The great experiment in exploding inequality, in which the bottom 80 percent – the producers – make nothing from the increase in productivity, which is engrossed by the top 20 percent of the managers and administrators, is going bumpety bump. Oh yeah, the people at the top not only depend on the people at the bottom working harder, but also on selling them shit! Who woulda thought?

no this is exactly it. Jasper’s got it. The sequence goes roughly like this:

1) neoliberal reform, evisceration of the last remants of the welfare state, but all came with a promise that despite the fact that sure, wages might fall a bit, productivity increases and financialization of everything would result in a HUGE net benefit for EVERYONE. Al Gore with his charts on Larry King etc etc. So, ahem, maybe it will be walmart for you, but you’ll see, in the end, you’re gonna have a plasma tv and a bigger house than you grew up in. Rising tide that lifts ALL boats, kay?

2) OK, fine then. My wages are stagnant, but because these loans are all over the place, and house prices keep rising, and it’s important to buy and get up on the property ladder, I’ll extend myself a bit and get a house. You have to extend yourself to get a house, given the prices, and, yeah, it’s nice to have a fucking house. Isn’t that written into the constitution or something? Aren’t we an “ownership society” now? And even though I own, well, some stuff now, I work longer hours, health costs have gone through the roof, and life feels tighter and tighter everyday.

3) The other shoe drops. Oh sorry, dearies, you shoulda read the fine print. What’s that about the boats? No, no, no… Times is very tough now. Look at that Black Swan over there! (It’d be impossible to write a more dishonest, and dishonestly timely, book than that one). Holy shit! But you work at Wal-Mart now, what did you expect? A house? On wal-mart wages? What were you thinking? Of course the rates go up – how would you expect us to get our stuff back otherwise? Look what you’ve done with the freedom we’ve given you! Look at the mess you’ve made of your life!

The past ten years were one long advertisement for neo-liberal reform, life without strings, federal reserve rate cuts and the like. It was like the grace period when you start with a credit card. Zero percent interest for the first 12 months! The taps were turned on in the bathtub, but now the plugs been pulled. It was inevitable – and whether “they” knew it would end exactly like this or not – it is damn clear that “they” would never, ever err on the wrong side of things, the “mistakes” that are made only ever nudge in one direction. They are very good at making their mistakes.

You know, I didn’t think the NYT could get any worse, but the last 6 months has really lead me to be a bit more careful in my estimation of how far off that bottom news reporting is racing toward really is. . . That was only one of several articles recently that made me want to punch the LCD display.

Fucking Americans, indeed. It’s our national pastime, when we aren’t fucking people in other countries, of course.

-J