Recently Art Laffer, who once upon a time served Ronald Reagan, went on Fox News to say that “the poor, the minorities the disenfran-chised, those with less education, young people who haven’t had the job experience. These people aren’t worth $15 an hour in most cases.”
This is what the kids these days are calling a “mask off” moment. Really “having a normal one” but it was “not a good look.” (Yes, unlike some out-of-touch fossils who write for local papers, I can reference slang that isn’t 20 years dead like “haters”)
So, can we stop pretending now? Can we stop even pretending that the people with all the money and power in this country have now, or have ever, cared about the lives and wellbeing of people like you and me? Art Joker up here seems to think you, or your neighbors, or anyone else who mans a cash register, makes food, cleans bathrooms, or does any of those other “essential” jobs we were all applauding a year ago are worth making enough money that can cover basic needs.
And just in case you think this is just a knock on so-called “conservatives,” the center-right White House’s Adviser Kevin Hassett said back in May that “our human capital stock is ready to get back to work” despite, you know, the pandemic. Don’t worry, some of those cows might get sick and die, but there’s plenty more to pack through the chute, if you know what I mean.
It didn’t even take a year for the rich and disgusting to show their true colors and go from thanking hardworking regular folks for, I don’t know, keeping the economy running on their backs while wearing the same mask for the fifth day straight and praying they don’t get sick because they can’t afford the healthcare, to saying those same people, those folks who were considered so darn important, weren’t important enough to make enough money to have a house AND food this month.
This is sick. This American Oligarchy has made it clear that they just plain don’t care if folks like you and me live or die, because there’s enough replaceable humans to make the business decision that your life means less than their profits. I can only assume this parade of boneheaded comments is partially due to actual idiots being in charge, as our current system doesn’t exactly award the best and brightest as it does the brown-nosing and cutthroat, but also because some of these chuckleheads are four, five, maybe even six generations deep in money making money making money, to the point where some of these bozos have never even talked to a real person in their entire lives outside of maybe shouting at one of them to get their coffee. These folks are so rich they’ll never be able to spend it all, so powerful that they can just tell us to hurry up and die for their bottom line, and their brains too money-poisoned to realize that might lead to folks getting upset.
I’m sorry, but they didn’t care about you, and they never did. Reagan didn’t care about you, Trump didn’t care about you, and neither did Clinton or Obama or Bush. If they did, they actually would have done something to make our lives better, but instead we work harder for less while the rich get richer on our hard work and our dime and expect us to never ask for our own money back. I don’t know about you, but I think it’s long past time we tell chumps like this exactly what we’re worth, and that any kind of stock will start kicking out the barn door if they aren’t getting fed.
Eric Leitzen is a substitute teacher who currently lives on Main Street in Hokah.
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