Being retired, I watch a lot of news every day. Today, Big Money is displaying an ad with the meme, “Americans Can’t Afford It” (see my blog about memes).

Here’s the thirty second summary.

Banks are very upset about an international agreement, called Basil III, that’s up for implementation by the Federal Reserve. It’s basically a carefully worked out agreement to put international banks on a level playing field and it’s designed to prevent another banking meltdown like the one that happened in 2008. In that crisis, millions of people around the world lost their savings because banks and insurance companies failed. Household wealth in the United States fell $11 trillion. Not the wealth of the super-rich, of course. Household wealth. See the WikIpedia article about it. The rich kept getting richer, even though quite a few of them had to find new jobs.

The bottom line (for the TV ad anyway) is that the ad is a fact wasteland, but it’s filled with screams of bloody murder of the common man. Bank profits may decline just a bit if it’s ratified. Listening to the ad, you would never know that it’s paid for by the banks.

Only a microscopic segment of Americans will know anything about it. But a much bigger segment – about 35% actually – will walk away from viewing this sociological weapon muttering about how the economy is being ruined (it isn’t) and inflation is out of control (it’s not).

I lived through a period of American history when inflation really was out of control. In the early 1970’s, interest rates rose to nearly 20%. The Army had stolen two years of my life and my best chance to get a job with a fresh engineering degree. I was one of the last people drafted for the Vietnam war and I escaped from involuntary servitude in 1973, just in time for the “Great Recession”. I am amazed at the crybabies of the right wing today.

This is all very interesting, but it won’t last long. Before you know it, the super-rich will be focused on other ways to steal the rest of us blind. Moaning about it has stopped being fun for me. I won’t be around that much longer to observe the decline and fall of the American empire.

What is more interesting is the sociological science behind all this. I can’t change anything, but I can work toward a better understanding and that’s still fun. The super-rich have clearly learned the scientific secrets behind lying for power and profit. What they’re doing is working. Watching it work is like discovering what the man behind the curtain is doing.

But are the rest of us learning anything? I don’t think so. I’ve always believed in the transcendent power of science to accomplish things. The scientific use of sociology to galvanize critical groups into action is an example as obvious as the Great Wall of China. The super-rich are using the latest scientific weapons. People like Paul Krugman and Robert Reich have as much impact as throwing rocks at an Abrams battle tank. Robert Reich has argued that Basel III did not go far enough to regulate banks. Who knew? Maybe one-thousandth of one percent of Americans. Maybe not even that many. The truth is not setting people free.

So, what is the answer. OH! I know! It’s “42” !!!!

——————————————-

P0P QUIZ !!!  The chart above shows that the top 5% are grabbing wealth faster than the top 1%.

Why is that happening? I’ll send a prize to the first person to give me a killer answer. (Really! I will! I have another web site where I send stuff to people.)