I was talking with one co-worker who was telling me about why he supports the Republicans. He told me that he did not want to share his money with lazy people who do not want to work. He went on saying how there are ladies driving caddies and collecting food stamps (we all heard of the myth of the welfare queens, right?) He also told me that these guys who stand under viaducts panhandling motorists for change earn more money than I do. Now I will grand you, I am no Donald Trump. I do not have a six figure income or even half of six figures. But I find it hard to believe that being a professional begger can net you enough bread to pay your mortgage every month. In fact I would wager that those cats who stand with squeegies offering to wash your car or who claim to want just enough money to catch a bus home don'e even have a home to go to. My bud at work went on to say that if a person can get in a position where they are billionaires than he salutes them and thinks they are entitled to their wealth. This leaves a sour question in my mind though, just how does one turn over six or seven figures? The answer I hear is that they go to school and study. Well thats one check in my list. In fact I am educated up the wazoo. Now the next thing, you invest money and take risks. Well, what is an acceptable risk I ask. Homeless people take risks too. Do you think sleeping on the streets is not risky? How many people are found frozen to death every year? How many folks get shanked by other people for just the shoes on their feet. While some people who have money do it through hard work and all that BS, I think there are a lot of people who simply do not earn their wealth at all. I know quite a few people who got rich by conning and scamming people. Many of these are people in real estate or mortgage banking. I recently read an article about how some gang members are making a killing selling garbage loans to elderly people and how the banks forclose on the old folks and the scam artists collect the bread. So my point? It is not necessarily through hard work and honesty that people get rich. In fact I know many people who work 60 or more hours and don't have enough money to pay their mortgages. The banks get the bread and they pay and pay. You may have one or two or three jobs but you cannot win at this game. The banks charge what they want. You get in debt and pay more and more. The cost of living goes up and you stay where you are. It is reminessant of debt slavery really. In many impoverished nations peons are kept in a perpetual state of debt and are forced to work to pay these off. This is a common state of affairs in developing nations of Africa, the Middle East, Asia or Latin America. In many cases, sweatshop employees are forced to work, men women and children, in able to pay off family debts. They work for entire generatins. I read of one such family in India who were paid starvation wages and could not get out of their crippling debt. For the longest time I thought about why this is going on and nothing is being done about it. Then it occurred to me why. The right wing capitalists, the bankers, the mortgage and real estate hucksters, the legal profession, the courts and politicians all play for the same team. They try to sell us on this bogus dream that we too can be like the Donald. We can live this "American dream." They pit us against one another. They tell us that the homeless deserve nothing more than our contempt. We are told that welfare recipiants are like cocaroaches. Unions are scam artists. Why pay a union rep when you can have a direct relationship with your boss. Your supervisor is your friend. If you have an abusive bully for a boss (like myself) than its your fault. You need to work harder and maybe he or she might like you. My answer to my co worker is this, rather than spitting in the face of the poor, I would rather spit in the face of those with money. Can anyone tell me that my boss who comes in at 9 and splitts at 5 while I work 12 hour days is more entitled to money than myself? Do I really empathise with someone who has no respect for me or my dignity? But you see, this is what the right does. They tell us we have to be happy with our own private hells that we live with. The Rush Limbaughs and the Bill Cunninghams want us to believe that our enemy are "those liberals." They tell us that the real important issues are our right to "keep and bare arms," this supposed assult on our culture in the form of gay rights, this supposed explosion in crime, the prevelence of muslams, blacks, imigrants and other rift raft, the war in Iraq which is somehow supposed to make us safe at home. So who are the real enemies of the american people? They are the very people who are those who profit from conservative policies. To be more prescise here is my short list: Abusive bullying bosses, Fascist sadistic cops and prison guards, corrupt bureaucrats (building inspectors, etc.) Lying political leaders, hate mongers, who peddle hate and fear to further their own agandas people who exploit cheap labor and send it abroad, career prosecutors who look for bogus cases where they do not exist, warmongers, nosey intrusive busybodys who wants all americans to be exactly like them, hypocritical moralists Religo fascists (not to be confused with truely religious people who exercise their own beliefs in private and keep their noses out of other people's business) scam artists, country club elitists, military industrial complex death freaks, bill collectors and other parasites, Nazi repo men, company snitches and others who turn against their coworkers. Well there are others as well. Now my answer to anyone who works and cannot earn enough to make ends meet yet thinks that the Dubya's and the John McCains are really on your side is this. Do you really think that these people care about you? What have they really done to make things better for you? Did you profit from this war in Iraq? Every time you pay at the pump do you feel that love? When the bank forcloses on your home and all you life savings are eaten up, do you get a warm fuzzy feeling knowing that Dubya and his gang have beds to sleep in? Need I say more?