The Billionaires Plan To Escape From Us

[Cirsium]

25. Nope

None of that is true. Most of the wealth generated comes from the exploitation of labor and plundering of resources in areas that are under authoritarian rule.

"White working class" is just some stupid cliche. Billionaires control the media and fund right wing "think tanks," the propaganda mills, and the politicians who destroy the infrastructure and loot the public treasury.

Property rights? Most land was once held in common, and not so long ago. People were, and still are being driven from the land. There is a famous poem about that.

They hang the man and flog the woman
Who steals the goose from off the common
But leave the greater villain loose
Who steals the common from off the goose

The law demands that we atone
When we take things we do not own
But leaves the lords and ladies fine
Who take things that are yours and mine

The poor and wretched don’t escape
If they conspire the law to break
This must be so but they endure
Those who conspire to make the law

The law locks up the man or woman
Who steals the goose from off the common
And geese will still a common lack
Until they go, and steal it back

What Were the Enclosure Acts?

For most of British history large open fields were divided into scattered strips of land and farmed by peasant cultivators. By the Tudor period common land was being ‘enclosed’, or hedged and fenced off from the local peasantry. After 1750, parliamentary enclosure acts became the preferred method for transforming common land into private property. Land tilled or grazed by the peasant farmers was put to more profitable use, to the great benefit of landowners. Meanwhile, the agricultural population was forced to leave the land and seek work in the towns and cities.

In the eighteenth century, agriculture was still a large part of the British economy, and the increasingly powerful landowning classes were resolute in their ambition. Land, they believed, should not be allowed to lay idle – it must be put to work and used efficiently. In the context of increases in food and wool prices they looked towards aggressive enclosure. Thus, armed with the powers of parliament, and in the name of efficiency and the elimination of idleness, Britain’s agricultural revolution got under way. Unsurprisingly , when the government published an 1873 report on land ownership, it revealed that almost all of the top 100 landowners were also members of the House of Lords.

https://www.thecollector.com/what-were-the-enclosure-acts/

Understanding the Impact and Beneficiaries of the Enclosure Acts

The Enclosure Acts were a series of laws enacted in England during the 18th and 19th centuries. These acts aimed to consolidate and privatize communal lands, such as open fields and common pastures, by dividing them into individual parcels owned by specific landholders. Prior to the Enclosure Acts, these lands were traditionally used collectively by local communities for farming, grazing livestock, and other communal activities.

The Enclosure Acts had a profound impact on English society, economy, and landownership. The main beneficiaries of these acts were wealthy landowners who sought to increase their profits through enclosed farming methods. By consolidating the land, they could implement more efficient agricultural practices, such as large-scale farming and crop rotation, which led to increased productivity and profits.

However, the Enclosure Acts also had significant negative consequences for smaller landholders, tenant farmers, and rural communities as a whole. Many people who relied on common lands for their livelihoods were forced off the land or had their rights curtailed. The acts disrupted traditional ways of life, eroded communal bonds, and contributed to the displacement of rural populations.

https://reyabogado.com/us/who-benefited-the-most-from-the-enclosure-acts/

Liberal societies - i.e. northern Europe, the British Commonwealth countries and the US - have largely been "more successful in every way measurable" thanks to colonialism abroad and slavery and genocide at home.

Every way measurable? Like GDP? Consider this: the manufacture of an item of clothing in an impoverished country under dictatorial rule - backed up and kept in power by the US military - might pay the person actually doing the work pennies, while the item sells for $30 in the US. The US GDP is then credited with $30, while the GDP of Bangladesh or Haiti is only credited pennies. That makes the US economy look very successful, but successful at what, exactly?

But don't worry. The Trump administration is busy trying to eliminate any of this from public view, to be replaced by a "rich white people in America are great" version of American history, which will be more in line with the views you are expressing here.