Good letter!
Gene Coyle
On Oct 5, 2008, at 11:31 PM, Joanna wrote:
Yeah, the representation of the bailout as "socialism for the rich"
has been driving me crazy too. I sent the following to the SF
Chronicle:
This "socialism for the rich" phrase that's bandied about is driving
me nuts. "Socialism for the rich" makes as much sense as "orgasms
for the dead." The point of socialism is to forbid the psychopathic
few from grabbing 98% of all there is, while the rest of us toil
endlessly to make them even richer.
The transfer of public money to the rich is not socialism for the
rich; it's capitalism without the normal detour through the cycle of
production -- where labor gets the wherewithal to reproduce itself,
and capital gets everything else. Because we're in a crisis, we
cannot afford the normal detour, which seems to to work well enough
in normal times to convince everyone that those who work very hard
make it to the top. And, if it doesn't, there's always the endless
reality shows to teach us that 1) the goodies are scarce 2) there
must be one winner and many losers....while obscuring the fact that
the real $$ goes to those who own the station.
It's pretty crazy that just at a time when it is obvious to all how
bankrupt this system is -- literally bankrupt.... just at the time
when it would be fitting to talk about the possibility of socialism,
the media has chosen to counfound reason by suggesting that what is
happening is "socialism."
Joanna
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