01-17-2021, 08:24 PM
(01-14-2021, 10:00 PM)beechnut79 Wrote:(01-14-2021, 02:47 PM)pbrower2a Wrote: Just remember: COVID-19 is still killing.
...I expect the Storming of the Winter Palace... excuse me, the Capitol Building... to be another big super-spreader event.
With all the carnage that this virus has created, one thing for the positive side of the ledger is that America did need some downtime. Just a sorry shame that it took the fear of deadly disease to bring it about. Have pointed out many times that most Americans have difficulty when it comes to being able to set aside some time to relax and regroup. A new book titled “Can’t Even” by Anne Helen Petersen examines the Millennial Malaise in great detail.
Management-labor issues have typically been forced to go one way, with the rich getting richer and the others going deeper in debt, bleeding or selling assets, or going from being net creditors to net debtors.
When unions were strong and pay was good, more Americans were happier with their lives. People with blue-collar jobs actually had savings accounts and whole-life insurance policies. Savers are happier than debtors. They have more money for the surprisingly-expensive gift for a loved one. They have a reserve for a big car repair or the breakdown of an appliance. They can see themselves putting money aside for a dream vacation or a child's college fund. They see their work creating a better future instead of paying interest to creditors.
Oh, but what about the marvelous technology of our time that people did not have then? If one is priced out of cable TV, then three channels of free television are better than none.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.