Chris Matthews
Less than six weeks before the general election (Nov. 4), American voters would do well to consider a few facts reported Sept. 25 on Hardball with Chris Matthews. Most people think the average CEO in this country makes (he/she sure as heck doesn’t earn it) 30 times the salary of the average employee. The reality is a little different: The CEO makes 350 times the average employee. The average CEO’s salary is $12 million annually, while the average employee’s salary is $35,000. As National Football League commissioner, Roger Goodell received $44.2 million in fiscal 2013, a 300 percent increase over his starting salary in 2008, while the fortunes of the NFL rose 31.6 percent.
Roger Goodell
The rich don’t spend
Do you know what this means for our economy? It means the economy will never really flourish. That’s because the masses are financially strapped, and it’s they who by necessity spend the money they earn on – well, necessities, and yes, maybe a few modest luxuries. But those with huge incomes already own everything they could want – except for maybe an island in the Seychelles or somewhere that they’ve been coveting so they can go off by themselves and don’t have to have contact with the hoi polloi, such as their workers. The ultrarich, therefore, park their money in banks or investments instead of goods that require a huge workforce to produce.
U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver
So why in heaven’s name would any sensible person vote for candidates who advocate making the rich even richer – at the voter’s expense? It’s mind-boggling that anyone would do it, but that’s exactly what’s been happening as incumbent Republicans are re-elected and new ones are elected to the House of Representatives and the Senate, which polls show is in grave danger of becoming a Republican majority. U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver of Missouri offered this assessment to Matthews: Many people in this country live vicariously through the wealthy. Bam! That’s it in a nutshell. Why else?
Different attitudes
Clarence Page, Pulitzer Prize winner with the Chicago Tribune, chimed in. If a poor person has another poor person over for dinner, the host doesn’t boast about it to anyone. But if he has a wealthy person over, he wants everybody to know about it. Page’s observations of attitudes toward the rich in England when he lived there were quite different. If a member of the middle or lower class saw a Rolls Royce roll by, he was liable to exclaim, “We’ve got to do something about that guy having all that money.”
Clarence Page
What do we want to be in this country, a disgusting bunch of weak-kneed sycophants? Or do we want to stand up for fairness and put into political office candidates who will act in the interests of all rather than on behalf of the privileged, who don’t need any help?
Vote wisely, not foolishly
Think about it over the next several weeks. And then vote wisely with your head (not your nose) held high, instead of like an arse-kissing, groveling jackal. Or vote for those who work in behalf of rich folks. The rich will love you for it – while muttering through their chuckles, “What a bunch of damned fools.”
If you need further persuasion, consider this:
GOPers act like children
GOP, the Grand Obstructionist Party. Republicans in the House have voted about 50 times to either repeal, delay, or defund (tantamount to repealing) the Affordable Care Act. For this huge waste of time and money, voters pay them big salaries. They are obsessed with having it their way. They lost this battle, and they are very poor losers. As with little children, their attitude is, it’s my way or the highway.
Highways and bridges be damned
President Barack Obama
No, come to think of it, it’s not the highway, either. They have rejected every one of President Obama’s attempts to fix our crumbling infrastructure, which would create hundreds of thousands of jobs, thus giving spending money to those who need it, in turn generating income tax revenue to pay for the construction costs and much more, and sending the economy spiraling upward. The problem with that, of course, is that Obama would be seen as an effective president, which would fly in the face of the Republicans’ objective, clearly stated immediately after his election, of causing his failure. Hence, they have passed fewer bills than any Congress in the history of the United States.
Obstructionists defeated
Despite their nefarious actions and inactions, the nation has seen job growth every month since six months after Obama’s election, when his policies began to take effect, and six straight months, until last month, of more than 200,000 jobs created. And the budget deficit has declined considerably. The unfortunate thing is that, with Republican collaboration instead of obstruction (including implementation of the sequester), the economy would be doing a lot better.
Vote wisely – and with cojones.
