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All They Talk About Is Money
Oct 03, 2008
All you hear - constantly - non-stop - talk of money. Radio - news - commercials about money - about how to pay back money - how to get money - how we're losing money - how to avoid paying money - Money - then a commercial break to show a heart attack or bone loss or Alzheimer's - then back to decimal points, commas, dollar signs, zig-zag charts, digital numbers flashing, blondes and brunettes, coifed women analyzing, bald hyperactive men emoting, knowing what is happening and what we need to do now - what you need to do with your money - how all of this is affecting - YOU.
The apparatus that keeps the American public on a treadmill and an adrenaline drain is pretty and frantic. They are suited up and jacked up on number talk and heart stopping predictions. They watch in sweaty awe as cloudy castles built with fumes curling out of smooth hucksters begin to crumble. Hucksters that once were heroes in the eyes of the people now reporting on the whirlwind they have reaped.
Will someone tell us what money is - what it represents? Is it a byproduct of positive activity or a measure of desperate needs? The more you need it the more we'll charge. If we can't convince you you need it, we'll make sure conditions are such that you have to need it and you will pay what we have insisted it is worth to you and not what it is worth.
Is money a hologram or a piece of rock? Is it a consequence of agitation or fair assessment?
There is hostility in the marketplace - a disrespect and disdain for the people whose money the purveyors are after. Money as representation of a lifetime of labor and organization in a person's life is not respected. Like a vampire sucking the essence out of a body, sellers of debt absorb, disrespect, spit on and spit out the results of a person's life and labor.
Money ought to say this is what you've given us and the system at large. This is how you've made it all move forward and made it better. Talk about what people do and what labor and creativity provides. Talk about the actual raw material of human activity. Talk about great new ideas and inventions and new paradigms of human exchange. Talk about muscular, vital humanity.
Money is now a vapor and the more it is talked about the more gaseous and evasive it becomes.
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, The U.S. is on a fast track to authoritarianism like nothing I've ever seen. Meanwhile, corporate news outlets are utterly capitulating to Trump, twisting their coverage to avoid drawing his ire while lining up to stuff cash in his pockets. That's why I believe that Common Dreams is doing the best and most consequential reporting that we've ever done. Our small but mighty team is a progressive reporting powerhouse, covering the news every day that the corporate media never will. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. And to ignite change for the common good. Now here's the key piece that I want all our readers to understand: None of this would be possible without your financial support. That's not just some fundraising cliche. It's the absolute and literal truth. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. Will you donate now to help power the nonprofit, independent reporting of Common Dreams? Thank you for being a vital member of our community. Together, we can keep independent journalism alive when it’s needed most. - Craig Brown, Co-founder |
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Bill C. Davis
Bill C. Davis was a playwright, writer, actor, and political activist. He has been a contributor to Common Dreams since 2001. Bill died on February 26, 2021, at age 69, after a battle with COVID-19. Bill's Broadway debut -- "Mass Appeal," earned two Tony nominations and became a staple of community theater. Bill wrote the screenplay for the 1984 film adaptation of "Mass Appeal," starring Jack Lemmon and Zeljko Ivanek.
All you hear - constantly - non-stop - talk of money. Radio - news - commercials about money - about how to pay back money - how to get money - how we're losing money - how to avoid paying money - Money - then a commercial break to show a heart attack or bone loss or Alzheimer's - then back to decimal points, commas, dollar signs, zig-zag charts, digital numbers flashing, blondes and brunettes, coifed women analyzing, bald hyperactive men emoting, knowing what is happening and what we need to do now - what you need to do with your money - how all of this is affecting - YOU.
The apparatus that keeps the American public on a treadmill and an adrenaline drain is pretty and frantic. They are suited up and jacked up on number talk and heart stopping predictions. They watch in sweaty awe as cloudy castles built with fumes curling out of smooth hucksters begin to crumble. Hucksters that once were heroes in the eyes of the people now reporting on the whirlwind they have reaped.
Will someone tell us what money is - what it represents? Is it a byproduct of positive activity or a measure of desperate needs? The more you need it the more we'll charge. If we can't convince you you need it, we'll make sure conditions are such that you have to need it and you will pay what we have insisted it is worth to you and not what it is worth.
Is money a hologram or a piece of rock? Is it a consequence of agitation or fair assessment?
There is hostility in the marketplace - a disrespect and disdain for the people whose money the purveyors are after. Money as representation of a lifetime of labor and organization in a person's life is not respected. Like a vampire sucking the essence out of a body, sellers of debt absorb, disrespect, spit on and spit out the results of a person's life and labor.
Money ought to say this is what you've given us and the system at large. This is how you've made it all move forward and made it better. Talk about what people do and what labor and creativity provides. Talk about the actual raw material of human activity. Talk about great new ideas and inventions and new paradigms of human exchange. Talk about muscular, vital humanity.
Money is now a vapor and the more it is talked about the more gaseous and evasive it becomes.
Bill C. Davis
Bill C. Davis was a playwright, writer, actor, and political activist. He has been a contributor to Common Dreams since 2001. Bill died on February 26, 2021, at age 69, after a battle with COVID-19. Bill's Broadway debut -- "Mass Appeal," earned two Tony nominations and became a staple of community theater. Bill wrote the screenplay for the 1984 film adaptation of "Mass Appeal," starring Jack Lemmon and Zeljko Ivanek.
All you hear - constantly - non-stop - talk of money. Radio - news - commercials about money - about how to pay back money - how to get money - how we're losing money - how to avoid paying money - Money - then a commercial break to show a heart attack or bone loss or Alzheimer's - then back to decimal points, commas, dollar signs, zig-zag charts, digital numbers flashing, blondes and brunettes, coifed women analyzing, bald hyperactive men emoting, knowing what is happening and what we need to do now - what you need to do with your money - how all of this is affecting - YOU.
The apparatus that keeps the American public on a treadmill and an adrenaline drain is pretty and frantic. They are suited up and jacked up on number talk and heart stopping predictions. They watch in sweaty awe as cloudy castles built with fumes curling out of smooth hucksters begin to crumble. Hucksters that once were heroes in the eyes of the people now reporting on the whirlwind they have reaped.
Will someone tell us what money is - what it represents? Is it a byproduct of positive activity or a measure of desperate needs? The more you need it the more we'll charge. If we can't convince you you need it, we'll make sure conditions are such that you have to need it and you will pay what we have insisted it is worth to you and not what it is worth.
Is money a hologram or a piece of rock? Is it a consequence of agitation or fair assessment?
There is hostility in the marketplace - a disrespect and disdain for the people whose money the purveyors are after. Money as representation of a lifetime of labor and organization in a person's life is not respected. Like a vampire sucking the essence out of a body, sellers of debt absorb, disrespect, spit on and spit out the results of a person's life and labor.
Money ought to say this is what you've given us and the system at large. This is how you've made it all move forward and made it better. Talk about what people do and what labor and creativity provides. Talk about the actual raw material of human activity. Talk about great new ideas and inventions and new paradigms of human exchange. Talk about muscular, vital humanity.
Money is now a vapor and the more it is talked about the more gaseous and evasive it becomes.
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