"Think of the Wavering Millions"
by Bill Bonner
"Raise your glass to the hard-working people,
Let’s drink to the uncounted heads.
Let’s think of the wavering millions
Who need leading, but get gamblers instead.
Spare a thought for the stay-at-home voter,
Empty eyes gaze at strange beauty shows.
And a parade of the gray-suited grafters
A choice of cancer or polio."
– "Salt of the Earth" by The Rolling Stones
YOUGHAL, IRELAND – "Today, we raise a glass to the hard-working people… robbed by the gamblers and conned by the gray-suited grifters…Yes, we drink to the uncounted heads… the people who till the earth and pay the bills.
Elite Role: As we’ve oft explored in these Diaries, all wealth comes from work. Sweat. Innovation. From people who save their money and accumulate their knowledge. From people who plant gardens, write songs, and clean the windows. Typically, the elite play a valuable role – designing bridges, settling disputes, teaching the young, and healing the sick.
Its priests point the way to Heaven or hell. Its judges and opinion leaders moderate the savage impulses of the mob… and guide the “lower depths” (mostly by example) in all matters aesthetic, moral, and practical.
Its politicians should restrain themselves, stealing no more than a few percentage points of the national treasure.
Its generals should stay in their barracks, unless called upon to defend the country.
And its central bankers should protect the value of its money… no more, no less.
Irresistible Temptation: But the elite, naturally, have power as well as responsibility. They have guns and laws to boss people around. And the temptation not just to protect money… but to print infinitely more of it… appears to be irresistible. Left unchecked, the power corrupts… turning them from a helpful service class to a group of self-serving parasites. That is what America’s fake money has wrought.
As we reported, the top 1% has seen its wealth increase by $25 trillion since 2009. There are 330 million people in America, so the top 1% numbers 3.3 million… Divide that into $25 trillion, and we see that the average one-percenter has gained about $7.5 million – which works out at about $1,845 per day. Not a lot of money for a one-percenter. Maybe he can do better over the next 12 years!
Wealth Inequality: But today, our attention is on the rest. The carpenters and used car salesmen, the streetwalkers and factory girls, the people who serve the hamburgers and fix the potholes. The total “wealth” gain since 2009 is about $70 trillion. If the top 1% got $25 trillion, the bottom 99% must have gotten $45 trillion. But of that, almost all was concentrated near the top. Those in the bottom 50% gained only about $13,250 apiece over the last 12 years – or about $3.23 per day!
That is the “inequality” you hear lamented so frequently in the press. And it’s no accident. In the last 15 months, for example, the Federal Reserve has “printed” up some $4 trillion. Stocks have hit record after record. Real estate, too, is now in record territory.
Hornswoggled: The gamblers have never seen the cotton so high. They can borrow money below the level of consumer price inflation, and use it to speculate on SPACs, NFTs, meme stocks, cryptos – you name it. Billionaire investor Stanley Druckenmiller tells us what it is like: "...everyone wealthy that I know is making fortunes… this guy [Federal Reserve chief Jerome Powell] is printing money like there’s no tomorrow… for the life of me, I can’t understand why the left is so excited about money-printing when all the data shows that the people who benefit from money-printing are rich people."
But the foot soldiers? The hairdressers? The proles and hoi polloi? They have only their time to sell… and, by retarding the growth of capital, the feds make each hour less valuable They are the masses… the people… the folks who supposedly control the government. But they’ve been hornswoggled. The inflation trick is too subtle. They don’t understand it. Besides, in each election, they are offered the same choice – between cancer and polio.
Bright Side: Still, here at the Diary, we always look on the bright side. We walk on the sunny side of the street and drink from the half of the glass that is full. Yes, there are advantages to being poor.
The poor man doesn’t have to look at ugly or depressing art; he can buy a print of a Norman Rockwell magazine cover. He doesn’t have to wander around in a giant, empty palace and hire a gardener named Joselito. He can live in a cozy rambler… warm himself in front of the fireplace in the winter… enjoy a cool beer on the porch in the summer… and cut the grass himself. And he doesn’t have to travel. The rich man flits from business conference to his vacation digs, exhausting himself while pretending to be important. The poor man gets to stay at home.
Nor is the poor man expected to cheerlead for whatever cause is popular. He need not fly a rainbow flag from his bedroom window; his neighbors would think he was a little “funny” if he did. Nor does he have to worry about his carbon footprint. He drives a gas-guzzling pickup… but only to get to work.
The poor man doesn’t have to read How to Be an Anti-Racist or know who Ibram X. Kendi is; he knows where he stands. Black or white, he’s proud of his own people… and sure that others are low-lifes. And he doesn’t have to waste his time learning the difference between a Chablis and a Chardonnay. Or fear picking up the wrong fork at a fancy dinner party. “Fork ‘em all,” he mutters…"
