Bridges being knocked down, the average income needed to meet basic needs being unavailable to most, thousands dying yearly from a lack of medical care, worker productivity through the roof without a commensurate increase in wages…… What a time to be alive in the United States.
The great irony in all of this is that the teeth of doom in terms of climate change haven’t really chomped down to be the causative factor for any of these problems. No, these miseries are directly caused by the old fashioned, deadly sin of greed. The entire system is now predicated on funneling wealth to the very few at the expense of the many. One simply needs to look at a graph showing worker productivity over the last few decades and the graph with adjusted income….hint, they do not track each other. In the 50’s and 60’s, they pretty much did. The proliferation of billionaires at this time is a clear and undeniable indicator that we are part of a machine transforming actual work into unspendable riches for the few. Americans are almost universally in financial tight wire situations if not outright off the tight wire, maimed on the floor as the circus continues above. A situation of just hoping a peanut falls in your mouth and the elephant doesn’t step on you.
All it takes it a medical crisis, an upside down mortgage, overwhelming increases in home flood insurance, a decision from management that you are too old for a job (or too young), not to mention the wages are terrible….. then that’s basically it—game over as far as your chance at this “American Dream”.
Of course this is not what a healthy nation looks like. One simply needs to look around at the dilapidated infrastructure to realize that we are on a terrible trajectory. Funds are present, but they are being funneled to corporations with little to no regulatory oversight. It’s become comical but true that needing a drug for something like chronic hepatitis infection without insurance—well it’s probably cheaper to obtain by flying to India and buying it there (cheaper including the flight and lodging even). This, because our politicians do not protect the citizens from forms of health extortion to shore up the funds for their donors. Don’t believe me? Take any medication name you see advertised on television. Of course you have to tune in to traditional tv during something like the evening news. It’s wall to wall drug ads. But then do a google search to see what those medications cost elsewhere. You’ll be shocked at the truth, and even more sickened than you were from needing that med. Americans are treated in a parasitic manner: want to live, be free of that life-long infection, rid yourself of cancer? Well, it’s going to cost you. It’s not legal to jack up your plywood prices when a hurricane is headed your way, but it is accepted and approved of that those at their most vulnerable are given this type of medical cost extortion.
This is all so very necessary because Nancy Pelosi continues to need quite an ROI from her stock picks (to keep those ice cream freezers stocked). You also need amazing healthcare to still be alive through a pandemic at her age. That’s what the rank and file American is here for, to generate Rocky Road as we drive to work on….pothole covered streets.
At this point, the only growth occupation is that of being a Mothman (he can’t keep up with so much infrastructure falling apart, his job is to warn about such things). He does need help but—sadly it’s an unpaid internship to work with the Mothman, so really only legacy ivy league types with already present funds need apply. But if you can work for a year or so with him without pay, you might have a true position available later. Also, make sure you have a Masters before submitting your CV. THe Mothman has a good job without a degree, but what can you say? He got into that position back in the 60’s.
So that Key Bridge incident was probably an accident, okay, but we see a nation putting no thought or funds into preventative measures. Nothing like structures to diminish the chance that a floating Walmart could just clock a bridge without even a maritime speed-bump in front of the bridge. The technology is there to have a long, harbor spanning bridge, but oh no, we draw the line at even cursory tech to prevent a mechanical collision. Technology similar to what has been put in place in Florida after a similar disaster on the Sunshine Skyway Bridge over 40 years ago. The technology is there, but not used until a disaster occurs (if then). I guess they figure it’s worth the lives and misery and also, that infrastructure money needs to go to Israel and Ukraine. That printed into existence stuff can’t be used just anywhere. Most likely the funds will be found for the wholesale rebuilding of the bridge in terms of lucrative contracts and the use of poor labor to ensure maximum profit for the corporations (the type of labor who is too scared to go to the hospital after being thrown into the harbor—you know the kind of labor, big business wants because of just that vulnerability). Disaster Capitalism, as they say. Gotta make lemonade from lemons (with the use of low paid labor who lack an ability to complain about abuse due to the lemonade lobby power in DC). Those workers also have a convenient habit of just disappearing when injured and their presence helps keep the working class of America angry at someone besides the corporate overlords. Win-Win.
Kathleen Wallace writes out of the US Midwest. Her writing is collected on her Substack page.
Source: CounterPunch
