An interesting article written by Jonathan Tasini in Working Life.
Every day, there is another example of the conspiracy of silence that pervades the traditional media’s description of the current economic crisis. Sure, de-regulation, greed and pure stupidity has a lot to do with it. But, in truth, the underlying reason for the collapse has been a persistent war on the wages of American workers. Call it—egads—class warfare.
What is astonishing, and aggravating, is that much of the traditional media continues to point the finger at workers—those wild-spending people who just bought all those yachts, fur coats and mansions in far-away countries. And, now, shame on them, those wild-spending workers are doing something awful—they are saving money.
From Working Life
Mr. Meadowhawk and I have been discussing the same thing at home when the kids are gone and we get ranty and full of Bohemian Highway red wine.
The bosses stole the people’s money by keeping the money for themselves instead of paying them what they deserved. Then they invested in firms who lent that money to the people at interest, so that they could live the “American Dream” promised to them. Then when the people started defaulting on their loans, the banks took their houses. Then the government gave the banks a lot of money. Not the people.
Sigh.
This is why I spend more and more time walking in the woods drowning this shit out with silence.
It’s funny too—the part about how our frugality is going to prolong the Depression we’re entering. (Well, perhaps not ours, since we’ve been living simply for many years, not being so fond of WalMart and other purveyors of plastic crap. But the newfound frugality of “the masses.”) I suppose it’s true. But honestly, I’d rather see us as a people start figuring out how to live differently, instead of pumping up the same old empty lifestyle of alienation.
I think Freecycle and dumpster-diving gives you a unique perspective on just how much useful stuff becomes garbage to people. And what happens to it? What about the mountains of used clothing in third world countries? Ah, anyway…
I will never forget the conversation I had with my parents, while we sat in a café in Italy one hot August afternoon ten years ago. They were informing me that my lifestyle was not only un-American, but hurting the economy. I wasn’t using my degree to make as much money as I could, you see. I wasn’t returning the investment properly. Credit has always been taboo in my family, and so I’ve never run up significant debt. I have used my degree to keep myself afloat, but not to become secure. Having grown up well-off, it never seemed like a healthy goal to me—too much time lost, too much family togetherness frittered away and then stuffed into alienating over-scheduled vacations. And I’ve got some silly artistic ideas that keep me from being fully employable.
At any rate, I’m still aghast at the idea that earning lots of money and then being sure to spend it adequately on the “economy” is the American Way of Life, and that I’m somehow foreign-minded for aiming otherwise. Ah well.
Happiness 