Home
Refresh   Tag(s): ; ; ; ;
Add to My Group
June 28, 2006 at 08:20:33

View Ratings | Rate It

The Bourgeois Congress and Economic Violence

submit to twitter
submit to reddit
submit to digg
Tell A Friend

By Charles Sullivan (about the author)     Page 2 of 2 page(s)

opednews.com     Permalink

As the working poor sink deeper into the oblivion of the swirling vortex of social and economic despair, ever more wealth is concentrated among society's upper crust. What is Congress doing about it? They have wasted weeks discussing how to abolish the estate tax, a levy that benefits less than 0.3 percent of the population-the very wealthiest Americans.

It should be clear by now that the working people have no protection from Congress and the corporate Plutocracy. During the Clinton presidency, Bill Clinton and the Congress dismantled the welfare system while giving obscene subsidies to corporations such as Microsoft, Wal-Mart, General Motors and Daimler-Chrysler. The Republican record is even worse. Can there be any doubt about whose interest Congress serves?

The outlook is likely to worsen for American workers as the economic disparity gap widens. The minimum wage law is a cruel hoax against the working poor. The champions of capital, as evidenced in the statistics cited above, do not care about the poor. America's vast economic divide is the deliberate result of policies enacted by both Republicans and Democrats. That is why political reform is a pipe dream. The workers have no one representing them in government.

The minimum wage must be abolished and replaced by a living wage. In the wealthiest nation on earth there is no excuse why every worker should not earn a decent living by working forty hours or less per week with full benefits and guaranteed pensions upon retirement. Ultimately, the wage system must be abolished and the ownership of production given to the workers-those who produce all of the wealth.


The appalling social cost of the minimum wage may be the underlying cause for the demise of the American family. When parents are forced to work for slave wages at multiple jobs the family suffers. The basic inequity of our culture of greed sets in motion waves of criminal activity, as desperate people seek any means of providing for their families. Desperate people do desperate things. It also gives rise to a culture of violence, drugs and widespread alcoholism that characterize America.

The per capita rate of incarceration in the U.S. exceeds that of any industrialized nation, with the poor and people of color disproportionately affected. Disparity doesn't just happen. It is the result of social and economic policy deliberately enacted against the poor. The evidence speaks for itself in the voting records of Congress. It is there for all to see.


Sources:

Ambrose I. Lane, Sr., XM-Satellite radio channel 169, The Power, 6/23/2006

The Congressional Millionaires Club, Charles Sullivan, ICH 11/21/05

How the System Works (or doesn't), http://www.corporations.org/system/

Ralph Nader, Cutting Corporate Welfare, Seven Stories Press, 2000

American Friends Service Committee, http://www.afsc.org

Lionheart, www.lionheart.org

Next Page  1  |  2

 

Charles Sullivan is a photographer, social activist and free lance writer residing in the hinterland of West Virgina.

The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author
and do not necessarily reflect those of this website or its editors.

Contact Author Contact Editor View Authors' Articles

 

Book Recommendations for "Class War Congress"
Not by a class war: A study of Congress policy on land reforms during the last 100 years


Number of pages: 176
Publisher: Publication Dept., Indian Institute of Applied Political Research

Permitting Bataan Death March Prisoners to Sue in U.S. Court of Claims
by US Congress. House. Comm on the Judiciary

$12.95

Number of pages: 43
Publisher:

International labor, diplomacy, and peace, 1914-1919,
by Austin Van der Slice


Number of pages: 408
Publisher: H. Milford, Oxford University Press

View All Book Recommendations

Share this page: (what's this?)                   Tell a Friend: Tell A Friend

FACEBOOK      DIGG THIS      Add This Page to Mr Wong!           NEWSVINE      DEl.ICIO.US      Looksmart Furl      NETSCAPE      My Web      Tag!RawSugar      Blink List     (More...)

Comments: Expand   Shrink   Hide  
No comments

 
Want to post your own comment on this Article? Post Comment


 

 

 

Tell a Friend: Tell A Friend

Copyright © 2002-2009, OpEdNews

Powered by Populum