NEW YORK BOSTON |#Popular: Irish Celebrity Gossip Irish in US Politics Irish Festivals Irish Roots Irish Entertainment Offbeat Irish

Home Page > Blogs > Entertainment blogs > Manhattan Diary > Far right billionaires: the real threat to the middle class

Manhattan Diary by Cahir O'Doherty

Far right billionaires: the real threat to the middle class

Posted on Tuesday, March 01, 2011 at 08:41 AM

Larger Text

E-mail

63 Comments

RSS

Archives

A long time ago in America a relatively small group of obscenely rich aristocrats, who had made most of their vast fortunes off the backs of slaves, actually managed to convince thousands of poor southern dirt farmers to fight to preserve their wealth and way of life.

Of course those aristocrats had no intention of improving the lives of the poor men who fought for them, but still they somehow they managed to inspire them to pick up guns.

Over 258, 000 Confederate men died in battle.

In recent times we've seen another small group of obscenely rich aristocrats convince America's nonunion workers that their real enemy is the union workers who enjoy just a little more economic security than they do. (Not much more, mind, but enough to stimulate class envy).

It's a shell game to divide and conquer. It is a decades long war to devastate the middle class and turn the American worker into the American servant.

In 2008 the Koch brothers, the obscenely rich men who created and funded the Tea Party, and inspired millions of hard working Americans to campaign against their own best interests, were listed by Forbes magazine as owners of the second largest privately held company in the United States, with an annual income of $98 billion. Their vast financial empire was built on oil and gas futures by their father, Fred G. Koch.

Fred G. Koch was a founding member of the John Birch Society, the ultra-right wing organization which opposes every piece of legislation that protects workers from the whims of plutocrats. The John Birch Society headquarters is located in Wisconsin and the Koch brothers have just opened a lobby office across the street from Governor Scott Walker's office. If you think it's just a coincidence you haven't been paying attention.

What's happening in Wisconsin is the most significant labor battle in over half a century, in other words. As it goes, so does the nation.

There's more than a hint of the 1930's in Governor Walker's move to all but eliminate the bargaining rights of state employees. He's even asked the National Guard to be armed and ready should Wisconsin workers be so bold as to strike, protest or otherwise disrupt services. (The last time the Guard was called out during a major labor dispute in Wisconsin was in 1934).

President Obama is quite correct. This is a nationwide "assault on unions." It's also an attempt to strip the American middle class worker of every job protection they've ever won.

After all it wasn't union negotiated wages or retirement packages for middle class workers that nearly bankrupted America, it was a cabal of rich criminals on Wall Street and the banking and bonds industry. Not one of them has ever been charged.

Wisconsin is another shell game - one of many - to distract you whilst your pocket is being picked.

E-mail

63 comments

Next Page 1 of 5 pages

dipperloop | Apr 14, 2011, 07:51 PM EDT

Cahir, do you live in Ireland or America???

Report abuse

dipperloop | Apr 14, 2011, 07:48 PM EDT

The richiest person I know is George Sorows and he is a liberal democrat that hates America, which I am starting to think you do too.....

Report abuse

BurrRobson | Mar 13, 2011, 10:42 PM EDT

Shame on your for your ignorant articles.

Report abuse

seanomelbourne | Mar 09, 2011, 05:56 PM EST

I supported my employees right to join a union.Your narrow view of unionism and your inability to praise the unions for the conditions your unionist forefathers fought and sometimes died for. Conditions you or your employees appear to take for granted as if they fell out of a tree, the only facts that fell out of a tree was a noose for your unionist fore bearers. And you accuse me of looking foolish.Try and take away some of your workers rights(that's if they have any) and see who they will die for.The minimum pay rate in Australia is around $14 per hour in America you pay peanuts are you sure you do not get monkey's?

Report abuse

seanomelbourne | Mar 08, 2011, 07:35 PM EST

There are none so blind Maloney.

Report abuse

maloney | Mar 08, 2011, 07:05 PM EST

That's right comrade seano. o ye of little understanding. Some of us live in states with no unions at all. Quess what? Things are peachy here.

Report abuse

seanomelbourne | Mar 07, 2011, 06:20 PM EST

What doe's 2B do for a crust? He and Maloney personify what Cahir has just stated "divide and conquer" the middle class. If Maloney and 2B think the Koch brothers will not erode their standard of living when they are finish with workers right to bargain or protest they are living in lala land."Solidarity forever"

Report abuse

maloney | Mar 05, 2011, 07:35 PM EST

The real threat to America's middle class are Cahir and all the people who think as he does. Ignorance can only be blamed for so long. If their stupidity continues to go on, they can only be considered enemies of freedom and America. Cahir's current blog on muslims is proof of his and some of the posters below, ignorance or treachery, which ever the case may be.

Report abuse

2BorNot2B | Mar 03, 2011, 04:39 PM EST

Sometime ago I lived next door to a CA firefighter whose work habits we were able to witness first hand. This guy spent 3 days living at the firehouse -which constituted the extent of his work-week- the rest of the time he spent working a few hours at another job where he had a secure position after his 'retirement' at 55 years of age, with 90% of highest salary plus full benefits! His job, then, left plenty of time for gardening, fishing and generally having a good time at home while receiving two paychecks. -- Meanwhile, my neighbor on the other side happened to be a corporate executive who put in 10/12 hour days, in addition to the commute which took another 3 hours out o his day. -- His job security was predicated on his performance, which in turn depended on whatever demand his marketing dept. was able to create for his products in the marketplace. -- At the time (more so now) many companies were simply closing their doors and/or canceling whatever job definition many executives held, instead of laying them off, in order to avoid large amounts of severance pay. -- Further, a worker reaching the executive level is generally one of 'mature age,' hence unattractive as employee to many companies because by then his income would be in the upper bracket, and the age of his retirement would be looming, therefore he was unemployable. Compare that to the job security public sector unions demand, and the burden their pensions impose on taxpayers who basically subsidize the 'vacation with double pay' of any person who works for the govt. An these people whine and throw tantrums with help from bused and paid AGITATORS? Talk about astroturf!

Report abuse

Prevailer | Mar 02, 2011, 11:49 PM EST

I was a firefighter, as my brother, my uncle. We used collective bargaining to better our needs. It is needed for good faith bargaining whereas services such as firefighting, teaching, police protection do not use strikes. We relied on compromise, respecting limits. This is what Wisconsin is fighting for the decency for each side to have some leverage in a labor agreement. Woe begon -- if it is taken from the table for labor. It will be Labor's Waterloo, and the end of the middle class in America. Private and public workers will systemically decline to a lower caste system. Never again will be: The American Dream of our fathers post WWII.

Report abuse

hollabackgurl | Mar 02, 2011, 08:35 PM EST

Oh please, the richest 20% in America cream off 84% of the money. That's an aristocracy. You need to get to Lens Crafters, seamusmoore.

Report abuse

seamusmoore | Mar 02, 2011, 06:55 PM EST

hollabackgurl be happy with your fellow "sticky" in coalition with the irish govt and don't get greedy. Class warfare NEVER WINS in America as we are a meritocracy, not an aristocracy, please remember that and don't fly off your pretty lil head.

Report abuse

hollabackgurl | Mar 02, 2011, 06:21 PM EST

The Tea Party does the opposite of what the uprisings in the Middle East do: they entrench the rule of the rich over the poor. The Tea Party, which was created and funded by the billionaire Koch bothers, is a smokescreen for their private agenda: the return of oligarchy.

Report abuse

2BorNot2B | Mar 02, 2011, 06:01 PM EST

The Popes indeed advocated for forming 'unions' in the private sector, to counter abusive land-lords, business owners, and 'Industrial Era robber barons' especially in Europe where feudal policies prevailed despite the end of feudal culture. (For a close look at such practices, see an Italian movie called "The Tree of the Wooden Clogs"). However, even now, the Church has NEVER advocated for public sector unions, such as the ones now having a tantrum in Wisconsin, since a job within the government by definition offers no risks. -- Before the advent of public sector unions one could get a job perhaps with somewhat of a lower pay which was compensated by a practically iron-clad job security. -- Now, public sector employees earn substantially more, and have acquired benefits unheard of in the private sector. Additionally, they cannot be fired for any reason. -- So why are those of us who pay the excessive taxes that support these leeches, and cannot compare our salaries and benefits to theirs are not out there protesting as well? BECAUSE WE ARE TOO BUSY WORKING!

Report abuse

2BorNot2B | Mar 02, 2011, 05:40 PM EST

@jerrydonovan -- I suggest that JERRY take a few hours and EXAMINE IN DEPTH the Encyclicals he mentions, and show us the exact words where either or both Popes reference the need for PUBLIC SECTOR UNIONS, which by definition have NO COMPETITION, -whose membership is obligatory in order to obtain a government job; whose members are then paid by tax dollars; which include UNION DUES as part of the payroll, thereby making the government an 'agency' of the unions themselves- then, to use a large part of those dues to elect politicians who will work out COZY DEALS for them, making the entire process a true VICIOUS CIRCLE that feeds itself endlessly (or so they wish, until the citizenry awakens) by having the entire tax paying populace fund them, whether they agree with their strong-tactics and policies... or NOT.

Report abuse

Next Page 1 of 5 pages