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Making Ourselves Sick with Their Worry? Not Anymore
For some time now, my disabled and retired machinist husband has watched with amusement when stock markets crash and rebound and broad financial indicators stutter and stammer. He has lived a lifetime of economic stress and difficulty and never once has he seen his personal wealth or lack thereof be of any great concern for those who trade and win and lose large sums of money in our world. I have often pushed him to worry with me and others about the details of our crisis de jour. He remains unmoved – though moderately amused and entertained at times. I fret.
I cannot repeat here verbatim what my husband says about many of the wealthy who want my fretting to be transformed into my panic. Suffice to say, he is watching for more signs of their suffering and the demise of their hedonistic ways of strip-mining this nation. He thinks that until 123 or more of them are dying every day simply because they lack the money or other financial backing to save themselves they won’t really appreciate what he and millions of others have endured – just as 123 working class and poor Americans die every day without access to healthcare that might have saved them if only they had the money or if we had a progressively financed single-standard of care for all.
Is this vengeance on his part? I would say it’s wanting a bit of justice; he would say he doesn’t care what you call it.
So when his call came to me this morning checking to see if any of the people I know were upset and expressing their upset about the stock market’s latest bumps, I wasn’t surprised. He doesn’t isolate his disdain for those who are actually living and working on Wall Street. He casts a wide net and throws it over all those who profit off the pain of others and then expect those they have harmed to fight to be harmed even more.
At times in our lives, I have been frustrated and even angry about my husband’s stoic position. Didn’t he get it, I wondered, that if the market tanks and people lose great portions of their wealth that we’ll all suffer? He gets that. He thinks he’s suffering now, his community and his family have suffered even when the wealthy and powerful get everything they desire and more. I get angry and think he’s being foolish and that more pain will not mean anyone cares more later on or changes policy. He says he gets that too.
But he just wants those who have done so much damage to so many people for so long to pay for what they have done. He will not be moved.
He watched this video silently and said it was pretty powerful. That was high praise from my husband.
Seems the nurses will not be moved either:
Spread the word and share the video. We have to stand together against those who would do us more harm. Because the one thing my husband has taught me in his stubborn defiance of those who abuse the working class is that it takes courage and a willingness to stand alone – and the knowledge that you probably will stand alone at first as you defy the powers that be. That courage and willingness to stand alone can be as contagious as fear often is – so stand up. You are not alone – the nurses on Main Street have your back.
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21 Comments so far
Show AllYou said, "willingness to stand alone can be as contagious as fear often is."
I couldn't agree more!
(Your letter is better than the video, by the way.)
Thank you Donna
"This video contains content from SME, who has blocked it in your country on copyright grounds." Does anyone have an alternate source?
When President Reagan fired the Air Traffic Controlers, I saw these assualts on workers begining.Our Education system has encouraged to except this, and refused to educate us about an Alternative.We must Take back what Fathers Generation faught so hard for at the end of the First Great Depression. No matter how hopeless it seems Vote for the person who is most likely to listen to you.
The stock market is crashing? Good! Let's shrink the size of Wall Street until we can drown it in the bathtub.
To me it said loads on 9/11 when a 747 didn't blow into the trading floor on Wall St. There definatly at least two teirs the have it alls and the have less's
As george Carlin used to remind us all those homeless are there to scare us into getting up and going to those JOBS! >^^<
Good video. Still like James McMurtry's though..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTW0y6kazWM
"Didn’t he get it, I wondered, that if the market tanks and people lose great portions of their wealth that we’ll all suffer?"
No, I don't get that statement. If the stock market crashes tomorrow, and the Dow drops below 6,000, what is it to me and tens of millions of other Americans? It matters precisely none. Less than none. I have no $ invested in the stock market. I could give a flying fart if it falls.
Oh! you say, but then the corporations with their stock values so low will stop hiring! Wrong. They aren't hiring now. Or the hiring they do is in China and Singapore or Mexico, where they can pay $5.00/day. They certainly aren't hiring in Amereicha. Oh! you say, but then all those corporations whose stock plumetted will go out of business! That will mean lost jobs! Wrong again. A company's stock dropping in value does not mean bankruptcy, if they have sufficient cash reserves to continue operations. Amereichan corporations are sitting on an unprecedented $10 trillion in cash reserves - the most in history. They aren't spending it at all - which is the problem. Not on creating jobs, not on anything. If their stock tanks, they will do just fine. And the ones who don't? Well I have 4 words for you: Too Big To Fail (tm). The U.S. Plutocracy won't let that happen, because their sole purpose is to protect the Corporations. Not you and me. If you haven't seen the proof of that over the last 10 years, you haven't been paying attention.
Oh! you say, But remember the Great Depression! When the market crashed, the whole country became poor and unemployed! That was 70 years ago, back when corporations made everything right here in the U.S., with U.S. workers, and they had nowhere near the obscene trillions in cash reserves they do today. The company's fortunes were tied to their workers'. When the company's stock tanked, so did the worker's livelihoods. Today, there is no connection between the two. McDonalds will still be in business if the market crashes. Ditto Coke and Pepsi. Ditto Goldman Sachs. McDonalds will still pay shitty wages, and Goldman Sachs will still rape and plunder at will.
An ignorant statement in an otherwise good article. Educate yourself on the true economy, Mrs. Smith. You will discover it is completely disconnected from the shenanigans of Wall Street and the ups and downs of the stock market. Up or down - the 99% of us out here in the Real World are unaffected by it.
You don't need an insult when you disagree, saying "An ignorant statement in an otherwise good article". (Which is a love letter to her husband, by the way, in addition to a nice commentary.)
But what's worse, you missed the point, big time. Read it again... what she said, very clearly, is that her husband disagrees with the statement you disagree with! And she realizes he was right to disagree with her about it! Which means you criticized her for agreeing with you! :)
And those times when he disagrees... that’s just fine with her because:
1.) He loves her
2.) Sometimes it turns out he was right when they differed
3.) She’s learned from him the cosmic arithmetic will work itself out
So it's a nice article and a very sweet note to her husband!
(And hey Storm, I am harsh and misread em sometimes, too, so this isn't coming from on high.)
Stating that one particular statement in her good article - I was, after all, focusing on that one statement - shows her ignorance of the economy is not an insult. I am quite ignorant on a lot of subjects, and that is not an insult, it is just a fact. "Ignorance' is not a bad word. You must take the context it is used in.
Yes, I get the thrust of the article. I was focusing on that one particular statement of hers, regarding the stock market and her fear of it tanking. If I came across as "harsh" I certainly didn't mean to. I thought I made it clear I thought it was a good piece.
Reagan started the destruction of our Republic with the firing of the ATC and Bush finished it with his criminal invasion of Iraq. Now the corporate jackels are just picking our bones. There is no going back. We must suffer through this corporate Junta and the following Aristocracy and Fascist Police State. Perhaps our great great grandchildren might again taste democracy in this once proud land. Or not.
donna, don't know if you''ll make it into these threds today, but your hubby rocks. He's absolutely right: doesn't matter how the rich do--there's no longer any connection between the market's fortunes and ours, other than that we'll pay for propping up the value if it ever tanks (like we're about to do again as this is yet another "test" to see if the Fed is still feeding the pigs at the trough).
Exactly right.
I do read the comments -- good and not so good. I suspect that my hubby expresses what huge numbers of people are thinking who don't get the chance to speak, blog or otherwise be heard. So every now and then, I share his perspective. As for the Fed, forgive me if I sometimes think (OK, I know) they all have rather close dealings with one another. Today the Fed will do the bidding of those at the top.
the market seems to think so: it's spiking back up in anticipation of the meeting.
good to see you. i've just finished a three year long battle myself with the healthcare madness of the US, so I can totally identify with your work. keep it up!
My local (corporate) hospital with inept and overworked employees was just taken over by a larger corporation. New way to enhance profits: ER triage. Nobody goes to the ER unless they are at death's door - and that has to be proven by lab results before your case is even presented to an actual MD. The new parameters are extremely stringent - unless you're bleeding out from a head-on car crash at 80 mph, don't even think about getting any 'care' - from anyone. Should you die because you couldn't get admitted to the ER, then they have those lab results to 'prove' you really weren't that bad off when you were brought in, so they aren't liable. You can't sue a giant corporation anyway.
So look for this new paradigm to be coming to YOUR neighborhood soon. After all, insurance companies (and corporate non-healthcare) have a high priority - higher profits at ANY cost - don't forget, your untimely (and needless) suffering and death will not only save corporations money - it will help raise the GDP !
Aren't you lucky we're not like all those 'socialist' countries with actual healthcare, instead of corporate-care? After all, who doesn't prefer a profit-driven insurance low-life gate-keeper managing their access to medical treatment over some 'gubmint' program - Americans prefer death before freedom, democracy, dignity, human rights, or any other of those 'socialist' ideas. And just look at how well it worked for Nazi Germany !
Don't look for it to get better with obamacare, I have been a cronic pain sufferer for almost 20yrs, When I had a bad flare I'd goto the ER they have all my records in the computer and all was well, Untill this year when I had a real bad flare in Feb and was handed a piece of paper, stating clearly that pain patients will no longer be treated in the ER, The next day I checked around with the other Sacramento area ER's and found it wa a conspiracy that no ER will treat walking pain patients!
What to do! What to Do???! Do I buy a bomb-vest from my local gun group and blow myself up somewhere Visable in protest?? or maybe set myself on fire like they do in India?? When I hit 11 on the flare meter either would be acceptable! >^^<
I do want to see DOW 1000 first >^^<
Thankz I forget to but (rant) at the bottom my bad >^^<
OK, I'll admit, economics isn't necessarily my strong suit. But what about the nurses with your union, Donna? Don't a lot of them have pension benefits? Don't most pension funds invest in the stock market? What about the widows who take the few thousand dollars from their husband's life insurance and invest it in the stock market in hopes of having enough money to supplement their Social Security checks so they can pay for their rheumatoid arthritis medication which costs thousands of dollars per year. And Demonstorm, what about all us evil middle class folks who have money in the stock market but when our retirement money disappears, we stop eating in restaurants? And then servers and dishwashers get their hours cut back or lose their jobs -- along with the manicurists and the taxi drivers and the hair stylists and all those other workers who were employed providing those decadent services that we can manage to do without. What about the kids depending on scholarships provided by colleges who have money invested in the stock market? When those endowments plunge, kids lose scholarship money. Fifty-four percent of Americans have stocks and thirty-one percent have pensions, many of which are funded by trusts that invest in the stock market. So to say you don't give a flying fart if the stock market fails is about as enlightened as the rich folks who don't give a flying fart about Medicaid because they don't benefit from it.
I share the rage toward the a**holes at the top who have profited by manipulating the economy in a way that crashed it, who sent our good manufacturing sector jobs overseas, who don't pay their share of taxes while low income folks suffer for lack of social services. I want to see people rise up and march in the streets or at least get out and vote in their own self interest. But I don't understand those who revel in the losses for the people at the top more than regretting the significant negative impact of a market crash for many middle class and lower income workers.