Capitalism and its marketing apparatus constantly tell us that we need to buy consumer goods in order to be fully viable human beings. But then they only give a few people the ability to buy those coveted items. Why are they surprised when people decide to loot them?
Simon Says Do What I Say Even Though It Doesn’t Make Any Sense
Ted Rall
Ted Rall is a syndicated political cartoonist for Andrews McMeel Syndication and WhoWhatWhy.org and Counterpoint. He is a contributor to Centerclip and co-host of "The Final Countdown" talk show on Radio Sputnik. He is a graphic novelist and author of many books of art and prose, and an occasional war correspondent. He is, recently, the author of the graphic novel "2024: Revisited."
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Test. Moderation?
The current round of “stimulus” bills has firmly established the precendent for the Federal Reserve to include among bail-out recipients, non-bank corporations … and pre-emptively at that.
So profitable corps, previously having been lavished with methods to obtain tax refunds, are steadily being freed of the need to depend on purchasers of their goods & services for revenue. It now comes directly from the (“oh!!!, so..ooo useless”) government into their already bulging bank accounts with a few computer key strokes.
Now, Simon, the archetypical capitalist, can finally say to the, former, consumer, as Simon has so very much wanted to do, for so long, simply: “Fuck Off and Die!!!, economically obsolete scum, the money is ALL mine”
Who says they are surprised, Ted ? This looting merely demonstrates the (anticipated) success of their manipulation of human desire. Edward Louis Bernays’ epigoni are standing proud….
Henri
Look at how Detroit was looted by auto manufacturers.
Wealth, including black wealth, was plundered when GM closed plants, leaving plummeting property values and mortgages under water. And real water was toxified by the diversion of clean water away from the remaining impoverished population, doing permanent nervous system damage to coming generations.
The operative rule is “whatever can be done for profit will be done for profit” by pushy people, while those who are systematically impoverished and push back are criminalized by a system that institutionalizes winner and loser classes.
Walmart and Amazon close more small stores more systematically than any looting and burning ever could, and then are rewarded for this by paying zero taxes.
mhenriday, man, your comments are just an education in themselves. I just looked up Bernays (who I was vaguely aware of) and realize that this is a significant gap in my knowledge. How the hell do you know so much? Are you 102?
Not quite, Alex, but on a bad day it can sometimes feel that way….
Interesting to note that Bernays was Sigmund Freud’s maternal nephew….
Henri
It’s interesting that there’s a panel missing.
Simon says: We got rid of the unions.
When the unions existed, the employees got regular raises, and had solidly middle-class lives. And with those, they were able to buy the nice things.
Now the only ones with a union worth a damn are the cops. And look at how that gravy train with biscuit wheels doles out the goodies. Cop pensions are calculated on the last two years or so of service. So the union makes sure that cop gets all the overtime he can take. Where to get the money? Take it from the budgets of the schools the little brown children go to. First, they’re poor already. Second, if they complain, the cops can just murder them with immunity and impunity.