The everyone-is-on-their-own concept, if taken to the extreme, is perhaps a form of anarchy. All of us, to varying degrees, depend upon public services that are run by government and paid for by people in society chipping in for the cost.
So, no handouts for you, right ? Under no circumstances, would you call the police or the fire department or use a road or a sidewalk or get the benefit of a traffic light or check a book out at a library or have a picnic in a park, or buy food or medicine inspected by the USDA or FDA …and so on ?
Actually, many of the people waiting for ‘handouts’, in terms of health-care or food stamps actually have jobs that involve low pay and long hours.
By far, the problem with ordinary people wanting ‘handouts’ is far outweighed by the problem of powerful corporations wanting and getting their own form of handouts which are hurting our nation economically and in terms of national interest (ie-what do we actually make in this country anymore ?)
How about taking a look at the WTO, and NAFTA and how corporations otherwise seek to maximize profits for a select few by relocating jobs wherever they can get away with paying the lowest wages with the least amount of workers’ rights and the least amount of environmental responsibility ?
The gap between rich and poor increases in this country, and national debt increases, and our manufacturing capacity decreases. Meanwhile many CEOs make hundreds of times what line employees make. Meanwhile people talk about cutting taxes and social services (which may be good for the private prison industry but bad for our democracy).
Why not take a look at the WTO whose decisions affect people all over the world, including you and me, and which operates secretively and answers to no one but the most powerful multinational corporations ?
Or is it better to blame the poor for wanting ‘handouts’, and blaming environmentalists and labor unions for creating a climate that’s unattractive for business ?
Should be blame people in tough economic situations or should we seek to hold multinational corporations accountable for being more socially responsible and invest their vast wealth into public services ?
After all, did the corporations create their vast wealth on some other planet, or did they use air, land, water, and other natural resources (plus our human resources) to create their wealth ?
I can’t help but think that when middle class or even upper middle class people act as apologists for our current system of privatizing gain and socializing costs, that many of us unwittingly contribute to our own colonization.
Is there a connection between the sweatshop worker in Bangladesh and the former family farmer and former factory worker in Ohio ?
Should we blame labor unions and environmentalists or should we seek to prevent multinational corporations from exploiting people –including you and me– in terms of our ability to earn a living and maybe have a planet to pass on to our descendants ?
This may not be a situation in which we choose either big government or big business. The key problem may be the concentration of power, whether that concentration is bureaucratic or corporate.
I favor decentralization of political and economic power. To do that, we may need to address what some people refer to as ‘corporatism’, the combination of big government with big business.
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