Why do we have so very many workers who can barely make ends meet?

Because right now, and since the MI Supreme Court ruling against Henry Ford in 1919, we have done corporate business under a doctrine called 'primacy of the shareholder.'

This means that profits are king. Period.

Profits are more important than workers, than safety, than consumers, than the community, than the environment. It's all about shareholder profits. Tax loopholes allowing executive compensation to be deducted have contributed to stratospheric 'salaries' for CEOs.

And, hey, if you are a CEO of a publicly held company, and you are doing your job well, you will do the following:

For Workers
1. Bust the union, if there is one, first thing.
2. Participate in systematic wage theft, if you can.
3. Cut hours so you won't have to give your workforce benefits.
4. Steal back the pensions, if the workers have them.
5. Compromise safety on the workplace floor.

For Consumers
1. Cut cost of sales by using inferior parts.
2. Cut the size of packaging and charge the same amount or more.
3. Compromise product safety until paying out claims exceeds the cost of fixing the problem.

For the Community and Environment
1. Foul the environment whenever you can get away with it, and if caught try to pass the cost of cleanup to taxpayers.
2. Contribute to politicians who will 'owe you' and vote against regulation and for tax cuts.

This is why we have what we have right now. The doctrine of shareholder primacy. Replace that with a stakeholder system where the interests of workers, consumers, communities and the environment are held EQUAL to the interests of shareholders, cap C-Suite pay to no more than 10 times that of the worker on the floor, and impose a fairer corporate tax so that corporations are paying in more like 35% of the federal government's tax revenue instead of the current 6.8% (while individual taxpayers, like the workers, are currently paying in 86% - reduce that down to about 45%), beef up regulations that ensure quality, worker and consumer safety, and limit environmental polluting, and impose a wealth tax to eliminate billionaires and...

VIOLA!!!!

We have enough money for Medicare for all Americans including dental care, vision care and prescription drugs, expanded Social Security, affordable debt-free college, infrastructure improvements, improving our K-12 system, and even a guaranteed minimum income.

There’s PLENTY of money. It is just in too few hands.

Source: New York Times

Anne Rice, the Gothic novelist best known for “Interview With the Vampire,” the 1976 book that in 1994 became a popular film starring Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt, died on Saturday at a hospital in Rancho Mirage, Calif. She was 80.

Her son, Christopher Rice, wrote on social media that the cause was complications of a stroke.

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/12/books/anne-rice-dead.html

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Rest in Peace, Anne.

As a present to myself, because God knows, I don't have any money to speak of, I called my two senators and my representative to give them a piece of my mind.

I began by saying that individual taxpayers pay in $0.86 out of every $1 the government takes in, while corporations only pay in $0.068, but we sure aren't getting anything like our money's worth because shareholder profits are king and constituents like me and my family are nothing.

I pointed out that we had to have the Congressional Budget Office 'study' the Build Back Better legislation to ascertain how much it would cost, BUT NO ONE IS BATTING AN EYELASH ABOUT THE $778 BILLION 'DEFENSE' BILL.

At this point, I was just getting going into my favorite issue, which is healthcare. I told these staffers that like most American working stiffs outside the beltway, people who struggle to make ends meet, I have crummy, rationed healthcare with financially crippling copays.

I went on to say that we knew my partner would need surgery and our financially crippling copay for her was $4,000. Took about a year to save that up. Had the surgery, but then she needed hearing aids. Well, la de da, that isn't covered, so I had to take out a $1200 loan, which I have paid down a bit. Then I lost a crown, which cost about $600 out of pocket, and I had to go to the periodontist and spend another $400 for a special x-ray Delta Dental doesn't cover.

The bottom line? I have no savings left, and getting my teeth fixed is going to cost ME $12 large. Out of pocket.

So, we can squander $4.2 trillion on two forever wars that ground up two of the kids in my family. We can fritter away another $3 trillion through a 2017 tax cut for billionaires and corporations, and now we can squander $778 billion on 'defense.'

WHERE IS MY HEALTHCARE?

WHERE IS MY DENTAL CARE?

WHERE IS THE AFFORDABLE, DEBT FREE COLLEGE FOR MY GRANDKIDS?

When is the last time Congress did ANYTHING that materially benefitted you and your families? Sure, they threw money at us during the stimulus, but the last time Congress passed legislation that actually materially benefitted me and my family was in 1965 when they passed Medicare.

Yeah, you can look at FMLA and the ADA, but those are still a struggle, because FMLA is unpaid, and the ADA, well - I have an ambulatory disability, and I will just say thank God I'm not in a wheelchair, because 'access' isn't all that and a bag of chips.

So, I'm pretty fucking disgusted with ALL OF THEM, if you want to know the truth. And I'm sick of the media not reporting things that are really important. I'm sick of the traitors that want to make this into a fucking dictatorship, and I am sick of the corporations that care more about profits than about our lives. I'm sick of the unavoidable corruption in our political system, and of dominionist 'christians'. I'm sick of politicians that pay lip service to me and my family but then vote in $778 billion in 'defense' because China has a supposedly better missile, but I HAVE TO TAKE OUT FUCKING LOANS FOR HEALTHCARE.

This is fucked up, and I know we are all Democrats, but you know, I sure wish they would be a bit less polite and at least enforce subpoenas on the traitors. Let alone expanding Medicare.

Yep. Today is my 63rd birthday AND I'M FUCKING FED UP.

No real serious content.

Just some heartfelt thanks to all of you. This is my favorite online community, and I am glad to be part of it.

Warm regards to all of you, and hopes for a great holiday season. Stay safe. Stay well. Stay engaged!