Excellent column, Walter. Fucking Reagan explicitly ginned up anti-government sentiment among not just the rich elite but also the working class white people, which has led to where we are today. Government was envisioned by the Founders and enervated by the Constitution to protect the rights of the citizens. How cruelly ironic that in this day and age the oligarchs and evil narcissist use government to oppress us.
You just summarized everything that happened to take America from the Shining light of Democracy to a Kleptocracy of billionaires. Thank you for providing such a clear and clean analysis! We must all repost and pass this on for every American to read!
A truly enlightening article .. “‘elevate the working class to power” … you are so correct, if the billionaires wanted to they could fix much of our issues right now .. especially the wage, benefits and health care. They are not smarter than the rest of us, just as President Musk isn’t all that smart … they simply are power hungry bullies that take things away from the people are them, then puff out their chests and say see what I can do. We, the general public, needs to kick them to the ground and take control!
I always say that we don't have working roads and universal healthcare because 12 people decided they want to build a personal rocketship to space.
There is almost* no ethical way to be a billionaire. After the election, I dropped out of following politics and I'm now writing a book that takes place in Spain in the year 1500 that is an allegory for what is going on now in America and the world. The rich take from regular people to keep enriching themselves. They hoard all of the resources at the detriment of everyone else.
*there are 2 Billionaires I can think of that seem to try to do good with their wealth. The rest seem to only care about holding onto power to increase their Scrooge McDuck bank vault so they can swim in gold.
throughout history, we have seen societies squeeze themselves out of existence by greed. Many years ago I read “Collapse” by Jared Diamond, and he had example after example of how every human civilization has done this. He starts with the example of Easter Island, but it’s what the billionaire class is doing now to America. It is not sustainable.
I live in Spain now and I can tell you that The Squeeze is happening globally.
"let them make bricks without straw!" Pharaoh punished the slaves by making them gather their own straws and requiring the same daily output of bricks! God heard the cries, saw the evil and "with a strong hand and an outstretched arm", the people eventually saw the power of God. Billionaires won't accept that they are not mortal men, weak and having arms too short to box with God. It's a tale as old as dirt.
Brilliant. If it wasn't such a loaded word, I'd call it a "manifesto." We are our own worst enemies, and have somehow managed to erode, if not destroy, the very ideals we hold near and dear.
"For three political cycles, we’ve had a candidate that claims to be a billionaire, and throughout this whole time, the argument about why he’s not helping has never been discussed. He’s already got the power to help. What good works does he have to his name?"
It is not only that. That he does not have any track record of doing good - at least none, that I am aware of.
But the now 78-year old in mental decline cry-baby poor excuse of a being that never grew up and reached adult maturity and accountability level, who has been a career criminal cheating, stealing and lying, his whole life. Examples include but are not limited to:
- cheating on all of his 3 wives
- cheating contractors out of their payments, bankrupting them
- cheating on tax records
- 4,000 lawsuits alone up until the start of his first presidency
- more than 30,000 lies/untruths stated during his first term
- being barred from holding a position in any charity in the state of NY due to his embezzling of $2.5M from a children cancer hospital (St. Jude) together with his son Eric
- $25M verdict to repay students of his fraudulent university
- bankrupting his casino business (was it really 6 times?)
- and the list goes on and on - and on and on. Up to today.
Anybody believing that this is the character, morale and value example that should be admired, and strived for, and will do good for the USA society at large (and especially his direct MAGA supporters), must be delusional.
And NO: tax cuts for the rich and corporations do not count, nor does banning books, nor using his position as a president to go (legally?) after his critics.
I believe that billionaires are indifferent. They’re occupied with wealth and their strategic interest in amassing more wealth. This strategic thinking doesn’t include or require that they consider the non-billionaires.
So we tell ourselves that a billionaire is smarter, and better educated, and works so much harder than anyone else that they deserve their wealth. The truth is far less romantic and disgusting). This means as a middle class person or even a poor person if I just tried a little harder and stopped buying avocado toast I could be rich like them, and in fact it's a moral failing that I'm not rich like them...yet. I convince myself that I don't need no help from the government cause thats socialism.what the rich don't tell me is that the rich use corporate welfare, socialism, every damn day. So.ultimately the folks who call for billionaires to take over the country with their vote are wanna be billionaires who are sure happy to have those tax breaks when they finally succeed.
Excellent article and thought provoking insight.The comments revealed the solidarity of the common American. Please more columns like this would be appreciated.
Having worked in a leading academic medical center in addition to small community clinics in low income areas...I'm not for government run healthcare. Our system went South when umbrella healthcare mergers and acquisitions took the power of care away from physicians turning decisions into algorithms and emphasizing reimbursable procedures in performance evaluations. Adding more layers of administration will not get us there. Universal coverage and dissociating insurance coverage from employment will get the project back in the hands of direct consumers and providers.
Excellent column, Walter. Fucking Reagan explicitly ginned up anti-government sentiment among not just the rich elite but also the working class white people, which has led to where we are today. Government was envisioned by the Founders and enervated by the Constitution to protect the rights of the citizens. How cruelly ironic that in this day and age the oligarchs and evil narcissist use government to oppress us.
"The American people have their thinking so contorted that they disregard this blatant contradiction."
This, and so many others. Great breakdown.
Thank you Elizabeth!
You just summarized everything that happened to take America from the Shining light of Democracy to a Kleptocracy of billionaires. Thank you for providing such a clear and clean analysis! We must all repost and pass this on for every American to read!
Thank you!
When the 2 supposedly wealthy men in the world want to go into space, you know how little they care about this world.
They'd rather terraform an entire planet than cultivate basic decency.
A truly enlightening article .. “‘elevate the working class to power” … you are so correct, if the billionaires wanted to they could fix much of our issues right now .. especially the wage, benefits and health care. They are not smarter than the rest of us, just as President Musk isn’t all that smart … they simply are power hungry bullies that take things away from the people are them, then puff out their chests and say see what I can do. We, the general public, needs to kick them to the ground and take control!
I always say that we don't have working roads and universal healthcare because 12 people decided they want to build a personal rocketship to space.
There is almost* no ethical way to be a billionaire. After the election, I dropped out of following politics and I'm now writing a book that takes place in Spain in the year 1500 that is an allegory for what is going on now in America and the world. The rich take from regular people to keep enriching themselves. They hoard all of the resources at the detriment of everyone else.
*there are 2 Billionaires I can think of that seem to try to do good with their wealth. The rest seem to only care about holding onto power to increase their Scrooge McDuck bank vault so they can swim in gold.
They forget that if they murder the working class, there will be nobody from whom they can extract their fortunes.
throughout history, we have seen societies squeeze themselves out of existence by greed. Many years ago I read “Collapse” by Jared Diamond, and he had example after example of how every human civilization has done this. He starts with the example of Easter Island, but it’s what the billionaire class is doing now to America. It is not sustainable.
I live in Spain now and I can tell you that The Squeeze is happening globally.
I'm sorry to hear it's global
"let them make bricks without straw!" Pharaoh punished the slaves by making them gather their own straws and requiring the same daily output of bricks! God heard the cries, saw the evil and "with a strong hand and an outstretched arm", the people eventually saw the power of God. Billionaires won't accept that they are not mortal men, weak and having arms too short to box with God. It's a tale as old as dirt.
Brilliant. If it wasn't such a loaded word, I'd call it a "manifesto." We are our own worst enemies, and have somehow managed to erode, if not destroy, the very ideals we hold near and dear.
Thank you Dan! Call it a speech!
Right on, Walter!
Thanks Tom. We have to speak our truth while we still can!
"For three political cycles, we’ve had a candidate that claims to be a billionaire, and throughout this whole time, the argument about why he’s not helping has never been discussed. He’s already got the power to help. What good works does he have to his name?"
It is not only that. That he does not have any track record of doing good - at least none, that I am aware of.
But the now 78-year old in mental decline cry-baby poor excuse of a being that never grew up and reached adult maturity and accountability level, who has been a career criminal cheating, stealing and lying, his whole life. Examples include but are not limited to:
- cheating on all of his 3 wives
- cheating contractors out of their payments, bankrupting them
- cheating on tax records
- 4,000 lawsuits alone up until the start of his first presidency
- more than 30,000 lies/untruths stated during his first term
- being barred from holding a position in any charity in the state of NY due to his embezzling of $2.5M from a children cancer hospital (St. Jude) together with his son Eric
- $25M verdict to repay students of his fraudulent university
- bankrupting his casino business (was it really 6 times?)
- and the list goes on and on - and on and on. Up to today.
Anybody believing that this is the character, morale and value example that should be admired, and strived for, and will do good for the USA society at large (and especially his direct MAGA supporters), must be delusional.
And NO: tax cuts for the rich and corporations do not count, nor does banning books, nor using his position as a president to go (legally?) after his critics.
I believe that billionaires are indifferent. They’re occupied with wealth and their strategic interest in amassing more wealth. This strategic thinking doesn’t include or require that they consider the non-billionaires.
Indifference for human suffering should be considered equivalent to a desire for human suffering.
Absolutely agree. Indifference isn’t an excuse. I don’t think there’s any acknowledgment on their part of human suffering and their part in it.
I guess I’m reticent to give them credit for considering us while in their pursuit of one dollar more.
So we tell ourselves that a billionaire is smarter, and better educated, and works so much harder than anyone else that they deserve their wealth. The truth is far less romantic and disgusting). This means as a middle class person or even a poor person if I just tried a little harder and stopped buying avocado toast I could be rich like them, and in fact it's a moral failing that I'm not rich like them...yet. I convince myself that I don't need no help from the government cause thats socialism.what the rich don't tell me is that the rich use corporate welfare, socialism, every damn day. So.ultimately the folks who call for billionaires to take over the country with their vote are wanna be billionaires who are sure happy to have those tax breaks when they finally succeed.
Excellent article and thought provoking insight.The comments revealed the solidarity of the common American. Please more columns like this would be appreciated.
Billionaires only help people when it’s a tax deductible action benefiting the billionaires.
Having worked in a leading academic medical center in addition to small community clinics in low income areas...I'm not for government run healthcare. Our system went South when umbrella healthcare mergers and acquisitions took the power of care away from physicians turning decisions into algorithms and emphasizing reimbursable procedures in performance evaluations. Adding more layers of administration will not get us there. Universal coverage and dissociating insurance coverage from employment will get the project back in the hands of direct consumers and providers.
Universal healthcare would remove layers of administration.