"In its majestic equality, the law forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, beg in the streets or steal a loaf of bread."
Anatole France - 1894
I've actually seen the line translated as "piss in the streets"
Anatole France was of course being facetious but his words are a devastating indictment of a society without a social safety net.
Routinely today we hear politicians advocating the dismantling of social security, medicare, public education, the privatization of roads, the elimination of unemployment insurance, food stamps and the minimum wage. Routinely we hear calls for repeal of the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, the popular election of Senators, the uselessness of the EPA, the Department of Education and most of all the IRS.
We have witnessed in Wisconsin the triumph of a blatant attack on public sector unionism, the right of individuals to organize and to collectively bargain which will undoubtedly spread to other states.
Seems all of society’s problems can be cured by "lower taxes, less regulation and smaller government", which translates into lower taxes for the 1%, less regulation for corporations and smaller government shrunk by eliminating social security, medicare, unemployment insurance, the EPA, the Department of Education etc.
One would think we are living in a John Wayne western. On the open range. All young All free.
Seems to me however that those who advocate "less government" want government to be big enough to protect property but too small to take anything through taxation from those who "have". After all, advocates of "small government" don't advocate no government. Only black flag anarchists do that. Just "less" government. A non-redistributionist government.
Small government isn't about "freedom" or "liberty". It never has been. Its about property. Big enough to protect those that have - with no obligations to those who don’t. Those who don't don't count.
Those who "have" are free.
"Small" government, we are told, is less "intrusive". Really? To whom?
If you're starving advocates of "small government" will not help you but you can bet your booty there will be a law against stealing food. In its majesty and equality the law against stealing food will apply to rich and poor alike. Can't argue with that now can we?
Read Les Mis.
If you live outdoors and are homeless the "small government" state will not help you but there will be a law against sleeping under bridges or pitching your tent in the park and it will apply in its equality to rich and poor alike. Go out in your town and see where the homeless are legally allowed to pitch a tent or which overpasses they can sleep under.
The "small government" state advocates would rather not provide public education so they will starve it of funds so as to render it ineffective. Maybe your parents can teach you how to read. In between jobs. Those that have wealth and means will send their children to private schools providing education at a profit to those who can pay. Just as they do now.
Just like it was before Horace Mann.
The elderly under "small government"would have no income or medical insurance if they hadn’t saved enough of their own low wages. Hopefully they can live with their children assuming they have children who will have them or they can look to charity to take care of their basic needs.
If not then perhaps they'd better die and decrease the surplus population. Or maybe we can bring back the county poor house?
See Dickens.
Meanwhile corporations will face little regulation of their behavior - laws against stealing bread do not apply to them. Besides, regulations are "job killers". It must be true. The GOP says so.
"Small government" advocates want just enough government to protect their stuff. No more nor less. Not big but certainly not too small. Just right.
We will still have military. Oh yes, we will have a military. Police can be privatized and profit making to further lower taxes; the rich will hire their own security - just as they do now.
On the other hand, "small government" has never really been small. When the right talks about "getting goverment off of our backs", exactly whose backs are they talking about?
"When the Reaganites said ‘Get government out of my face and off my back" they meant no environmental laws, no workers rights, no labor laws, no consumer protections. They meant that government should leave business alone to screw you upside down and backwards anyway they please and then kick you to the curb when they are done. Squeeze you like a lemon and, when all the juice is gone, throw away the rind." (thank you F. A. - you know who you are)
It’s the government ideal of a plutocracy. It’s anarcho-capitalism.
Who benefits from such a government? The Koch brothers? Investment fund managers? The Chairman of J. P. Morgan?
Certainly not me or my family or my friends. Not working people.
As a kid I was taught (in public shcool!) that one could judge a society by how it treated the least of its citizens. We were taught the concept of the social contract. Now it seems that those with the most feel they owe nothing to the country that gave them the opportunity to amass such wealth.
They want a government which protects them from those outside the gates and allows them to amass even more with an obscene grasping materialism, while expecting nothing from them in return.
Not even taxes. Especially not taxes.
So how valid is any contract which is broken by one of the parties? If the social contract, which must be the foundation of capitalism is ultimately smashed, what allegiance is owed by the masses?
In every well-governed state, wealth is a sacred thing; in democracies it is the only sacred thing. Anatole France.
Can you hear the laughter and music coming from the Winter Palace?
Well maybe not. The last Grand Duchess, Olga Alexandrovna, sister of Czar Nicholas II, died in 1960 in an apartment on Gerrard Street East, over a beauty shop in Toronto. It's what happens when, for too long, government is deaf.
The apartment in Toronto - site of the death of the Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna in November 1960.
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IceRune
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Comments
I'd love to see your design for proper social and economic systems.
Rated.
.
As far as social and economic systems, I consider myself a democratic socialist - a supporter of a strong safety net - paid for by increased taxes on the wealthiest and corporations that want to do business in this country. I also believe in single payer health care.
Its a start. I'll be dead and buried before any of it becomes a reality.
:-)
It may be an amusing drama to a neutral observer but as a participant I am not particularly amused.
Most of which the GOP seems intent on getting rid of on the grounds of "costing too much", while a trillion dollar useless war on the other siede of the world doesn't faze them a bit.
rated
Because the Koch brothers purchased several carloads of stupidity and painted it in bright colors so it was a very successful product eagerly sought after in Wisconsin. The appetite for this product has grown immensely in the country and manufacturing it locally generates jobs.
"The racial diversity among Democrats and the lack of it among Republicans means that the two bases bring differing concerns to the national debate."
The 'melting pot' is really a stew of undigested chunks...and, hah!, Italian immigrants and all the Euros, even the Irish, eventually got blended into the white-sauce base of the stew but, damn, those dark pieces still register on the eyeballs. If you follow me. Whacha gonna go, you Repubs (not you, Toritto, of course!) when the stew turns brown and spicy with chipotles...and white dumplings in their gated communities...
What a better way to promote public education. Replace teachers with computers and let the masses of not 1% children educate themselves. That way when they graduate and can't find a job because they are stupid and realize they can't afford a real computer they still can keep abreast of pressing issues via their I-phones from their other stupid friends and the popular social media.
Every great author you mentioned were teachers and visionaries, but they don't teach that anymore. How do you get 220,000,000 people to elect a fair and balanced representative form of government that treats all citizens equally? Or for that matter elect someone who isn't ignorant in the first place? Thank you, my next comment/post will be on why I live in the Cayman Islands but maintain a working farm and business in the USA. Very good post toritto, you think anyone will learn something from it? I think sky asked the same question........ from another cranky old guy, o/e
r.
You might try Anatole France's novel "Island of the Penguins". I read it as a kid and found it very funny. It starts out when a near sighted saint lands on an island full of penguins but his eyesight is so bad he thinks they are people and he baptizes them all, thereby giving thm souls. All hell breaks out in heaven and the story goes on satirizing the history of France as the penguins develop and satirize the history of France (the nation, not the author).
Of all the questions in political philosophy, this is one of the most vexing topics. In its own way it's rather like some of the issues of physics that Dr. Sheldon Cooper is constantly trying to definitively solve.
Wisconsin teachers average $46,390 annually (some date indicates $51K) ranking 20th in the United States. Starting salary averages $25,222 - 49th in the U. S. Raises have been under 5% for years; Raises over the last ten years totaled 21.5%.
Now considering all these starting teachers are college grads (with student loans presumable) seems to me they ain't exactly milking the teet.
Even here in Florida the average teacher salary is $46,920.
P. S. Median household income in Wisconsin is in excess of $51,000.
Does it take a union to obtain these avage results? Imagine what they would have been making if they didn't have one!
No need to imagine - they will know soon enough.
How dare they organize!!
"Social Contract," the rich say, "is only as good as the paper it's written on." Of course, they forget, that social contract is actually called the Constitution of the United States of America. So basically, they don't believe in the idea of All Men Are Created Equal, because they know they're better than anyone else -- after all, Manifest Destiny says so. How exceptional.
Thanks, toritto, for reminding us once again how far we have still to go and how far we have also fallen. It sort of sucks living at what appears to be the Twilight's Last Gleaming before it is snuffed out by bankers, financiers and manufacturers who produce nothing in this country but more misery, suffering and poverty.
--r--
For far too long the GOP has preyed on the fears of poor Americans by claiming to have the corner on all things right and moral. They do so by demonizing other human beings: blacks, Latinos, women, gay people, gun control advocates, immigrants, etc., and wrapping it all up in a wad of jingoism, religion and group think.
By keeping the rest of us divided, they can conquer us and slink back to their gated mansions.
It's a very old story, Toritto, but we can't stop telling it.
I read and re read all the bunk on the Occupy Movement that has taken over Facebook. It is dizzying. You paint a clearer picture, but let's face it. Can we change it?