Signs of a Dying Society

[Ferd Berfel]

http://www.commondreams.org/views/2015/11/23/signs-dying-society

While Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning and John Kiriakou are vilified for revealing vital information about spying and bombing and torture, a man who conspired with Goldman Sachs to make billions of dollars on the planned failure of subprime mortgages was honored by New York University for his "Outstanding Contributions to Society."

This is one example of the distorted thinking leading to the demise of a once-vibrant American society. There are other signs of decay:

1. A House Bill Would View Corporate Crimes as 'Honest Mistakes'
(snip)
2. Unpaid Taxes of 500 Companies Could Pay for a Job for Every Unemployed American
(snip)
3. Almost 2/3 of American Families Couldn't Afford a Single Pill of a Life-Saving Drug
(snip)
4. Violent Crime Down, Prison Population Doubles
(snip)
5. One in Four Americans Suffer Mental Illness, Mental Health Facilities Cut by 90%
(snip)

There exists a common theme amidst these signs of societal decay: The super-rich keep taking from the middle class as the middle class becomes a massive lower class. Yet the myth persists that we should all look up with admiration at the "self-made" takers who are ripping our society apart.

[PatrickforO]

1. You're not cheering me up, Ferd!

It is so sad. When I was a kid I never imagined it would get this bad this fast. I've cherished the (probably foolish) notion of being able to retire in some comfort knowing that my kids would have better lives than I did, and finally die with the environment pretty much the same as it was when I was born.

Boy, what a dumb ass I am, eh?



But, hey, as long as I know the top 1/10 of 1% is doing really good, I'm content...

And I was especially heartened by the corporate CEO who spoke from his villa on the Italian Riviera and said that my retirement age should raised to 80! What a cheerful thought THAT is.

Well, we've got the primaries going on now...

[Ferd Berfel]

3. Sometimes "wake up" (for all of us) is better than Cheer up

[Art_from_Ark]

4. When I was a kid, there were Great Society public service announcements on TV

The underlying theme was "We're all in this together, and we can make America a better place". Ah, the future seemed so bright back then.

[PatrickforO]

8. Wow. We're all in this together, and we can make

America a better place!

That's really awesome. Don't you wish we had those campaigns now? I mean, what a GREAT positive message.

Oh...sorry...almost got mushy there. I forgot we're all rugged individualists...

[hatrack]

9. . . . and we can make America a better place by HATING MUSLIMS! And HATING GAYS!

And HATING IMMIGRANTS! And HATING POOR PEOPLE! And HATING LIBERALS! And HATING ATHEISTS!

That's the GOP message in a nutshell.

[Art_from_Ark]

10. Those Great Society commercials were great

But they seemed to disappear almost as soon as Nixon got in the White House.

Many of the commemorative stamps from that era are also a reflection of the Great Society.

[brush]

7. God! Retirement age raised to 80. Just great. Get done with your exit interview . . .

do not pass go, go directly to the cemetery.

[smirkymonkey]

2. K&R

Even though it's so very depressing.

[cantbeserious]

5. Know Thy Enemy - Oligarchs, Corporations, Banks And Their Media Minions And MIC Henchmen

eom

[hifiguy]

6. Lenin was right about one thing:

"Fascism is capitalism in decay."

And we've been a basically fascist country since the mid-1980s. And two "Democratic" presidents challenged not one bit of it but did help the Neo-fascist project achieve many of its goals.

We have been royally chumped, friends. ROYALLY chumped.

[PowerToThePeople]

11. Voting the lesser of two evils? n/t

[TheFarseer]

12. what is meant by "unpaid taxes"? nt