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Category: Life
Trying to get by seems that is the point of life. The search for the meaning of, "Why am I here?" the answer has been and always will be "Trying to get by."
Throughout history, it has always been the very few of the wealthy who could afford all the luxuries offered for their time period and the rest who were outside looking in, trying to get by with whatever they could.
The blessed period of a middle class is a recent phenomena which had its heyday in the 1950s through the mid-1970s. At the height of the upper class being taxed 90% of their income. As history will show, the wealthy few will do whatever it takes to keep their wealth, so using all their power they changed the way the law works through lobbyists who, in essence, bribe government lawmakers to sway the books in their favor.
Due to the lobbyists granted favor upon behalf of the wealthy, regulations, rules, quotas, enforcement, and other things that would make the wealthy richer came into place while corroding the middle class which no longer had a fighting chance to keep up or get ahead.
And all the while this is happening, the wealthy became super wealthy on an overinflated dollar that is totally meaningless. It's like when you play Monopoly in overtime, everyone has everything owned, and money has become stagnant, so the only way to play the game is to create more money. The trouble with that is the new money being created deflates the value of all the money.
So, yes, the very rich has a huge gap from the existing middle class. Those lucky to still be in the middle class that haven't been moved down to the working class is struggling to maintain their status-quo in whatever way they see possible. The working poor knows all too well ways to get by in a game they were never allowed to play.
I have several issues with Michael Moore's movie on Capitalism. The biggest one being his insistence on replacing Capitalism with Democracy, the first being an economic system while the latter is a political system. For starters, the United States has been from the beginning a Republic which practices elements of Democracy that allows for the people to participate in Capitalism.
In political systems, you could have a Democratic Capitalist or a Socialistic Capitalist, but you cannot combine a Communistic Capitalist or a Dictatorial Capitalist very well.
The second bug in the movie is portraying the Catholic Church as the moral in the fight between the haves and have nots. The Vatican is so wealthy that if it sold off only 1/10th of its wealth, it could feed the hungry around the world and rebuild just one third world country that could in turn help others rebuild. Throughout history, the Catholic Church has been and still is a vehicle of oppression and keeping the people in their place.
And Capitalism is a good thing. The Communist era of the USSR, China and Cuba, where Capitalism is considered evil and the resources were alleged to be shared (it wasn't, they kept the bulk of it for the wealthy few and everyone else dirt poor), there was no incentive for improvement or creation. In essence, kept these countries behind in innovation and technology.
Were it not for the idea of Capitalism, there would not be European merchants coming to the New World. It was this era that completely destroyed the Middle East which made its wealth from Europeans coming their way. They needed that wealth to remain on the cutting edge of education and innovention. However, they got greedy and the Europeans found a different route and kept their wealth away from the Middle East making them poor and woefully behind.
I agree with the Libertarians on one thing, Capitalism is a good thing, but only when practiced with fairness. If one cannot enter the game at all, they cannot reap the benefits of Capitalism. Fair trade needs to be implemented with free trade.
In spite of the bad parts of the movie, it is one I would recommend to others. However, getting back to my point of getting by, I think the movie only leaves people with the frustration of wanting to be in the era of days gone by which are unlikely to happen again.
The whole golden age of US history is glamorized, but was so untrue for the majority who still had to struggle to get by. If you were a minority or a single woman during this time, getting ahead was next to impoosible, let alone trying to acheive the so-called American Dream.
Throughout most of history, there have always been two sides - the wealthy and the poor. People have always struggled to get by using what they could around them. Is it better to accept that and be happier or to reject that idea and be filled with frustration when you can't get what you want? Without that frustration, one can never have the burning desire to get ahead, which in turn results in action that may or may not make one get ahead.
Unless we fight for a chance to play the game, we will never benefit from an improved society.
2:35 PM
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