Wednesday, July 29, 2020

Winners (and losers) and the destruction of wealth 'in these times'

As we roll into the dog days of Summer there's still much concern about COVID-19 (rightly so) but we're starting to see our ruling class increasingly pivot to crocodile tears for the majority of folks that are going to be casting votes come November.

In-between made-for-TV accusations against one's political enemies of incompetence, corruption, stupidity and down-right evil is a sudden, manufactured concern for those who have lost their jobs due to forced closures, fear-mongering and general ham-handedness by the very same rulers.  Suddenly people being out of work, broke, and holding no hopes for the future is less a reality brought on by shuttering the economy, and more the result of......something the other tribe has done because they don't care sufficiently about the poor and suffering.

It's never about policy, it's about "feels".

The battle lines here have always been simple: It's the ruling class against the middle-class, and the rulers have all of the power over the ruled and there's little the latter can actually do about it.

Oh sure, you're told you can vote, but what is the difference between voting for a Corporatist party and voting for a Socialist party?  Both want to remove the largest amount of money from you that they can, to distribute to their political patrons, the only difference is where they want the money to go.

There will always be winners and losers, even in a so-called "fair and just" Socialist system. The ruling class in Soviet Russia had dachas while the ruled waited in long-lines for bread. At least straight-out strong men were honest about what they were doing. The only difference between a Bolivarian "revolutionist" and an African strong-man was one of marketing.

As such, the only difference between a Republican and a Democrat is one of messaging. Republicans have not, in recent times, done a very good job of conveying their message. Democrats have done a very good job convincing the ruled that removing their money and freedom from their control is in their best interests. The ruled have lapped up their message because of the unending drum-beat of government competence, this despite the fact that we see constant reminders of just how incompetent our government truly is.

Yet, time after time, we see the government cause a problem and we're told, in the media and by the ruling class, that the solution to the problem is MORE government.  Look as schools for example, America's education system is a cesspool of poor administration and corrupt unions. It has as little to do with education children as "climate-justice" has to do with stopping climate change. Yet we're told over and over that the "solution" to the problem is more money, more putting children into failing schools, and more funding.  Funding, by the way, that will not, in most cases, go to the actual education of children, but into the coffers of political connected organizations whose goal is increasing the bottom line.

As COVID-19 continues to work its way through the population, and a communicable virus continues to do what a communicable virus is going to do, we're now being force-fed a happy myth of bailouts and stimulus checks and the horrific lie of universal basic income, the idea that the government should provide everyone with just enough money to scrape by, the central premise of this being that the only thing worse than being poor is having the temerity to believe that one can make a living income without the benevolence of the ruling class.

How to pay for all of this?  The scourge of the moment is the "ultra-rich". They seemingly have an endless bag of money that could be distributed to the masses if only the government had the will to tax them until their eyes bleed.  Just don't pay attention and realize that the entire combined wealth of the hated ultra-rich couldn't fund Medicaid for a year, much less in perpetuity. 

What we're left with is an angry populace that's wondering when they're going to get theirs, when the rich are going to be placed in the public square and be forced to answer for their crimes of success while being pelted by organically sourced, non GMO tomatoes.

Ah well, at least we still have our freedoms......oh...wait.

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