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penpusherA friend of mine on FB posted one of those poster type messages that you see... a way of making a statement without writing anything... one of those postcard type pictures that everybody then likes and shares if they agree or causes them to drop you from their friendslist if they don't. Here it is:
And somehow, reading this missive, the whole thing hit me. Everything I have been antsy about when it comes to the economic health of not just the USA but the world crystallized when I looked at it. I nearly posted a response there, but I knew it was going to be a thinkpost so I brought it back, here.
The statements offered above are very common sense and rooted in fairness for everyone. But of course, the whole point of it is not to be "fair." It's NEVER to be fair, actually.
But it goes a little bit beyond that. See our 1% do have a lot of power. They can use their money to buy politicians, who will continue to do work to help them retain their massive wealth.
Now, in theory, we should be able to counteract even the most wealthy people. After all, there's 99 of us for every 1 of them. The problem comes when you start examining needs and wants, which is where President Barack Obama is having some difficulty.
Within our group of ninety-nine, there are people that want and need certain things (for example, basic health care), while others of that group want and need other things (like decent paying jobs), and occasionally these things are at odds with each other (like when a company can't hire that many people if they have to provide health insurance to their workers).
And it's this element, the fact that we as the 99% not only can't but will never agree to any of these issues that will forever keep us right where we are.
Now, for his part, President Obama was attempting to systematically pick off some of these issues one at a time, which is why the health care thing had gotten so much attention. Health Care has been a discussion point since Bill Clinton was in the White House, and Hillary attempted and failed to make any progress with it back in the 1990s.
But, of course, the One Percenters made a lot of negative noise about it all, and the word "socialism" got used more than once. Of course, that incensed a portion of the 99%, which successfully worked to keep the whole thing off-balance. If there's in-fighting among the ranks, there's no chance of making any significant progress.
There's really nothing new going on here. The only question: will people still fall for the old Three Card Monte trick? as Pennsylvanian Congressional member John Witherspoon was perfectly paraphrased in the musical "1776,"
Most men with nothing would rather protect the possibility of becoming rich than face the reality of being poor.
I suspect there are many people that feel they have the chance to join those one percenters. And that is the illusion. Everyone hopes to become super wealthy and to avoid spending that money on "stuff" that doesn't "benefit them."
From here, we really could veer off into several directions... the fact that the USA is still, despite our Commander-in-Chief, a racist nation that continues to disavow the fact that we are all part of the same material, that we all share a stake in each other's successes and that we will all go down in flames if we all don't make certain we are all okay. But we've covered that ground before and I'm sure we'll talk about it again, eventually.
We could discuss how short sighted everyone seems to be about things, how we narrowly avoided a depression (and actually, according to some definitions we really didn't avoid it), and still managed to stay solvent and functioning without a full-on economic collapse, and how the Obama Administration still managed to avoid raising taxes in any significant way. But some would say that's pandering and there'll be plenty of time for that for the weeks counting down to Election Day.
But to me, the most important thing to note now is the subtle element of what this really means: what I like to call the Invisible Wall. Maybe it's somewhat related to "The Glass Ceiling," certainly in design and in function. But here's the element that I see that will not just effect this election year, but the entire future of the United States of America.
If we, as the 99%, are just so caught up in the need to scramble to find work, to deal with the hardships of higher and higher rent, more expensive food that isn't healthy for us to eat, no proper medical treatment when we get sick from those problems and no real free time to attempt to enjoy life or to at least be able to think, the nation is dying.
Seriously. Ideas are borne from people who have time to daydream. Who have had a chance to eat. Who have gotten an education that they were able to afford. More and more, those people are the 1%. Which also means their creations will be earning them even more money, making them more wealthy, while we just buy their concepts and help with our shopping dollars.
This is where we need to start. The opportunity to have success in this country may not have been completely open to everyone, but now that door is rapidly closing to pretty much anyone that isn't solvent. Would J.K. Rowling have made it big if she were a US citizen? Absolutely not. And that's what we're talking about here.
What's the answer? There doesn't seem to be a direct one, or at least one that most people would have the stomach for, and that's revolution in the same style as the French did in 1789. But the wants and needs of the 99% are so divergent, it would be difficult to know who to attack!
But that's the point. And that's why it'll never happen.
And somehow, reading this missive, the whole thing hit me. Everything I have been antsy about when it comes to the economic health of not just the USA but the world crystallized when I looked at it. I nearly posted a response there, but I knew it was going to be a thinkpost so I brought it back, here.
The statements offered above are very common sense and rooted in fairness for everyone. But of course, the whole point of it is not to be "fair." It's NEVER to be fair, actually.
But it goes a little bit beyond that. See our 1% do have a lot of power. They can use their money to buy politicians, who will continue to do work to help them retain their massive wealth.
Now, in theory, we should be able to counteract even the most wealthy people. After all, there's 99 of us for every 1 of them. The problem comes when you start examining needs and wants, which is where President Barack Obama is having some difficulty.
Within our group of ninety-nine, there are people that want and need certain things (for example, basic health care), while others of that group want and need other things (like decent paying jobs), and occasionally these things are at odds with each other (like when a company can't hire that many people if they have to provide health insurance to their workers).
And it's this element, the fact that we as the 99% not only can't but will never agree to any of these issues that will forever keep us right where we are.
Now, for his part, President Obama was attempting to systematically pick off some of these issues one at a time, which is why the health care thing had gotten so much attention. Health Care has been a discussion point since Bill Clinton was in the White House, and Hillary attempted and failed to make any progress with it back in the 1990s.
But, of course, the One Percenters made a lot of negative noise about it all, and the word "socialism" got used more than once. Of course, that incensed a portion of the 99%, which successfully worked to keep the whole thing off-balance. If there's in-fighting among the ranks, there's no chance of making any significant progress.
There's really nothing new going on here. The only question: will people still fall for the old Three Card Monte trick? as Pennsylvanian Congressional member John Witherspoon was perfectly paraphrased in the musical "1776,"
Most men with nothing would rather protect the possibility of becoming rich than face the reality of being poor.
I suspect there are many people that feel they have the chance to join those one percenters. And that is the illusion. Everyone hopes to become super wealthy and to avoid spending that money on "stuff" that doesn't "benefit them."
From here, we really could veer off into several directions... the fact that the USA is still, despite our Commander-in-Chief, a racist nation that continues to disavow the fact that we are all part of the same material, that we all share a stake in each other's successes and that we will all go down in flames if we all don't make certain we are all okay. But we've covered that ground before and I'm sure we'll talk about it again, eventually.
We could discuss how short sighted everyone seems to be about things, how we narrowly avoided a depression (and actually, according to some definitions we really didn't avoid it), and still managed to stay solvent and functioning without a full-on economic collapse, and how the Obama Administration still managed to avoid raising taxes in any significant way. But some would say that's pandering and there'll be plenty of time for that for the weeks counting down to Election Day.
But to me, the most important thing to note now is the subtle element of what this really means: what I like to call the Invisible Wall. Maybe it's somewhat related to "The Glass Ceiling," certainly in design and in function. But here's the element that I see that will not just effect this election year, but the entire future of the United States of America.
If we, as the 99%, are just so caught up in the need to scramble to find work, to deal with the hardships of higher and higher rent, more expensive food that isn't healthy for us to eat, no proper medical treatment when we get sick from those problems and no real free time to attempt to enjoy life or to at least be able to think, the nation is dying.
Seriously. Ideas are borne from people who have time to daydream. Who have had a chance to eat. Who have gotten an education that they were able to afford. More and more, those people are the 1%. Which also means their creations will be earning them even more money, making them more wealthy, while we just buy their concepts and help with our shopping dollars.
This is where we need to start. The opportunity to have success in this country may not have been completely open to everyone, but now that door is rapidly closing to pretty much anyone that isn't solvent. Would J.K. Rowling have made it big if she were a US citizen? Absolutely not. And that's what we're talking about here.
What's the answer? There doesn't seem to be a direct one, or at least one that most people would have the stomach for, and that's revolution in the same style as the French did in 1789. But the wants and needs of the 99% are so divergent, it would be difficult to know who to attack!
But that's the point. And that's why it'll never happen.