Yeesh

While we're feeling dewy and inspired by how plucky and brave these guys are, let's try to avoid thinking this isn't just supremely disheartening.



Yes - it's both.  But why the fuck do we think it's OK to put people thru this kind of hell? Do we really believe it's good for a thousand people to have to live like feral dogs in order to give 30 kids a small shot at making it outa there alive?  This 'tough-love-pull-yourself-up-by-your-own-bootstraps' bullshit is exactly that - it's bullshit.

Here's a tho't: let's stop dumping our garbage on people and then pretending that's what makes 'em good people.  Imagine where these folks could take themselves if they didn't have to start in the shitter.

This New Economy

The notion that an economy must be allowed to follow "the natural order of things" is just so much hogwash.  Have you watched any 'Nature' shit on TV lately?

Here's what I think is a pretty fair metaphor for Freddie Hayek's system operating under the Animal Instincts school of thought:




Here's another one - where the baby critter is still alive as it's being eaten:




And another:




Just one more?



So, seriously?  That's how you want the businesses in your neighborhood to behave?

You want the mortgage banker to see you as nothing more than his next meal?

You want your insurance companies to collect premiums your whole life while you make practically no claims, only to be told that the rules have changed, and now that you need to get some of that back in the way of covering your recent misfortune they just won't be able to help you?

You wanna go back to when the used car guy could pull any manner of shit; could lie his ass off and sell you a pile of junk and you couldn't do a goddamned thing about it cuz you were sucker enough to buy it in the first place?

When you know about the constant state of Rip-Off-itude that seems to pass as Standard Operating Procedure in Business and Politics and Government etc, and you shrug it all off, and you say things like, "Well, gee - it's just human nature for people to get a little greedy and selfish", you're saying you couldn't possibly go to the trouble of standing up and demanding that people stop acting like a bunch of fucking animals.

We are so fucked if we don't start changing this shit.

Honesty

One Way to Look At It

Yeah - OK.  So maybe this is just too over the top.

Maybe the system's not really rigged in favor of a few very high-level-mover-shaker-hyper-motivated entrepreneurs with lucrative book deals extolling their highly effective habits who just happen to be so well-connected that they get special deals and federal protection, plus they get to name practically anything they want after themselves.

And maybe you really aren't a low-life loser who can't quite figure out how to get out of his own way; somebody who'd be a lot better off if he just went to church like he's supposed to; somebody who needs to learn his lesson about how to act like a proper citizen of the empire...

...but y'know what?  I could sell it that way - I'm pretty fucking good at sellin' shit.

What're you buyin'?