As an American Expat living in the European Union here is another point of view that asks why is right wing America brainwashed in to believing that worker exploitation is a badge of pride instead of a badge of shame!
In the E.U. this man is the poster boy for brainwashed right wing America where
by way of a de facto economic Stockholm syndrome, victims identify with their oppressors and as a badge of pride, working to protect those from criticism who have kidnapped them economically and held their future hostage for ransom.
As someone who holds a M.B.A. degree in Marketing I have been trained to recognize this as nothing more than the right wing class warfare marketing of propaganda!
Please ask yourself how tolerant is he of the homeless, the long-term unemployed, or the disabled?
Just because he with that steely eyed gaze says he doesn't blame Wall Street doesn't mean we can't. We aren't brainwashed he is. Is his reaction to denigrate the weaker members of society? If so that doen't have to be our reaction. In America though we are surrounded by economic intolerance yet we ourselves can be tolerant! We don't have to buy into brainwashed thinking telling us we are only good Americans if, we are economically exploited by Wall Street. Where in we are brought to the point of having to praise our very oppressors for overworking us without access to medical care.
In the E.U. not having 4 consecutive days off in 4 years is not a badge of pride it is instead a badge of shameful labor exploitation!
In the E.U. NOT having health insurance for someone who works 2 jobs 60 to 70 hours a week it not a badge of pride. It is looked at as a failure of the for profit American heath care system. Because everyone in the E.U.even the unemployed have health care access as a human right!!
I admire any worker's dedication and determination! But should we also admire
this worker exploitation? If so then is this a badge of honor or a badge of shame for America? Which is it? WHAT HONOR CAN THERE BE IN SEEING AMERICANS GO HUNGRY?
Please take a good look at this chart and ask yourself is Wall Street's America an intact and humane society?
Workers of America unite!
Isn't the above chart graphic evidence of class warfare being waged against the American working class on a scale that other people around the world simply will not tolerate, which begs the question of why, oh why on God's green earth does the American worker tolerate this kind of abuse, when is it enough? When do we say stop. How many more of your homes in this rigged economic system where they can change the rules on you at any time have to go underwater, have to be repossessed, before you will stand up and say enough! How many more of your pensions have to be stolen before you will stand up and support people in Occupy Movements around the country and around the world. When will the workers of America unite and stand together as brothers and sisters in this union fight!!!
This from the Britsh Newspaper the Guardian:
The truth about 'class war' in America
Republicans claim, in Orwellian fashion, that Obama's millionaire tax is 'class war'. The reality is that the super-rich won the war
Richard Wolff
guardian.co.uk, Monday 19 September 2011 20.55 BST
Article history
Neither logic nor evidence supports either claim. The charge of class war is particularly obtuse. Consider simply these two facts. First, at the end of the second world war, for every dollar Washington raised in taxes on individuals, it raised $1.50 in taxes on business profits. Today, that ratio is very different: for every dollar Washington gets in taxes on individuals, it takes 25 cents in taxes on business. In short, the last half century has seen a massive shift of the burden of federal taxation off business and onto individuals.
Second, across those 50 years, the actual shift that occurred was the opposite of the much more modest reversal proposed this week by President Obama; over the same period, the federal income tax rate on the richest individuals fell from 91% to the current 35%. Yet, Republicans and conservatives use the term "class war" for what Obama proposes – and never for what the last five decades have accomplished in shifting the tax burden from the rich and corporations to the working class.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/...
This is also from the Britsh Newspaper the Guardian:
This article likewise attests to the strong arm robber baron tactics of the tyranny of the 1% in America today.
How the 1% got richer, while the 99% got poorer
It's official: wealth inequality accelerated over the past quarter
century. The American dream was never a more hollow promise
Richard Wolff
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 26 October 2011 23.13 BST
Article history
The 99% were falling ever further behind the top 1%.
The latter's exploding luxury consumption shaped tastes and
standards defining the "American dream." With real wages stagnant
in the US since the 1970s, the 99% tried to reach or keep the dream
by sending more family members out to work more hours, and borrowing
ever larger amounts, over the last 25 years. Eventually, their
exhaustion and stress from increased work, coupled with unsustainable
levels of accumulated household debt (for homes, college expenses,
automobiles and credit cards),
brought the economy to the brink of crisis.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/...
A word from Robert Reich
shows us that the class warfare laden vociferous rhetoric of the oligarchy is at variance with reality itself, when we see that history shows us that when the super rich pay their fair share of taxes, it doesn't cause economic decline, it causes economic growth. Shouldn't we now demand that the rich who have now become even richer on our backs, finally are made to step up to the plate and pay their fair share of taxes. Also let's please remember that no one in America ever got rich by themselves. They got richer by using the labor pool that we educated and the critical infrastructure that we the taxpayers paid for. Now with the most inequitable distribution of wealth since the Great Depression, it is finally time for the 99 percenters to demand that the rich step up to the plate and be made to pay their fair share of taxes. The rich should be reminded there is no such thing as a permanent free lunch. If they want good roads, good schools to educate their workforce, then they must be made to pay their fair share of taxes.
by Robert Reich
Marketplace for September 21, 2011
Robert Reich: It is not "class warfare" to ask the rich to pay their fair share of taxes to bring down America's long-term debt.
After all, the richest 1 percent of Americans now takes home more than 20 percent of total income. That's the highest share going to the top 1 percent in 90 years. And they now pay at the lowest tax rates in half a century.
Before 1981, the top marginal tax rate in America was more than 70 percent. And now it's half that, and besides, most of the very wealthy take their income in capital gains. And that's now taxed at 15 percent -- down from 35 percent as recently as the 1980s.
Anyone who says the American economy suffers when the rich pay more in taxes doesn't know history. We grew faster the first three decades after World War II -- when taxes were higher -- than we have since.
http://www.marketplace.org/...
To win in America all we have to do is to care about each other & stick together!
If we are looking for change we must look to the Occupy movement to provide that
peaceful nonviolent approach to change in helping to elect better progressive politicians to public office. The Occupy movement and the American unions are the last great hope of the American working class dream!!
A word from the Rainbow PUSH Coalition
A quote from Rainbow PUSH Coalition.
Entrenched privilege does not surrender its privilege easily. Occupy Wall Street is taking on the most powerful interests. But nothing, as Victor Hugo wrote, is more powerful than an idea whose time has come. As Dr. King urged, “Don’t sleep through the revolution.” It is time to take a stand. So 99’ers, maintain your disciplined focus, your peaceful nonviolent approach to protest and demand change. In the end we will win.
Rev. Jesse L. Jackson is founder and president of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition.
http://www.counterpunch.org/...
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