In 1981, a Republican whose name letters count 666, was elected and started the ball rolling on laissez-faire Capitalism to the EXTREME, at the price of Democracy. It was pro-business at the expense of EVERYONE else, and the battle cry for DE-REGULATION was heard across our land. Then, the "moral" majority of right-wing "Christians" joined forces with these fiscal radicals, and thus began the DESOLATING SACRILEGE (those who have ears, let them hear), in which the "Christian" "Right" became FULLY joined in unholy union with Mammon.
Since then, the middle class has evaporated at an alarming rate, a very small percentage going into the upper economic sector, and the majority going into the lower. Anti-trust laws were discarded or changed. Monopolies started their gilded age again. Lumber executives were appointed to manage our forests, oil executives were appointed to oversee our geological resources and retailers of food were put in charge of fishing fields and cornfields. The foxes were now guarding the hen houses. Our value shifted from Democracy, even a relative one at THAT time, to extreme CAPITALISM in the hearts of the true believers and patriots. Prosperity Theology was the new order in the churches, which perfectly fed into our American, Civil Religion based on devotion to Mammon, Mars and Bacchus (Wealth, Power and Self-Indulgence). Our democracy was gradually sold to the highest bidders, who got the rules changed so that they could court those elected with monetary bribes, future consultant jobs and votes. The religious "right" re-defined MORALITY to only be about sexual things like women's bodies and what they could do with them, and who a person was allowed to love and who they were not, completely excluding GREED from any discussions around immorality at all. They wanted to legislate bedrooms and de-regulate boardrooms, and they were very successful at it, sometimes with great and swift strides and sometimes slowly, more subtly, but steadily over the past 32 years.
Organized Labor had to go, because it balanced the power between labor and management, and the Anti-Christ would not like that. Workers rights were gutted gradually and eventually those who fought democratically for their rights as workers were again labeled "thugs", in order that "right to work extra hard at substandard wages" states could be victorious. De-regulation of business also meant the privatizing of mental health institutions, healthcare options and other previously overseen things that now could be done more corruptly for the profit of a few. Eventually, the whole of government was bought by Corporations and their lobbyists/PAC's. De-regulation would mean that nothing could stand in the way of profitability for a few. The destruction of the land, pollution of it along with our water and air, waste of natural resources and exploitation of people is a small price to pay for the many, in order that the very few may make unhampered and unlimited profit. Government agencies that inspect and regulate such things along with food safety and cost to consumers were obliterated. Genetically modified foods do not need to be labeled, pharmaceutical companies can charge exorbitant prices for the most needed medicines, the ability to litigate rampant unfairness was taken care of in "tort reform". Gun owners can buy at will, but voters now have their rights taken away for the sake of "homeland security" and out of the fear of "voter fraud" - thinly veiled gerrymandering of districts for more "right wing" political victories. People whose homes are unlivable because of oil spills or "fracking", all of which has been done WITHOUT their consent because the government entrusted to protect them allows it (because its owners say so) have their properties purchased by the companies because no one else would buy them, but only if they sign a "gag" order. Peaceable demonstrations are broken up. The media has been bought and paid for, so there is hardly ANYONE, except those who print or broadcast by the contributions of citizens, who is blowing ANY whistles about any wrongdoing. The church is silent. The church is silent. The church is compliant.
Soon, for-profit schools will limit the children who can attend so that the companies that own them can "hire" the children for dollars a day for child labor, and the for-profit prisons will be full if inmates who are shipped out to factories and fields for dollars an hour to work - all because we have privatized everything and have counted on the worshipers of Mammon to "do the right thing". Of course, these are the same "job creators" who, in the face of a bit less profit during a recession LAID OFF AMERICA, and then complained that making them pay their taxes would hurt Americans because they are "job creators". These are the ones truly and solely represented in government today, and they want us not to have healthcare or overtime pay or a living wage. And so the story goes...
Always driven by MORE PROFIT for those who already receive the lion's share, because the nature of greed is that it doesn't matter what one already has - if more is out there, one should have MORE... those at "the top" in wealth and power are systematically, intentionally, ruthlessly pursuing a new "Gilded Age" for the new Robber Barons. The vision of serfs working for the feudal lord of the corporation is an endearing one to them. The return to child labor and even (for profit) debtor's prison makes them swell with anticipation. It is good to be them when it happens, but NOT SO GOOD to be anyone else.
Now it is over-time pay that they will eliminate. Forget "time and a half" after you have worked your 40 hour week. The labor unions have already been stripped of enough power to stop most of these initiatives, including this one. Most can only find part-time work already, so that piece is in place. Minimum wage will be eliminated, not to usher in a time of a LIVING WAGE, but as in most "right to work states", to employ people but at unsustainable living rates. Benefits have been lost because that was the aim at hiring people only part-time, and healthcare initiatives that have been passed will continue to be attacked until they are gone, so that employers need not worry about the "cogs in the wheel" at all. There are fewer jobs even to be had now, because so many were shipped overseas, so that we could exploit children and adults there, but they will bring the jobs back when legislation allows them to return to even lower sub-standard wages for adults and a return to child labor here. "Illegal" immigrants are now the target for deportation because they will not be needed when other laws enable inmates from private, for-profit prisons to take their place. Public assistance is being eliminated, while corporate welfare thrives, because one must look to "the company" that bought the government, instead of those who are supposed to represent them/protect their interests in government for one's survival, so that they may be further exploited by "the company". Perhaps there will also be a return to "the company store" that provides rent, utilities, food, clothing and other necessities, so that prices may be set high enough to keep one under the control of "the company", and if one cannot or will not pay, then the for-profit prison will gladly take him/her/them in and "the company" will benefit from their labors at an even lower rate. It is a no lose situation for "the company".
The for-profit schools will not be affordable for every child, so more children in the workforce will be added, along with those who cannot cut the expectations they lay out for the children of the elites. If they do not work, their parents, who used to be able to squeak by with two incomes, but no longer, will end up in debtors' prison and work for $2 per hour for the for-profit prison that makes $15 per hour off their backs, as they are shipped out to factories and corporate farms that alone can make it because the farm bill was killed, and their children will share their fate when they are "of age" or sooner. Family togetherness will be at the sweatshop, because it no longer takes one breadwinner or even two, but the whole family working just to survive. Some are not far from that reality already. Only owners and executives will be able to not only survive, but thrive and live the opulent lifestyles they have deemed appropriate for themselves, because they have successfully bought legislation that makes their exploitation of the masses legal again... oh happy day (for them)...
Student loans will be doubled and re-doubled so that only those with means can afford to pursue higher education, even the "hire education" they had grown accustomed to... those students who WOULD HAVE been being prepared for higher-level jobs will now be forced to work for the sub-standard wages described above, and the "serfdom cha-cha" dance continues also for them. The very few will have the education, the legislation, the power and the wealth alone, and their philosophy of ruthless greed will have paid off for them.
Owners, executives and stock holders will make HUGE PROFITS on the backs of those who CANNOT MAKE IT... they will be a VERY SMALL CLUB... always getting smaller, so those who now support them, hoping to be inducted or at least to get some of the crumbs from their tables, will awaken to that reality all too late, having already given them the power and wealth they need to buy government and therefore "legitimize" their ruthless exploitation of EVERYONE ELSE. With no organized labor left, the way is being paved for this (NOT NEW PHENOMENA) RETURN to the "good ole' days" for those who believe they are ENTITLED to their place at "the top", perched up on the heaped ruins of destroyed hopes and dreams below... a return to "the good ole' days" indeed.
And the rest of us will long for a return to our "good ole' days" of being paid a living wage with benefits and adequate time off weekly and yearly, reasonably low student loans so that our children will have the chance of a brighter future and choices in life.
Of course, that would mean less profit for the owners, executives and stock-holders who have worked to cunningly, systematically and ruthlessly to create the environment toward which we are headed at an alarming rate, so that won't happen...
And many of those actively working toward this end claim to be good, American CHRISTIANS.
"DO TO OTHERS AS YOU WOULD HAVE THEM DO TO YOU." Jesus
Pastor Jamie
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