Apart from the first part of the title, and perhaps other snippets in this post, I'm not saying anything in this post that has not been said aforetime. Although I haven't seen anyone else besides my good self draw attention to this little tidbit: In 1980, not only was there far less of a gap in wages and salaries in private industry but even less of a gap in healthcare and educational pay grades.
In the last forty years, we seemed to think we could improve both healthcare and education by opening them to the profit motive. What we have really done is almost completely gutted and ruined both! In both areas of endeavor, the profit motive should be at most secondary as long as we want to attract those most suited to them. And we've continued to 'parrot' that truth as an excuse not to pay either secondary medical personnel (I'm not sure about doctors) or classroom teachers nearly enough! The stories of teachers buying supplies for their students out of their own pockets are no less than legion and are one factor making us the shame of the civilized world, to which we now only partially belong! It's past time to put a swift and ruthless end to the profit motive, aside from reasonable salaries for all, in both fields and to also thus end the especially pernicious private-prison business!!
We are now at the point where rich con men who sell nothing, nothing, NOTHING of real value may be more admired by a too-large portion of our population than such self-sacrificing teachers and millionaire medical celebrities whose real medical knowledge might be a bit on the sketchy side are more respected than the doctors, nurses and others who do the hard day-in day-out work in the clinics, hospitals and labs! This has something to do with why Democrats, liberals and progressives mostly lose even if the measures they back are favored by large majorities: we seek to develop and cultivate critical understanding while the GOP and further right only wants to brand efficiently!
Efficient branding is Twain's lie that can be halfway around the world before the truth of critical understanding can put on its boots!
And in either exalting the most lucrative and neglecting society's mostly unrespected but indispensable humble helpers, or acquiescing in that exaltation, do we have anyone to blame but ourselves? I for one say 'no'!
If we strive for economic and social justice by allowing and encouraging labor to organize, by starting to make real restitution for stolen land and coerced unpaid labor, if we start to really respect the 'helping professionals' among us by paying them adequately and establish a firm limit to how much wealth any individual, family or other small group can hold (enough to render it impossible for any oligarchy to rise again) and if we start to heavily invest in replacing, renewing and regenerating common resources, we may yet save ourselves. But we cannot save ourselves without doing these things! And we can only do these things working together and with our collective future (and the threat of no future looming over us) very much in mind!
If my words don't wake up at least a few people, I hope they at least hearten those already awake. And I've enlisted Shirley Bassey to help in this. If Trump is Auric Goldfinger (and I maintain he is) listen to this and think about who the Golden Girl Goldfinger kisses might be!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6D1nK7q2i8I
And if Shirley Bassey doesn't wake you up--go drink bleach!!!
Sunday, May 24, 2020
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