The American worker is under incredible stress from rapacious employers, a horrific job market, avaricious vendors, societal stressors, and an oppressive government. It would take a little more energy to change it all—but that may be asking too much for now.
Time for Revolution?
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 TMI Show" talk show. 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."
8 Comments. Leave new
This comic confirms once and for all what we’ve all long suspected: Ted has never actually seen female breasts
Toni Morrison’s quote on racism — “The function, the very serious function of racism is distraction. It keeps you from doing your work. It keeps you explaining, over and over again, your reason for being.” — maps perfectly onto the current system. The function of end-stage capitalism is distraction. Distraction by overwork, distraction by underpay, distraction by longer waits for pay (don’t tell me the “two-week paycheck” isn’t simply a way to trap you more often in a mindset of “I have to keep some money in checking in case there’s an emergency, so let me charge the groceries to my Visa Card.”
All the smaller pieces are out there: former middle classer now living on the street because of a “right-sizing” from which he couldn’t come back in time. Someone who’s brother died when his insurance copay for medication was simply too high. Some new college graduate who is now back home, living in her bedroom, in the same house where her father’s gun safe is — the combination’s on an index card in the upper-left desk drawer under the little metal box with the staples.
The medium pieces are out there too: the MTA in New York losing something like a billion with a B in fares in 2024, spite comping more and more at fast-food joints and convenience stores, group smash-and-grabs.
Ooh! Are we at “end stage” capitalism now? I thought we were still in late stage
I can’t wait to see what the next stage is! Super Duper We Mean It This Time Ultimate Final Stage Capitalism?
I think that at this point end-stage capitalism is more appropriate than late-stage as a descriptor of what’s going on. There really isn’t that much left for the wealthiest to acquire. The analogy that comes to mind is someone with a parasitic infestation. Their body mass had gone down to 90 lbs. from an original 180 lbs. Although there’s a whole other half of the body mass for the parasites to consume, they’ll never be able to without finally killing the host. I say about another 20 lbs. should do it.
Another 20lbs and we’ll need to have manga type names for the capitalism. Cataclysmic Super Ultimate Final Capitalism With Super Saiyan Bernie Sanders!! GOOOOOOO
@abducens, your comment made me laugh and look closer. The style on this comic is unlike any of Ted’s work I’ve seen in the past. The hashing along the edges of the characters is almost like standard shadowing. Every other comic of his I’ve seen has way fewer.
Maybe he’s experimenting with a more fluid style?
Careful.
Yep, the strategy is “make it so it takes all the running they can do just to stay in place,” and they won’t have time to organize, mass in the streets, and take over. We’ll just have to wind on down to total systemic collapse to get out of this. Even then, we’ll see politicians and the government pretending that they still have power and authority and everything’s fine.