Stacy Summary: Just wrapped an interview with Andrew Maguire; later this week we’ll be talking to Dominic Frisby and Greg Palast. We’ll also be heading to NYC at the end of August/beginning of September. Maybe Max will do a stand up rage . . . ?
Today, I’ve been reading this AP piece on poverty in America. So sad, so stunning. The population, however, apparently needs to hit bottom before it can wake up and sort itself out. They still believe, for many reasons, that they have the best system in the world. And yet the only innovation appears to happen via the Defense Department, ie, government spending, (albeit on technologies primarily meant to spy on us). The vast majority of Americans don’t realise there are alternatives to the system they have now, though it was only so recently in their history that there was more progress, innovation, wealth creation, etc. They used to have much better lives than Europeans, who, in turn, have much higher standards of living than the ordinary American.
Problem is the population are self-hating peasants, who supported the aristocrats/elites/oligarchs in selling off the nation’s wealth creating industries out of hatred for those other peasants, thinking somehow the Lords would take care of them individually. You saw this best when Matt Taibbi visited the Tea Party convention and all these older Americans were pissed off about government spending . . . despite themselves using food stamps or Medicare or Medicaid, etc. It’s just bizarre when someone can’t see themselves for what they are or the environment in which they live. But, history shows they always end up at bottom; and from there the population can quite possibly build something better.