Part of the solution, the Universal Dividend Income.
I suggest a trickle-up policy, for once. Cost, corporate profits would return to the sane profits they were earning back in 1979.
Universal Dividend Income (UDI)
A reason to present the UDI is to display why and how badly Gov & Capital has treated us while depending on our tax and public resources. Had wages followed productivity each of our wages and salaries would be double while corporations would still be profiting as they were in late 1970's and earlier.
The Dividend aspect direct us all to consider it like SS pensions, all our working lives we paid into it, FICA, and so it is earned and not some freebe charity whim of Washington, our grandfathers, fathers, mothers, brothers, .., and we have been supporting corporate businesses with free R&D results, public resources, and tax-paid resources. The profits of the Trillions we spent and still spend are given-away and have been for generations of our labor.
You and family under UDI may still work and perhaps invest the extra. Consider the small business created and-or expanded, as well as new capital in stock purchases. The 'investment' Class would expand - perhaps including nearly everyone.
Instead of UBI, we get Dividends for all the tax & public resources spent over generations in R&D and given to for profit corporations. Take a look and decide if a good idea.
Monthly 'Universal Dividend Income' calculation.
----------------
Detailed Description of the Universal Dividend Income Formula and Results
This formulation explores how the total income generated by wage suppression since 1979, along with government policies, could be redistributed to create a Universal Dividend Income for all legal adult citizens in the United States. We will examine the wage-productivity gap, capital policies, government programs, and how redistribution could result in monthly payouts for citizens.
1. Background: Wage Suppression and the Wage-Productivity Gap Since 1979
The period since 1979 has seen a separation between wage growth and productivity. Prior to this, wages and productivity had moved in tandem, meaning as productivity (the amount of goods or services a worker can produce in an hour) increased, so too did wages. However, since 1979, wages have failed to keep up with the rising productivity of workers.
1979 to 2024:
Productivity has increased by approximately 80.9% since 1979, meaning that the average worker today produces nearly 81% more than they did in 1979.
Wages, on the other hand, have only increased by around 29.4% during this time. This discrepancy between the growth in productivity and the stagnation of wages is a direct result of capital policies such as:
Deregulation and tax cuts for corporations and high-income earners.
The decline of unions, reducing workers' bargaining power.
The rise of financialization (e.g., stock buybacks, executive compensation) that focuses more on shareholder returns rather than reinvesting in labor or increasing wages.
This wage suppression—where profits have been funneled primarily to capital (business owners, executives, shareholders) instead of being shared with labor—has contributed to the wage-productivity gap, leaving millions of workers without the benefits of their own increased productivity.
2. Calculating the Wage Gap and Redistributing Capital Profits
To estimate the potential Universal Dividend Income, we need to look at the wage gap created by the productivity-wage divergence.
Median Wage vs. Hypothetical Wage (if wages had kept pace with productivity):
Median Hourly Wage in 1979 (in nominal dollars): $7.36
Adjusted for inflation to 2024 dollars: This equals approximately $22.00 to $23.00 per hour (based on the CPI).
Productivity Increase (1979 to 2024): Productivity has increased by 80.9%.
Hypothetical Median Wage (had wages kept pace with productivity): Hypothetical Median Wage = 22.00 × (1 + 0.809) = 22.00 × 1.809 = 39.80 per hour.
Actual Median Wage in 2024: Around $19.33 per hour.
Wage Difference: The difference between the hypothetical wage (if wages had kept pace with productivity) and the actual wage is: 39.80 - 19.33 = 20.47 per hour. For a full-time worker (approximately 173.2 hours per month): Monthly Wage Gap = 20.47 × 173.2 ≈ 3,543 per month.
Thus, each worker would theoretically have been earning an additional 3,543 per month had wages kept pace with productivity growth.
Redistribution of Capital Profits: The wage gap indicates that capital profits (from increased productivity) have not been fairly shared with labor. In this redistribution model, this increase would be shared among all 250 million legal adult citizens.
The wage increase per citizen per month can be calculated by: Monthly Redistribution per Adult = (250,000,000 × 3,543) / 333,000,000 ≈ 2,659 per adult per month.
Thus, 2,659 per month could be redistributed to each legal adult citizen, based on the wages they should have been earning had they been properly compensated for productivity growth.
3. Social Security, Welfare, and Other Government Payments
In addition to wage increases, the U.S. government provides various welfare programs, such as Social Security, food stamps, housing assistance, and Medicaid. These payments represent a significant source of income redistribution.
Total Annual Welfare Spending: The U.S. government spends approximately 3 trillion dollars per year on welfare programs.
Welfare Spending per Citizen: Annual Welfare Spending per Citizen = 3,000,000,000,000 / 333,000,000 ≈ 9,000 per citizen annually. Monthly Welfare Spending per Citizen = 9,000 / 12 ≈ 750 per citizen per month.
Thus, each citizen currently receives about 750 per month on average from welfare programs.
4. Combining the Two: The Universal Dividend Income
Now, let’s combine both the redistributed wage increase and the welfare payments:
Redistributed Wage Increase: 2,659 per adult per month.
Welfare and Social Security Payments: 750 per citizen per month.
Total monthly amount for each legal adult citizen would be: 2,659 + 750 = 3,409 per adult per month.
For Families with Children: Parents of dependent children would receive 1/3 of the adult amount for each child: 3,409 / 3 ≈ 1,136 per child per month.
5. Summary of Results: Universal Dividend Income
In this Universal Dividend Income model:
Adults (18+ years): Each legal adult citizen would receive around 3,409 per month.
Each Child: For each dependent child, parents would receive an additional 1,136 per month.
This model seeks to redistribute the income generated by increased productivity and the capital profits that have been hoarded since 1979, while also including welfare benefits into the equation. The result is a significant monthly payout that ensures more equitable distribution of wealth across all citizens, which could help combat rising inequality, provide a stronger safety net for families, and increase overall economic stability.
Conclusion:
The wage suppression since 1979—driven by capital policies and the decline of labor protections—has led to an economy where productivity has increased dramatically without a corresponding rise in worker wages. By redistributing the wage-productivity gap along with current welfare payments, the Universal Dividend Income model proposes a more equitable income distribution, offering 3,409 per month for each legal adult and a proportional amount for children. This would provide a substantial economic boost, particularly to low- and middle-income households, and could help restore economic stability and fairness.
Just in case you missed it: I was extremely gratified to see that some person or persons lobbed Molotov cocktails at cars in a Tesla dealership in Vegas, setting several of them on fire! 😂
Thanks. I saw that video clip of the Tesla dealership in flames. I laughed and laughed my head off between coughs! We might just be able to put ol' Muskrat's Motors out of business if we keep it up.
The next thing that needs to go up in flames is Chuck Schumer's book that he's hawking all over the place with his Zy0nist friends in the mainstream media. That piece of crap needs to be boycotted--in fact any bookstore that sells it needs to be boycotted and told why nobody will shop there until they pitch it in the dumpster.
If this doesn't convince those poor souls that Musk and his kind aren't their heroes, nothing will! We have to make it easy enough for a child to grasp or else we'll lose them to the smooth talking propagandists of the aristocracy. Power to the people and not the billionaires who exploit them! ✊
This tendency to want "Supermen" to come and fix things for us is great, but I've always found it odd that a crackpot racist like Muskrat would be seen as a "savior" by anyone. More proof of how desperate poor folks' lives have become. We must destroy capitalism before it destroys all of us.
Thanks for your kind words, O.B. Very high praise indeed!
Yeah, the fever sort of unlocks those inhibitions that keep you from writing. (Also, my body was so weak, I couldn't even get out of the chair and do anything else but sit and type... The only good side to being that sick--instant de-block for Writer's Block!)
Follow the money--it ALWAYS leads you to the truth! I'm always surprised how many people seem to deny that reality.
Just finished a great book that accurately frames the evil of the wealthy: "The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power" by Joel Baken (2004).
The book had been on my 'to be read' shelf for several years and I finally got around to it. I should have read it when I bought it. It is well-written, concise (only 199 pages) and with its well framed profile of the sociopathic -- indeed psychopathic -- nature of corporate capitalism makes sense of the senseless, self-destructive world we see collapsing around us.
As Baken notes;
"The corporation’s legally defined mandate is to pursue relentlessly and without exception its own economic self-interest, regardless of the harmful consequences it might cause to others.
-The corporation’s unbridled self-interest victimizes individuals, society, and, when it goes awry, even shareholders and can cause corporations to self-destruct, as recent Wall Street scandals reveal.
-Governments have freed the corporation, despite its flawed character, from legal constraints through deregulation and granted it ever greater authority over society through privatization.
He concludes the book with suggestions on how to curb and perhaps eventually change the system but currently the Musk/trump administration is torching many of the institutions and legal system that might have been useful.
Sounds like another good book for the TBR pile! (I'm currently reading Howard Zinn's "A People's History of the United States". It's going to take a while to get through it all, but it's great.) You gotta wonder... If corporations were truly people, wouldn't we be able to hang them for their crimes?
I'm fairly distressed today (on top of being feeling ill) at the news of Trump's use of the "Alien Enemies Act" to deport Venezuelan immigrants to a private prison in El Salvador. (No details on how that came about, either.) The AEA was used last to intern Japanese-Americans during WWII. We all know how well that piece of racist hysteria went over (in time) and that reparations to families were made in the 1990s. These extra-judicial "kidnappings" of persons without due process and their chance to go before an immigration judge to plea their case are very worrisome. They could be setting a precedent for all US citizens and resident aliens alike that the government wishes to "disappear".
Oh, absolutely, they are setting precedents. They are following the classic fascist handbook of first going after the marginalized, knowing that most people will shrug their shoulders. Then the circle of targeted people expands, instilling doubt and fear, which silences people so they don't draw attention to themselves and just hope "things work out."
Eventually, all those who assumed they would be safe are now subject to suspicion and attack. All tyrants know there are more of us than them, so they have to get us all to self-censor and shut-up as our neighbors are hauled away.
None of those men hauled off to that notorious prison were given hearings, lawyers or any form of due process. Most numb Americans have no idea that that is the new standard that will be used against them and their family members if they trip a toe out line.
First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
—Martin Niemöller
This quote is attributed to the prominent German pastor Martin Niemöller. It is sometimes mistakenly referred to as a poem.
After World War II, Niemöller openly spoke about his own early complicity in Nazism and his eventual change of heart. His powerful words about guilt and responsibility still resonate today.
There are two large holes in this simple explanation. Not that it's wrong, but it leaves out two overwhelmingly important elements.
First, you blame the oligarchs/billionaires for this system, but it's equally corporations. The billionaires get to hide behind their corporations, but the corporations, being essentially machines, also dictate to all the humans involved in running them, or being the public face/spokeshuman for them, what to do--whatever best fills the mandate, the programming of all corporate machines: maximize profits. Any manager who makes a decision that interferes with this diktat, that prioritizes anything else over profits, will be tossed and replaced like any other defective component. This is why temporary boycotts are not the answer--we need to cease buying from Tesla, Amazon, Walmart and the other monopolistic corporations PERMANENTLY. Which also means creating the alternative--far more people growing at least some food, trading, and buying from local mom-and-pops.
Second, the demands for a returned and improved welfare state may no longer be practical because we are facing far greater crises than the loss of democracy and fair economic arrangements. Those are luxuries built atop a basic and essential platform, of ecosystems on which all of us depend. And those ecosystems are terribly threatened, by climate change and biodiversity loss and plastic pollution and resource depletion. Clearly those with power are uninterested in addressing these existential crises, being too fixated on the next quarterly profits and their absurd dreams of Mars/longevity/downloading into robots and creating a Panoptican dystopia for the rest of us. So we need to do it ourselves, build an alternative, sustainable system from the group up with no help from governments. We may in fact have active interference from governments. But their irresponsibility will almost surely lead to a collapse before long, and after that it will be local arrangements that matter.
The billionaires are hiding behind their corporations--and you could say that corporations are "people" since Citizens United granted them the right of "free speech," which they practice by spending lots of money on lobbying and bribes to politicians. But some of my readers are still trying to get a handle on what "oligarchy" means, so I don't try to make it any harder for them to grasp what's really destroying our country and the planet. Easier just to blame "billionaires" in general and let them make the connections.
Boycotts are just one step in a permanent change of habit of procuring needed material goods. It can take a month or more to establish a new behavior pattern (according to psychologists), so starting out with a day, a week, a month, a year of boycotting a corporation or product gets the newcomers' feet wet, as it were. As they learn more about what they're boycotting and why, the easier it will become a more permanent habit to avoid having anything to do with the boycotted business. We have to meet people where they're at today in order to help them become the people we'll need working beside us to make a better world tomorrow.
Yes, you're right. If you make explanations too complicated you risk losing your readers' attention. The dumbing down of American students is on purpose, and very clearly evident in how easily led astray the working class is by the elites. Keep it simple and save the people.
all this is valid, but I think a key piece of education is the reality of what corporations are. Everyone knows they aren't really people, even the Supreme Court--but most people make the mistake of thinking they're LIKE people. That they can be shamed, bargained with, that they care about...anything. A boycott is designed to change corporate behavior and if it's effective, it will--but only in whatever direction the managers deem most likely to end the boycott without affecting profits. So the change is likely to be cosmetic, or temporary. A machine CANNOT care about anything--it will march in the direction of profits, any machine carries out its programming if it has the raw materials available. Corporations are currently marching in the direction of human extinction, which will also mean their own elimination--but they don't and can't care about that, they aren't alive.
The other thing we need is to begin cluing people in to the reality of what we need to transition TO. There may not be much time--the "move fast and break things" crowd is on a meth high, rampaging through government in a manic state, swinging their sledgehammers at everything they see. Except the Pentagon, the one place with rampant waste and fraud, and where the NON waste is pure destruction. But where they have all those lucrative government contracts.
Part of the solution, the Universal Dividend Income.
I suggest a trickle-up policy, for once. Cost, corporate profits would return to the sane profits they were earning back in 1979.
Universal Dividend Income (UDI)
A reason to present the UDI is to display why and how badly Gov & Capital has treated us while depending on our tax and public resources. Had wages followed productivity each of our wages and salaries would be double while corporations would still be profiting as they were in late 1970's and earlier.
The Dividend aspect direct us all to consider it like SS pensions, all our working lives we paid into it, FICA, and so it is earned and not some freebe charity whim of Washington, our grandfathers, fathers, mothers, brothers, .., and we have been supporting corporate businesses with free R&D results, public resources, and tax-paid resources. The profits of the Trillions we spent and still spend are given-away and have been for generations of our labor.
You and family under UDI may still work and perhaps invest the extra. Consider the small business created and-or expanded, as well as new capital in stock purchases. The 'investment' Class would expand - perhaps including nearly everyone.
Instead of UBI, we get Dividends for all the tax & public resources spent over generations in R&D and given to for profit corporations. Take a look and decide if a good idea.
Monthly 'Universal Dividend Income' calculation.
----------------
Detailed Description of the Universal Dividend Income Formula and Results
This formulation explores how the total income generated by wage suppression since 1979, along with government policies, could be redistributed to create a Universal Dividend Income for all legal adult citizens in the United States. We will examine the wage-productivity gap, capital policies, government programs, and how redistribution could result in monthly payouts for citizens.
1. Background: Wage Suppression and the Wage-Productivity Gap Since 1979
The period since 1979 has seen a separation between wage growth and productivity. Prior to this, wages and productivity had moved in tandem, meaning as productivity (the amount of goods or services a worker can produce in an hour) increased, so too did wages. However, since 1979, wages have failed to keep up with the rising productivity of workers.
1979 to 2024:
Productivity has increased by approximately 80.9% since 1979, meaning that the average worker today produces nearly 81% more than they did in 1979.
Wages, on the other hand, have only increased by around 29.4% during this time. This discrepancy between the growth in productivity and the stagnation of wages is a direct result of capital policies such as:
Deregulation and tax cuts for corporations and high-income earners.
The decline of unions, reducing workers' bargaining power.
The rise of financialization (e.g., stock buybacks, executive compensation) that focuses more on shareholder returns rather than reinvesting in labor or increasing wages.
This wage suppression—where profits have been funneled primarily to capital (business owners, executives, shareholders) instead of being shared with labor—has contributed to the wage-productivity gap, leaving millions of workers without the benefits of their own increased productivity.
2. Calculating the Wage Gap and Redistributing Capital Profits
To estimate the potential Universal Dividend Income, we need to look at the wage gap created by the productivity-wage divergence.
Median Wage vs. Hypothetical Wage (if wages had kept pace with productivity):
Median Hourly Wage in 1979 (in nominal dollars): $7.36
Adjusted for inflation to 2024 dollars: This equals approximately $22.00 to $23.00 per hour (based on the CPI).
Productivity Increase (1979 to 2024): Productivity has increased by 80.9%.
Hypothetical Median Wage (had wages kept pace with productivity): Hypothetical Median Wage = 22.00 × (1 + 0.809) = 22.00 × 1.809 = 39.80 per hour.
Actual Median Wage in 2024: Around $19.33 per hour.
Wage Difference: The difference between the hypothetical wage (if wages had kept pace with productivity) and the actual wage is: 39.80 - 19.33 = 20.47 per hour. For a full-time worker (approximately 173.2 hours per month): Monthly Wage Gap = 20.47 × 173.2 ≈ 3,543 per month.
Thus, each worker would theoretically have been earning an additional 3,543 per month had wages kept pace with productivity growth.
Redistribution of Capital Profits: The wage gap indicates that capital profits (from increased productivity) have not been fairly shared with labor. In this redistribution model, this increase would be shared among all 250 million legal adult citizens.
The wage increase per citizen per month can be calculated by: Monthly Redistribution per Adult = (250,000,000 × 3,543) / 333,000,000 ≈ 2,659 per adult per month.
Thus, 2,659 per month could be redistributed to each legal adult citizen, based on the wages they should have been earning had they been properly compensated for productivity growth.
3. Social Security, Welfare, and Other Government Payments
In addition to wage increases, the U.S. government provides various welfare programs, such as Social Security, food stamps, housing assistance, and Medicaid. These payments represent a significant source of income redistribution.
Total Annual Welfare Spending: The U.S. government spends approximately 3 trillion dollars per year on welfare programs.
Welfare Spending per Citizen: Annual Welfare Spending per Citizen = 3,000,000,000,000 / 333,000,000 ≈ 9,000 per citizen annually. Monthly Welfare Spending per Citizen = 9,000 / 12 ≈ 750 per citizen per month.
Thus, each citizen currently receives about 750 per month on average from welfare programs.
4. Combining the Two: The Universal Dividend Income
Now, let’s combine both the redistributed wage increase and the welfare payments:
Redistributed Wage Increase: 2,659 per adult per month.
Welfare and Social Security Payments: 750 per citizen per month.
Total monthly amount for each legal adult citizen would be: 2,659 + 750 = 3,409 per adult per month.
For Families with Children: Parents of dependent children would receive 1/3 of the adult amount for each child: 3,409 / 3 ≈ 1,136 per child per month.
5. Summary of Results: Universal Dividend Income
In this Universal Dividend Income model:
Adults (18+ years): Each legal adult citizen would receive around 3,409 per month.
Each Child: For each dependent child, parents would receive an additional 1,136 per month.
This model seeks to redistribute the income generated by increased productivity and the capital profits that have been hoarded since 1979, while also including welfare benefits into the equation. The result is a significant monthly payout that ensures more equitable distribution of wealth across all citizens, which could help combat rising inequality, provide a stronger safety net for families, and increase overall economic stability.
Conclusion:
The wage suppression since 1979—driven by capital policies and the decline of labor protections—has led to an economy where productivity has increased dramatically without a corresponding rise in worker wages. By redistributing the wage-productivity gap along with current welfare payments, the Universal Dividend Income model proposes a more equitable income distribution, offering 3,409 per month for each legal adult and a proportional amount for children. This would provide a substantial economic boost, particularly to low- and middle-income households, and could help restore economic stability and fairness.
A very interesting idea! I've heard of UBI, but not the UDI concept. Thanks for sharing this info.
INDEED:
and
AMEN
🙏🏽
Hi TRC
Here’s a cold cloth for your forehead.
Just in case you missed it: I was extremely gratified to see that some person or persons lobbed Molotov cocktails at cars in a Tesla dealership in Vegas, setting several of them on fire! 😂
If that doesn’t make you feel better….😉
Thanks. I saw that video clip of the Tesla dealership in flames. I laughed and laughed my head off between coughs! We might just be able to put ol' Muskrat's Motors out of business if we keep it up.
The next thing that needs to go up in flames is Chuck Schumer's book that he's hawking all over the place with his Zy0nist friends in the mainstream media. That piece of crap needs to be boycotted--in fact any bookstore that sells it needs to be boycotted and told why nobody will shop there until they pitch it in the dumpster.
Bravo, Cindy!.
Thanks, Diane.
If this doesn't convince those poor souls that Musk and his kind aren't their heroes, nothing will! We have to make it easy enough for a child to grasp or else we'll lose them to the smooth talking propagandists of the aristocracy. Power to the people and not the billionaires who exploit them! ✊
This tendency to want "Supermen" to come and fix things for us is great, but I've always found it odd that a crackpot racist like Muskrat would be seen as a "savior" by anyone. More proof of how desperate poor folks' lives have become. We must destroy capitalism before it destroys all of us.
Thank you for speaking the truth.
You're welcome, Jen! The Truth shall set us free!
Bravo! This may be your best one yet, IMHO. If anything, that fever helped your muse.
"Follow the money and it will lead you to the truth."--My dad
Thanks for your kind words, O.B. Very high praise indeed!
Yeah, the fever sort of unlocks those inhibitions that keep you from writing. (Also, my body was so weak, I couldn't even get out of the chair and do anything else but sit and type... The only good side to being that sick--instant de-block for Writer's Block!)
Follow the money--it ALWAYS leads you to the truth! I'm always surprised how many people seem to deny that reality.
Just finished a great book that accurately frames the evil of the wealthy: "The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power" by Joel Baken (2004).
The book had been on my 'to be read' shelf for several years and I finally got around to it. I should have read it when I bought it. It is well-written, concise (only 199 pages) and with its well framed profile of the sociopathic -- indeed psychopathic -- nature of corporate capitalism makes sense of the senseless, self-destructive world we see collapsing around us.
As Baken notes;
"The corporation’s legally defined mandate is to pursue relentlessly and without exception its own economic self-interest, regardless of the harmful consequences it might cause to others.
-The corporation’s unbridled self-interest victimizes individuals, society, and, when it goes awry, even shareholders and can cause corporations to self-destruct, as recent Wall Street scandals reveal.
-Governments have freed the corporation, despite its flawed character, from legal constraints through deregulation and granted it ever greater authority over society through privatization.
He concludes the book with suggestions on how to curb and perhaps eventually change the system but currently the Musk/trump administration is torching many of the institutions and legal system that might have been useful.
Sounds like another good book for the TBR pile! (I'm currently reading Howard Zinn's "A People's History of the United States". It's going to take a while to get through it all, but it's great.) You gotta wonder... If corporations were truly people, wouldn't we be able to hang them for their crimes?
I'm fairly distressed today (on top of being feeling ill) at the news of Trump's use of the "Alien Enemies Act" to deport Venezuelan immigrants to a private prison in El Salvador. (No details on how that came about, either.) The AEA was used last to intern Japanese-Americans during WWII. We all know how well that piece of racist hysteria went over (in time) and that reparations to families were made in the 1990s. These extra-judicial "kidnappings" of persons without due process and their chance to go before an immigration judge to plea their case are very worrisome. They could be setting a precedent for all US citizens and resident aliens alike that the government wishes to "disappear".
Oh, absolutely, they are setting precedents. They are following the classic fascist handbook of first going after the marginalized, knowing that most people will shrug their shoulders. Then the circle of targeted people expands, instilling doubt and fear, which silences people so they don't draw attention to themselves and just hope "things work out."
Eventually, all those who assumed they would be safe are now subject to suspicion and attack. All tyrants know there are more of us than them, so they have to get us all to self-censor and shut-up as our neighbors are hauled away.
None of those men hauled off to that notorious prison were given hearings, lawyers or any form of due process. Most numb Americans have no idea that that is the new standard that will be used against them and their family members if they trip a toe out line.
Humanity never learns.
I saw this online a while back. It seems appropriate today:
First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist
Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist
Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist
---edit---
Then they came for the Palestinians
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Palestinian
---end of edit---
Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me
Here's the original:
From this website: https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/martin-niemoeller-first-they-came-for-the-socialists
First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
—Martin Niemöller
This quote is attributed to the prominent German pastor Martin Niemöller. It is sometimes mistakenly referred to as a poem.
After World War II, Niemöller openly spoke about his own early complicity in Nazism and his eventual change of heart. His powerful words about guilt and responsibility still resonate today.
There are two large holes in this simple explanation. Not that it's wrong, but it leaves out two overwhelmingly important elements.
First, you blame the oligarchs/billionaires for this system, but it's equally corporations. The billionaires get to hide behind their corporations, but the corporations, being essentially machines, also dictate to all the humans involved in running them, or being the public face/spokeshuman for them, what to do--whatever best fills the mandate, the programming of all corporate machines: maximize profits. Any manager who makes a decision that interferes with this diktat, that prioritizes anything else over profits, will be tossed and replaced like any other defective component. This is why temporary boycotts are not the answer--we need to cease buying from Tesla, Amazon, Walmart and the other monopolistic corporations PERMANENTLY. Which also means creating the alternative--far more people growing at least some food, trading, and buying from local mom-and-pops.
Second, the demands for a returned and improved welfare state may no longer be practical because we are facing far greater crises than the loss of democracy and fair economic arrangements. Those are luxuries built atop a basic and essential platform, of ecosystems on which all of us depend. And those ecosystems are terribly threatened, by climate change and biodiversity loss and plastic pollution and resource depletion. Clearly those with power are uninterested in addressing these existential crises, being too fixated on the next quarterly profits and their absurd dreams of Mars/longevity/downloading into robots and creating a Panoptican dystopia for the rest of us. So we need to do it ourselves, build an alternative, sustainable system from the group up with no help from governments. We may in fact have active interference from governments. But their irresponsibility will almost surely lead to a collapse before long, and after that it will be local arrangements that matter.
The billionaires are hiding behind their corporations--and you could say that corporations are "people" since Citizens United granted them the right of "free speech," which they practice by spending lots of money on lobbying and bribes to politicians. But some of my readers are still trying to get a handle on what "oligarchy" means, so I don't try to make it any harder for them to grasp what's really destroying our country and the planet. Easier just to blame "billionaires" in general and let them make the connections.
Boycotts are just one step in a permanent change of habit of procuring needed material goods. It can take a month or more to establish a new behavior pattern (according to psychologists), so starting out with a day, a week, a month, a year of boycotting a corporation or product gets the newcomers' feet wet, as it were. As they learn more about what they're boycotting and why, the easier it will become a more permanent habit to avoid having anything to do with the boycotted business. We have to meet people where they're at today in order to help them become the people we'll need working beside us to make a better world tomorrow.
Thank you! Are you aware of MK-ULTRA? The puppets have puppeteers...we gotta get them named too...
Yes, you're right. If you make explanations too complicated you risk losing your readers' attention. The dumbing down of American students is on purpose, and very clearly evident in how easily led astray the working class is by the elites. Keep it simple and save the people.
all this is valid, but I think a key piece of education is the reality of what corporations are. Everyone knows they aren't really people, even the Supreme Court--but most people make the mistake of thinking they're LIKE people. That they can be shamed, bargained with, that they care about...anything. A boycott is designed to change corporate behavior and if it's effective, it will--but only in whatever direction the managers deem most likely to end the boycott without affecting profits. So the change is likely to be cosmetic, or temporary. A machine CANNOT care about anything--it will march in the direction of profits, any machine carries out its programming if it has the raw materials available. Corporations are currently marching in the direction of human extinction, which will also mean their own elimination--but they don't and can't care about that, they aren't alive.
The other thing we need is to begin cluing people in to the reality of what we need to transition TO. There may not be much time--the "move fast and break things" crowd is on a meth high, rampaging through government in a manic state, swinging their sledgehammers at everything they see. Except the Pentagon, the one place with rampant waste and fraud, and where the NON waste is pure destruction. But where they have all those lucrative government contracts.