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A lesson just as relevant now as when Michael Moore wrote it in 2003 . . .

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HughBeaumont Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Apr-21-11 11:25 AM
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A lesson just as relevant now as when Michael Moore wrote it in 2003 . . .
http://www.zcommunications.org/face-it-youll-never-be-rich-by-michael-moore

A lesson we have to learn . . . over and over and over and over again, apparently . . . sigh.

Perhaps the biggest success in the war on terror has been its ability to distract the nation from the corporate war on us. In the two years since the attacks of 9/11, American businesses have been on a punch-drunk rampage that has left millions of average Americans with their savings gone and their pensions looted, their hopes for a comfortable future for their families diminished or extinguished. The business bandits (and their government accomplices) who have wrecked our economy have tried to blame it on the terrorists, they have tried to blame it on Clinton, and they have tried to blame it on us.

(snip)

The takeover has happened right under our noses. We've been force-fed some mighty powerful "drugs" to keep us quiet while we're being mugged by this lawless gang of CEOs. One of these drugs is called fear and the other is called Horatio Alger.

(snip)

We are addicted to this happy rags-to-riches myth in this country. People in other industrialised democracies are content to make a good enough living to pay their bills and raise their families. Few have a cutthroat desire to strike it rich. They live in reality, where there are only going to be a few rich people, and you are not going to be one of them. So get used to it.

(snip)

So, here's my question: after fleecing the American public and destroying the American dream for most working people, how is it that, instead of being drawn and quartered and hung at dawn at the city gates, the rich got a big wet kiss from Congress in the form of a record tax break, and no one says a word? How can that be?

I think it's because we're still addicted to the Horatio Alger fantasy drug. Despite all the damage and all the evidence to the contrary, the average American still wants to hang on to this belief that maybe, just maybe, he or she (mostly he) just might make it big after all.
So don't attack the rich man, because one day that rich man may be me!


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HughBeaumont Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Apr-21-11 12:19 PM
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