If Randians are looking for the “parasites”, “looters”, and “moochers”, they should look on Wall Street.
Wall Street is the most successful scam in human history. Wealth is *stuff* — goods and services — but Wall Street has convinced a whole lot of people that wealth is pieces of toilet paper with pictures of dead people on it and that the way to be wealthy is to have a lot of that toilet paper. Which, conveniently, their job is to move from point A to point B while letting a lot of it stick to their own fingers. Wall Street produces nothing, consumes very little, actually contributes very little to the economy other than that small service of moving money from point A to point B (something just as doable by a high school dropout security guard thanks to modern computers), yet has somehow convinced a significant number of people that they — who produce nothing — are the “producers”, and that the people who actually produce *stuff* are the “parasites, moochers, and looters”, and thus it's only right that they're entitled, entitled I say, to stick 40% of America's corporate profits to their fingers despite doing, well, maybe 3% of the work of corporate America (and that's being generous). It is to laugh.
Especially hilarious is how it seems that there’s a never-ending supply of people willing to make excuses for giant mega-corporations behaving in immoral and unethical manner. It’s as if we have national Stockholm syndrome, where we feel compelled to suck up to and defend the people who are holding us hostage. Huh. What a world.
-- Badtux the Scam-spottin' Penguin
I should turn my resident Rand disciple on to your site.
ReplyDeleteThen again, you're a good guy (penguin) so maybe I better not.
Wall Street does suck. It's always sucked. What's different now is that the middle class is invested through 401k's. And we're losing our asses. I propose we DUMP our 401k's, take the cash, buy homes for our families and build savings accounts like our parents & grandparents did. Back when the economy GREW.
ReplyDeleteActually, Psycho, our parents and grandparents had PENSIONS. Which were invested by professional fund managers who were paid to GROW the pensions, not paid to RIP OFF the 401k's. My grandfather died in 1971. His widow drew on his pension until she qualified for Social Security in 1975. Note that my grandfather did NOT work for IBM. He worked for a small locally-owned non-union timber company as a planer operator in a sawmill.
ReplyDeleteAll my retirement funds are currently "invested" in a credit union because every 401(k) fund offered through my employer that I've looked at has been a ripoff. When long-term treasuries are still paying over 1% interest they're paying *negative* interest. That takes some balls, ripping people off like that, but they're doing it.
- Badtux the Peeved Penguin
Ugh, don't get me started about pensions and how nice it was for the middle class when they were the standard. The only thing that keeps me from going into full panic mode about my retirement and the money I have in my 401(k) is Social Security. But of course the 1% has decided that things like Social Security are luxuries us little people should not be entitled to. A bunch of friends of mine and I are now planning to live in boxes under a freeway overpass someplace in the south. Luckily since health care is also something us little people apparently should not expect in our retirement, we probably wont have to live under the overpass for long. GRRRR
ReplyDelete