I'm glad it works for the Nordics, and I wish that we here in the USA could get with the program. We always get to hear all of the damn excuses from the political Right, about why we can't or shouldn't do this, and in the end, it always boils down to one single, simple, ugly theme. When you strip away the pseudo-patriotic rhetoric, the cowboy mythology and the fantasy of American social mobility, what you have left is:
"I don't want to contribute to the society I derive direct benefit from, and which supports literally every aspect of the modern life I enjoy."
And of course, right now, some knee-jerk cretin who fancies himself to be either a cowboy or a capitalist is frothing at the mouth while his sympathetic nervous system is conjuring up irrational, half-informed, pseudo-intellectual, anachronistic poppycock with which to respond. It will involve some nonsense about "voluntary exchange" and attempt to resurrect the specter of the Soviet Union, while making demands of myself and others, that we think about whether or not we want a faceless bureaucrat dictating this or that to us. It will also completely ignore that the people of the United States already suffer under these conditions, and that the faceless dictator is in fact one of the unelected, unaccountable Wall Street set. This raging ball of antisocial entitlement will also declare that someone could choose to not have anything to do with "Our Way of Life", while simultaneously ignoring that every square inch of dirt in the US is owned, and that it is illegal in most places to sleep rough, hunt for food, build a campfire or even put together a shelter. In fact, in many places in the United States, it is becoming illegal to provide food to the homeless.
In short, Ladies and Gentlemen, the United States seems to be trying very, very hard to make poverty unavoidable, inescapable and illegal.
"Are there no Prisons? Are there no Workhouses?" Dickens would find modern America horrifically familiar.
39
I'm sorry but...
...this is fucking beautiful.
I'm glad it works for the Nordics, and I wish that we here in the USA could get with the program. We always get to hear all of the damn excuses from the political Right, about why we can't or shouldn't do this, and in the end, it always boils down to one single, simple, ugly theme. When you strip away the pseudo-patriotic rhetoric, the cowboy mythology and the fantasy of American social mobility, what you have left is:
"I don't want to contribute to the society I derive direct benefit from, and which supports literally every aspect of the modern life I enjoy."
And of course, right now, some knee-jerk cretin who fancies himself to be either a cowboy or a capitalist is frothing at the mouth while his sympathetic nervous system is conjuring up irrational, half-informed, pseudo-intellectual, anachronistic poppycock with which to respond. It will involve some nonsense about "voluntary exchange" and attempt to resurrect the specter of the Soviet Union, while making demands of myself and others, that we think about whether or not we want a faceless bureaucrat dictating this or that to us. It will also completely ignore that the people of the United States already suffer under these conditions, and that the faceless dictator is in fact one of the unelected, unaccountable Wall Street set. This raging ball of antisocial entitlement will also declare that someone could choose to not have anything to do with "Our Way of Life", while simultaneously ignoring that every square inch of dirt in the US is owned, and that it is illegal in most places to sleep rough, hunt for food, build a campfire or even put together a shelter. In fact, in many places in the United States, it is becoming illegal to provide food to the homeless.
In short, Ladies and Gentlemen, the United States seems to be trying very, very hard to make poverty unavoidable, inescapable and illegal.
"Are there no Prisons? Are there no Workhouses?" Dickens would find modern America horrifically familiar.