But ... this diary is spot on!
No, the real scandal is that we don't start worrying about this stuff until it starts worrying the upper reaches of the middle class and their perceptions of their own deserved wealth.
I'm not a religous person, but
AMEN.
And you can be relatively confident that when one of the two corporatist parties in the US do something about the issue, it will be a policy prescription geared in quite a limited fashion to only help as many middle-class boomers as is humanly possible.
And AMEN again.
That's what's been pissing me off about the economic crisis the whole time. People are going to have to hold off on getting that 2nd HD TV for a while. But the people who were hungry before are hungry now and will be hungry when it's over. I can't begin to tell you how much this upsets me without going into a long list of profanities. It's wrong. It's immoral, inhumane and sick. It's a sick society. And fuck the economists and analysts and bankers and capitalists. Seriously. It's terrible that people are losing their houses. Well, they should not have been giving loans to poor people anyway. It's terrible that upper middle class can't afford the medical bills for the treatments the poor can't even get access to. It's sad that people will experience a lower standard of living as a result of credit card debt and gas prices. This is a crisis.
The poor who can't get a credit card and have to take the bus? Not so much.
When the middle and upper classes suffer economically, something is wrong with the system. When the poor suffer economically, something is wrong with them.
When the middle and upper class benefit at the expense of the poor, it's downright patriotic. Bootstraps, people!
When the upper upper class benefits at the expense of the upper/middle classes, it's criminal. Government intervention is required!
I could really give a damn less about Citibank and the cost of a tank of gas. Not while people are lining up around the block the street for a hot bowl of soup every Tuesday night.
You are right redstar. Yes you are. "This is nothing compared to how Putin rigged Eurovision."
Sorry you hate my stuff most of the time. For what it's worth, I rarely if ever hate your stuff. Unless it's you tearing me a (sometimes deserved) new one! ;) "C'est un scandale !"
I should take note also, though I have noticed my views evolving through reading all this stuff here - so there must be some flexibility still in play. You can't be me, I'm taken
Howsomever - this current debacle is another counterclockwise circuit (northern hemisphere) around the toilet bowl. For reasons of overweening greed, new generations of greedies, and the neoliberal political imperative to maintain ideological ascendancy; the ruling class has to 'grow' their rewards, at the same time that they mask the failings of their system regarding the welfare of the lower class. (I lump everyone below the ruling class, even though, as you point out, the "middle class" generally gets their turn in the barrel last.) So - they keep these schemes coming along - new rubric, more seed money, big media campaign to hype the winners - to pull resources out of the latest failure and give them one more economic cycle from which they can pull their 'commission'. The problem is that, as in the toilet bowl, the speed of these cycles increases as we head for the drain. I think that, judging from the longevity of the Housing ATM cycle, we are approaching the point where the p-trap awaits.
Granted that you don't owe me, but what do you - you personally - do to alter the situation? Genuine question - no challenge implied. paul spencer
How do I personally alter the situation which is an outcome of an inherently unjust economic house of cards, I mean system?
Er, right now I'm just hanging out on the fringes of society, trying not to sucked into the game. But I wouldn't rule out future participation in bloodless c o u p. "This is nothing compared to how Putin rigged Eurovision."
The main points with me are always "what is the goal?", and "how do we get there?". paul spencer
As for what I do, I do what I can. I work with my values, which once got me a quick ticket to oblivion at one employer, who was looking for analytical cover to outsource a whole department of 60 workers to India that I refused to give, strategically enough that one of my superiors lost a shitload of face and I essentially lost my place there, though that department didn't. Have the letter I got from them, when I resigned, framed. That's ok, never did read the free subscriptions I got from working there anyhow.
I'm also politically active, have volunteered plenty, especially before kids, been caucus chair more often than not at my Democratic (DFL here) precinct, when I go there rather than elsewhere (did the Green thing back in the '90's, more in the back seat than the front). Give some of them money, too, when I can, though I'd say there are more worthy places to donate to, and I do that as well, as I make a decent living. Not that volunteering for the Democratic party or giving them money is worth shit, in honesty, worthless fucks that they are by and large.
We all do what we can, I have four kids being raised correctly, imho that's probably enough right there, given your average lefty has, what, 0.6 kids? "C'est un scandale !"
