It's 2009. And it's time to speak the truth plainly. We, in theUnited States of America have been lied to. His name is Horatio Alger. "Work hard, get ahead" means kill yourself working so that someone else can gain.
There's a telling scene in MIchael Moore's "Sicko", the most terrifying to me in the whole fim, so quick you may have missed it. It features Bush, talking in one those town hall crapola meetings. Sitting with him is a worn middle-aged woman. He asks her "do you have a job", she replies, "I have three". Bush's face lights up, "You work three jobs. Really." He smiles broadly, "Only in America."
Like this is a good thing. Like she is working herself to an early grave shows the productivity of the american worker. It's a tragedy. Bush should have been horrifed and assured her he would work to make sure she could have a decent life at decent pay with one job. But he was overjoyed. He was proud.
We do these things in America because we live in a persuasive climate of fear. Fear our heath care will be taken away and we'll get cancer, lose our houses and die penniless in the gutter. It's happening to us by the hundreds. If we don't do what they say they will kill our careers, our children's futures, our finances, our happiness, take our lives.
Most of us will work hard all our lives and will leave nothing but a wave of debt and wasted time. We are, without a doubt, the most darwinian civilized country in the world. That's one thing. The other, far more troubling, is we like it that way. We are a cowardly people. We're afraid what our employers and our government are going to take away next.
Take Health Care for example. Does anyone remember Hillary's pledge? In five months it was over. The insurance companies paid her off and she shut the hell up. Don't ever be naive enough to think Bill or Hillary or even the flavor of the month Obama is going to save your ass. They care about their own ass, their network of their cronies asses and their bankbook.
Obama is just a Havard Lawyer. He's filthly rich. And he's a member of that back east, elite liberal club that think they are oh so enlightened that everyone should just give them the reins and never question them. Wasn't health care a top priority? When 's the last you heard about- before he was elected. Not a peep since. Everyone's running around in the economy firesale at the moment. Here's the reality- there is NEVER a good time to do a health care bill.
My prediction- Obama will fail miserably at any HC bill. Why? Because americans have no political will to get one done. Because we no longer care about one another,take care of one another. Because we're frightened sheep, medicated by media. Because we believe what we're told. And told. And told.
Every other country in the industrialized world has universal heatlh care and five weeks vacation by law and better education. They do pay higher taxes for all this but at least they see something out of it.
It's a myth that american's are "the most productive workers in the world". The french are more productive with a 35 hour work week and 6 weeks vacation. They live longer too. The French, for godssake. I lived ten years in Sweden under a similar system and the swedes are just as productive. I know. I was there. They get rest, don't worry about health care and pensions, focus and are able to work well.
How do they do all this, when we can't afford to? Well, we can. The first step to change is, like I said, WILL. Did you know that since 1985 the top one, five and ten percent richest groups in the country have seen their wealth skyrocket while every other group's wealth went down? That's were the money went. I'm not proposing socialism. I'm proposing having a social consciousness. I'm proposing 1985!
Until we rise up violently, terribly, we will continue to be afraid of our govenment, of our employers. I say it's time for them to fear us.
You heard it here- there is enough money for health care for all, there is enough money and time for everyone to take a decent vacation, there is enough money for education. They just want you to believe there is not. Because they, Obama, Bush, Cheney, Greenspan, Paulson, CEOs, executives, Media companies, have it all.
And it's unamerican to take it from them. Even if our citizens die. Even if it kills us.
