The "gifts" of the government and a few words

Day 1,970, 02:45 • Published in USA USA • by 2503830

In my last article i talked about, mr Romney's remark - as well as many republicans who share his thinking - about people "dependent on the government".
Clearly the man had in mind people who get social security, people who get food stamps, people who get all kinds of welfare support, etc There's a lot of these social programs, and indeed they are big in the american economy, this is proof that the economy does not 'provide' for most americans and so the government ADDS to their income with these programs.
But any notion that the "gifting" of the government ( federal , state and local ) is primarily that sort of thing is at best naive and at worst evil intended.
And to drive my point home,i 'll use an interesting story appeared a few months ago in the new York Times ( around dec 2012 ) with the title:
"As companies seek tax deals, governments pay high price"
And this - first of all nothing new about it, i'll tell you in a minute what's in the article but i want you to understand this is something that has been going on for DECADES - one of these stories is focused particular on the state of Michigan and to be more exact, it's relation with the General Motors Company ( GMC ).
Over the years, GMC has done - what MANY corporations did and in fact STILL DO, but i use GMC because you can check the evidence.
Here's the way it works and this sounds like a SCAM to you, then you understan😛

"Hello! ( on the phone ) I am the manager of GMC in the town of Ypsilanti Michigan ( an actual case by the way ), i am calling you mr mayor to tell - terrible news - but we're thinking of closing down the factory here and moving someplace else..because... ( at which point the mayor has stopped listening ).
Why? Because the mayor is facing the end of his career as a politician.
Well it's America and as a people we have been TRAINED that whenever a company leaves the people blame the mayor - who had ZILCH to do with the decision!
But that's how our mind works.
So the mayor knows, the purpose of the phone call is not to let him know they are leaving but to give him enough time to come up with a solution to CONVINCE the company to stay. And how can he do that?
A tax break. Or maybe a new road to the factory.
Or cheaper utilities. Or maybe a program to allow the inmates at the local jail to work for free at the GMC plant. Or some subsidies or maybe some "eco-study" that show the green sludge they pour into your drinking water is good for you children and doesn't grow them a 3rd eye.
ANYTHING that can be done WILL be done. The mayor will even go to the governor and ask for money if needed.

IS IT A SCAM?
There's no way to know. The only way to know would be by looking at the GMC records - which they are not legally bound to show anyone, and they will DEFINITELY not show to you who they are trying to rip off.
You wanna call the bluff?
"Fine" says GMC."We'll leave, and as we leave we will have a press conference where we will say:
- We called the mayor, we told him all about it, we tried to negociate...he wouldn't listen to us"

Well his political career was in the toilet then now it would be flushing, he can't do it ! So he comes up with the money.
THE CATCH: the money used for these GIFTS is money that cannot be used by the city for schools, road or anything else for that matter.
And by the way, this is not hidden, it's done in plain sight: it's called "urban renewal" OR "redevelopment" or whatever, the words are easy to find we get a lot of graduates with useless degrees that fit this kind of job description of finding complicated words to describe a simple SCAM.
In this sense the government is handing out ....what is that word... GIFTS to the corporations !
Mr Romney missed that one.

Moving on,
for many MANY companies the government is a crucial buyer. Some of you may recall we get periodical scandals in the press of toilet seats sold for 400$ a piece for the Pentagon, or maybe plastic pen ) the ones you can pick up freely at your local bank ) being retailed at 18$ a piece for government uses and so on.
So in that sense many companies get wonderful...GIFTS in the nature of these contracts. The notion they only go to poor people, or old people or sick or..that's part of the ideological propaganda of mr Romney and his party.

Next:
Under the healthcare bill that was fought over last year and that the supreme court declared to be constitutional there is a provision for medic-aid.
For those who don't know medic-aid is the govt. program to provide medical insurance for people who can't AFFORD it. Not to be confused with medicare.
this one is for those too poor to afford.
So this bill supposedly wants to raise the elegibillity - ergo to get medicaid you used to need to earn the poverty line or lower ( which if you know is VERY LOW in this country ).
So the new bill says in order to qualify you can now have as high as 1,35 times the normal poverty level. So it helps the poor.
in order to make this work the government states in this bill, that every state that agrees to sign this up ( in the US the state can agree or not - in this case - if MILLIONS of poor people DIE or not ) for the first 3 years - if you agree - "the federal govt pays 100% of costs ( no costs to the states at all ) and after the 3rd year the federal govt picks-up 90% of the cost, and the states 10%, indefinitely!

16 states so far have declared, they're not gonna do it. And when asked "why?" they sai😛
"we have to be FISCALLY PRUDENT". So 10% more AFTER 3 years is "not prudent".

This even MORE interesting if you know how the law works. The law allows them to participate for 3 years FREE of any cost and then bail out after the 3rd year!
So what is all this about then?
This is - as i said in my previous article - the signs that a part of our society who is beginning to see the country divided as US or THEM.
And THEM are not worth even taking care of, their health or education because they are sloppy, lazy, and are just leeching off the government.
We can see this in Europe too - much more serious -in SPAIN, where a conservative government voted for deep austerity ( that thing we call "fiscal responsability" here but it's the same thing ) that will ...basically KILL millions of poor people.
And you had this grotesque spectacle on european TV where the right-wing of that country stood up and APPLAUDED this meassure and they were quoted saying that this was the right thing to do for getting rid of the "lazy incompetent moochers off the govt's back".
These are what is left of Franco's FASCISTS. ( they're all of them old or middle age men with very conservative ideas about the world ).

Let's talk now a bit about democracy. "Democracy", we americans love this word, its meaning to us, it's symbolism.
it is a shocking fact however that we like our democracy only in half of our lifetime, the half we are not at work. The half part of our life we spend our work we give up our democratic beliefs and we follow..."orders".
Capitalism has always been at odds - throughout history - with democracy and this may shock again some of you but i will explain why:

As capitalism polarizes wealth and inequality becomes larger and the gap between rich and poor grows, a fear also grows in the rich minority.
The fear that the poor masses may use the POLITICAL system to undo their loss in the ECONOMIC system.
"We can't beat them in the economic system, they've got us....ah haha! but we got the majority of VOTES, so we'll slap them silly with so many taxes that we will UNDO the inequality"
This is the great fear that corporations and the rich have - they know.
A crisis means large masses of people SUFFER.
And as they suffer they are going to get ANGRY.
And as they get angry they are going to look for someone to blame. One choice is to blame the system, who doesn't seem to be working for them, and the rich who seem to do really well - but at the expense of everyone else.
And the other choice - the one being pushed by republicans and other right-wing groups ( which i will explain in a later article are FUNDED by corporations to divert attention from the real issue ) is to say:
"no..the system is fine...the problems is..IMMIGRANTS...or maybe..those BLACK PEOPLE...or BANKSTERS..or JEWS ( this one seems to be growing in popularity more and more and we would be very blind to not remember that this kind of thinking took us to a dark place in 1936 )."
So the surge in racism, xenophobia, homophobia and hatred in general is not without cause, it is actually created deliberately to confuse and divide a population that does not understand - and since most americans don't understand economics this is easy to do - that the problem is the SYSTEM who rewards people for such behavior.

Ok i'll end now but i wanna leave you with one thing.
A man known as ADAM SMITH is hailed - and not him but rather what he said - as a great intellectual.
The phrase he said was something along the lines of "If everyone pursued their own self-interest in life with disregard of the interest of others then we would all benefit from it"
I want you to think very well about that phrase and how "intelligent" does it sound to you and how reasonable.

In the next article i'll talk a little about the "great" Iron lady ( which passes away recently ) and a bit about the "online courses" madness that has popped up everywhere and what does it mean for us.