Bernie & the Billionaires

In my humble opinion, there have been several major misstatements of facts, posted online by friends. I am sorry to see my friends fooled by what they see online.

Let me see if I can help clear these up. Feel free to politely point out any factual errors. Keep your ‘just opinions’ to yourself.  Or, at least try. <Wink>

I was sent the following link:

http://www.chicksontheright.com/watch-bernie-sanders-fans-find-out-their-event-sponsor-is-supported-by-billionaires/

I can only guess that my friend assumed that this PROVED how untruthful Bernie Sanders is. And what a fool that I am. (And, conversely how clever he is.)

The thing is, I don’t see it that way at all.

I cannot speak for anyone else that likes Bernie. I, David Heath, have absolutely nothing against millionaires, billionaires, and the megarich, as long as they came by their money honestly, and do not work to exclude democracy or any anti-social stuff.

I do have issues with Henry Ford, which to my best understanding, back in the 1930s, backed Hitler, and made huge sums of money selling Germany war materials, even during the second world war. And, I do not think kindly of various robber barons of the past and present. I do not subscribe to the idea that one MUST be a crook to be rich. I do not, categorically, hate the rich at all.

I believe the data that shows that, in perhaps the 1960s, the middle class started being wiped out. I believe that this was not an accidental twist of fate. I believe that the megarich began a conscious effort to buy out our government. With Ronald Reagan and others, the wealthy in America, started paying dramatically less taxes. The large corporations began to pay little or no taxes, and to get huge subsidies, and other handouts. I do not think that it is at all accidental that government leaders who have taken huge sums of money, and that’s just the money we know about, and then these government leaders, crafted laws that just happen to dramatically benefit the people or organizations that gave them the money.

I do not know how you can call it a democracy when a few hundred people have a TREMENDOUS influence on how are our government runs, and just happen to profit mightily from many government decisions.

A friend said that he felt that Bernie Sanders was trying to start a class war. I think if my friend would take a few minutes and look at the data, he would see that the class war started back, even before Reagan, and that the middle class is rapidly becoming extinct, and that the megarich are sucking up the vast majority of any increased profit in the last 40 years.

Clearly Bernie Sanders is trying to STOP the heretofor successful class war, and bring back some semblance of a fair playing field. Because it helps EVERYONE!

But, back to the video, they were able to edit the video to appear to show that several people believe that Bernie is opposed to billionaires. I’ve never heard him say that. He is opposed to our government being stolen.

In the video, the moderator, seems to think that he is dropping a bombshell to say that George Soros backs MoveOn.org. I think he said at one point that George Soros owns MoveOn.org. I find no rational information to that effect. Yes, I know that Fox News claims all sorts of nonsensical things. But they’ve been doing that for a long time. Clearly a lot of people don’t understand that Fox frequently misleads you and at times even lies to you. I suggest you try to cross check and verify anything that they tell you that makes your eyes get big. Actually, please do that for any information that someone tries to shove at you.

MANY billionaires, millionaires, and megarich, are appalled at the present lack of democracy in the United States. The fact that some of them want to help America, which naturally also includes them, should not surprise anyone. According to Wikipedia, which is by no means an infallible source of accurate information, George Soros gave $1.46 million to MoveOn.org but Linda Pritzker of the Hyatt hotel family gave $4 million.

Warren Buffett, at times the richest man in America, has frequently spoken out on how unfair our present income tax is. As I recall he said that he pays a lower tax rate than his secretary does. Many wealthy people understand that the golden goose is about to be killed. It is in everyone’s best interest, not just the middle class, for America to become healthy again. Financially and physically.

Here is an excellent TED broadcast, where billionaire Nick Hanaur, tries to explain that raising the minimum wage, making high-quality education more accessible to everyone, making good health care more accessible to everyone, and other Bernie Sanders ideas, are NOT bad for America. They are good for Nick Hanaur and his megarich friends. Here is a short excerpt. Please watch the entire video. It is very well done.

He says in part:
“I know I must sound like some liberal do-gooder. I’m not. I’m not making a moral argument that economic inequality is wrong. What I am arguing is that rising economic inequality is stupid and ultimately self-defeating. Rising inequality doesn’t just increase our risks from pitchforks, but it’s also terrible for business too. So the model for us rich guys should be Henry Ford. When Ford famously introduced the $5 day, which was twice the prevailing wage at the time, he didn’t just increase the productivity of his factories, he converted exploited autoworkers who were poor into a thriving middle class who could now afford to buy the products that they made. Ford intuited what we now know is true, that an economy is best understood as an ecosystem and characterized by the same kinds of feedback loops you find in a natural ecosystem, a feedback loop between customers and businesses. Raising wages increases demand, which increases hiring, which in turn increases wages and demand and profits, and that virtuous cycle of increasing prosperity is precisely what is missing from today’s economic recovery.”

And:

“Programs like a reasonable minimum wage, affordable healthcare, paid sick leave, and the progressive taxation necessary to pay for the important infrastructure necessary for the middle class like education, R and D, these are indispensable tools shrewd capitalists should embrace to drive growth, because no one benefits from it like us.” (the Fat Cats>)

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