Hidden Under A Bushel
This week's visit to Watching America was a quick one. I mean, one headline really leaped out and grabbed me by the throat. Who could resist checking out "Beacon of Stupidity"?
From Luxembourg's Tageblatt:
An entire nation has forgotten the words once spoken by its former president, John F. Kennedy: “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country!”
There is no other way to explain why, ever since Reagan took office, Americans have been playing a game that results in less money for the poor and the middle class. Social benefits are being cut, and the very wealthy are getting a lot more money because they are pretty much the only ones enjoying regular tax reductions.
...In May, Nobel Prize winner Joseph Stiglitz calculated that in the last ten years alone, the income of the richest one percent of Americans has increased 18 percent. In contrast, the entire middle class saw its income shrink. The hardest hit people have been male, blue-collars workers who “only” have a high school diploma. Their incomes sank by 12 percent during the same span of time. ...
There is a system to the whole thing, and it is highly rational, albeit only from the perspective of the fat cats who have, thanks to Fox News and the guardians of anti-communism on radio and television, persuaded the infuriated middle class to praise every stupid attack on the state and public welfare as a victory for freedom.
The only thing that is missing is for the Americans to collectively notice that the country that fancies itself a “beacon of democracy” degenerated into a tyranny run by an economic minority quite a while ago. [Emphasis added]
The analysis is right on the money, from start to finish. What is also on target is the missing element which might right the ship of state: an understanding by the middle class as to who and what the real enemy is. We can thank the corporate media and their lackeys for that, especially when their activities are combined with the movement to de-fund and de-legitimize public education.
We, as a nation, have gone from willfully naive to intentionally ignorant, and we are now reaping the harvest of that movement. It's a long, hard road ahead of us if we don't get a clue soon.
From Luxembourg's Tageblatt:
An entire nation has forgotten the words once spoken by its former president, John F. Kennedy: “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country!”
There is no other way to explain why, ever since Reagan took office, Americans have been playing a game that results in less money for the poor and the middle class. Social benefits are being cut, and the very wealthy are getting a lot more money because they are pretty much the only ones enjoying regular tax reductions.
...In May, Nobel Prize winner Joseph Stiglitz calculated that in the last ten years alone, the income of the richest one percent of Americans has increased 18 percent. In contrast, the entire middle class saw its income shrink. The hardest hit people have been male, blue-collars workers who “only” have a high school diploma. Their incomes sank by 12 percent during the same span of time. ...
There is a system to the whole thing, and it is highly rational, albeit only from the perspective of the fat cats who have, thanks to Fox News and the guardians of anti-communism on radio and television, persuaded the infuriated middle class to praise every stupid attack on the state and public welfare as a victory for freedom.
The only thing that is missing is for the Americans to collectively notice that the country that fancies itself a “beacon of democracy” degenerated into a tyranny run by an economic minority quite a while ago. [Emphasis added]
The analysis is right on the money, from start to finish. What is also on target is the missing element which might right the ship of state: an understanding by the middle class as to who and what the real enemy is. We can thank the corporate media and their lackeys for that, especially when their activities are combined with the movement to de-fund and de-legitimize public education.
We, as a nation, have gone from willfully naive to intentionally ignorant, and we are now reaping the harvest of that movement. It's a long, hard road ahead of us if we don't get a clue soon.
Labels: Economic Justice, Our Owners
posted by Diane at 11:00 AM
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