This past weekend someone wrote into the local paper that the current economic and overall problems in America took ten years to get into and therefore, would not likely be resolved in the next few years. I find this kind of statement assinine. Mostly because our current situation started more than ten years ago.
If people will take the time to look back at history, especially focusing on the time prior to their birth (which is the basis for most people's perspective), they will see that we've had a slow decline into a society of entitlement and class envy. I don't know when it all started, but somewhere way back there we started to think there was something wrong with rich people. We (as a society) have promoted the idea that rich people somehow got rich by stealing from others. We then started re-defining rich. Now we seem to think if someone is making a salary far above our own, they're rich and somehow not deserving of the fruits of their labor. How arrogant is that?
People just don't pay attention to the truth and civil debates are rare. Proof of Americans not paying attention is that today our president said we need a $50billion infrastructure plan for roads and bridges. How many Americans remember roads, bridges and other "shovel-ready" projects were what the $787billion stimulus package was supposed to pay for?
As I'm beginning the last quarter of the book Atlas Shrugged, I cannot help but see the slow destruction of a once-great nation and wondering if enough of us have the will to fight back.
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I understand your statement. I do agree that greed has ocurred quite before my time. Although I cannot pinpoint when people saw wealth as evil, I do think some of that came from people like Andrew Carnegie and Rockefeller. Notably, when steel workers were locked out and when they went to picket the company, the pinkerton agency showed up with guns. They ended up killing several workers (in Pittsburgh). this ocurred in the early part of the 20th Century. I am sure it even goes back to the "holy" Roman Empire and before that.
ReplyDeleteThat being said, I don't have a problem with someone earning a large sum of money as they earn it. I have a problem when people are making money while their workers are being treated like garbage and not paid a fair wage. I have a problem when a CEO is paid millions (by the way, that millions is hidden in "retirement" so it cannot be taxed) while the company he "works" for posts losses and attempts to go into bankruptcy.
Well said both of you! I don't know why some people do resent folks who work hard and earn a good wage. This TARP thing has been a disaster, but so many think badly of a person earning a good salary, they are jealous and have such a sense of entitlement they don't deserve. I don't know what's going to happen in the future, but I forsee terrible trouble (stole that from Steely Dan's "Dirty Work" song on "Can't Buy a Thrill"). That's sort of an apt description of what's happening, everybody wants instant gratification without working for it and earning it! I'm tired of inconsiderate people who think they're entitled and special and the rules don't apply to them. And they're everywhere! I forgive them because they are truly ignorant and we need to have forgiveness in our lives but you do grow weary sometimes trying to do the right thing, which is forgive and forget, but it's very difficult in this current society! I do it and am fortunate to have many wonderful friends in my life, I try to surround myself with good people and quietly fear for our future. I'm at the point where it is who knows? God help us all. Wish the rapture would come and we'd not have to worry about it, but we don't know about that, either! All I really know is I have a husband who goes to work every day and probably does the jobs of two people and stays there as long as it takes to get everything done. That's life when you're salaried! My Dad is reading "Atlas Shrugged" for the first time at 83 years old, and Ayn Rand was so prophetic it's kinda scary. She saw it all back in 1957! We'll never have as good a retirement as our parents did (most of us, anyway) and that's just sad when you have Bernie Madoffs and all these fat cat executives. I just pray each day, it's all I can do but you are right!
ReplyDeletePosted by Michelle Corbin 10/29/10 at 10:50 PM