Maintaining the Main Drain

While discussing politics and the economy with my friend Pat, he got me started on something. "Are people blind?" he asked.

Yup, people are blind. More accurately, people see what they want to see. I'm afraid we're all a little like that. I'm like the rest, I'll admit; I want friends in politics too! I want a party that looks out for me, and I keep trying to find one.

But I can't find one.

 

The Republicans tell us that the Democrats are lying; the Democrats tell us that the Republicans are lying.

Who's lying?

We see what we want to see. We want the truth to be "black" or "white." It's hard to keep an open mind. It's easier the other way; but, my fellow Americans, our "friends" in politics are not always our "friends." We need to stop bowing to party lines, whether we're Republicans or Democrats.

I'm tired of politicians talking about their party "base." I think people who swallow the party's story, any party's story, are well named. They are "base" people indeed. Rich or poor, common folk or nobility, they're truly "base," because they allow themselves to be led around by the nose.

Instead of thinking for themselves, "base" people try to find someone else to figure it out for them. But politicians are not going to figure it out for us, because they're not on our side right now.

Those in power mostly see us as an obstacle to retaining their power, not as people to serve or even people who have anything of importance to say. All they really want from us is our votes. They'd like us to stay right where we are, under their thumbs. They have no interest in changing this economy. They like it "lean and mean." They want to continue siphoning off wealth for themselves. That's the main principle of business. That's the truth.

But neither party tells the whole truth. One says business owners build businesses. The other tells us business is built on the back of government. That little argument is a good example of the kind of bait that's often dangled in front of us. The story looks pretty good, so we swallow the one or the other; then we just look for more of the same stuff to feed on.

Business is built on our backs. No business is entirely "made" by the "makers" of business. No business is entirely "made" by the government. We, the consumers and customers, are the business. Entrepreneurs in this country accumulate wealth, build stuff or provide services, and "sell" us the story that their prices are worth paying. We buy their stories. That's what makes business go. We need to understand that. We are the business. How is it that the Democrats and the Republicans have found it appropriate to leave us out of their myths about "business"?

Here's part of the answer: Republicans, for the past couple of generations, have pretty much had their way arranging tax cuts for themselves and dismissing government oversight from their "business," but the Democrats have excused, and are continuing to excuse the rich Republicans from their misbehavior. They carefully avoid saying much about the 99% to 1% disparity in wealth today, and they don't mention that the disparity is largely a product of government policy over the past 25 years. Of course, the reason Democrats excuse it is because they're rich too. They're in on it. They overwork and overtax the middle class and the working poor, then sell goods and services back to us at the highest prices they can gouge out of us.

But they leave us out when they explain "business," because what they do to us is the dirty truth, and any admission of it would make them all look dirty.

Business is something imposed upon us, and most of time, we let it happen because we think it has to be that way, and we think it has to be that way because they say so. But we need to realize at some point that $4.00 a gallon for gas is probably a higher price than necessary, especially when a business sector is gouging us for billions in profits

It doesn't have to be that way.

We should be able to share some of that wealth. And maybe keeping some of it and spreading it around won't entirely solve our problems; maybe bus drivers can't collect full retirement benefits when they get old, and maybe waitresses can't have full health benefits. But we could do better than we do now.

Redemopublicrats are as blind as we are to that and a whole lot more. They wear blinders made of hundred dollar bills, and they do the best they can to keep us blinded too. They now have most of us convinced that there is no other way but theirs, whatever "theirs" happens to be.

When we accept that the Redemopublicrats' alternatives are the only solutions, we're all taking part in "maintaining the main drain" on the economy. The "main drain" they maintain is chiefly what keeps it down, not entitlement programs or welfare. The "main drain" is the most serious moral issue today, not illegal immigration or abortion, either of which could be easily and quickly made into a non-issue by people with half a mind and more interest in solving problems than in profits.