Sharecropping

Sharecropping

After the Civil War, former slaves sought jobs, and planters sought laborers. The absence of cash or an independent credit system led to the creation of sharecropping.

Sharecropping is a system where the landlord/planter allows a tenant to use the land in exchange for a share of the crop. This encouraged tenants to work to produce the biggest harvest that they could, and ensured they would remain tied to the land and unlikely to leave for other opportunities. In the South, after the Civil War, many black families rented land from white owners and raised cash crops such as cotton, tobacco, and rice. In many cases, the landlords or nearby merchants would lease equipment to the renters, and offer seed, fertilizer, food, and other items on credit until the harvest season. At that time, the tenant and landlord or merchant would settle up, figuring out who owed whom and how much

High interest rates, unpredictable harvests, and unscrupulous landlords and merchants often kept tenant farm families severely indebted, requiring the debt to be carried over until the next year or the next. Laws favoring landowners made it difficult or even illegal for sharecroppers to sell their crops to others besides their landlord, or prevented sharecroppers from moving if they were indebted to their landlord.

Charlie Barnet - Sharecropper's Blues

There Are 85 People Who Are As Wealthy As Half The WORLD, Oxfam Reports

Oxfam's "Working For The Few" report looked at Credit Suisse's "Global Wealth Report 2013" and Forbes' list of the world's billionaires from 2013 to conclude that 1 percent of the global population controls half of the world's wealth.

The report also found that the world's 85 richest people own the same amount as the bottom half of the entire global population.

The ramifications of such inequality may be dire, the report suggests:

This massive concentration of economic resources in the hands of fewer people presents a significant threat to inclusive political and economic systems. Instead of moving forward together, people are increasingly separated by economic and political power, inevitably heightening social tensions and increasing the risk of societal breakdown.

Talking Heads - Once In A Lifetime

Rigged Rules Mean Economic Growth Increasingly Winner-Takes-All

Policies successfully imposed by the rich in recent decades include financial deregulation, tax havens and secrecy, anti-competitive business practice, lower tax rates on high incomes and investments and cuts or underinvestment in public services for the majority. Since the late 1970s, tax rates for the richest have fallen in 29 of the 30 countries for which data are available, meaning that in many places the rich not only get more money but also pay less tax on it.

A recent US study presented compelling statistical evidence that the interests of the wealthy are overwhelmingly represented by the US Government compared with those of the middle classes. The preferences of the poorest had no impact on the votes of elected officials.

Richard Thompson - Pharoah

Unbalanced: 85 Super-Wealthy own as Much as Half the World’s Population

We will soon live in a world where equality of opportunity is just a dream. In too many countries economic growth already amounts to little more than a ‘winner takes all’ windfall for the richest."Winnie Byanyima, Oxfam Executive Director, states that a continuation of such policies will contribute to inequality for generations to come.

"In developed and developing countries alike, we are increasingly living in a world where the lowest tax rates, the best health and education and the opportunity to influence are being given not just to the rich but also to their children," stated Byanyima.

"Without a concerted effort to tackle inequality, the cascade of privilege and of disadvantage will continue down the generations. We will soon live in a world where equality of opportunity is just a dream. In too many countries economic growth already amounts to little more than a ‘winner takes all’ windfall for the richest," Byanyima stated.

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Big Al's picture

We abolish those people. Well, not really abolish, but we take away their money, move them into some condos in Nebraska, then go on to solve the rest of our problems. There's only 85 of them, it won't be that hard.

But seriously, maybe this is the issue that can bring together the revolution. It's so far out there now that it can't be defended. In fact, it's surreal now, like a fantasy movie, or maybe a horror/science fiction movie.

If you really just think about it, that 85 people have more wealth than the over 3 billion in the "poverty class", it's hard to wrap your head around other than to conclude it has to stop, it has to be reversed. Not stopped but that criminally amassed wealth must be taken back and redistributed in some manner. Even "they" are admitting there's a huge problem but we know "they" won't do a damn thing about it, certainly not the 85 or so at the very top of the food chain.

I think anyone that thinks that is the way the world should work is an inhumane psychopath. They have no feelings for other human beings.

In a relatively workable world, we the people would gather a petition of a couple billion people, present it to the U.N. and demand total and equal wealth distribution and ownership and an end to the criminally sick systems they've created to amass their fortunes.

There's no other choice, it is not stopping. We've been talking about it for years and now it's accumulating at the top faster than ever.

FASTER THAN EVER! And NOT STOPPING!

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joe shikspack's picture

i had this brainstorm some years ago... we take all of the really rich people and all of the top dictators, too and send them to a remote place called "winners island." there they are plied with hot and cold running cocaine and hookers, personal chefs - whatever they want - and all of it is broadcast globally as reality teevee. their assets are redistributed, their people are allowed to elect decent rulers and the rest of us set about developing a decent, sustainable society.

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Shahryar's picture

the first thing that came to mind was student debt. Kids have this enormous debt that they can only pay off if they become good little workers in the system. They are forced to work for large corporations or else carry that debt for their whole lives with (oooh! scary!) bad credit.

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Unabashed Liberal's picture

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Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.

Blue Dragon's picture

I think we are all doing piecework the way my mother did as a seamstress in a sweatshop. I'm an academic doing piecework. My university just wants to count my beans. They don't care if my beans are healthy to eat or poisonous to thinking. All beans are equal: the ones that will kill your brain and/or soul are the same as the ones that might actually contribute positively to the world. Actually, the poisonous ones are better because they don't threaten neoliberalism.

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May the dolphins, whales and furry things inherit the world. Humans, unless we do an about face, have just about proven we don't deserve this beautiful planet.