Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Silent Rage

The most bewildering aspect of this age of overwhelming greed is the fact that the people at the top have no fear or trepidation about deriding the people at the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder. I just read this article describing the latest report from the Fraser Institute based in Vancouver. It's a right-wing/libertarian think-tank. The article raises the alarm that fewer and fewer Canadians are paying taxes - a trend that is similar to what they say is occurring in the U.S. Maybe they didn't get the memo, but this was one of the issues that caused Mitt Romney to lose the election, mostly because it's complete and unadulterated bullshit...

Granted, I am more familiar with the U.S. situation than the Canadian situation at this juncture, but I was just talking to my brother last night who lives in Vancouver and makes $13/hour. He pays no Federal income tax,  which is good because when I went over his budget, he had not a dollar left over to pay anything. I make a mere 10x times more than he does and therefore I pay an infinite more amount in taxes and yet I was hard pressed to feel sorry for myself (even though all my taxes go to Lockheed Martin) - given that my brother lives with my parents and works weekends to make ends meet.

All I can say is that this is one morally fucked up society. The clueless greedbots at the Fraser Institute didn't get the Romney memo "don't go there", largely because these pampered yuppies are far removed from economic reality and have no idea what it's like to make ends meet at the bottom of the wage scale. Worse yet though, the Faux News media genre has convinced the greediest pricks in the history of the world that it's ok to keep pressing the advantage against the 90% plus people at the bottom of the scale because so far, they have never fought back. Meanwhile, the Fraser Institute conveniently ignored the distribution of wealth/income statistics in the U.S., the fact that the RomneyBots only pay 14% income tax, the fact that long-term unemployed in the U.S. is at a historic high, the fact that the number of billionaires is 10x what it was in 1987 etc. etc.

They don't see any of the real facts, because all that matters is their morally bankrupt agenda. The Fraser Institute mission apparently, envisions "a free and prosperous world where individuals benefit from greater choice, competitive markets, and personal responsibility"

Personal responsibility?  Don't make me laugh. This society knows fuck all about personal responsibility. Responsibility does not entail squandering what past generations created and otherwise turning one's own nation into a Third World sweatshop for the benefit of a handful at the top. Meanwhile, I would remind these modern-day robber barons that the very nature of an economic Ponzi scheme is to suppress wages at the bottom of the pyramid to bolster the incomes and profits of those at the top. It's reverse subsidization or better yet, we should call it a "tax" on poverty, to put it in Fraser Institute terms. Either way you describe it, history tells us that it works great, until it doesn't work at all i.e. when those at the bottom seek their money back from those at the top. And Canadians need not fool themselves that their economy is any more insulated from a global economic "reset" than any other country. Only Antarctica and  Cuba are safe at this juncture.

No, not only did these people not get the Romney "don't go there" memo but they are doing their level best to say everything possible to stoke the silent rage that grows with each passing moment. I can't feel sorry for these types of people on the other side of what comes next.

p.s. the greatest irony is that the Fraser Institute is an advocate of lower taxes - unless of course it's for people who have minimal incomes.