That is what Marie Antoinette said when confronted with her people starving, not being able to eat simple bread. I believe they beheaded her! Simple solutions for a simpler time.
There is no shared hard times during this recession. No shared costs to the wars we are fighting. In fact there is no cost at all. It is all on borrowed money! There is no rationing, no war tax as we have done in the past. For the most part we can go about our day, live our lives and be blissfully unaware of what is going on.
I wonder if this is done on purpose? If we were to receive a bill in the mail each month, or if we were only allowed twenty gallons of gasoline each month, if there were long lines at the grocery store and the shelves were mostly empty, maybe we would feel a little different?
It is comfortable living on my little island that I have created, with my garden, my shop, my welding, my art
but that does not mean that I do not know what is going on in the world, that people are suffering, on the edge of despair as I sit here with my nice cup of coffee in my office. I read a lot and I read both sides of every issue. I watch CNN and Fox News. I listen to Conservative and Progressive Radio.
You don't really have to do any of this to realize that there is a problem. You can go to the grocery store and realize that $100 doesn't go very far any more. In my town 40% of the people buy groceries with food stamps. On the way to the store I see all the unkempt houses, some occupied by people who have lost interest in mowing their lawns or who can no longer afford the gallon of gas for their mowers, if they have mowers. Others are clearly abandoned, foreclosed on and now bank owned. We have hundreds of empty houses in my town and thousands of homeless, people living on the streets! Each day it seems, both these numbers increase.
That is so funny, in a sad macabre kind of way, twisted and strange. People sleeping under a bridge when, a hundred feet away is an empty house! People hungry when there are eighteen Super-Mega-Grocery Stores so near by. So much abundance and such a big divide.
The homeless, the unemployed, the poor have no power. Can you imagine a Fifty Million March on Washington D.C.? There is no shared cost to these problems. If you are lucky to have a good job, are one of the few left to have good health insurance, or, like me and get a check every month, none of this affects you. We can be amongst the 60% who "have it made"!
It used to be 90%, over 90%! then 80, then 70, now 60% and tomorrow it will be worse. At some point you have to realize that they will be coming for you!
They have done this to Social Security already and we didn't even whimper! There is no debate on Social Security it has already been destroyed. There is no rioting in the streets by old people because we are tired and it doesn't effect us today. Do you even know what has happened to it? or did it just slip by?
There is no longer a cost of living increase to SS. It is frozen and will be devalued to nothing within a few short years. They claim that a letter to your Congressman is worth 30,000 votes. That is how lazy and complacent we have become. Yes, we are "sheeple".
Marie Antoinette did not listen to her people and lost her head!
I am always HERE
There is no shared hard times during this recession. No shared costs to the wars we are fighting. In fact there is no cost at all. It is all on borrowed money! There is no rationing, no war tax as we have done in the past. For the most part we can go about our day, live our lives and be blissfully unaware of what is going on.
I wonder if this is done on purpose? If we were to receive a bill in the mail each month, or if we were only allowed twenty gallons of gasoline each month, if there were long lines at the grocery store and the shelves were mostly empty, maybe we would feel a little different?
It is comfortable living on my little island that I have created, with my garden, my shop, my welding, my art
but that does not mean that I do not know what is going on in the world, that people are suffering, on the edge of despair as I sit here with my nice cup of coffee in my office. I read a lot and I read both sides of every issue. I watch CNN and Fox News. I listen to Conservative and Progressive Radio.
You don't really have to do any of this to realize that there is a problem. You can go to the grocery store and realize that $100 doesn't go very far any more. In my town 40% of the people buy groceries with food stamps. On the way to the store I see all the unkempt houses, some occupied by people who have lost interest in mowing their lawns or who can no longer afford the gallon of gas for their mowers, if they have mowers. Others are clearly abandoned, foreclosed on and now bank owned. We have hundreds of empty houses in my town and thousands of homeless, people living on the streets! Each day it seems, both these numbers increase.
That is so funny, in a sad macabre kind of way, twisted and strange. People sleeping under a bridge when, a hundred feet away is an empty house! People hungry when there are eighteen Super-Mega-Grocery Stores so near by. So much abundance and such a big divide.
The homeless, the unemployed, the poor have no power. Can you imagine a Fifty Million March on Washington D.C.? There is no shared cost to these problems. If you are lucky to have a good job, are one of the few left to have good health insurance, or, like me and get a check every month, none of this affects you. We can be amongst the 60% who "have it made"!
It used to be 90%, over 90%! then 80, then 70, now 60% and tomorrow it will be worse. At some point you have to realize that they will be coming for you!
They have done this to Social Security already and we didn't even whimper! There is no debate on Social Security it has already been destroyed. There is no rioting in the streets by old people because we are tired and it doesn't effect us today. Do you even know what has happened to it? or did it just slip by?
There is no longer a cost of living increase to SS. It is frozen and will be devalued to nothing within a few short years. They claim that a letter to your Congressman is worth 30,000 votes. That is how lazy and complacent we have become. Yes, we are "sheeple".
Marie Antoinette did not listen to her people and lost her head!
I am always HERE
2 comments:
Love that last line, Jerry. I must say that one thing you said really struck me. That is that people lose interest in caring for their yards. Why? I don't know, but I do think you've hit on something I've often wondered about. And yet I too know what it is like to lose interest. I've never not cared about the perception of my home but I sure know the loss of interest in caring for myself. When all hope is lost, interest becomes lost too.
Actually Marie Antoinette gave lots of money to the poor but got this statement to her credit somehow. Poor woman was a victim of the politics of her time when girls were given in marriage to bring peace or a deal of some kind between two countries.
I haven't lost hope yet. I figure history is full of up and down times.
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