The Death of the US Working Class and the Evils of Ultra Capitalism

            

        There hasn't been a more unfortunate consequence of  modern day society than that of the virtual disappearance of the working class, AKA middle class. The spread of an ultra-capitalist, feudalist system, where making even a modest living is becoming almost obsolete, is sending a clear message of not only who will forever run things but also who the really important ones are. Hedge fund managers, CEO's of Defense Corporations, Wall Street Mega Banks and of course the mother of all capitalist money funnels, commercial real estate. There's also the Silicon Valley tech billionaires; sure you always hear how well they treat their staff but there's only a very few who'll ever reach the highest peak of the payroll. Marxisms  social conflict theory is so prevalent during these current times it's almost prophetic. Considering the Manifesto was written in 1840 it's quite astounding so many ideals from that piece of literature still remains so relevant in our current times. "In each form of society there are those who control the property and those who work for them." -Karl Marx. A simple statement but our modern feudalist society in a nutshell. Owning property gives you the key to the lives of your under linings, it puts you in a position of power and only because your familial predecessors bought some land. Now I promised myself not to allow my socialist mind to wander and ramble. Even though the name of this thread is Gentle Ramblings I'm very keen to not stray off topic, and the topic here is the decaying of the US working class. The fact is raising a family without accruing massive amounts of unpayable debt is becoming a lost cause. Medical bills, student debt, a decent education for your child, skyrocketing living expenses, the list goes on and on. We will be discussing it all, we'll uncover and then tear down the modern bourgeoisie, and call out the many politicians that have allowed it to happen. 

     Jeff Bezos and Amazon are worth 184 billion dollars and 1.7 trillion dollars respectively, according to Forbes magazine, no persons or private entity should ever be allowed to accrue such wealth and therefore wield such power. Amazon's meteoric rise from ebay like start up firm to becoming the second richest company in the United States is a remarkable business achievement but also another example of the dangers of a winner takes all capitalist world. The amount of companies, large and small, that were shut down due to the Amazon business blitzkrieg monopoly is outlandish and impossible to put a figure on. Apple is the richest company in the United States, worth a whopping 2 trillion dollars as of August 2020, according to CNBC.com. One can't argue the positive impact Apple Macintosh has had on our society. Steve Jobs visionary mind and ideas have made it possible for people like me to have a platform to share my thoughts with the entire world. I digress, as the generation of capitalist swine that now run these once revolutionary companies get away with charging loyal customers nearly a thousand dollars for an I Phone. 

   The western world is heading towards being governed by not only oligarchs but a trend is on the rise, technocrats. I do agree that technology and science are and have always been important aspects of a successfully run society. Abraham Lincoln's famous quote about Democracy being "The rule of people, for the people and by the people" is in stark contrast to a technocracy with is unelected specialists and authorities deciding policy changes. According to medium.com, Technocracies are in the rise in India, the EU and the United States, there powers on decisions of internet access, as well as monetary policies are growing more by the year. These are not people selected by the populace making extremely pertinent policy decisions but a very select group based upon perceived intelligence and not by the government officials voted on by the people. 

   Our  idea of democracy is petering out, barely hanging on by the thinnest of threads. Capitalistic greediness is leading us down the road to the finality of the middle class and the death of the American dream, unless you're born with a platinum spoon in your mouth or lucky enough to be a stock market wizard; or perhaps win the lottery. The modern bourgeoisie cares not for their fellow citizens, cares not for the welfare of the downtrodden or, in fact, any of their fellow citizens. There one and only goal is to obtain wealth by any and all means necessary. These are the same goblins who step over homeless people on there way to their wood grain office to figure out the next scheme to make as much money as possible, whether it be legal or not. Ponzi schemes are a fantastic example of the lengths these capitalists will go to make as much monetary gain for themselves while bankrupting and therefore ruining their investors finances and lives. It doesn't get anymore devious than that, of course Bernie Madoff  set the standards of financial criminality to the tune of 65 billion dollars, according to bloomberg.com. Haaretz.com claims 73 percent of the capital stolen by Madoff has been recovered from the 37,000 people he stole from but even if those numbers are accurate does that ease any of the suffering those poor folks went through? Now you could say it was just the rich stealing from the rich  and in a lot of cases that's exactly right. The saddest part is some of the poor suckers who were grifted by Madoff were actually working class folks just willing to trust a previously well respected investor with their truly hard earned money. Despicable, diabolical, the very meaning of greed and selfishness, whichever adjective you choose to use to describe an example of the worst aspects of capitalism which helped lead to the great recession of 2008 and millions of Americans losing their homes. 

     The lifeblood of a democracy is the working class, and before our very eyes it's on life support. The term ultra-capitalist is one I don't hear used very often but its a nomenclature I chose to use currently to describe our system of governance. The moment this nation crossed over from a capitalist democracy to an ultra- capitalist republic was the day a failed businessman with no political experience or expertise became president. The most unbelievable aspect of this unprecedent turn of events was people actually used that as reasoning to vote for Donald J. Trump. It just goes to show how much faith enough of the population lost in career politicians, and Washington DC in general.  Trump isn't the only one to blame for the vanishing middle class, the fraudulent, enduring myth of Reaganomics and it's fanciful trickle down effect was the lynchpin for the 1% takeover. Most everyone is aware of the commoner mantra of "We are the 99%" , and sadly that is exactly what this country has become. An us versus them battle where we have the strength in numbers but they have an inordinate amount of power. The billionaires own the means of production and thanks to super PAC's they also have basically every elected official in the their pocket.

   Who will be the one with enough clout, someone popular and important enough to rescue the United States from becoming an oligarchy? Bernie Sanders is too old and lacks the energy to keep up the fight. Alexandria Ocasio Cortes had some truly radical, progressive ideas when she first was elected to Congress, but now it seems she's more interested in developing close relationships with centrists like Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer due to her ambitions to reach a higher office. Socialism is a taboo amongst the mainstream, even the word alone makes Democrats and Republicans alike cringe. The reason being is the United States is the flag bearer of the corporate world. McDonald's, Walmart, Pepsi etc, are all prime examples of pure American excess. Since the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989 and shortly there after the destruction of the Soviet Union in December 1991, the United States became the lone world superpower. This lead to US corporations, culture, and their version of Democracy to flood across the Atlantic Ocean. The breakup of the USSR got off to rocky start to say the least and more then a few populations across former Communist bloc countries struggled to adapt to the Westernized way of life, eventually leading to several wars, most infamously the breakup of Yugoslavia which lead to the miserable conflict in Kosovo. As time passed certain progressive nations like, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Norway, New Zealand, and Canada blended aspects of democracy i.e. freedom of enterprise, freedom of the press, and religious rights with aspects of socialism i.e. Universal heath care, free education and income equality. Alas, those countries have figured out a way to bring the positive of both forms of governance to the forefront. The United States still uses the excuses of our population is too large to execute a Democratic Socialist model, or we could never afford to have free healthcare, and education because the taxes would be too high, especially for the top 1 percent of the highest earners. Those same people fail to mention our defense budget is 740 billion dollars this year, by far the most expensive in the world (estimate by Stockholm International Peace Research Institute). China, a country of over a billion people are a distant second at 250 billion dollars, so the writing is on the wall, our government cares more about weapons than humans. It may never change, we can only hope it won't get worse. The US working class is struggling to stay afloat, that's a fact and it's difficult to those of us brought up thinking being the working man was something to proud to be. Ultra Capitalism is selfishness, it's ugly, and it's turned the "American Dream" into a dirty word. And it's consequence, purposeful or not is the destruction of the middle class.

Happy Valentines Day, Solidarity!