On Fri, 19 Feb 2010 16:43:20 EST [email protected] writes: > > > > > Comment > > I asked myself, why would a human being work a 100 hour week > voluntarily?
That sort of thing is not or was not uncommon in the high tech world. > Seven days 12 hours a day is only 72 hours. Add another 28 hours > and one > has no family life and ultimately no wife or children one can > maintain a > relationship with. Here is a man that earnestly believed that > capitalism could > work for him and it did work pretty good in the post WW II period. > Things > stated going to hell a very long time ago for the proletariat > majority. New > layers of American society is being ruined. I think you will find that sort of thing to be common among high tech workers. A lot of them dream of becoming capitalists and during the '90s boom enough high tech workers did, for a while succeed, in doing just that, or at least enough did to make this seem a plausible dream. That came crashing down, starting around 2000. > > The real proletariat in America thinks out things very different, > and their > spontaneous drift to the right barely leads to terrorist acts on > this > level. Massive economic ruin does generate an initial response of > increased > family abuse, bouts of rage and individual suicide. Then depending > on the > ability of communist to impact the movement with a sense of > purpose, the > implosive subsides and becomes an outer explosion of activity. > > I feel no sympathy for this man who drives an airplane into a > building > because he is angry with the system. Did he own the plane? This > angry man > thought thinks out as a little capitalist, rather than proletarians > still > clinging to bourgeois views. He wasn't really even a little capitalist, he was a wananbe at most. In reality, he was just another contract programmer, and as such, lacked the security and benefits that unionized blue collar workers used to enjoy. I agree that it is fucked up to see exploited workers cling so relentlessly to a petit bourgeois consciousness. > > No human in their right mind, voluntarily works 100 hours a week, > unless > they earnestly believe that at "some point" they "they can make it" > and > retired in peace and wealth. This pursuit of wealth and "making it" > was once > called the American dream. Our bomber terrorist woke up to the > American > nightmare, millions having been living for a couple of decades. > > Real time America on February 19, 2010 is in a profound crisis. 150 > > million Americans feel stress over layoffs and paying their bills > on a consistent > basis. Over 60 percent of Americans now live paycheck to paycheck. > A > record 20 million Americans qualified for unemployment insurance > benefits last > year, causing 27 states to run out of funds, with seven more also > expected > to go into the red within the next few months. In total, 40 state > programs > are expected to go broke. When you factor in all these uncounted > workers -- > "involuntary part-time" and "discouraged workers" -- the > unemployment rate > rises from 9.7 percent to over 20 percent. In total, we now have > over 30 > million U.S. citizens who are unemployed or underemployed. With a > prison > population of 2.3 million people, we now have more people > incarcerated than any > other nation in the world -- the per capita statistics are 700 per > 100,000 > citizens. In comparison, China has 110 per 100,000, France has 80 > per > 100,000, Saudi Arabia has 45 per 100,000. The prison industry is > thriving and > expecting major growth over the next few years. A recent report > from the > Hartford Advocate titled "Incarceration Nation" revealed that "a > new prison > opens every week somewhere in America." > > Over five million U.S. families have already lost their homes, in > total 13 > million U.S. families are expected to lose their home by 2014, with > 25 > percent of current mortgages underwater. 1.4 million Americans > filed for > bankruptcy in 2009, a 32 percent increase from 2008. As > bankruptcies continue to > skyrocket, medical bankruptcies are responsible for over 60 percent > of > them, and over 75 percent of the medical bankruptcies filed are > from people > who have health care insurance. > > Over 50 million people who need to use food stamps to eat, and a > stunning > 50 percent of U.S. children will use food stamps to eat at some > point in > their childhoods. Approximately 20,000 people are added to this > total every > day. In 2009, one out of five U.S. households didn't have enough > money to > buy food. In households with children, this number rose to 24 > percent, as the > hunger rate among U.S. citizens has now reached an all-time high. > > The American government defines poverty for a family of four at > $32,000 a > year. 60% of the American working class makes $14 an hour which > equals > $29,120.00 based on working 52 weeks a year. Government statistics > place 60% of > Americans below the poverty level before the outbreak of the 2008 > crisis. > > The rate and velocity of the crisis means the spontaneous tendency > of the > workers to swing to the right, expressed in the demand for > restoration of > the social contract, must be tackled by American communist with > propaganda > that fits who these workers, at this moment, think things out. > > This dynamic is interesting because in real time today, demanding > restoring the old social contract is reactionary and impossible in > America because > the decay of capital and the technological revolution makes such > restoration impossible. > > WL > > _______________________________________________ > Marxism-Thaxis mailing list > [email protected] > To change your options or unsubscribe go to: > http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis > > ____________________________________________________________ Get Free Email with Video Mail & Video Chat! http://www.juno.com/freeemail?refcd=JUTAGOUT1FREM0210 _______________________________________________ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list [email protected] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
