For several years, we have systematically been transferring wealth
from the middle class to the wealthiest people in America.
We are still doing so. Financial institutions are not designed
to enable ordinary people to manage their money, to give them loans,
and to help them buy houses. They are ways for the wealthy
to make shitloads of money; to pay themselves like princes.
The greed almost brought, not only our whole economy down,
but that of the entire global economic system.
As a result, relatively poor people are poorer still; out of work,
out of unemployment insurance, and out on the streets.
What we used to call the upper middle class, or just the middle
class, is becoming afraid that they, too, are in danger of freefall.
Some of those people are Tea Party members. Lots of them.
Poll after poll is showing that Tea Party people are a little
better off than most Americans, a little better educated,
and scared and angry. They are blaming government
for getting them into the mess they fear will be their fate.
They do not understand that the political policies they hold
are precisely those that have made the mess. They want
less government interference. They think free enterprise
will save them from a slide down the economic scale. They
do not understand that an economic system that rewards
the wealthiest and weakens the middle class will hurt them;
has hurt them, and will continue to threaten them.
They have enabled the transfer of wealth to the richest,
defend insurance companies that skim off their health
care premiums, see nothing wrong with bonuses in the hundreds
of millions of dollars to blue-suited financial scam artists,
and they need someone to blame. They cannot blame
their own political and economic instincts, so they blame
the very government that is supposed to help control financial
greed and corruption, blame the President whom they say
is not really an American, and who is Black, blame people
who want health care, blame Gays, blame Muslims.
As Sarah Palin says, they cling to their religion and their guns.
In an inequitable society,
when wealth is concentrated
and the only real alternative is hard scrabble,
this is what happens. This is why
people get mean, and swear, and hate,
and buy guns to protect themselves.
from the middle class to the wealthiest people in America.
We are still doing so. Financial institutions are not designed
to enable ordinary people to manage their money, to give them loans,
and to help them buy houses. They are ways for the wealthy
to make shitloads of money; to pay themselves like princes.
The greed almost brought, not only our whole economy down,
but that of the entire global economic system.
As a result, relatively poor people are poorer still; out of work,
out of unemployment insurance, and out on the streets.
What we used to call the upper middle class, or just the middle
class, is becoming afraid that they, too, are in danger of freefall.
Some of those people are Tea Party members. Lots of them.
Poll after poll is showing that Tea Party people are a little
better off than most Americans, a little better educated,
and scared and angry. They are blaming government
for getting them into the mess they fear will be their fate.
They do not understand that the political policies they hold
are precisely those that have made the mess. They want
less government interference. They think free enterprise
will save them from a slide down the economic scale. They
do not understand that an economic system that rewards
the wealthiest and weakens the middle class will hurt them;
has hurt them, and will continue to threaten them.
They have enabled the transfer of wealth to the richest,
defend insurance companies that skim off their health
care premiums, see nothing wrong with bonuses in the hundreds
of millions of dollars to blue-suited financial scam artists,
and they need someone to blame. They cannot blame
their own political and economic instincts, so they blame
the very government that is supposed to help control financial
greed and corruption, blame the President whom they say
is not really an American, and who is Black, blame people
who want health care, blame Gays, blame Muslims.
As Sarah Palin says, they cling to their religion and their guns.
In an inequitable society,
when wealth is concentrated
and the only real alternative is hard scrabble,
this is what happens. This is why
people get mean, and swear, and hate,
and buy guns to protect themselves.
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