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I drink your milkshake! a metaphor for capitalism
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<blockquote data-quote="rickyb" data-source="post: 4590621" data-attributes="member: 56035"><p>the economic structures, even before the pandemic, were reconfigured to mock faith in a meritocracy and the belief that hard work leads to a productive and valued role in society. American <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=define+economic+productivity&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-b-1-ab" target="_blank">productivity</a>, as The New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/11/magazine/americans-jobs-poverty-homeless.html" target="_blank">pointed out</a>, has increased 77 percent since 1973 but hourly pay has grown only 12 percent. If the federal minimum wage was attached to productivity, the newspaper wrote, it would be more than $20 an hour now, not $7.25. </p><p></p><p>Some 41.7 million workers, a third of the workforce, earn less than $12 an hour, and most of them do not have access to employer-sponsored health insurance.</p><p></p><p> A decade after the 2008 financial meltdown, the Times wrote, the average middle class family’s net worth is more than $40,000 below what it was in 2007. The net worth of black families is down 40 percent, and for Latino families the figure has dropped 46 percent. </p><p></p><p>Some four million evictions are filed each year. One in four tenant households spends <a href="https://www.jchs.harvard.edu/sites/default/files/Harvard_JCHS_Americas_Rental_Housing_2020.pdf" target="_blank">about half its pretax income</a> on rent. Each night some <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/The-State-of-Homelessness-in-America.pdf" target="_blank">200,000 people</a> sleep in their cars, on streets or under bridges. And these stark figures represent the good times Biden and the Democratic Party leaders promise to restore. Now, with real unemployment probably close to 20 percent — the official figure of 10 percent excludes those furloughed or those who have stopped looking for work — some 40 million people are<a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/07/economy/eviction-stimulus/index.html" target="_blank"> at risk of being evicted by the end of the year</a>. An estimated 27 million people <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/covid-pandemic-health-care-25-million-risk-losing-coronavirus/" target="_blank">are expected to lose their health insurance</a>. Banks are stockpiling reserves of cash to cope <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/17/business/personal-bankruptcies-coronavirus.html" target="_blank">with the expected wave of bankruptcies and defaults</a> on mortgages, student loans, car loans, personal loans and credit card debt. The ruleless-ness and anomie that defines the lives of tens of millions of Americans was orchestrated by the two ruling parties in the service of a corporate oligarchy. If we do not address this anomie, if we do not restore the social bonds shattered by predatory corporate capitalism, the decay will accelerate. </p><p></p><p>[URL unfurl="true"]https://scheerpost.com/2020/08/10/chris-hedges-americas-death-march/[/URL]</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="rickyb, post: 4590621, member: 56035"] the economic structures, even before the pandemic, were reconfigured to mock faith in a meritocracy and the belief that hard work leads to a productive and valued role in society. American [URL='https://www.google.com/search?q=define+economic+productivity&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-b-1-ab']productivity[/URL], as The New York Times [URL='https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/11/magazine/americans-jobs-poverty-homeless.html']pointed out[/URL], has increased 77 percent since 1973 but hourly pay has grown only 12 percent. If the federal minimum wage was attached to productivity, the newspaper wrote, it would be more than $20 an hour now, not $7.25. Some 41.7 million workers, a third of the workforce, earn less than $12 an hour, and most of them do not have access to employer-sponsored health insurance. A decade after the 2008 financial meltdown, the Times wrote, the average middle class family’s net worth is more than $40,000 below what it was in 2007. The net worth of black families is down 40 percent, and for Latino families the figure has dropped 46 percent. Some four million evictions are filed each year. One in four tenant households spends [URL='https://www.jchs.harvard.edu/sites/default/files/Harvard_JCHS_Americas_Rental_Housing_2020.pdf']about half its pretax income[/URL] on rent. Each night some [URL='https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/The-State-of-Homelessness-in-America.pdf']200,000 people[/URL] sleep in their cars, on streets or under bridges. And these stark figures represent the good times Biden and the Democratic Party leaders promise to restore. Now, with real unemployment probably close to 20 percent — the official figure of 10 percent excludes those furloughed or those who have stopped looking for work — some 40 million people are[URL='https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/07/economy/eviction-stimulus/index.html'] at risk of being evicted by the end of the year[/URL]. An estimated 27 million people [URL='https://www.cbsnews.com/news/covid-pandemic-health-care-25-million-risk-losing-coronavirus/']are expected to lose their health insurance[/URL]. Banks are stockpiling reserves of cash to cope [URL='https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/17/business/personal-bankruptcies-coronavirus.html']with the expected wave of bankruptcies and defaults[/URL] on mortgages, student loans, car loans, personal loans and credit card debt. The ruleless-ness and anomie that defines the lives of tens of millions of Americans was orchestrated by the two ruling parties in the service of a corporate oligarchy. If we do not address this anomie, if we do not restore the social bonds shattered by predatory corporate capitalism, the decay will accelerate. [URL unfurl="true"]https://scheerpost.com/2020/08/10/chris-hedges-americas-death-march/[/URL] [/QUOTE]
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