How much fucking money do they need?

[caffeine]

I read an article today about OMFG overpriced shit. I will link in the article when I find it again. Found it, it is an AP article, which means you can find it on about 1.5 million news sites.

The $600 handbag (purse to those of us non-elites), is now bourgeois[sic].
To really keep up you need a $5000 handbag (yes mle292, American dollars). Holy shit. The article then goes on to mention that while the average American's salary increased 4.6%, the rich (defined as those with annual salaries > $350k) went up in the double-digits. One article quoted an average 5.6 million, up 900k from the previous year. My calculator tells me that means that means 4.7M last year to 5.6M this year, 19% increase. I don't think that is enough, just look at what they need to spend: "Montblanc recently sold a $700,000-plus pen at its New York store. The pen, adorned with rubies, sapphires and diamonds, took 15 months to handcraft. Louis Vuitton this spring presold its limited number of $40,000-plus handbags made up of a patchwork of samples. Coach has introduced a collection of $10,000 crocodile handbags." If they could just squeeze the rest of us a little more, they might be able to get a couple of those Louis Vuitton's just in case someone shows up a party with the same one. That must be why the Republicans keep voting for tax breaks for the rich, their mistresseswives keep asking for new fucking handbags. Purses worth more than my car? Pens worth more than my house? What. The. Fuck?!

People in this country go hungry, have no place to live, have no medical coverage. AIDS and Cancer still have no cure (well, there is a preventative measure for HPV, but the fundies do not want girls to have that since it will encourage sex). Education is in ruins, since those same fucking fundies do not want real science taught, they would rather have "Magic Man done it" and Abstinence-only education. Fundies tried to ban Fahrenheit 451 (yes, it was in the South, why do you ask?). Amazingly, the fundies are sometimes dirt poor and give their money to the churches, or they are middle-class and give their money to the church, or they are obnoxiously wealthy and give a small token to the church. It is just that the middle-class and dirt poor fundies are so wrapped up in their boy W because he says he has faith, they do not realize they are being ass-raped by his policies. There is a somewhat famous quote about how politicians use religion for their benefit, but I cannot seem to find it now... I have read very many good quotes about it, but I cannot find the one I wanted. Therefore, here is my piss-poor paraphrase: Politicians use religion as a tool to control the people. Oh, and rich people, do you remember what your friend Jesus (the one in your Bible, not your gardener) said about wealth? Give it away... Camels, eye of the needle, etc., etc. Hey, it is not my fucking book, you read it again.

To wrap up this annoying long post, if you find that you are even thinking about purchasing a handbag that costs $10,000-$40,000 or more, you have too much fucking money. Capitalism doesn't really work, because not enough are willing to pay higher prices for the environment, for the unemployed, for the medical care of others. Other systems also do not work, because corruption is rampant. Why is corruption rampant? Because we are stupid fucking monkeys who would prefer to kill one another than to help each-other. Religion and money are just two more ways to justify your hatred of every different than you. Remember kids, down the street, not across the road. Spend. Consume. Breed. Sleep.

Comments

It's early in the morning and I'm not drunk

[mle292.livejournal.com]

You're still stating that capitalism is a form of government.

NO. Go back and read it again.

Here's the first sentence of what you're replying to:

It is an economic system that eventually supercedes any social structure or government policies that exists underneath it.

To restate - Capitalism is an economic system that will destroy, damage, fold, spindle or mutilate any form of representational government.

**************************

It just happens that our politicians are beholden to money at this point in time.

This statement is ignorant of history. The first decade of the twenty-first century is not anomalous.

You're smart enough to know that without attribution quotes are unsubstantiated.

You've got google at your disposal, and it's in a work of public domain - look it up.

Then read something else about the time period in which it was written, then read the rest of the book, then come back to this discussion.

I DON'T like to debate politics on LJ. Don't like it a lot. Typically, I end up having pedantic debates in which I am condescended to and I am put in the position of explaining the most BASIC economic theories.

In my first reply, I did oversimplify. My deepest and most humble apologies. I made a conversational short cut because I was thinking more about a discussion with vanaabegra than I was thinking about a discussion with the whole world.

I'm done here. I don't normally discuss political theory unless I'm sure you're at least partly up to speed on some theory and background, and unless you buy me lots of beer.