraith said government regulation and collective bargaining, were necessary for balanced and efficient markets. (Do you like your 8-hour work day and weekends off?  Thank unions. pic.twitter.com/PFkkjdBzyc )

 

Since 2008, the situation is much worse.  Obscene profit-taking by the wealthy left only stagnant wages for workers, while inflating prices by a factor of four (e. g. fuel, rent, food).