— Gerry Spense

Something is obviously very wrong with our society. Not only is there an enormous disparity between the living conditions of the "moderately affluent" and the "working poor," but it has been made clearly evident that many people in this country have accumulated great wealth through the systematic theft of money from those who are less fortunate than themselves. This is common knowledge to the Power Elites, who, instead of taking steps to rectify the situation, have instead endeavored to profit from it.

A great number of officially sponsored scams are working, as we speak, to separate the poor from their meager funds — and, at the same time, funding for social programs is being drastically cut (while former welfare recipients are being held accountable for "overgrants paid to utilities" and are actually being sued in small claims court to collect!). This is really fucked up.

But why would the poor be targeted? After all, they’re poor! They don’t have very much money to steal, so why bother? Why? Because they’re easy marks. First of all, the poor generally aren’t very bright, and those who do have a brain are usually so exhausted after putting in their 50 and 60 hour workweeks that they just haven’t got the energy to think about such matters. Secondly, the poor generally have an innate respect for (if not awe of) authority, regardless of their petulant tantrums to the contrary. Plainly stated, if some suit-wearin’ bureaucrat hands them an official-looking piece of paper saying that they owe money, they generally won’t argue the point much — after all, they can’t afford a lawyer, nor can they afford to take time off from work for repeated court dates, and they probably haven’t even saved receipts which could’ve helped their case. And, finally, it is the word of a "respected financial institution" or "official government agency" against that of an inarticulate "piece of trash" in worn out shoes — whom do you think the judge would probably be inclined to favor? (especially if the representative in question was wearing the right ring and knew the proper subtle gestures)

It costs a great deal of money to live in this society of ours, and most of the "working poor" can’t seem to make ends meet, even if both members of a family are working overtime, or even taking on an additional part-time job. Where does the money go? Well, first of all there is rent (or home loan payments, or a mortgage), which is a major expense to be paid each and every month. Next comes the utility payments (electricity, gas, fuel oil, telephone, television, and possibly even water. If you are a responsible adult, you will want to obtain health insurance for your family (which can easily cost nearly a hundred dollars a week with a deductible, co-pay, and no dental coverage). If you own a car (if not two cars), there will be loan payments, mandatory liability insurance (collision will be mandatory as well if you’re still paying it off), repair bills, and petrol. If you have attended college (as, indeed, every high school student with a C+ average is strongly encouraged to do), you will probably be held liable for thousands of dollars worth of student loans (which will inevitably go into "default status" because the only jobs available to you pay minimum wage). If you have any sort of a credit rating left, you will have been offered numerous credit cards, which you’ve probably needed to use in order to pay the bills from time to time, so you’ll need to pay at least the mandatory minimum on those every month. And finally, after all the bills are paid, once a year you’ll be required to pay out a sum of money in the form of federal, state, and local taxes (in addition to various surcharges and sales taxes on your day-to-day transactions). To each of the aforementioned bills, you can occasionally add a variety of late fees and other financial penalties for the crime of being poor. If there is any money left over, maybe you’ll be able to buy some groceries (if not, you can always put it on one of your cards).

In most other civilized societies (Europe, Canada, The Netherlands, etc.) the bulk of these expenses are paid in full. Medical care, basic utilities, and higher education are paid for out of everyone’s taxes (which, admittedly, are significantly higher than our own, but think of the savings incurred from a virtual elimination of your monthly bills). You are generally not required to pay for automobile insurance, and people tend to have a far more realistic outlook towards things like higher education and credit cards (because they’re not being constantly bombarded with corporate propaganda encouraging them to get deeper and deeper into debt). As a general rule, you will not see homeless people lining up at soup kitchens or sleeping in alleyways, because that sort of abject poverty simply does not occur. Sure, there are still "lower," "middle," and "upper" classes, but you don’t see people working three jobs and still not being able to pay their bills. Indeed, not only are they generally paid better than the average American, but their workweeks tend to be shorter and there is significantly less pressure on them for "increased productivity." Workers are considered by their employers to be valuable assets, and thus are treated with due respect.

Oh, but isn’t Amerika the "Best Country in the World?" Gee, I must be some sort of nefarious commie scum! NO. I fucking hate Communists, and don’t you forget it! Socialism, however, to a very limited degree (health care and public utilities, specifically) seems like it could benefit our society immeasurably — but even bringing up the idea of providing a State-sponsored health care system is enough to provoke vicious slurs and personal attacks versus many progressive politicians. You see, the folks in power want us to be in a position of helplessness: poor, tired, sick, weak, and deathly afraid of losing our jobs. They do not want a nation of proud citizens, no, they’d much prefer a mass of subservient subjects, to do with as they please.

As it now stands, nearly all of your money is being spent on bills (loans, interest on loans, insurance, utilities, and taxes). Then, the people in charge seem to think that it’d be a real swell idea to artificially raise the prices on their goods and services, while simultaneously boosting inflation (thus de-valuing your currency) — but do we get a "cost of living" wage increase? Of course not! That would defeat the purpose. They want to make sure that we "know our place," and assure themselves that there’s nothing we can do about it. As some stand-up comedian once said, "if voting could change the system it’d be illegal."

How could our government change society for the better? First, the "minimum wage" ("if I could pay you less, I would — but it’s illegal") should be increased to the point where an adult working full-time hours could bring a family of three above the poverty line. Next, all reasonable and necessary health care should be provided free of charge (yes, I’m aware that this could drastically decrease "quality of service" in certain instances, but the wealthy are always free to pay a little extra to get treated by their personal physicians). Mandatory liability insurance should be eliminated for all adult motorists (under the age of 70) with clean driving records. Higher education should be made available free of charge to anyone who can pass certain standardized examinations specific to their chosen field of study (and after graduating with an acceptable GPA, various government jobs could be made available to them, in order to guarantee employment in their field of expertise). And, finally, all public utilities (electricity, gas, fuel oil, telephone, water, and possibly even basic cable television and basic internet access) should be provided free of charge (to a certain extent — excessive amounts or extra services would need to be paid for). Contrary to what the wealthy and powerful might have us believe through their fiery rhetoric, these are not "unreasonable demands," nor are they "impossible" to implement.

Instead, those shadowy cretins who’re running this country into the ground in order to benefit themselves (a few notorious examples of their more blatant misdeeds being the BCCI Savings & Loan scandal, numerous questionable "corporate bailouts," and the more recent Enron fiasco — all of which reaped huge profits for certain privileged individuals, while causing untold misery for the "peons"), not only want to "keep things as they are" — they actually want to make things worse. Expect to see the number of unemployed skyrocket as we plummet into the inevitable Depression which awaits us. The government’s solution? Cut food stamps and other social services funding, while spending billions to construct more prisons! Consider that the vast majority of incarcerated felons are from the lower classes (if not the impoverished "underclasses") and have been found guilty of victimless crimes. Those who have victimized others generally were found guilty of property-related crimes (burglary, larceny, fraud, bad checks, and other crimes of theft). Those who have committed actual crimes of violence are in the minority. Consider also that many "correctional facilities" (an increasing number of which have been "privatized" and are now being run for a profit) provide a cheap labor pool for a variety of industries (primarily assembly and data entry). As more and more Americans are being forced into poverty, and thus facing greater temptations to engage in crime (writing bad checks, stealing food, engaging in prostitution, finding employment in the black market, and "trespassing" in public parks and abandoned buildings), we can expect the prison populations to swell — resulting in even more prisons. Remember, many of the lower and underclasses, for a variety of reasons (age, medical, psychological, family obligations, or pre-existing legal disabilities) would be prohibited from enlisting in the military services as a solution to their dilemma. Perhaps simply ruining people’s credit histories will no longer prove sufficient, and, due to the Depression, our President might decide to declare all deadbeats "economic traitors" and bring back the old policy of throwing them in "debtor’s prison" until they could work off what they owe! Unthinkable? It happened in this country a century ago, and History does have a way of repeating itself. . .