Rant form the DC Underground

If you think that unregulated capitalism will automatically give the working people a living wage, you are ignorant of history.. If you think that unregulated capitalism will result in clean air and clean water you are ignorant of history and your are a fool. What I find amazing about the common wisdom of this country is that the corporations and the Republican Party have convinced the gullible population that unions and environmentalists are evil. The root of all our problems. These corporations have invested millions (not a large number when you consider that the CEO's alone take home 5 or 10 million dollars in salary per year) in a sustained media campaign to convince us that the unions that our fathers and grandfathers fought for are bad, and that the environmental laws that took 30 or 40 years to get signed into law are bad for the economy. They have also convinced us that government is bad. That is "government of the people, by the people, and for the people - democracy" is now bad. That was Reagan's message, and he is revered as a god by many Americans.

So now our air quality and water quality is getting worse. It was improving since the 70's, but now it is getting worse because "we don't need no stinking regulations." Capitalism and the market place will take care of it. And now our middle class is disappearing at the same time that the power of the unions is disappearing. The poor and the middle class are loosing buying power and standard of living every year while the top 1% of Americans are richer that ever before. The gulf between rich and poor is greater now that it was in the Golden Age in the early 1900's. But the gullible believe that we have nothing to worry about because the rich will invest their money and wealth will trickle down to the rest of us. If you believe that you are ignorant of history and a fool.
Slick marketing over many years have convinced us to support union busting and the rape of the environment against our own best interests and the best interests of our children and grandchildren. We are being had and we are fools. Yes, those unions sure are evil - they're <<>> I tell you!!

· 40 hour work week

· paid vacation

· paid sick

· pension plans

· national holidays

· employee insurance plans

· workman's compensation

The rich wanabees are content with the few crumbs off the table to the pee-ons. Government is the problem according to King Reagan and can never do anything right. So deregulation even though it has caused all our current problems is a good thing according to this way of thinking. This ignores winning WWII, going to the moon, our national highway system, the national parks ( which the loggers and ranchers would have destroyed), the American middleclass created by the GI Bill, the invention of the internet, Social Security, Medicare without which Seniors would be consigned to the poorhouse.

The brainwashed would also have us believe that the invisible hand of profit would have achieved all these things. It is the excessive profits by the insurers, drug companies, for profit hospitals, tort lawyers and medical specialists in our healthcare system that results in the U.S. spending twice as much on healthcare than other advanced countries for a health care system that puts us on the bottom in healthcare outcomes. Quite simply we are not getting ourmoney's worth. All citizens have healthcare in the advanced European countries unlike the 46 million Americans who don't or the 25 million who are underinsured and find they really don't have health insurance when they need it. I don't believe in death panels, lies and other scare tactics that Republicans seem to espouse. I am really concerned by the 40% of Republicans that describe themselves as "angry" about Obama policies. You can disagree but to be angry or want to succeed from the Union as one Texas Republican politician has come out for goes beyond the pale. And how about the story of Sealey Mattress Company. A profitable US manufacturer with unionized employees. They were bought out by an Equity Investor firm. The new owners borrowed every penny they could against the company assets. Sometimes using the same assets more than once as collateral for loans. With the money carefull squereled away, they shut the company down. The lenders and the employees were left holding the bag. Why are we not manufacturing matresses in the US, "Well it is those awful unions."