BS: Trickle-down Economics in the USA

Subject: RE: BS: Trickle-down Economics in the USA
From: Little Hawk
Date: 25 Jul 02 - 07:22 PM

Keeping an eye on folkies is a thankless task! This is one reason why I seldom volunteer any more for folk festivals. I used to when I was young, enthusiastic, and just a tad naive...but I learned. :-) I was mainly there to play music anyway, and eventually that was what I restricted my activities to...well, mostly. I'm not going to explain that any further...

Anyway, all I can say, Doug, is you've got MY sympathy! I hope the money comes through in order to make up for the time lost in what is sure to be a fruitless endeavour. Gad, what we do for country, Mom, and apple pie!

- LH

Subject: RE: BS: Trickle-down Economics in the USA
From: DougR
Date: 25 Jul 02 - 01:26 PM

And I can't wait to SPEND it!

Subject: RE: BS: Trickle-down Economics in the USA
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 25 Jul 02 - 10:49 AM

Yes DougR GWB DOES give a rats ass about you.

and Ed MacMahan is coming to YOUR house. You may have already won 10 million dollars.

Subject: RE: BS: Trickle-down Economics in the USA
From: DougR
Date: 25 Jul 02 - 12:01 AM

See there, I told ya'even Bobert doesn't want me now. Nobody wants me (except GWB!) Keep an eye on those folkies, he told me. :>) DougR

Subject: RE: BS: Trickle-down Economics in the USA
From: Bobert
Date: 24 Jul 02 - 11:23 PM

Hey, could be a conspiracy, but as muc as Ilike conspiracy, I think is was the caffienated coffee there, Little Hawk.

And I'm real disappointed about Doug backin' out on the defection. I had the black arm band and membership card ready for him. But, hey, life goes on. And I'm not too sure I'd want Doug over here anyway. You know, Little Hawk, we'd always be feeling for our wallets wonderin' if he'd pick pocketed us for Junior since Junior seems to be runnin' out of bread to keep things going since he gave away all the surpluses to his rich owners.... I'm jus' funnin with ya' there, Dougie.

Yeah, CarolC! Pink. Not Pinko. But pink...

Bobert

Subject: RE: BS: Trickle-down Economics in the USA
From: Little Hawk
Date: 24 Jul 02 - 08:19 PM

Bobert, are you seeing triple too? I wonder what's going on? Must be a right wing plot of some kind...

It's kind of reassuring to know that Doug has not betrayed his original principles. Besides, Dubya needs some help on this forum from time to time. :-)

- LH

Subject: RE: BS: Trickle-down Economics in the USA
From: DougR
Date: 24 Jul 02 - 05:00 PM

I do.

Bobert, I guess you were so proud of your last message you dedided to recite it three times in case we missed the first toss.

I answered LH in a PM, since he was kind enough to PM me the message he wrote above.

I have been appointed by GWB, himself, to continue my efforts to correct the wrong thinking so many of you left-wing commie types espouse here on the Mudcat. I will continue. I will prevail! I will go have another drink!

:>) DogRu (Hic!)

Subject: RE: BS: Trickle-down Economics in the USA
From: CarolC
Date: 24 Jul 02 - 04:29 PM

I think DougR would look stunning in pink ;-)

Subject: RE: BS: Trickle-down Economics in the USA
From: Bobert
Date: 24 Jul 02 - 03:26 PM

Well, danged! After reading Little Hawk's post, I was about to welcome Doug over to the other side, but now with this third principle stuff coming to light, it might be premature. So ya think the sh*t is flowing up hill, CarolC? It could just be floating to the top and if that is the case then I believe there are sufficient higher principles that would allow Doug to slip over to the correct side. I mean, the guy is getting real lonely, CarolC. Hey, it's been tough on him being one of the lone died in the wool Bushites around these parts and I think it's wearing him down, especially now that the Bush/Bin Laden thing is runnin out of gas at the same time that Bushenomics is crashing all around him. Plus, I allready placed an order for his black arm band and commie card. Whaddayathink?

Subject: RE: BS: Trickle-down Economics in the USA
From: Bobert
Date: 24 Jul 02 - 03:23 PM

Well, danged! After reading Little Hawk's post, I was about to welcome Doug over to the other side, but now with this third principle stuff coming to light, it might be premature. So ya think the sh*t is flowing up hill, CarolC? It could just be floating to the top and if that is the case then I believe there are sufficient higher principles that would allow Doug to slip over to the correct side. I mean, the guy is getting real lonely, CarolC. Hey, it's been tough on him being one of the lone died in the wool Bushites around these parts and I think it's wearing him down, especially now that the Bush/Bin Laden thing is runnin out of gas at the same time that Bushenomics is crashing all around him. Plus, I allready placed an order for his black arm band and commie card. Whaddayathink?

Subject: RE: BS: Trickle-down Economics in the USA
From: Bobert
Date: 24 Jul 02 - 03:23 PM

Well, danged! After reading Little Hawk's post, I was about to welcome Doug over to the other side, but now with this third principle stuff coming to light, it might be premature. So ya think the sh*t is flowing up hill, CarolC? It could just be floating to the top and if that is the case then I believe there are sufficient higher principles that would allow Doug to slip over to the correct side. I mean, the guy is getting real lonely, CarolC. Hey, it's been tough on him being one of the lone died in the wool Bushites around these parts and I think it's wearing him down, especially now that the Bush/Bin Laden thing is runnin out of gas at the same time that Bushenomics is crashing all around him. Plus, I allready placed an order for his balck arm band and commie card. Whaddayathink?

Subject: RE: BS: Trickle-down Economics in the USA
From: CarolC
Date: 24 Jul 02 - 02:40 PM

Wow, LH. That is a compelling scientific demonstration of the first and second principles of the first fundamental law of reality as we know it.

What's troubling me now, though, is what happens when we examine the third part of that law with the same thorough scrutiny that you have applied to the first and second parts.

As I understand it, the law, in its entirety, goes something like this: "Hot on the left, cold on the right, and shit don't flow uphill."

Your elegantly designed demonstration is ample proof of the first two principles, but I'm afraid the third principle will probably have to be discarded in light of current circumstances in the political and corporate environments.

Subject: RE: BS: Trickle-down Economics in the USA
From: Little Hawk
Date: 24 Jul 02 - 09:44 AM

Har! Har! Doug, I appreciate your sense of humour...you are becoming a wise old fox, due to the rigors of Mudcat membership.

By the way, I now have ironclad scientific PROOF that Left is hot and Right is not!!!

It happened this way. I have a new apartment with a small walk-in shower. The landlord made the mistake, when he built this shower, of aiming the shower nozzle at the entrance rather than at the wall. Accordingly, it goes out the entrance and all over the washroom, getting everything wet! Your normal shower curtain is unable to deal with this at all, as it just gets blown out of the way. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Well, we finally solved the problem by getting a huge, heavy, way too long shower curtain to hang across the entrance...it's so long and heavy that the stream of water can't push it out of the way or get under it. Fine.

But I digress. The main point here is the shower tap itself. It's a single tap that turns right or left and rotates up or down. Adjusting it so as to get the temperature you want is a damnable business, because even a tiny twist right or left can cause a radical change in temperature, while a tiny twist up or down can cause a significant change in force. It's bloody annoying.

However, one thing is absolutely clear. If you turn it to the left, you get hot water. If you turn it to the right....you get cold water.

It's an open and shut case. Left is hot. Right is not.

Now that it's been proven under laboratory conditions, we don't really need to waste time and mental effort debating all these divisive issues endlessly, do we?

I am sure that, bolstered by this compelling scientific evidence, you will settle down comfortably with the rest of us in the glorious ranks of the Left.

But gosh, it's gonna be dull with no one out there left to disagree with...uh...I mean right to disagree with...

Eh?

- LH

Subject: RE: BS: Trickle-down Economics in the USA
From: DougR
Date: 24 Jul 02 - 01:17 AM

Aw heck, Bobert, everybody knows Ebbie is already taken. You sure you're not interested? Oh well, that's the story of my life. Nobody wants me. Sob!

DougR

Subject: RE: BS: Trickle-down Economics in the USA
From: Bobert
Date: 23 Jul 02 - 05:47 PM

Yuck, Dougie. I was just tryin' yo say somrthin' nice after telling you that you were wrong. Better luck with Ebbie, pal...

Bobert

Subject: RE: BS: Trickle-down Economics in the USA
From: DougR
Date: 23 Jul 02 - 05:21 PM

Bobert: you making a pass at me?

Ebbie: I hope you are!

:>) DougR

Subject: RE: BS: Trickle-down Economics in the USA
From: Bobert
Date: 23 Jul 02 - 02:15 PM

Nah, Dougie, there ain't no convertin' you. I think you are on Junior's payroll and as long as the checks keep coming, you'll rise to his defense on any issue, any place and any time.

But, since you are good sport about it, I'll keep trying to convert you becuase in the words of Ebbie, "You're Wrong". Cute? Well maybe...

Bobert

Subject: RE: BS: Trickle-down Economics in the USA
From: Ebbie
Date: 22 Jul 02 - 10:51 PM

You're cute, DougR. Wrong, but cute. :)

Subject: RE: BS: Trickle-down Economics in the USA
From: CarolC
Date: 22 Jul 02 - 04:06 PM

What sincerity DougR?

;-)

Subject: RE: BS: Trickle-down Economics in the USA
From: DougR
Date: 22 Jul 02 - 02:02 PM

Maybe you converted me, Bobert! Suppose?

When the AG contacted me I told him there was no point in my reporting Mudcat enemies of the current administration because there wasn't enough disc space on any government computer to hold all the names! :>)

Carol C: I don't know why you doubt my sincerity so much. :>)

Ebbie: I don't always do what I suggest that others do.

Baywop: Guilty!

**BG** DougR

Subject: RE: BS: Trickle-down Economics in the USA
From: Bobert
Date: 22 Jul 02 - 10:26 AM

Ahhhhhhhh, thanks CarolC. I should have been able to figure that one out. Whew! I'm glad to know that he hasn't been carted off by the aliens...

Bobert

Subject: RE: BS: Trickle-down Economics in the USA
From: Ebbie
Date: 22 Jul 02 - 10:24 AM

hahahha

Subject: RE: BS: Trickle-down Economics in the USA
From: baywop
Date: 22 Jul 02 - 08:14 AM

I personally saw DougR in Florida, sticking chads back into ballots.

Subject: RE: BS: Trickle-down Economics in the USA
From: CarolC
Date: 21 Jul 02 - 10:38 PM

...but you want to keep an eye on DougR during election years. He's sneaky.

Subject: RE: BS: Trickle-down Economics in the USA
From: CarolC
Date: 21 Jul 02 - 10:37 PM

DougR is personally taking credit for Al Gore's loss in the last presidential election. He campaigned vigorously here in the Mudcat on behalf of Ralph Nader, and figures that's what accounts for the slim margin that enabled Jeb to have the election overturned by the Florida Supreme Court.

*BG*

And a smiley in case anyone doesn't see the humor in my post...

;^)

Subject: RE: BS: Trickle-down Economics in the USA
From: Bobert
Date: 21 Jul 02 - 07:51 PM

Think my ol' buddy Doug got into a burning rope patch... Either that or the aliens really have abducted him and left a Doug look-alike but not sound-alike in his place. I know we haven't worn him down. Not the DougR I know! Hmmmmmmm? I think he's doing Mohammed Ali's "rope-a-dope". No, maybe he signed on to be one of Asscroft's spies. Yeah, that's it. He's gonna lure us in and then... BANG... a big net falls over our head and off to where ever Asscroft plans on taking the liberal and radicals when he finally gets his plan in place. Hmmmmmm? Would you really narc out on us, Dougie? Hmmmmmm? Hmmmmmmmm?...

Bobert

Subject: RE: BS: Trickle-down Economics in the USA
From: Ebbie
Date: 21 Jul 02 - 07:26 PM

Well, does that mean that the Mudcatter named DougR will vote green? :)

Subject: RE: BS: Trickle-down Economics in the USA
From: DougR
Date: 21 Jul 02 - 06:33 PM

No, Ebbie, I'm encouraging EVERY Mudcatter to vote green! I'm with old Bobert here! :)

DougR

Subject: RE: BS: Trickle-down Economics in the USA
From: Little Hawk
Date: 21 Jul 02 - 04:52 PM

Nice summation...

- LH

Subject: RE: BS: Trickle-down Economics in the USA
From: DonD
Date: 21 Jul 02 - 04:16 PM

Another left-wing folkie here. And ignorant, too. But the most significant things I have to show from my experience with the corporate world are my -- preconceptions, and I won't give 'em up until you pry 'em out of my cold dead hands.

The only trickle down I've experienced has been accompanied by someone trying to tell me it's raining.

I've worked for a number of corporations -- what you'd call small ones, but what are now uniformly defunct ones. I've even owned a couple, equally defunct, and I tried to give myself a golden parachute, too. Maybe I'm too literal, but did you know that a parachute made out of gold falls like a rock, and one colored gold may save your life but afterward you're just down and nowhere.

One curse of capitalism as we know it is the principle of 'grow or die'. The balloon has to keep getting puffed up until it bursts; either the contents are revealed to be just hot air, or the puffer has to stop to catch a breath and the whole thing jets back in his face and flies off around the room. An entertaining moment, but all you're left with is a damp piece of rubber.

Another curse is the stock market: the biggest gambling casino in the world! Investing in a business may be valuable, but trading in its stocks or bonds is no more than shooting craps. The bet isn't on how well the company will do but on how well it will be perceived to be doing by money managers and brokers, whose only interest is to keep the wagers flowing. We demean race-track touts but esteem investment bankers.

Of course we're talking about the 'big' corporations, not those thousands of 'little ones' as if each of them doesn't have the goal to become 'big'. How many make up the Dow-Jones? The S & P? The Fortune 500? How many are in the tiny percent that control the vast majority of the wealth and buy and sell the governments of the world.

And don't talk to me about the value of either professional athletes or CEO's. Today's paper reports that some NFL or MLB team is paying over $30 million a year to athletes who are no longer in the game. Just the same as so many 'big' corporations are paying millions of their stockholders' money to ex-CEO's.

Years ago when railroads were 'big' corporations, the CEO of the NY Central screwed up royally, lost the company millions, and was fired (with a healthy thank you check!). He was immediately hired by another railroad which had dumped its screw-up CEO, with the explanation, "How lucky we are to find a man with his experience!"

Some clever journalist wrote that Bush #1 was born on third base and had the strange idea that he'd hit a triple, and I believe that that's a commomn misperception among many of the old boys network, and those who believe their bought-and-paid-for PR.

Aside from all of that, it's a great country and a great system -- if we can just fix it.

Subject: RE: BS: Trickle-down Economics in the USA
From: Ebbie
Date: 21 Jul 02 - 01:50 PM

Left! Green! (Or does that mean that YOU are voting green this year, DougR?)

:)

Subject: RE: BS: Trickle-down Economics in the USA
From: DougR
Date: 21 Jul 02 - 01:02 PM

Right! Green!!!

DougR

Subject: RE: BS: Trickle-down Economics in the USA
From: Bobert
Date: 20 Jul 02 - 10:34 PM

Yeah, LH, it would be Ray-gun. Makes sense. He was really the first president that I can think of that was owned lock, stock and barrel by the ruling class. They were really p.o.'d by Carter winnin' the White house and just figured it was time to flex their corporate muscle and stop democracy right in it's tracks... And the rest is history. One corporate puppet after another ever since...

And, in case this ol' hillbilly ain't mentioned it recently...

Vote Green

Bobert

Subject: RE: BS: Trickle-down Economics in the USA
From: Little Hawk
Date: 20 Jul 02 - 10:12 PM

Figures that it exploded under Reagan...

- LH

Subject: RE: BS: Trickle-down Economics in the USA
From: Ebbie
Date: 20 Jul 02 - 10:01 PM

Thank you, JacktheSailorLad.

But now I really am confused. I haven't had any reason to suspect JohnInKansas of prevarication so what gives, JIK?

According to the graph there was a lot more inflation in the Eisenhower years than there was under Kennedy and when it got to Reagan Good night, Nellie!!.

However, nowhere did it get to 20 percent, even in the mid-teens.

Any answers?

Subject: RE: BS: Trickle-down Economics in the USA
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 20 Jul 02 - 02:01 PM

Your wish is my command

http://www.orst.edu/Dept/pol_sci/fac/sahr/in1500.htm

Subject: RE: BS: Trickle-down Economics in the USA
From: Ebbie
Date: 20 Jul 02 - 01:46 PM

I've been reading this thread with great interest but I'm still stuck on JohnInKansas's statistic about "17-23% percentage inflation during the Kennedy years".

For instance, I would have thought that the inflation rates would have been much higher during the Carter years than under Kennedy.

I believe that the USA inflationary spiral is dated from 1967- and I thought it was because until then there was relatively little inflation, postwar.

I've gone looking for the stats and haven't found them, no doubt due to my search methods.

Can anyone clarify this for me or direct me to a site? Thanks.

Subject: RE: BS: Trickle-down Economics in the USA
From: Little Hawk
Date: 20 Jul 02 - 01:18 PM

Well, we've just had a massive repudiation of about 7 years of "trickle-down" economics by Mike Harris's Conservatives in Ontario, Canada. It resulted in great damage to our schools, hospitals, and public services...in economic disaster for our towns and cities (who had the bills dumped on them)...in a number of deaths from polluted water (due to cutbacks in inspection of same)...in a vastly greater number of homeless, and a lot more deaths on the street...wow. All for a "tax break" (a puny one). Ha. How easily people are fooled when you tempt them with a little personal greed.

Mike has now retired from politics. His successor, Ernie Eves, is trying hard to disassociate the Conservative Party of Ontario from Mike's former policies, sensing a looming disaster at the next election.

Give 'em an inch, and they'll steal the whole tape measure.

- LH

Subject: RE: BS: Trickle-down Economics in the USA
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 20 Jul 02 - 11:27 AM

Well here's how it works, Corporations give gobs of money to campaigns, and bribe elected officials with stock options. Laws get change and the US people return the donated money 100 fold.

Subject: RE: BS: Trickle-down Economics in the USA
From: Bobert
Date: 20 Jul 02 - 11:16 AM

Exactly what's so free about corporate welfare. Isn't that like a subsidy? And if corporations are subsidized, doesn't that give them an unfair advantage in a 'free market" economy? Hmmmmmm? Don't take no Wes Ginny slide rule to tell which way the wind blows...

Bobert

Subject: RE: BS: Trickle-down Economics in the USA
From: GUEST
Date: 20 Jul 02 - 04:23 AM

So much for the "free market."

Subject: RE: BS: Trickle-down Economics in the USA
From: DougR
Date: 20 Jun 02 - 11:07 PM

Bobert: Bosnia?

DougR

Subject: RE: BS: Trickle-down Economics in the USA
From: Little Hawk
Date: 20 Jun 02 - 10:14 PM

Doug, I guess there are a few "liberals" who would "take your guns away" if given a chance...and those few tend to be very noisy.

I'm not one of them.

As a matter of fact, I am not a liberal at all. I'm an out and out radical. Liberals don't impress me any more than conservatives do. They are both bent on merely tinkering with a social system which they think is "normal", when in fact it is downright insane.

If they were tribesmen in tropical New Guinea, they might well think it was normal to practice cannibalism too. Monkey see, monkey do. Conformity is one of the most common diseases humanity will ever have to deal with, and it is the main buttress of every oppressive system that has ever flourished on this planet.

- LH

Subject: RE: BS: Trickle-down Economics in the USA
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 20 Jun 02 - 04:33 PM

I don't necessarily disagree with Terry K's opinion. His tactics are questionable. If he wants to start out by calling everyone ignorant, then he should line up his own ducks a little better.

Yeah Terry this discussion is just what everyone needs morAss .

Subject: RE: BS: Trickle-down Economics in the USA
From: Bobert
Date: 20 Jun 02 - 04:19 PM

Well said, Little Hawk. I was trying to find the words that echoed a similar sentiment but this ol' hillbilly ain't a word guy. Ideas? Yeah, but elequence and spelling ain't my strong suit.

Terry: The fact that I have put together a nice house with 5 acres from my toils, sacrifice and determination, does not change the fact that the system would crumble if everyone did it my way. Never owned a new car. Not even close. Never got in much debt. Ain't into consuming the junk that rolls off the systems assembly line. Well, they don't care if a few folks like me slip the net as long as I don't teach too many others who go out and teach a few more because that it their greatest fear. A loss of control. When we don't want their junk and don't want to borrow their money for it, they're in trouble. But they're doing a fine job of manipulating enough folks to keep eevrything hunky-dory on their side. Heck, they control the media and they control the means of production so heck, it's really their game to loose, ahhh, BTW, they may do if they stay on such a greedy and mean spirited course.

As for your own mean spirit, hey, that's your problem. If it works for you, in the words of Dr. Phil (just funnin here) then go for it. If it doesn't, take a deep breath, close your eyes and try to present yourself more positively. And my motivation here is not win-loose. Just pointing out alternatives for alternatives, like ideas, are seeds of what can be.

DougR: Cuba is out. Too hot and my ferns won't like it. Nor will the P-Vine. As fir the gun thing, I think we would both agree that some folks just shouldn't have guns. Right. I mean, we don't give them to the two year old to go out and play with. Nor do we give them to prisoners. So with that as a premise, if I wake up some morning and decide to shoot at all the red cars I see, then I hope that someone will come and get my gun away from me, but until then, leave my gun alone and I'll do the same for yours. And in spite of the number of left of center friends I don't know any that want to out law guns. Just who made that lie up, anyway? Nevermind. Just glad to be "the Bobert" again, Dougie, rather than "the writer". Feels all warm and fuzzy. Come on over here and get a big ol' Bobert hug, fella...

Bobert

Subject: RE: BS: Trickle-down Economics in the USA
From: Little Hawk
Date: 20 Jun 02 - 03:48 PM

Snide remarks, sneering, and suchlike are always appreciated with great relish (and amusement) by those who AGREE with the viewpoint of the poster...and unappreciated with great irritation and affront...by those who disagree with the view of the poster.

Thus we all demonstrate our human frailty and our fragile little egos.

And that, Terry, is why I responded to the nasty tone of your post with my own sarcastic remarks. I'm human, just like you...and it's hard to resist responding in kind when attacked with malice.

Be assured, your ignorance is just as apparent to me as mine is to yours.

Everyone is ignorant. Most people are far more ignorant than they would ever be willing to admit.

I usually find your viewpoints on social issues to be appallingly wrongheaded, and I'm sure you have the same experience regarding my viewpoints on social issues. That is unlikely to change.

We were born, it seems, to provide each other with opportunities to feel smug and superior.

I find this amusing enough at times that it's almost worth it...but...

It's soooo predictable.

Both of us are smart people too, with plenty of facts we could dig up to support our logical arguments, but it will avail us nothing in the end. The cleverness of the mind is not the highest aspect of which humans are capable. Unconditional love is the highest aspect of which they are capable, and intellect is a mere sideshow in comparison to that.

What I object to about this whole human society is that it has its attention fixed on anything and everything but unconditional love. We are barbarians, Terry...virtually all of us are...hiding behind our complicated, ego-driven, ignorant little competitive agendas. If I didn't know there was a higher purpose than that, I would give up hope entirely regarding humanity.

- LH

Subject: RE: BS: Trickle-down Economics in the USA
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 20 Jun 02 - 03:44 PM

Kat, I often wondered that myself, But I've read that The Waltons are the richest family in the nation.

Was Warren Buffett the guy who wrote "Cheezeburger in Paradise"?

Subject: RE: BS: Trickle-down Economics in the USA
From: katlaughing
Date: 20 Jun 02 - 03:15 PM

A revolution can be a turning of the Wheel, DougR, a Time for Peace, a Time for Change...nothing says it has to be a violent revolution, except maybe small minds of backwards-looking people.:-)

Jack, why's JohnBoy still living in that one room at his parent's then? Don't they have enough so's each kid can have their own place, now?**BG**

Subject: RE: BS: Trickle-down Economics in the USA
From: DougR
Date: 20 Jun 02 - 02:54 PM

kat: you promoting a revolution? A revolution wouldn't be much of one if the revolutionaries didn't tote guns, would it? It's my understanding that the majority of liberals would, if they could, take away all of our guns. Sorry. I just don't think a revolution at this point is going to fly. :>)

DougR

Subject: RE: BS: Trickle-down Economics in the USA
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 20 Jun 02 - 11:50 AM

Terry Terry Terry,

I really should resist being drawn into this morass of bigotry and sheer ignorance of the realities of the economic world but I can't.

So you opening "gambit" Is to call posters to this thread bigoted and ignorant.

Who are their shareholders? Some wealthy individuals, yes; the directors of the company, yes; senior employees of the company, yes; other fat cats, yes; and all of these categories account for perhaps one percent of the total stockholders

Can you name ONE company where 99% is not owned by, as you call them, Fat cats? Three people own 80% of Microsoft.

The Waltons own Almost all of Walmart.

You seem to have forgotton a concept called controlling interest. Pretty much every company is by definition owned by Fat Cats. Else wise another Fat Cat would buy the shares for control.

Interesting "Gambit" there Terry K, Accuse others of ignorance, then demonstrate your own.