Stratification
So we have a group of people who get socialized medicine, immediate access to cancer drugs and organ transplants, and the rest of us can just wait for needed surgeries and mortgage our homes so that our bodies don't collapse and we ask ourselves if we need saddle our children with debt so that we might have another ten years of life.
Likewise, when we make bad decisions we are blamed for them. The failure of the market is chalked up to some flaw on our part, stupidity or greed or waste or clumsiness or short-sightedness. Can't pay your bills? You will be harassed. You will lose your home. Your property will be ejected on your lawn. You will be left stranded as they drag your car away. You know the consequences of your actions, because you will see them.
Unless you're a member of that group. And sure, its borders are indistinct; there are a lot of folks about whom we can wonder "Are they or aren't they?" But there are those for whom there is no question. They are and you aren't. And can never be, ninety percent of the time.
Now when they screw up, they don't get the calls. They don't lose their livelihood. They'll still be able to teach in business school. The banks will give them loans when you can't get through the door. They won't be put into jail no matter how much they take. No, if they go to jail, it's 'cause they walked themselves in.
And now we're giving them our money. $700 billion dollars? Now I know the economists have a beautiful and arcane explanation for, essentially, why powerful people are more essential than you or I, why your waste must be punished and theirs forgiven, why my debt is criminal, theirs only unfortunate. Every emperor and mandarin has gazed on the serf and the pauper and mused at how much the latter needs him.
Is it too much to ask that, when I turn on the radio or the television, I hear people screaming about what this really is? We have socialism in this country, but it's not socialism of the people. We have class war in this country, but it isn't one that seeks to level. We have redistribution of wealth in this country, but it's not serving the poor.
We have socialism of the elite, the same as has been in any aristocratic and unfree state the world has ever seen. We have a class war in which the rich keep their money to themselves and the working class at arm's length. We have redistribution of wealth where the powerful manipulate the rates of exchange so that they pay less and less to their workers and suppliers and don't kid yourself about that rising tide: it's a zero sum game and every cent they save while your wages stay the same and school prices go up and food prices go up and medical prices go up and gas prices go up and rent goes up and every single price, every single cost keeps up with inflation--not an increase, but a correction--well, that cent they save is a cent you lose, when the whole market's tilted against you, when you get stuck with the same old pay and no raise.
For God's sake, you know they're fucking you, right? We may not be able to change the world but we can call it when we see it, can we not? Are we incapable of that much?
Likewise, when we make bad decisions we are blamed for them. The failure of the market is chalked up to some flaw on our part, stupidity or greed or waste or clumsiness or short-sightedness. Can't pay your bills? You will be harassed. You will lose your home. Your property will be ejected on your lawn. You will be left stranded as they drag your car away. You know the consequences of your actions, because you will see them.
Unless you're a member of that group. And sure, its borders are indistinct; there are a lot of folks about whom we can wonder "Are they or aren't they?" But there are those for whom there is no question. They are and you aren't. And can never be, ninety percent of the time.
Now when they screw up, they don't get the calls. They don't lose their livelihood. They'll still be able to teach in business school. The banks will give them loans when you can't get through the door. They won't be put into jail no matter how much they take. No, if they go to jail, it's 'cause they walked themselves in.
And now we're giving them our money. $700 billion dollars? Now I know the economists have a beautiful and arcane explanation for, essentially, why powerful people are more essential than you or I, why your waste must be punished and theirs forgiven, why my debt is criminal, theirs only unfortunate. Every emperor and mandarin has gazed on the serf and the pauper and mused at how much the latter needs him.
Is it too much to ask that, when I turn on the radio or the television, I hear people screaming about what this really is? We have socialism in this country, but it's not socialism of the people. We have class war in this country, but it isn't one that seeks to level. We have redistribution of wealth in this country, but it's not serving the poor.
We have socialism of the elite, the same as has been in any aristocratic and unfree state the world has ever seen. We have a class war in which the rich keep their money to themselves and the working class at arm's length. We have redistribution of wealth where the powerful manipulate the rates of exchange so that they pay less and less to their workers and suppliers and don't kid yourself about that rising tide: it's a zero sum game and every cent they save while your wages stay the same and school prices go up and food prices go up and medical prices go up and gas prices go up and rent goes up and every single price, every single cost keeps up with inflation--not an increase, but a correction--well, that cent they save is a cent you lose, when the whole market's tilted against you, when you get stuck with the same old pay and no raise.
For God's sake, you know they're fucking you, right? We may not be able to change the world but we can call it when we see it, can we not? Are we incapable of that much?