Willing victims, asking for more.

One of the strangest truths I've learned in the last 30 years is that you can screw the American people and they will beg for more!

You can send our jobs overseas, you can declare war against any country and we'll send our kids to fight it, you can tap our phones, lie to us, keep secrets form us, throw our citizens in jail for the most minor infractions, you can tase us, break into our houses - and punish us if we fight back, you can crash our economy, you can destroy our middle class, you can cut our benefits, cut our pensions, reduce seniors to beggars, you can destroy our unions, you can demean our teachers, you can ignore our infrastructure, you can make us pay more for our medical care than anyone else in the world, you can ignore the uninsured and let them die prematurely, you can make our rich richer while the rest of us struggle, you can insist scientists are stupid and God created the earth 6,000 years ago, you can buy our political system, you can grant corporations citizenship and let them buy elections, you can abuse us any way you want and we will not get angry or fight back.  We are victims and many of us want even more abuse: turn the country over to the very wealthy and the corporations and let them make the decisions.  They know what's best for America. God, and St. Ronnie said so, so it must be true.

Am I right?

--Trakker

Comments

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Now that you ask ...

We are a silly people. We don't want to tax rich people for fear that they'll take away our TV. Also, rich people won't like you even though you don't smell bad, and you try not to take up too much space, and you insist on paying more than your fair share of taxes in proportion to your net worth. Your bowing and scraping is annoying, too.

The problem is that mere millionaires, the wannabe rich, emulate the bad habits of the super rich, making them seem far more numerous than their actual numbers, and more oppressive because they seem omnipresent.

The rich people I know are not billionaires. They got rich by providing value for money. They're not interested in screwing the poor. Need breaks iron. The poor aren't going to starve silently. The rich have an interest in avoiding direct taxation, the roadblock on the interstate and the pistol in the face. They aren't stupid.

The problem is the nexus of politics and money. It takes money to get elected. The rich provide it. The politicians are mistaken in their belief that the rich want more money, and that policies to give the rich more money are what the rich want in return for their political contributions. The rich are people. They want pretty much what everyone wants, a fair deal. Maybe they'd like to get their contribution back as a reward for backing the winner, but they neither need nor expect to be rewarded by a factor of 100, 1000 or 10,000. It's enough that a politician will take their phone call or reply in writing to their mail, even if the answer is "No."

[Trakker]

The rich people I know are not billionaires. They got rich by providing value for money. They're not interested in screwing the poor.

I don't know a lot of rich people, but you're right, the ones I know don't want to screw the poor, but they do seem a bit too insulated from the poor. I don't think the rich know just how hard the average worker has it in America. The rich never have to look at price tags, the rest of us not only have to look at price tags, we often have to put something else back on the shelf, when we see something we like. The working classes know their cheap clothes will wear out sooner than the more expensive clothes the rich can afford, but with enough care they hope they can make it last long enough to afford to replace it.

It's not a lack of compassion, it's a lack of awareness, and the very rich have segregated themselves for the rest of us.

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"Useful sometimes to see the things which one ought to avoid" - Lord Chesterfield (1694-1773)

It isn't necessary to be rich, or desire to become rich. It is necessary to avoid poverty.

Ignorant of their natural rights, cherished their chains. - Lord Chesterfield

The rich may not be callus, the poor oblivious.

the very rich have segregated themselves for the rest of us - trakker

Who can blame them? If I don't like myself, why should anyone else like me?

If thy be poor thy brother hateth thee. - Chaucer

[Trakker]

If thy be poor thy brother hateth thee. - Chaucer

Sad, but true. How many churches have been forced to end their soup kitchens and shelters due to neighborhood pressure?