Consider the oligarchs as not after simply wealth, but power and dominance. The reduction of the population is as important as the expansion of their own wealth. Also consider the honeytrap nature of Epstein's operation and his many dealings with Russia. It's a filthy business by dirty men.
thanks for this Ann. You are right some of your readers can't afford the FT; WSJ I do have at $4.50 or so per month...
It is still very much an open question if we will ever get a full accounting of Epstein network, the laws that were broken and the ties or not to various intelligence agency - aired or disproven. It does seem that at minimum, economic power bends political power, and appararently, the legal system. Three tiers to power.
But surely: screwing with the global economy on which we billions of humans depend obviously cannot be such a Terribly Wrong Thing, else we would be seeing all of these errant elites being viciously dragged off the street and thuggishly bundled into trucks like we currently do with suspected undocumented migrants?
Intensely relaxed about people getting filthy rich" — and now we see what that relaxation cost. This is why your work matters so much, Ann. Once you understand how captured the system is, you stop waiting for it to save you and start building alternatives. Many thanks for being such an amazing writer and activist!
He notes the sense of entitlement amongst the European ruling classes dating from well before the steroid that is capitalism.
I learned another lesson from reading heterodox economists. There is a fundamental split in capitalist society that is not based on money but on *wealth* in the form of (income generating) assets. We can generalise that there are two kinds of people: (1) people who own things for the living, especially they own income generating assets; (2) people who work for a living, creating income generating assets for the first people.
The owner class simply feel that we, the people, are a resource to be exploited. And the sexual exploitation of young people is not even the most odious of their crimes.
They operated the Atlantic slave trade for *400 years*. And committed multiple genocides and stole whole continents. They continue to develop weapons of mass-destruction. As Jason Moore has said, capitalism is a marriage between commerce and war. The USA killed something like 300,000 civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan in getting revenge for 3000 US deaths in 9/11. They're about to bomb Iran, murdering more civilians, for no other reason than to distract us from the Epstein files.
The sense of entitlement, the right to ownership of and dominion over everything, has roots in Christian attitudes to nature.
These are the same people who are spending $billions on AI as the final solution to the labour problem. And yes, I use that term knowingly. I think it fits. They want to eliminate humans from capitalist production. Capitalists have always preferred machines to humans, though not for the same reasons as the STEM people who serve them.
The Epstein files don't just expose a few bad apples. They expose the psychopathology of the owner class as a whole. They are incapable of empathy, for us at least. They see us as cattle. And they don't want their meat talking back or telling them to clean up their mess.
That is my point too…I had a friend, Kader Asmal, a minister in President Mandela’s first administration. We were discussing politics in South Africa and he shared this (I paraphrase): "I have many trying to lobby me, and use me for different purposes, and who offer me large sums of money. The trouble is they ask me to sell my soul, but baulk at the very high price I charge for the sale of my soul. Instead they expect me to sell it cheaply. Never."
Corruption is far more endemic than is recognised. The culprits I have observed, are large companies and financial organisations. If people knew the half of it there would be a revolution.
The morbid love of money and regulatory capture are the problems that Strategic Monetary Grace as in Gifting can resolve while benefiting all...because grace/gifting evokes gratitude not greed.
Find a way to universally create relative monetary abundance like a policy of a 50% Discount/Rebate at retail sale and keep broadcasting its personal benefits while ignoring the naysayers and the presently powerful, and you're on the way to accomplishing Victor Hugo's insight regarding the irresistibility of "an idea whose time has come."
Consider the oligarchs as not after simply wealth, but power and dominance. The reduction of the population is as important as the expansion of their own wealth. Also consider the honeytrap nature of Epstein's operation and his many dealings with Russia. It's a filthy business by dirty men.
thanks for this Ann. You are right some of your readers can't afford the FT; WSJ I do have at $4.50 or so per month...
It is still very much an open question if we will ever get a full accounting of Epstein network, the laws that were broken and the ties or not to various intelligence agency - aired or disproven. It does seem that at minimum, economic power bends political power, and appararently, the legal system. Three tiers to power.
But surely: screwing with the global economy on which we billions of humans depend obviously cannot be such a Terribly Wrong Thing, else we would be seeing all of these errant elites being viciously dragged off the street and thuggishly bundled into trucks like we currently do with suspected undocumented migrants?
??🤔??
Surely…..
Intensely relaxed about people getting filthy rich" — and now we see what that relaxation cost. This is why your work matters so much, Ann. Once you understand how captured the system is, you stop waiting for it to save you and start building alternatives. Many thanks for being such an amazing writer and activist!
Thank you Dan for those generous words…You cheer me on.
Excellent read as ever. Hope you and yours are well.
Mark Jones.
Outstanding and informative (not and FT subscriber). Thank you 🙏🏼
I like the FT paper but it’s true can’t afford to subscribe, just buy it occasionally. Thanks for this.
I'm reminded of David Spencer's brief article "Six Centuries of Vilifying the Poor." https://web.archive.org/web/20161116042145/http://www.pieria.co.uk/articles/mercantilism_six_centuries_of_vilifying_the_poor/
He notes the sense of entitlement amongst the European ruling classes dating from well before the steroid that is capitalism.
I learned another lesson from reading heterodox economists. There is a fundamental split in capitalist society that is not based on money but on *wealth* in the form of (income generating) assets. We can generalise that there are two kinds of people: (1) people who own things for the living, especially they own income generating assets; (2) people who work for a living, creating income generating assets for the first people.
The owner class simply feel that we, the people, are a resource to be exploited. And the sexual exploitation of young people is not even the most odious of their crimes.
They operated the Atlantic slave trade for *400 years*. And committed multiple genocides and stole whole continents. They continue to develop weapons of mass-destruction. As Jason Moore has said, capitalism is a marriage between commerce and war. The USA killed something like 300,000 civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan in getting revenge for 3000 US deaths in 9/11. They're about to bomb Iran, murdering more civilians, for no other reason than to distract us from the Epstein files.
The sense of entitlement, the right to ownership of and dominion over everything, has roots in Christian attitudes to nature.
These are the same people who are spending $billions on AI as the final solution to the labour problem. And yes, I use that term knowingly. I think it fits. They want to eliminate humans from capitalist production. Capitalists have always preferred machines to humans, though not for the same reasons as the STEM people who serve them.
The Epstein files don't just expose a few bad apples. They expose the psychopathology of the owner class as a whole. They are incapable of empathy, for us at least. They see us as cattle. And they don't want their meat talking back or telling them to clean up their mess.
Thank you for this. I really admire your work. I wrote about how the world financial architecture is set up for people like Epstein and his buddies. https://philippajanewinkler.substack.com/p/epstein-saga-shines-a-light-on-damage?r=29y4p8
The four million dollar kickback is so grubby. UK politicians are so cheap!
That is my point too…I had a friend, Kader Asmal, a minister in President Mandela’s first administration. We were discussing politics in South Africa and he shared this (I paraphrase): "I have many trying to lobby me, and use me for different purposes, and who offer me large sums of money. The trouble is they ask me to sell my soul, but baulk at the very high price I charge for the sale of my soul. Instead they expect me to sell it cheaply. Never."
Corruption is far more endemic than is recognised. The culprits I have observed, are large companies and financial organisations. If people knew the half of it there would be a revolution.
The morbid love of money and regulatory capture are the problems that Strategic Monetary Grace as in Gifting can resolve while benefiting all...because grace/gifting evokes gratitude not greed.
Find a way to universally create relative monetary abundance like a policy of a 50% Discount/Rebate at retail sale and keep broadcasting its personal benefits while ignoring the naysayers and the presently powerful, and you're on the way to accomplishing Victor Hugo's insight regarding the irresistibility of "an idea whose time has come."