Free at last...

Last Friday, my wife and I sold our business. We both expressed it this way: "Free at Last, Thank God Almighty, Free At Last!"

Now I know that Martin Luther King meant those words in a different way, but I believe that they apply to all of us trying to free ourselves from corporatist domination. Much in the same way that if you are not poor, black or Muslim, you have no idea how the system is stacked against you, the same holds true for small businesses in America today.

Greg Palast probably describes it best and most succinctly - we are in the midst of a class war - the rich are getting richer and the rest of us are getting poorer - with no end in sight.

"The World Bank reports that the USA has more millionaires than ever - 7.4 million! And over a decade, the number of billionaires has more than tripled, 341 of them!...

If that doesn't make you feel that you're missing out, this should: You, Mr. Median, are earning, after inflation, a little less than you earned when Lyndon Johnson reigned. Median household income - and most of us are 'median' - is down. Way down...

Mr. Bush and friends are offering us an 'ownership' society. But he didn't mention who already owns it. The richest fifth of America owns 83% of all shares in the stock market. But that's a bit misleading because most of that, 53% of all the stock in the market, is owned by just one percent of American households.

And what does the Wealthy One Percent want? Answer: more wealth. Where will they get it? As with a tube of toothpaste, they're squeezing it from the bottom. Median paychecks have gone down by 4% during the current regime, but Americans in the bottom fifth have seen their incomes sliced by 20%...

When Reagan took power in 1980, the One Percent possessed 33% of America's wealth as measured by capital income. By 2006, the One Percent has swallowed over half of all America's assets, from sea to shining sea. One hundred fifty million Americans altogether own less than 3% of all private assets...

Is America getting poorer? No, just its people...

The gap between what we produce and what we get is widening like an alligator's jaw...

The more you work, the less you get. It used to be that as the economic pie got bigger, everyone's slice got bigger too. No more. The One Percent have swallowed your share before you can get your fork in."

The saddest part of all of this is that the great majority of Americans are delusional enough to think that they are part of the One Percent - they believe the Norquist slogan - "less taxes, less government". What's missing here is the more true and complete statement: Less taxes for the rich, less intrusive government for the rich; more taxes for the poor, more intrusive government for the poor.

What's your experience been?