In an article filled with statistics, Bernie Sanders explains that ultra-rich Americans will never be satisfied. They want “more, more, more.” And they are on the verge of taking control of Congress in order to get it. Here’s what about to happen: Republicans “want to add $700 billion to the national debt over the next 10 years by extending Bush’s tax breaks for the top 2 percent.” Here’s where we are headed in the long run, unless the Democrats draw a line in the sand:
The billionaires and their supporters in Congress are hell-bent on taking us back to the 1920s, and eliminating all traces of social legislation designed to protect working families, the elderly, children and the disabled. No “social contract” for them. They want it all.
They want to privatize or dismantle Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid and let the elderly, the sick and the poor fend for themselves.
They want to expand our disastrous trade policies so that corporations can continue throwing American workers out on the street as they outsource jobs to China and other low-wage countries. Some also want to eliminate the minimum wage so that American workers can have the “freedom” to work for $3.00 an hour.
By coincidence, I've been reading the Communist Manifesto. One of the observations it makes is that traditionally the oppressing classes make sure the "slaves" get enough to keep fed and quiet, thus passive. As bad as the USSR was, everyone had a job and a place to live. It doesn't look like the contemporary rich are smart enough to do that.
Michael: I agree. The raw greed we are seeing could bring violence into the streets, and it could be hard to maintain once it revs up. We're not there yet, but we have a worrisome trend, plus lots of guns, plus millions of Americans itching to solve complex problems through the use of violence. That's been the dominant theme from Hollywood for decades.
Micheal,
in American culture, the traditional concepts of bread and circuses has been combined with behavioral psychology.
We have plentiful food and everyone has access to entertainment through the TV. The TV however, is more useful as a tool to manipulate our perceptions and to instill fear of change.
We have electric and pharmaceutical versions of soma here in the United States.
In [Brave New World], soma is a hallucinogen that takes users on enjoyable, hangover-free "holidays", developed by the World State to provide such inner-directed personal experiences within the socially-managed context of State-run 'religious' organizations, social clubs, and the hypnopaedically-inculcated affinity to the State-produced drug as a self-medicating comfort mechanism in the face of stress or discomfort, thereby eliminating the need for religion or other personal allegiances outside or beyond the World State.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brave_New_World
Erich:
When all you have is a gun, everything looks like a target.
good article. the bible says that a lover of silver will not be satisfied with silver nor a lover of money with income.
I don't know why that is, but expierence is proving that true. I guess since we all have a desire to worship something, whether sinful desire, money, enertainers, or what not, maybe some just choose money since it seems like a real wall against all the calamities that befall the little guy so much like homelessness, innocents framed and in jail, or health conditions requirng alot of money to treat, and riots.
real sad.