I cannot help but wonder what the fate of the poor would be
if Republicans actually managed to win and govern our country for a time. As
far as I can tell, in general they seem to be:
Opposed to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid (universal
health care in any form), unemployment insurance, food stamps, a minimum wage,
unions, taxes, socialism, communism, big government (much government at all), abortion, contraception, immigrants,
any form of welfare, environmental protection, sustainable energy, evolution, science,
and government jobs.
They seem to be for, only no taxes, smaller (or no)
government, privatization of all things, oil, gas, and nuclear energy, global
warming, massive corporations, millionaires and billionaires, capitalism, and
creationism. I cannot help but wonder what the fate of the poor would be if
they were ever to have their way.
Under our current capitalistic system, and as there is at
the current time, there would be a huge unemployment problem. As there would be
a huge surplus supply of labor wages would continue to be very low, businesses
would not hire for the sake of hiring but only for profit, and as they would
not condone government creating jobs,
unemployment would continue, poverty
wages would be the rule, there would be no safety nets, no health care, no food
stamps, etc. Under such conditions the poor would, of course, suffer and die.
London and Manchester in Dicken’s time would look like a form of paradise
unless some kind of welfare existed. As far as I know, Republicans have not
suggested how they would deal with the conditions they would have created.
Their solution, I guess, would be simply, let ‘em suffer and die. Have they
ever suggested any solution to the problem of poverty and the poor? What might
they propose to do about it? They might, I suppose, argue that the market would
take care of the problem, but as long as labor remained merely a commodity that
would never happen.
You might think that decent people, in a decent society,
would not allow such a thing to happen, but it is happening right now with some
50% of the population living at or below the poverty level. So far, under the
past few administrations, little or nothing has been done to improve things.
Republicans have blocked all of President Obama’s attempts to alleviate
unemployment or anything thing else that might have improved the lives of
ordinary citizens. The enormous gap between the wealthy and he poor has been
widening for years until we now have a situation in which one or two percent of
the population own and controls more wealth than the vast majority, the “99%.”
I think one of the reasons this situation has been allowed
to continue and fester as it has is due to what I would call the “Progressives’
fallacy,” their disbelief in the venality of the wealthy. This has been
especially true of President Obama who seriously underestimated how greedy and
selfish some could be. He kept insisting he could accomplish “bipartisanship”
only to learn the hard way that was not to be. This attitude prevails among “Progressives”
in general. Think, for example, of Chris Hayes who wrings his hands and says we
need health insurance because our fellow citizens are suffering, unable, I
guess, to understand that not all people are concerned about the suffering of
their fellow creatures. It can also be seen in the fact that Republicans are unwilling to increase taxes on the obscenely wealthy
even by a measly two or three percent even though their current taxes are about
at an all-time low. A few billionaires have indicated they would be willing to
pay a bit more but obviously the majority have not and, in fact, use their
fantastic wealth to ensure they will not have to pay more.
I am not sanguine about the possibilities for any major
change in the way things are. Change will only come about by dragging Republicans
kicking and screaming at every modest step that might occur. American
capitalism, following Dylan Thomas’s advice to his father, will not go gentle
into that good night, but will rage, rage against the dying of the light.
"Our epoch, the epoch of the bourgeoisie, possesses, however, this distinct feature: it has simplified class antagonisms. Society as a whole is more and more splitting up into two great hostile camps, into two great classes directly facing each other — bourgeoisie and proletariat.”
Karl Marx
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