Letters to the Editor
-
<3 <3 @ mad cartoonist
You're playing my song.
You know, you have choices to make in life, and they all have consequences.
Go sift through salon's archives for one of their atrocious holiday gift guides.
Give it a read and it will demonstrate this out of touch with reality mentality that so many of my fellow lefties share with respect to their consumption entitlement.
-
Premium Chipotle Ranch Debt
I think the big problem is that we as Americans have been hoodwinked by the supply-side scam where choice between slightly different varieties of consumer goods equals freedom. We're induced to spend and we truly love all the crap that corporate America churns out. We love NASCAR, European vacations, lattes, beef jerky, Vampire Weekend MP3 downloads -- all of it. We love how these things make use feel and how they define use. We purchase our identities in hopes of buying a lifestyle that matches our cultural products on teevee and vinyl and the big screen.
Our emotional/spiritual attachment to product puts us in thrall to corporations -- we need them to make and distribute the things we love and to employ us so that we can buy all the goodies. We all work for the company store. No matter how many bushels we pick, we'll only barely be able to buy a couple taters and some salt pork to keep us going for the next work day.
A college degree has become proof that one is wiling to make enough "good choices" and jump through enough hoops to gain entry into the "normal club" of the white collar workforce. It's a simple system of social controls backed up by millions in Chinese-made prizes.
Healthcare and shelter and food are nigh unatainable because they're now "products" meted out by are repitian Wall Street overlords. Healthy, hearty folks with a warm bed and few worries wouldn't be willing to live in beige cubicles for most of their adult lives. Keep people unwell and worried and underrested because they're worried about buying overpriced organic carrots or a Masters Degree or the latest new and improved prescription allergy treatment, and they're a lot easier to manipulate.
And yes, I wrote this from my little beige office at the Corporate HQ of a large retail chain.
-
Want to save money?
Then don't watch TV. I stopped watching TV over ten years ago, and I'm amazed at how much my desire for useless crap has diminished.
IMO, the primary function of TV is to make you want to run out and spend money. Stop letting the TV tell you what you're supposed to need to be happy.
-
the 'great republican revolution' put us here
the article supports the idea that the decline of real income for the middle class is directly tied to the erosion of any sort of govt supervision of critical commodities like oil.
it's no accident that Exxon Mobil has made the 2 largest quarterly profits ever reported by a US company of any kind in the last 2 years. govt oversight institutions are only filled with Bush cronies who support the industries.
i consider the current gasoline prices as collusion. i wonder if a democratic president would have the guts to limit oil company profits for a while to stabilize the sinking economy?
and don't forget, our war debt is driving the dollar down, so what we are able to purchase keeps shrinking.
anyone who supports the republicans in november is practically aiming a gun at themselves.
-
Want to know the dirty little secret?
I can tell you why middle class people of today have fallen behind their parents...it's because your parents were not members of the credit generation. They bought what they needed with cash or they did without it until they COULD afford it.
True, they DID have credit cards...but they didn't USE them as much as those today do...and they paid them off at the end of each month.
The cost of paying that monthly credit card bill and being unable to get that credit monkey off your back is the reason why middle class people today are worse off than their parents were.
THAT is the dirty little secret that NO ONE wants to tell you!
-
You only just noticed this?
Great article and great comments (I even agree with Electro Robot! I had to read his letter twice to make sure I wasn't missing the part where he said something that made me seethingly angry! Things must really be bad if Electro Robot sees sense) until page 11. Talk about missing the point.
Too bad people are only noticing this now, but it's true. Most of the people I know who are doing well have lots of family help. And it's not like their parents are loaded: just middle class and comfortable. But they've at least paid off their 30 year mortgage and never had any student loans to begin with so they can help pony up the down payment on the $500k 2-bedroom house in the same town, which is important since the only childcare the younger couple can afford while they work is their parents.
Everyone is doing it, but it's this big shameful secret. Too bad it's published weekly in the town newspaper... every week, at least 1/2 the sales are either wildly underpriced between people with the same last names, or c/o.
-
A few things
1- Bill Gates did not come from a 'wealthy' family. His family was affluent, upper middle class, yes, but not wealthy.
2- How do you define wealthy? Anyone who makes more money than you? Maybe we should define our terms before we pontificate. Based on the letters, many of you would consider me wealthy but I am not. I'm affluent, yes, but I'm 60 years old, and I can't afford to retire yet.
3- Boomers are not some monolith where everyone thinks the same thing nor were we ever. Those conservatives and super Christians we see now were always there. Have some boomers gone to the dark side over the years, yes, but millions have not. And, no, boomers are not engaging in desperate actions to prolong their working years. Most of us boomers have always assumed that we would have to work to age 65. The oldest boomers are now only 62.
4- Do you really want to have a society without Medicare? In this country, we have an employment based health insurance system. So, when you retire, have your income reduced and have your greatest health care needs, what would you do? Medicare-equivalent private insurance for a person 65 or older would cost around $2500/month plus deductibles and copays. Maybe 5% of retirees could afford that.
That's a start.