Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Austerity Is Only for Peasants

We are told this is a time for austerity. Taxes and fees for the middle class have to go up, salaries must be frozen or workers laid off, and services for the elderly and poor must be slashed. We must learn, we are told, to live within our means. But austerity is only for the bottom.
Those at the very top, we are told, require low taxes lest their feelings are hurt and they decide to "go Galt." (The Forbes 400, every one a billionaire.)

For the top one-tenth of one percent austerity is a joke. Now is the time for glorious excess. Here are some of the things our most wealthy people get while we peasants make do with ruptured water mains, shriveling pensions, and a health care system trying to bankrupt us all into early graves.

Billionaire Toys
The wealthiest one-tenth of one percent of Americans could live splendidly for a hundred lifetimes on their accumulated lucre. It doesn't matter to them if the economy is roaring or stagnant or devolves into a medieval cesspool. They are content so long as the rest of humanity willingly plays the pawn in their little games.
We are all prisoners in their toy chest.

1 comment:

joel hanes said...

I take what comfort there may be in thinking that all these same injustices have been similarly rankling since Chatal Huyuk.

Catch-22 says they have a right to do anything we can't stop them from doing.