The factors that determine social class vary widely from one society
to another with different people or groups within society having very different
ideas about what makes one "higher" or "lower" in the social hierarchy. A
complete discussion of social class is beyond the scope of this article, and I
want to focus on the most basic class distinction: that is, between the
powerful and the powerless, and how the conflict is waged on the political,
social, economic, and spiritual fronts.
Perhaps
Manfred Davidmann
summarized the struggle between the classes best...
"What we see all
around us is conflict between authoritarian minds wishing to dominate, control
and exploit on the one hand and, on the other hand, citizens wishing to
maintain and improve the standard of living and quality of life for the
population as a whole by democratic (grassroots level)
decision-taking."
Throughout history, mankind has witnessed authoritarians who only
want to dominate, control and exploit the population. Social classes with more
power usually subordinate classes with less power, while attempting to cement
their own power positions in society. The first such oppressor and mentor to
those that have followed was Satan in the Garden of Eden. Some notable
followers would include the Pharaoh of Egypt, numerous Roman Emperors, Louis
XIV of France, Peter the Great, Joseph Stalin, and Adolph
Hitler.
Sometimes it's not the individual tyrant but the system to which
they are beholden to. In America, for example, there have been a long string of
wanna-be oppressors in the past 100 years all obliged to the same corrupt
system. Individuals such as Richard Nixon, Bill Clinton, and George Bush stand
out among those who wish to dominate, control and exploit the citizens of
America. While they have not yielded the power individually like a Pharaoh or
Hitler, they have each acted to forward the cause of the ruling class to
dominate, control and exploit.
Support for tyrants historically come
from the growing class of business people and from the peasants who had no land
or were in debt to the wealthy land owners.
Crony
Capitalism
Over the past 100 years in America, we have seen political cronyism
spilling over into the business world creating self-serving friendships and
family ties between businessmen and the government that have influenced the
economy and society to the extent that it has corrupted public-serving economic
and political ideals.
Perhaps the most dramatic example would be the
alliance between banking trusts and the government in the late 19th and early
20th centuries, shifting economic power from the government to private banks
and creating new buracracies to transfer the wealth of American citizens to the
oligarchs through an income tax.
Another well known example in the
United States would be the Interstate Commerce Commission, which was
established in 1887 to regulate the railroad "robber barons;" instead, it
quickly became controlled by the railroads, who set up a permit system that was
used to deny access to new entrants and functionally legalized price
fixing.
Today, success in business depends on those close relationships
between businessmen and government officials and can be exhibited by favoritism
in the distribution of legal permits, government grants, special tax breaks,
and so forth.
For example, after the mad cow scare, Creekstone Farms
decided to test all its cows for mad cow disease. It built the proper
facilities and hired the personnel to make such a change only to have the U.S.
Department of Agriculture issue an injunction that refused to allow Creekstone
to buy the kits necessary to test. This allowed the larger beef producers to
keep their costs low and effectively block Creekstone from competing in the
lucrative Japanese export market.
Some even more recent examples include
the "behind the scenes" negotiations that took place between corrupted
government officials and banks in creating new bankruptcy laws making it harder
for Americans to get a second chance and disqualfying Hurrican Katrina victims
from filing for relief. It seems one of the concessions banks made to the U.S.
government in exchange for laws protecting their assets was the credit card
companies would no longer honor payments made by politically incorrect
customers in the tobacco and gambling industries.
"Permit me to issue and control the money of a nation, and I care not who makes it's laws." - Mayer Anselm Rothschild
Banks and Financial
Institutions
With the federal government bought and paid for by the
banking cartel, we have witnessed some of the largest transfers of wealth from
the middle class to the elite ruling upper class. Big money lobbying controls
most political leaders and stops government from regulating usurious interest
rates or stopping the rape of poor neighborhoods in which thousands of families
are losing their homes through predatory mortgage, home-improvement and
foreclosure scams.
"He also forced everyone, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark of his right hand or on his forehead, so that no one could buy or sell unless he had the mark..." - Revelation 13:16-17
Credit card debt has soared in recent years, particularly among young people. In 2004, the average credit-card debt of US households was $9,300, up from $2,966 in 1990, according to research firm CardWeb.com - - that's 214% more debt. The major credit card companies target a younger audience, in particular college students, many of whom are already in debt with college tuition fees and college loans and who typically are less experienced at managing their own finances. A recent study by United College Marketing Services has shown that student credit lines have increased to over $6,000. Credit card usage has tripled since 2001 amongst teenagers as well. The 2006 documentary film titled Maxed Out: Hard Times, Easy Credit and the Era of Predatory Lenders chronicles the abusive practices in the credit card industry while showing how banks and other creditors deliberately market to people who are more likely to have problems paying.
Because the fees banks charge it's credit card customers make up
such a huge part of their profits, Providian, Bank One, Chase, and Citibank
have all been found to "roll back" posting times to extract more late fees. The
due dates were "rolled back" from 1pm to 10am because mail was delivered in the
afternoon so due dates were actually rolled back to charge more late
fees.
Universal default is another corrupt feature of many North
American credit card contracts. When a cardholder is late paying a particular
credit card issuer, not only can that card's interest rate can be raised, but
universal default allows other card issuers to increase rates on their cards as
well. Being late on one credit card will potentially affect all your credit
cards. (Citibank voluntarily stopped this practice in March 2007 and Chase
stopped the practice in November 2007.) Some of the nation's influential top
credit card issuers, who are among the top fifty corporate contributors to
political campaigns, have successfully opposed Congressional regulations
outlawing the practice.
Secret History of the Credit Card
"What's in Your
Wallet?"
In 1958, Bank of America launched its BankAmericard
credit card and in 1965 began subscribing licensing agreements with other
banks. In 1967, Master Charge was licensed by United California Bank
(subsequently merged into Wells Fargo), and the Bank of California
(subsequently merged into the Union Bank of California) as a competitor to the
BankAmericard. With the help of New York's Marine Midland Bank, now HSBC Bank
USA, these banks joined with the Interbank Card Association (ICA) to create
"Master Charge: The Interbank Card".
Bank of America gave up control of
the BankAmericard program in 1970 when various BankAmericard issuer banks took
control of the program, creating National BankAmericard Inc. (NBI), an
independent non-stock corporation which would be in charge of managing,
promoting and developing the BankAmericard system within the United States.
By 1972, BankAmericard had spread to 15 countries, and in1974, IBANCO,
a multinational member corporation, was founded to manage the international
BankAmericard program. In 1976, the directors of IBANCO determined that
bringing the various international networks together into a single network with
a single name internationally would be in the best interests of the
corporation; however in many countries, there was still reluctance to issue a
card associated with Bank of America. For this reason, in 1977 BankAmericard,
Chargex, Barclaycard, Carte Bleue, and all other licensees united under the new
name, "Visa", which retained the distinctive blue, white and gold flag. NBI
became Visa U.S.A., and IBANCO became Visa International. In 1979, "Master
Charge: The Interbank Card" was renamed simply "MasterCard".
Credit
cards are very profitable for banks. Critical to the success of these charge
cards has been universal acceptance by merchants and influential advertising to
consumers to use them instead of cash. MasterCard's current "Priceless"
advertising campaign, furst run in 1997, is "There are some things money can't
buy. For everything else, there's MasterCard."
Corrupt Banking
System
This highly informative and easy to understand film covers
just about everything that isn't taught in school regarding the corrupt banking
system. It explains how these institutions get away with robbing the
unsuspecting public by creating monetary policies designed to enslave society,
while keeping the system in a perpetual state of rising debt.
- Cartels Robbing the Public
- How "Money" is Created
- Money is Debt
- Monetary Reform
- Warning About the NWO
- Money as Debt website
Health
Care
Personal
Liberty
Political
Correctness
Declaration of
Independence
The Preamble of the United States Declaration of
Independence says,
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all
men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain
unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of
Happiness.
That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted
among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That
whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the
Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government,
laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such
form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be
changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath
shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable,
than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.
But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the
same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is
their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new
Guards for their future security.
