I’m not comparing today’s conditions to slavery, slavery was a horrible time in America and ranks with the genocide of Native Americans as our two biggest sins but what I am saying is that since slavery ended the powerful have been trying to find an alternative and they’ve succeeded beyond even their own imagination.
With unemployment high and jobs scare people are happy to take anything and most of those jobs pay minimum wage or a few dollars more which in America today isn’t even enough to put a roof over your head in many states and cities. For a while people were able to start families and live a decent life on one job but that came to an end quickly in the 1980’s when corporations and wall street got their talking head elected president. Since then they have chipped away at unions and social programs which helped build America and allow many to live a good middle class life.
The attack on unions was rapid and the onslaught has continued for 30 years, the same organizations that helped people rise up out of poverty and afford a home and family and brought us weekends, 40 day work weeks and overtime were now evil and destroying America and yes if you consider America a plutocracy than it was destroying it. Today unions are blamed for everything from state deficits to job and if you want to see what the destruction of unions will do to America look at Detroit or worse southern “right to work states” where poverty and lack of healthcare run rampant.
Next was turning the middle class against the poor by labeling the most vulnerable among us “takers” and blaming them for being lazy. Telling working people their money was going towards people who just sat at home and smoked dope or ate Cheetos on their mothers couch was all it took and outrage and civil war started in the middle class. While this was going on the elite class took the chance to pad their wallets with tax cuts and corporate welfare. So while the middle class fights among itself stoked by politicians who complain about the poor having it to good in America and being to dependant on things like food and heat the rich are now richer than ever.
The final step is painting the rich and powerful as being oppressed either through high taxes or pesky “regulations” like not letting them poison the air or water. The republicans and corporate America have worked hand in hand and sadly they have accomplished the 3 step and now poor people are villains, rich people are worshiped and middle class is gone.
Crumbling roads, bridges, starving children it’s the poor peoples fault for being lazy, the rich work hard and have it rough so they need coddled. This ignores the fact that over 95% of people who receive food stamps or government assistance are either disabled, a veteran or work at least 1 job. My parents are “takers”, never mind the fact that my father served America in the army or both worked their whole adult life but now that they are disabled and on social security and Medicare and my mother is battling cancer she’s one of those lazy deadbeat “takers” the GOP, Corporate America and Fox “News” rail on. A leech to society fox considers them. When my mother overdraws her bank account by 10.00 she’s charged 72.00 in overdraft fees but when the same banks spent all their money and billions more that they didn’t have the government didn’t call them takers but gave them a huge handout with no strings attached and are still deregulating so it can and will happen again. With banks no longer cashing checks anymore and a 24 hour wait period on deposits many Americans have to rely on check cashing places or risk overdraft fees in that 24 hours and these places aren’t free many charge 5%-10%.
Every where you look they are making poor American’s poorer while the rich get richer and richer while they are made out to be victims punished for their success. It’s only a matter of time before the rich demand cuts in Medicare and Social Security because people who have worked 40+ years shouldn’t be allowed to live out their last few years without working because corporate America relies on you to be poor, hungry and desperate or you might start to realize that there are only 2 classes the rich and everyone else and when the 2nd class unites and stops blaming each other American and the world will change. I only hope I live long enough to see that day but with us only being 1 republican president away from a plutocracy I fear I will never see it.
More info on my "taker" parents - a veteran disabled since 2004 and one battling cancer. http://www.gofundme.com/...