Friday, December 30, 2011

Observations and Realizations of 2011

As most people do, I have been reflecting a lot on what's taken place in 2011, and as is my nature, have observed some very interesting things.  First and foremost, the uprising of the downtrodden.  Whether it be here or abroad, people are sick and tired of being fed lies and deceit.  They are tired of being robbed by the rich, and being slaves to corporate greed.  They are tired of seeing the rich get away with crimes that the common man would be imprisoned for.  And it's all come to a boiling point.

Growing up during the 60's, I took an interest in what was going on in the world.  The civil rights movement was happening, and even being a white kid in a predominantly white city, I still felt that what was taking place was wrong, and that people of all races should be treated equally.  Something I felt the catholic church and school I went to had taught me.  Then came the ecology movement, and the anti-Vietnam protests.   Through it all, I would read the newspaper, and watch the news with my parents, and would discuss a lot of what I had been reading and seeing on TV.  I am ever so grateful to have had parents who were willing to discuss these things.  .

I came from a blue collar family, where my Mom was a home-maker and my Dad worked in a factory.  We lived in a small 3 bedroom house, with no garage.  I was already learning then, how those with wealth had the power, and how "privileged" those other kids from those families were.  I remember when the church we attended would put out a listing of all the members donations, and how the rich kids would tease those of us whose parents weren't able to give as much.  I didn't understand it then, but I realize now they were just repeating what they were hearing at home.  And this image of wealthy privilege has stuck with me since childhood.  I was 8 years old, and had worked with my Dad to make my pinewood derby car in Cub Scouts.  My Dad had been working nights, and we only had a weekend to work on it, and he helped me make a spectacular car.  Well, the night of the pinewood derby, I had sewn up 3rd place with that car, and was really proud of what my Dad and I had accomplished together.  But before the awards were to be handed out, in walks a well known doctor in town with his son.  Although the rest of us all had to be signed up 30 minutes before the event, this guy waltzes in and basically demands that his son be allowed to race.  He was allowed to enter his car, and I was kicked out of 3rd place.  I learned then that some were more privileged than others, and weren't made to play by the same rules.

The next year, I was being harassed by the son of the president of pretty big business in the area.  He grabbed my shirt and pulled so hard that he ripped buttons off of it, and had tore part of the shirt.  This was a shirt that was part of the uniform I had to wear, and I knew my Mom was going to be irate.  I try to walk away and this kid keeps harassing me, and I end up beating him up.  The next day, after I get to school, the nun sends me to the principals office.  When I get there, the head nun starts scolding me for the fight, and when I tried to explain to her about the shirt and him harassing me, she told me I was to sit in her office all day as punishment.  Of course, the other kid didn't get any punishment at all.  That was pretty much the last straw with my Mom.  Plus the fact that tuition had increased, that was my last year at that school.

As I went through school, I noticed how those who came from money were always looking down at those with less.  Mocking our clothes, bikes, etc.  This went on all through my school years, seeing those with money getting special treatment.  And here's what I realize.  Through the magic of Facebook, many of those same people who were of the privileged class, are now hard-core conservatives.  They have little empathy for those who have nothing, because they never had to experience it in their lives.  They don't understand the concept of class struggle, because they themselves were from upper middle-class families that never struggled to make ends meet, and they were always on the winning end of the equation.  The division of classes was already taking root at that time.  You had white collar vs. blue collar then, where today we have the rich vs. those who aren't rich.

But what's different today is that there are a class of people who side with the rich, even though they themselves are being pushed down by their actions.  And what I find so puzzling is how many of those who went through those times like I did, being made to feel less than from the kids of the white collar class, are the ones who are now admonishing the lower class and blaming them for all of our ails.  And I realize now why that is.  Many of them, like myself, wanted to have a better life than their parents did.  They bettered themselves, or worked hard to make a better life for themselves.  But as corporate greed started to increase, their own wealth and lives started to erode.  We didn't stop working as hard.  We didn't start working less.  So what caused this change?  It was the old bait and switch.

The age old tom foolery of pointing towards others to take the focus off of the true problem.  We did it as little kids.  We get caught taking a cookie from the cookie jar, and we point a finger and Johnny and say he did it too.  It's no different with the rich and the big corporations.  During the late 70's and early 80's, the middle-class were starting to see that shift in wealth taking place, and we just kept thinking if we worked harder, and worked more we could get that wealth too.  Then came the cost of health care.  Businesses started to require employees to start sharing some of the cost of the increases.  We were upset by it, and we were told from insurers that it was the doctors and pharmaceutical companies that were to blame.  And the insurance companies told us that it was because of all those people who run to the doctor for every little ache and pain.

In the meantime, wages started to freeze.  Companies were more concerned about stock values than they were about reciprocal loyalty to their employees.  Then came the first wave of the rich stealing from others.  There was the S & L bailouts, and then Black Tuesday.  The average American who was lead to believe the stock market was a great investment opportunity, and those employees who were fooled by their corporate employers that investing in stock was a great idea.  These people lost their asses.  Myself included.  Yet somehow, very few corporations folded, and very few on Wall Street lost their ass.

Next came the corporate takeovers.  Our wages and benefits were either froze or reduced to help the company "recover" from the investment in our future.  Meanwhile, those at the top were raking in huge profits.  But, we were told they couldn't give us raises, and we had to pay more for insurance.  When asked why, corporations started to point the finger at the government.  It was those high taxes they had to pay, and those people receiving government aid and assistance who were the real culprits.  So, some people started to fall for the bullshit. Hell, even I did for a while.  

So now, we've got a demographic of people, the baby boomers, who early in life were led to believe that hard work and sacrifice were the way to do better in life.  They were shown too how those with more wealth were treated better by the powers that be.  This became the goal for many of us.  We were then told that even though we were working hard and sacrificing, that we needed to work harder still and sacrifice even more to help the "company" because we were all one big team.  So we did.  And our reward?  We were told that despite all that hard work and effort, it was those government moochers who were causing these corporations to have to make cuts, that had to move jobs overseas, and had to reduce wages and benefits for those still working.  It was a concerted campaign by many corporations to make them still appear to be the good guy in all this, and that it was government and those with less than who were to blame, and that if we didn't all pull together and work even harder, we could lose our jobs too.

And as unions started to wake up and realize what was taking place, corporations were starting to blame the high labor costs for their problems, and switching the focus towards the unions.  All the while, the executives at the top kept making more and more money.  So now we've got unions, and those receiving government subsidies made to look like the biggest reason why the middle class was losing their fight to better themselves.

Enter the anti-union movement.  Corporations, not wanting everyone to see how those at the top were seeing their wages increase, started to ostracize unions and paint them as the main reason why products were costing so much to produce.  People start seeing their wages and benefits cut, but bigger unions were still able to maintain some of the pay and benefits that many had lost.  The propaganda started to emerge to make those who won the battle with corporations to appear as the bad guy.  And once again, many were fooled into believing that it was the unions who were being greedy, when all along it's been the executives at the top.

So now, they've cut or frozen our wages.  Reduced benefits.  Conned us into investing in 401k's instead of providing pensions like they used to.  (and we all know what's happened to a lot of that 401k money don't we?).  But wait, there's more.  After reducing the wages and benefits of their lower level employees by blaming unions for all their problems.  And after getting everyone to think that it was also those who were mooching off the system.  They ran out of things to blame their greed on.

Until now.  Now, it's the government employee who is to blame.  It is those highly paid employees and all their benefits that are costing these big corporations all kinds of money in tax dollars.  Never mind the fact that they are paying less in taxes than they've ever paid before.  It's all those non-legislative government workers who are draining the system and causing these corporations to not pay their workers.  I finally get it.  The wealthy have not only been given the gift of privilege, they've also been given the gift of deception, for they've pulled off one of the greatest scams of all time.