unequal

 

 

In a fairly well-off country like the US, the poors (in reality, most of us) will find income inequality is sometimes survivable, sometimes not. People who are older and free of cancer or COPD are OK. but since most of us have (or have had) one or the other, most of us are liable to the pharma racket´s stay-alive ransom demands.

The pharma racket is one of the many rackets, frauds, and shakedowns the powerless masses have suffered the past 30 years (the crash of '08!) as capitalist brigands and land pirates do nothing illegal, since it is they who write the laws.

The problems here as elsewhere are political with a vengeance, informed by economics. Anyone can see that having more money than other people gives you more power than they've got, even in humble lives like yours and mine. Think of a time when you had a lot of money, compared to what you've had most of your life. Having more money gives you more options, is what it comes down to. 

 

If a person has enough money, he or she might have the option to exert this power in politics, and since the top 1/10th of one percent of income earners in the US has more money and hence more power today than they have in had in 100 yrs, they have seized ALL power. The act was a natural consequence of that much power in those few hands.

I can already hear some of the vampire pundits, for whom truth is like daylight, screaming about George Soros and other billionaires who give to Democrats. Soros is the founder and primary bankroller of the web site Media Matters, and it´s true that he and a number of other filthy rich are behind the Dems. The problem with this analysis is that this isn't about donkeys and elephants, that Soros and Bill Gates are part of the problem, and that in any case, for every dollar they spend trying to get people like Obama and Claire McCaskill in office, hundreds are disbursed by right wingers.

 

Income inequality is one on a list of things that are wrong that all link back to the same source. Consider:

1) The super rich who run the former republic of the United States of North America don´t want to pay taxes. They do pay some, but magically, not nearly in the amount they used to.

2) Because many of them derive a portion of their income from "defense" activities, they think we should whack anybody who doesn´t like us,  and for some mysterious reason, we always are whacking away.

3) They generally believe public employees make too much money. Is it any wonder then, that during the period of time this class of superrich have been in charge, basically the last 33 years, that public employee unions have been busted up, that teachers have been forced to relinquish wages and benefits, as if being robbed at gunpoint?

The friends of Mittens the Rombot and Phil Gram might screech about George Soros, but the real money and the real power is behind the anti-humanist movement that´s had this country locked up since St Ronald took the oath. 

Conspiracy is not necessary where people's interests intersect. But this class of owners has taken to meeting annually in the desert near Palm Springs, at a get-together put on by the Bros. Koch.

Can there be any doubt that this is the "bourgeois" old Karl Marx in his wisdom and naivete warned us about?  His take on it then was that we must do away with this ruling class "because its existence is incompatible with society." That´s truer today than it was when he wrote it, because the continued rummaging about of this class today threatens the life of the earth herself.

What should we do? Unfortunately, Karl Marx can´t help us. His diagnosis was better than his prescription and proposed cure. He had too  positive view of human nature. We who have lived through the 20th century wars and seen what came after won't make the same mistake.

 

Illustration by Donkey Hotey.