Surviving Capitalism (Not) : Differing lifestyles: "20 exclusive property hot spots of the super rich"; "US food stamp assistance to be slashed next week"

We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Saturday, October 26, 2013

Differing lifestyles: "20 exclusive property hot spots of the super rich"; "US food stamp assistance to be slashed next week"

1) Click here to access article entitled "20 exclusive property hot spots of the super rich" from rediff.
2) Click here to access article entitled "US food stamp assistance to be slashed next week" by Andre Damon from World Socialist Web Site.

Hear are two recent articles that gives you some indication of the extreme lifestyles of people today living in capitalist societies depending on whether their income is derived from "ownership" of economic property or if it is derived from their labor. I put "ownership" in quotes to emphasize that it is an artifact of the capitalist "game" which was invented by some people several hundred years ago, and not simply a natural fact of life as your indoctrination has led you to believe.

So what has developed over time are two basic classes of people: 1) those who live from the "ownership" of economic property (titles, stocks, bonds, etc.), and 2) those who live from their labor which they rent to the latter group when needed. Indoctrination was always used by the former group to impress upon the latter that this arrangement was the way some god wanted, or was fair and those who excelled in this arrangement were virtuous, or there was simply "no alternative", or all of the above.

Compare the coverage provided in article 2 from a radical source with that from a liberal source which frames the cuts as Republican vs Democrats, with the former playing the role of "evil-doers". Such coverage is provided to instill in you the idea that there are good guys in Congress and you just have to work harder to get them elected, and it's your fault if there aren't sufficient numbers of good guys. After all, we live in a democracy, don't we? Well, you can't deny that we have elections, so therefore we have democracy. (sarcasm)