Friday, March 29, 2019

Wasteful capitalism

Stuart Varney of Fox Business Network (sorry) and his guest John Lonski were railing about a Fox News Poll where 34% of respondents think the rich do not pay enough taxes.

At some point Lonski said:
".....if you start taxing this wealth...may have the unwanted effect of reducing the incentive of people that are very talented and very rich to go ahead, expand their businesses, and make jobs and drive the economy higher."

My snarky comment:
But those very talented poor people... they're just pigeon poop on the sidewalk. There's no benefit to incentivizing them to work hard to improve their lives and the lives of their families and neighbors.

But I really want to emphasize how wasteful the American economy and culture really is. Amy Goodman interviewed Albert Woodfox a former political prisoner who spent over 43 years in solitary confinement in American jails. Watch and admire the dignity, grace, astonishing strength of this man. During his youth in the United States of America, it was more important to control this young man by locking him up than growing his strengths and talents; talents that could have advanced the nation economically and culturally. We are jailing young people in the prime of their life. Then our current 'Secretary of Education' Betsy DeVos actually claims American schoolchildren may benefit from less investment in their education

Now contrast the lack of investment in American youth to little gossip blurbs about Kim Kardashian's kid's lavish birthday party or Beyonce's kid at a fashion show. This encapsulates the problem with the current economy. It's a system that allows the largely poor population go hungry, uneducated and often imprisoned while the rich indulge in luxuries that add no meaningful value to their lives. And rich people are rich because they lie, steal and cheat the wages of the working poor.

So back to tour treatment of young people, I'm reminded of the slogan of the United Negro College Fund: A mind is a terrible thing to waste... we are and have wasted the minds of generations of Americans. We can do better.

No comments:

Post a Comment