Thanks for this clip, zasel, even though its message (and some of the comments it has generated) makes me even more frustrated with people who defend what is so blatantly indefensible to anyone with the intelligence and/or perspective to see what is going on.

I come from a lower middle class family in a fairly wealthy community in a Conservative state, so I am quite familiar with the mindset of people who just don't get it--people who bitch and moan about welfare mothers getting food stamps but admire the business savvy of oil company executives whose lavish lifestyles contrast sharply with their own; people who have been taught that paying taxes is bad and that those who can avoid ...

Thanks for this clip, zasel, even though its message (and some of the comments it has generated) makes me even more frustrated with people who defend what is so blatantly indefensible to anyone with the intelligence and/or perspective to see what is going on.

I come from a lower middle class family in a fairly wealthy community in a Conservative state, so I am quite familiar with the mindset of people who just don't get it--people who bitch and moan about welfare mothers getting food stamps but admire the business savvy of oil company executives whose lavish lifestyles contrast sharply with their own; people who have been taught that paying taxes is bad and that those who can avoid doing so are more clever than those who are unable to avoid paying them; people who believe that most social services should be a function of the church and not the government; people who allow fear to dictate their political and economic views; in other words, people with very Conservative views. Perhaps it is ignorance of economics or the mental stagnation resulting from very Conservative upbringing/education/religion that blinds them to the socioeconomic injustices they help perpetuate.

Had I not gone away to the state university and learned that there are other ways to think about society I might have retained a Conservative mindset out of ignorance of any other alternatives. It was tough learning that I had been kept ignorant of so many important ideas, some of which made so much more sense to me that I relinquished my old views in their favor. But I now had a choice—and was able to make an informed choice. I find it frustrating that so many people either haven’t had the opportunity to learn and compare other social philosophies, limited to the only worldview they were instilled with, or they are too indoctrinated to be able to take advantage of the opportunity, rejecting out-of-hand any other possible worldview. Their minds are closed.

(stay tuned if you are fo

I have a close relative who for many years has cleaned for one prominent oil exec and his family in the community. To her these people can do no wrong; she thinks that they deserve their riches because they are able to rake in more and more money, whereas she and her family barely limp along financially. And can you guess what her reaction is if I say anything that even implies that her employers are getting richer at the expense of the poor? She hotly denies it. To her, the fact that they are rich makes them better, smarter, and more capable people who deserve all the tax breaks they get because they are better and smarter and more capable of figuring out how to get tax breaks. To her, peop...

I have a close relative who for many years has cleaned for one prominent oil exec and his family in the community. To her these people can do no wrong; she thinks that they deserve their riches because they are able to rake in more and more money, whereas she and her family barely limp along financially. And can you guess what her reaction is if I say anything that even implies that her employers are getting richer at the expense of the poor? She hotly denies it. To her, the fact that they are rich makes them better, smarter, and more capable people who deserve all the tax breaks they get because they are better and smarter and more capable of figuring out how to get tax breaks. To her, people who are poor and in need of, or receiving, welfare benefits are scamming society; they should be working, like her. She’ll tell you this as she cleans the toilet and does the laundry for the non-working oil exec’s wife who is out getting a massage and manicure, planning her family’s next expensive vacation and looking forward to once again coming home to a spotless house.

My relative just doesn’t get it. Nor do many, many other folks in America. So perhaps they do deserve to get robbed off by the rich. As long as you don’t raise their taxes too much they’ll hardly even complain. Unfortunately those of us who do get it suffer the same fate because we are politically impotent. And those who will not be able to receive much needed social services as a result of program cuts will suffer most of all.

Gingembre,
Without a doubt the rich have used the power of their tangible assets to control, manipulate and exploit the poor in extortion, fraud, injustice and betrayal. Their selfish aspiration to "get" and acquire, to accumulate more and more by hoarding, stockpiling, and "building bigger barns" (Lk. 12:18), often causes them to adopt the expedient principle that "the end justifies the means."

Being poor is expensive. Low income families pay more for all sorts of things. As long as we live in a nation where one culture dominates all others; where there is racial favoritism; where a small few appropriate a disproportionate amount of the nation’s wealth to itself; and where some live insi...

Gingembre,
Without a doubt the rich have used the power of their tangible assets to control, manipulate and exploit the poor in extortion, fraud, injustice and betrayal. Their selfish aspiration to "get" and acquire, to accumulate more and more by hoarding, stockpiling, and "building bigger barns" (Lk. 12:18), often causes them to adopt the expedient principle that "the end justifies the means."

Being poor is expensive. Low income families pay more for all sorts of things. As long as we live in a nation where one culture dominates all others; where there is racial favoritism; where a small few appropriate a disproportionate amount of the nation’s wealth to itself; and where some live inside the mainstream while others live on the margins, we have no common interest.