Sunday, May 4, 2008

Rape Me

So, I want to talk about something that really bothers me. It's called Trickle Down Economics.
The general idea behind ‘trickle down economics’ is, “Well, caddies in Kingston need rich people don’t they?” In other words, the richer rich people are, the more they’ll be able to spend on services provided by poor people. Somehow, if they’re rich, people underneath them class-wise benefit. Services like water, heat, electricity, cable, internet, phones, and gas are often expenses paid for and forgotten by executives who make them as expensive as they are. And so when those prices have the opportunity to drastically go up thanks to wiggle room provided by tax exemptions and other ‘top 1%’ privileges, corporations really going for it and in the end, force poor people to pay these considerably more harmful charge increases. Let me explain; if corporations are given tax exemptions that allow for greater returns than they would have expected 8 years ago – ahem – then the logical move is to try and make even more money. You don’t do that by charging less. You certainly don’t do that by giving your lower level employees benefits. And what do executives care if prices on everything go up. They can afford to live more expensively with the money you’re giving them.
Middle to lower class citizens then who make up the majority of this country suffer from this policy and I’m going to go as far as to say that it’s done that way on purpose. Polarizing this nation economically is a perfect mission for the upper class. These are people who’ve dedicated their lives to being more and more powerful. They only have more to gain when the rich become richer and the poor become poorer. They’re on the winning end of that divisive process. So why wouldn’t they support an economic policy that’ll make them more powerful than they were and simultaneously push poorer people further away from the country club. “Don’t you want to be an aristocrat? Maybe President of the United States? Well, if you do, you and you’re corporate cronies are going to need millions and millions and millions of dollars to do it. Come on, let’s get us a scotch while you reconsider your position, Madam Senator”.
This policy is indicative of a slowly revealing secret - that American government is increasingly less and less concerned with the well-being of American people and increasingly more concerned with itself. Or more specifically, with its high rolling participants’ careers.
And maybe I’m an idiot for saying it and not just knowing it.
Irregardless, this self-perpetuation is unmistakably apparent in ‘trickle down economics. “Let them eat cake!”, they said! Right to our faces. “Our wealth is there for you… in theory. Really it’s in a bank and several other investments placed in other well established corporations who’re flourishing just as well as we are…I’ve just purchased a house in the Vineyard…But listen to the president who says so little! Congress is being fickle – He says congress doesn’t want wealth to trickle down. You hear that, poor people with little to no understanding of how money in this country really works. He’s frustrated on your behalf and he’s going to fight until (cue religious language) Congress sees the light and lets you have rich peoples’ money!”
“Well, fuck, Congress! Let George do what he does! He’s President and we need to support our President because he told us we do. I’ve pledged my allegiance…”
I’d call it brilliant if it wasn’t so wrong. It confuses the hell out of me.
I’ll leave you with a quote from Dan Dennet – “The secret to happiness is to find a cause greater than yourself and dedicate your life to it”. I’ll say, don’t let your life be determined by unworthy causes. FIN.

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