Category: Economy

changsterdam via flickr
changsterdam via flickr

The result, long seen by anyone even casually paying attention, of the Republican primaries has finally revealed. Mitt Romney will, much like John McCain was, be painted as the archetype of out-of-touch wealth. Which he is, and he definitely should be! He absolutely is a man who has made millions of dollars by exploiting both his fellow Americans and a system made to expand the wealth of those who have it. What is unfortunate is that the lesson being taught in this little tutorial in class consciousness for America is that voting for Obama will somehow… defeat Mitt Romney or those like him? I love that Americans are being shown just how completely far removed politicians like McCain and Romney are from the people who actually vote for them, but I hate that they are being fooled into thinking Obama or the Democrats are any different or willing to destroy this inequality.

Sure, I think we can all understand that Obama may not be as rich as someone like Romney. He’s a millionaire, but the totals of his millions falls well short against Romney’s count. How about your millions, reader? Oh? You don’t have millions? Okay, your single million dollars then. What!? You don’t even have the single million? Well, then I guess the difference between Obama’s wealth and Romney’s is really meaningless to people like you and I. Come up with all the excuses you want about the differences between how the Obamas and the Romneys supposedly acquired their mountains of wealth, but the fact is they are in a completely different class than you. Their worldview is something you and I dream about when we purchase our lottery tickets, not anywhere near the same.

This election cycle will be filled with the super-duper scary ways that Romney will rob you and I of our tiny wads o’ cash to help his super-duper rich friends stay super-duper rich. They’ll probably be mostly true too. Romney will rob the shit out of you and laugh so hard about it that his spit-flecks will shower your dirty face. There, were done with that. The point we need to get to is that so will Obama. Hell, he already has done this to us several times over. By adopting Bush’s insane tax-cuts and making them his own he has robbed any opportunity for this country to pay for shit. By lowering taxes over and over, by waging both public and secret wars that cost billions of dollars we already don’t have, by freezing pay for government workers, by sitting back and watching worker’s rights be dismantled. I could go on but it becomes unnecessary once it is pointed out – he is robbing you, period. The only difference is he has the best fucking smile in the world when he does it.

Learn this class consciousness lesson, sisters and brothers. Watch how disgustingly rich Romney is and know that it is through your hard work and a corrupt system that he is that rich. The only thing I ask is that you omit the solutions that will come from the DNC. Voting Obama will not stop this. Obama will win reelection just as sure as Romney was going to win the primary, but the scales will always be tipped in the rich’s favor. That is not up for election.

via ffffound
via ffffound

The so-called “Super” Congress tasked with finding a means of cutting the deficit is a pure and simple joke. A joke few, if any, are likely to fall for. It is most simply designed to further the austerity agenda and steal from the poor of this country in order to further fund this stumbling empire’s tragic mistakes. If these wise old members of our congress fail to come up with spending cuts and revenue increases by late November, the cuts get made anyway, though they are across the board. The whole arrangement is the most obvious attempt at planned dead-lock I have ever seen. Who seriously believes that this group will come up with an agreed upon solution, or that if they do, it will be passed by their peers in congress? Or beyond that, that any measures that would possibly be passed by this monied body would be satisfactory to any portion of the working classes? Maybe 9% of Americans that still approve of Congress do.
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Aug 26

Prepare Thyself

by fwoan | 5 Comments »
ratterrell via flickr
ratterrell via flickr

The “21st century” always sounded like a futuristic utopia to me as a child. Being in my late twenties now, I was certainly still a child when the tired 20th century finally gave up the ghost, but the utopia I had always imagined springing forth didn’t seem to be anywhere I looked. In fact, this century seems to be one characterized by constant war and bloodshed. I feel cheated somehow, because of all the promise and potential we as a species hold. Perhaps it is time I come to terms with the fact that this century will be an incredibly bloody century as we finally run out of oil and kill for strategic advantages over every last drop. America’s wars will increase and will always be resource based and involve permanent occupation as a strategy. These events ensure that I will die in a world much different from the one I was born in. The final question seems to be whether that world will be one I regret leaving or not.
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daskar via flickr
daskar via flickr

We have discussed already that our nation’s debt is used as the rulers’ greatest asset. It is the ever-present excuse to why again and again our social safety-net is slowly being destroyed by those rich enough to never need it. The tax-cuts made to benefit the rich and the U.S. government’s multiple forever-wars ensure that a debt is maintained for this very purpose. We will see this again very soon with whatever comes to us as a “deal” to raise the debt limit our country can take on. To prevent default, the U.S. government will of course cut some more of the remaining strings of our already barely-there safety net. The discussion surrounding this “deal” will never be whether to cut them or not – but rather how many and how much to cut.
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May 24

The National Debt is Power’s Greatest Asset

by fwoan | Comments Off
Rose of Academe_ via flickr
Rose of Academe_ via flickr

It is the garnish on every politician’s platform. The repeated refrain in every speech listing America’s woes. Not a day goes by where it is not held over our heads, this ominous figure far too large for the human mind to really comprehend. It is the standard excuse for why Americans “can’t have nice things” like even a meager social safety net for its most susceptible citizens. The debt. The huge, disgusting debt. But what if, by some miraculous sequence of events we were to manage to erase this monumental debt of America’s? Would that mean we could finally enter the modern era in regards to welfare for our citizens? For that matter, would these politicians, the ones who constantly beat us over the heads as we cower at their feet, even allow this blight on the land to be removed? Of course not.
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Phil Roeder via flickr
Phil Roeder via flickr

In what can only be described as a coming together of the Property Party to further fuck the humbled masses, a “deal” was forged to “save” us from a government shutdown. With an election season dawning on the horizon, the events of last week are a perfect example of the futility of voting for the “lesser evil” and the extent to which the Republicans and Democrats are representative of the same class interests. At no time was the budget argument about whether to cut or not, but rather how much to cut. Nor was it ever a discussion of who to cut from, the obvious choice had always been the poor, minorities, and women. This was, from the very beginning, a discussion about how much they could take from you and I – yet again.
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3dom via flickr
3dom via flickr

The unions have been busted. Scott Walker, with the helping hand of the establishment, has stripped public unions of their collective bargaining rights. The rights of unions in this country have been won inch by inch with the blood of thousands of workers, and to see them stripped so easily from us speaks to the traitorous and naive leadership that labor has entrusted with its interests. Nothing should be moving in Wisconsin right now, general strikes should be shutting down everything in the state in order for workers to stand in solidarity with these public unions. We wont see that simply because our labor leaders are just as much a part of the status quo as Walker.
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Feb 16

And He Says, “I Dare You.” (updated)

by fwoan | 2 Comments »
Truthout.org via flickr
Truthout.org via flickr

2011 is shaping up to be the beginning of a period of revolution and redefinition for the Middle-East. Governments that defined themselves by decades of inhuman cruelty to the most vulnerable of their citizens are seeing those very people rise-up and chasing them out of their palaces. The beginnings of these revolutions are being sparked by rises in food costs, shrinking wages, disgusting conditions, oppression, and a lack of real democracy. With these numerous examples being acted out every day, showing what the desperate masses are capable of, Obama hands down a budget proposal that only furthers strengthens these motivations and will make a desperate people more desperate.
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http://commons.wikimedia.org/
http://commons.wikimedia.org/

Obama’s state of the union address last night was simply another monologue singing the praises of the “capital of conservatism“ and meant to assure Americans (who even bothered to listen) that the status quo is alright, there are no problems with the system as is. Obama’s ability to speak as an intelligent person may contrast with his predecessor, but the message was the same, as it always is. When the applause is over and the chamber is emptied, America is still left with a system that is failing by design – and in the most painful ways possible.
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daniel.gene via flickr
daniel.gene via flickr

Laughing tears is how I’d describe my reaction today to the morning’s news. I mean this shit is so predictable that I guess it’s pretty unsurprising when it actually happens, but a part of me always expects to be wrong; so when I am right I can’t help but be a little shocked. Now, what is it that is eliciting such a reaction from me on this fine December morning? Well, our sage president, guardian of hope, sentinel of change, has reached a “deal” with congressional Republicans regarding Bush’s tax cuts (set to expire in just a couple weeks) and benefits for the millions of workers unemployed by those receiving Bush’s tax cuts. The measures of said deal are so unapologetically classist in favor of bourgeoisie interests that I’m having trouble understanding how this in any way constitutes a “compromise” as it is being hailed by the powers that be. 
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