Are the 1 Percent Trying to Cause a Depression? (Video)

By on May 9, 2012 in News 18

Paul Krugman talks with Rachel Maddow:

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  • Mamagriff50

    The 1% are not trying…They have succeeded!

    • Jamesjoseph

       I second that.  As a good acquaintance of mine once said:  ” all the bad shit that happens in the world isn’t by misfortune, it is carefully plotted and requires years to reach it’s full effect.”

      • Anti_Secret_Squirrel

         Which is very insidious!!

  • Liam_McGonagle

    Well, certainly the 1%’s policies are taking us in that direction.I’m not so sure it’s actual intentional malice, though, so much as a frightened, reflexive stupidity and hubris. 

    My experience in the corporate world is that these guys don’t think beyond the ends of their noses, and respond with total incomprehension and a mix of fear and bemusement to anyone who does.

    I think the ultimate story here will be of a society that placed too much trust in the hands of too few who thought too little–not some grand masonic conspiracy.  Although, I admit, the difference seems a bit academic to anyone outside of the 1%.

    • http://twitter.com/NilzDKlown Nilz D Klown

       I agree, although it would seem that there is a purposeful intent to put some distance between the 1% and everybody else. There are so many free services available to the poor and very little for the middle class, plus the middle class seem to get ass raped when it comes to taxes. It would appear that the poor are in fact being encouraged to remain poor and the lower middle class being urged to join them.
      “not some grand masonic conspiracy”, it sure would be cool though wouldn’t it?

      • mysophobe

        Totally, the poor have it made. This middle class existence is for suckers. Every day I’m more and more tempted to join those lucky folks at the bottom. I’m so jealous of them I can’t stand it.

        • Eric_D_Read

          To a certain degree, it’s true. 

          Being poor obviously sucks for a lot of reasons, but I’ve known a bunch of people who are technically poor, yet still get the most they can out of life. It can be liberating in a Fight Club, “losing all hope is freedom,” sort of way.A man with nothing has nothing to lose. 

      • Liam_McGonagle

        I’d agree that there is some purposeful attempt at reinforcing social distinctions, although I think that the distinguishing characteristic, monetary wealth, is pretty incidental.

        I think that everyone plays a game–many multiple games simultaneously, actually.  “Businessman”, “leader”, “lieutentant”, father, son, church member, artist, party member, athlete, musician, etc., etc., etc.

        It’s only human nature that those most capable at the “businessman” game milk that motherf*cker for all it’s worth.  Their ego integrity depends on it. 

        I’m not against inequality in the absolute sense that clearly no 2 people were ever created identical.  I’m just against it in the sense that our current social paradigm is so perversely one-dimensional (i.e., none of your other virtues matter one whit if you don’t have a monsterous bank account). 

        Why can’t the rules of the road allow for meaningful participation in multiple games, instead of making all the others contingent upon your success at “Businessman”?  That’s a pretty dull godd*mned tournament, in my mind.

  • JaceD

    Damn those shapeshifting Illumnati bastards and their plan for the new world order.

  • Lisa

    your’e retarded. get off your lazy ass and work like the “1%” did. Stop blaming others for your problems.

    • Jon

      i can’t wait until some serious medical problem or family death wipes out your life savings and destroys your financial security. Then you can come back and say how easy it is to just work if you’re not “lazy”. Or, just get off your preprogrammed talking points and look at the facts. Bitch.

      • Anti_Secret_Squirrel

         Actually this is what happened to me.  My husband got sick and we lost everything because in the state of Tennessee and Virginia they can garnish you for 25% of what you make for medical bills.  So I had to work and my hubby had to work.  We had medical insurance they just denied all the care we were given (especially my hubby).  We lost everything (our apartment, cars, e.c.t.).  I was a student working 2 jobs and he was working full time.  We by no means are lazy.  Then we move to Florida and the oil spill happens about 2 weeks after we get here and both get laid off because of the economic effects of it.  The next job I get lays me off because they outsourced my job to the Philippines.  We were not fishermen/women!  I am now going to college to get A+ certified and am still unemployed.  We have never given up and definitely are not lazy.  I agree with everyone who replied to Lisa’s comment.  In America we get less vacation, sick, and maternity leave than any other developed country in the world.  I by no means believe that we are lazy in America.  This is a multidimensional issue and people like Lisa believe all they see on Fox news.  I pity you for your blatant ignorance/stupidity.  Please step down off your high horse back down to the Earth!

    • Andrew

      The 1% invested what they inherited, they didn’t work.

    • http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/5OQFBZ26C3VQ5ONGZGDBDY4BUU Mark A

      Very few of the 1% have ever worked. They are people who are fortunate to have inherited wealth or found a niche in the world, then exploited, manipulated and hoarded everything for their own personal gain, while doing nothing to improve humanity. They are greedy sociopaths and the world would be better off without them. Or at least tax them a small amount of their income.

    • no_cnbc_cretin

       If you’re comment is meant to be a joke, then fine. It not, you are the retard!

  • SmudgeServices

    krugman is limited within the confines of our current system. he has the correct idea in how to make the charts go up based on the rules currently in place, but his problem is he doesn’t think outside the box at all. he won’t recognize that the rules are rigged and that following them is what got us into this mess in the first place. the whole system needs a wash; the fundamental principles of the fiat currency is the true problem. even to ‘get back on track’ and ‘have the government spend like they should’ wont solve any of these class issues, it will only make them worse.

  • PointOnePercent

    I heard an interesting/disturbing statistic the other day…that anyone in America who makes more than 20K a year is in fact a part of the 1%. And that it is more like the 0.1% who are in fact at the very top and responsible for the current economic state of affairs. But I have to wonder about the responsibility of all the rest of us…the role we have each played, knowingly or not.

  • Guest

    A depression will make everything of value cheap. it’ll be the buyers market. This will gain the 1 % interests. They can strengthen their position in sosciety. Money dosn’t matter. dollars and euros are just means to get acsess to the real values. This depression is part of their world order.