# Is It Time To Oil The Tumbrel-Cart Axles Yet? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [January 24, 2015, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-time-to-oil-the-tumbrel-cart-axles-yet/710760 "2015-01-24T15:42:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2015, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-time-to-oil-the-tumbrel-cart-axles-yet/710760/41 "2015-01-26T14:58:41Z")
What I wonder is whether the 1% have people as savvy as FDR among them today. He was smart enough to recognize that the mob needed to be thrown a few bones or things were going to get very, _very_ bad for the elite. Today, I don’t know. I tend to think they would plan on simply boarding a jet to some more welcoming place. ---
**Author:** ![get\_lives](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecb155/32.png) [@get\_lives](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/get_lives)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2015, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-time-to-oil-the-tumbrel-cart-axles-yet/710760/42 "2015-01-26T15:28:07Z")
> [@Scumpup](#): > > What I wonder is whether the 1% have people as savvy as FDR among them today. He was smart enough to recognize that the mob needed to be thrown a few bones or things were going to get very, _very_ bad for the elite. Today, I don’t know. I tend to think they would plan on simply boarding a jet to some more welcoming place. A place that might suddenly find itself on less-than-ideal terms with the U.S… ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2015, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-time-to-oil-the-tumbrel-cart-axles-yet/710760/43 "2015-01-26T15:35:17Z")
Based on [this](http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/princeton-experts-say-us-no-longer-democracy) . . . Yes. To the Bastille! ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2015, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-time-to-oil-the-tumbrel-cart-axles-yet/710760/44 "2015-01-26T16:58:07Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > Hey, [you don’t have to walk the walk](http://www.energytribune.com/70283/green-hypocrisy-as-al-gore-sells-out-for-petro-dollars#sthash.3e7Yoq3J.dpbs) if the message is pure. Al Gore does more to stop global warming than any 10 other people. His carbon footprint is necessary, other people’s aren’t. This is as stupid as that whole fake controversy with his house using a lot of power. People forget its big and doubles as an office. If we could all be more like Al Gore, the earth would be much better off for it ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2015, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-time-to-oil-the-tumbrel-cart-axles-yet/710760/45 "2015-01-26T17:36:21Z")
> [@Slithy\_Tove](#): > > Maybe, but that’s more of a Great Debate than a Pit debate. > > To the OP, if we look at 100% of our species, not jut the top 1%, there are simply too many of us, draining and trashing our natural environment. So who poses the biggest threat? > > 1. a few thousand billionaires with their giant houses? > > 2. tens of millions of Americans who make around $100K/yr with houses and garages jammed with all their consumer junk? > > 3. Billions of Indians, Chines and Africans who all want refrigerators? Maybe the analogy doesn’t scale well to a global situation, but I’m going to make it anyway. I grew up in a household with nine brothers and sisters. When, say, a box of See’s chocolates came into the house on a special occasion, it was frowned on to be taking your fifth chocolate out of the box before everybody had had at least one. ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2015, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-time-to-oil-the-tumbrel-cart-axles-yet/710760/46 "2015-01-26T18:21:53Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > Maybe the analogy doesn’t scale well to a global situation, but I’m going to make it anyway. > > I grew up in a household with nine brothers and sisters. When, say, a box of See’s chocolates came into the house on a special occasion, it was frowned on to be taking your fifth chocolate out of the box before everybody had had at least one. QFT. ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2015, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-time-to-oil-the-tumbrel-cart-axles-yet/710760/47 "2015-01-26T18:42:04Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > Maybe the analogy doesn’t scale well to a global situation, but I’m going to make it anyway. > > I grew up in a household with nine brothers and sisters. When, say, a box of See’s chocolates came into the house on a special occasion, it was frowned on to be taking your fifth chocolate out of the box before everybody had had at least one. Why that’s just communist thinking! Everyone knows that the best thing to do is to convince the authorities to give you exclusive rights to mining the box in return for a 10% dividend. Then you eat half the box, and sell the other half to your brothers and sisters for a great markup. With the earnings, you can then buy some more chocolates for yourself. This is the Great American Way. ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2015, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-time-to-oil-the-tumbrel-cart-axles-yet/710760/48 "2015-01-26T18:54:39Z")
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > Why that’s just communist thinking! > > Everyone knows that the best thing to do is to convince the authorities to give you exclusive rights to mining the box in return for a 10% dividend. Then you eat half the box, and sell the other half to your brothers and sisters for a great markup. With the earnings, you can then buy some more chocolates for yourself. > > This is the Great American Way. You forgot to mention that you cram the box and wrappers down in between the sofa cushions so that whoever (not you) has to clean the living room that week has to handle disposing of them. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2015, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-time-to-oil-the-tumbrel-cart-axles-yet/710760/49 "2015-01-26T22:28:22Z")
We are the little brother, the thin and sharp-eyed runt, but will we will not be little forever. Come the Day, we will reach over and pull that box of chocolates right out of your porky grasp, because you are too fat to get up out of that chair, much less give me a whuppin’. Then it chocolates for everybody. Yes, even you. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2015, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-time-to-oil-the-tumbrel-cart-axles-yet/710760/50 "2015-01-26T22:35:23Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > We are the little brother, the thin and sharp-eyed runt, but will we will not be little forever. Come the Day, we will reach over and pull that box of chocolates right out of your porky grasp, because you are too fat to get up out of that chair, much less give me a whuppin’. > > Then it chocolates for everybody. Yes, even you. And little people know When little people fight We may look easy pickings But we’ve got some bite So never kick a dog Because he’s just a pup We’ll fight like twenty armies And we won’t give up So you’d better run for cover When the pup grows up! ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2015, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-time-to-oil-the-tumbrel-cart-axles-yet/710760/51 "2015-01-27T17:33:17Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > I see no reason to be vindictive, a limo for that long ride to the Big Short doesn’t seem too lenient. Whatever, just so long as the ride ends in a public square with women knitting while they watch the executions. ---
**Author:** ![Claverhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/13edae/32.png) [@Claverhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claverhouse)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2015, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-time-to-oil-the-tumbrel-cart-axles-yet/710760/52 "2015-01-27T18:02:50Z")
Apparently some of the very rich are reviving the fine old idea of vamoosing outta here like a crooked banker in the Old West, and leaving the rest of us to stew in our own mess. At Davos: _Robert Johnson, president of the Institute of New Economic Thinking, told people at the World Economic Forum in Davos that many hedge fund managers were already planning their escapes_. _He said: “I know hedge fund managers all over the world who are buying airstrips and farms in places like New Zealand because they think they need a getaway."_ I’m hearing the late Kenneth Williams singing _When I Leave The World Behind_ _His comments were backed up by Stewart Wallis, executive director of the New Economics Foundation, who when asked about the comments told CNBC Africa: “Getaway cars the airstrips in New Zealand and all that sort of thing, so basically a way to get off. If they can get off, onto another planet, some of them would.”_ _He added: "I think the rich are worried and they should be worried. I mean inequality, why does it matter?_ _“Most people have heard the Oxfam statistics that now we’ve got 80, the 80 richest people in the world, having more wealth that the bottom three-point-five billion, and very soon we’ll get a situation where that one percent, one percent of the richest people have more wealth than everybody else, the 99.”_ I don’t advocate killing personally, but this gives the lie to the idea that one person’s over-wealth has no effect on the lives of envious others; since removing 80 people and giving out their substance to the poorest 3.5 billion people would double those people’s wealth. Link goes to the **[Daily Mirror](http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/panicked-super-rich-buying-boltholes-5044084)**, for which I apologise profusely. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2015, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-time-to-oil-the-tumbrel-cart-axles-yet/710760/53 "2015-01-28T18:40:17Z")
> [@Claverhouse](#): > > _If they can get off, onto another planet, some of them would."_ . . . I think it might be possible to turn this situation to the advantage of human space exploration . . . ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2015, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-time-to-oil-the-tumbrel-cart-axles-yet/710760/54 "2015-01-30T19:39:22Z")
Hey, man, he talks the talk. Even a savage Jacobin can leave that punk alone in favor of more bloody-minded game. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-time-to-oil-the-tumbrel-cart-axles-yet/710760.md?page=2)