Those Damned Poor People

Recent articles and letters to the editor to my hometown newspaper has convinced me that Muslims and gays can move over - the new demon is here.  The poor.  The newspaper did an article on people who have been unemployed for a long time, most through no fault of their own.  Businesses either laid them off, or closed altogether, leaving them to depend on the rest of us to help them through this crisis.

But, according to the letters to the editor, these poor people were disgustingly addicted to cigarettes - I mean how dare they smoke when they are receiving welfare and unemployment?  They were also overweight - everyone knows the poor need to be gaunt, ashen from lack of nourishment and skeletal from deprivation.  There was one letter writer who could not believe that the poor people profiled in the article had clean and neat homes.  Surely, he opined, the newspaper reporter helped clean the place up to shine a better light on these slovenly poor.

But, the worst, was that these poor people had cell phones.  A blatant luxury.  Cell phones are only for the rich and well to do.  Even though the phones were provided by social services for cases of emergency, ability to respond to employment opportunities and the need to stay in contact with friends and family, the letter writers were convinced that such extravagances in this day and age are not to be abided.  It's not like even elementary school children have cell phones these days, the very idea that the poor think they have a right to communicate is abhorrent.

One fellow suggested that the poor fill the ranks of the juror pools, since allowing his employees time off to serve on juries put a crimp in his business.  And everyone knows that serving on a jury is a sign of moral weakness, depravity and general lack of the ability to buy an HDTV. So, why not let these moral degenerates who have the nerve to be poor serve as fodder for the criminal justice system.

One thing all of the letter writers had in common was their profession of being true conservatives.  True conservatives understand that Christ never meant what He said about serving the poor, the sick, the prisoners, and the downtrodden.  Rather, He meant that the lives of those less fortunate should be made miserable.  For until they are wretched beyond belief, how can any decent soul enjoy his well deserved good life.

Conservatives know that Christ was all about the comfort of those who are well off, not some community outreach to those who don't work as hard as the rich.  For the rich work 100 times the rest of us.  They toil 86 hours a day, 435 days a week, 7,215 weeks a year - except for the times when they are out golfing because that's where the deals are done.  I can't wait to meet my Maker and say that I joined the proud ranks of the Tea Partiers, the true conservatives, the righteously religious by scorning the poor, shunning those less fortunate and yielding all things to those who are rich.  After all that was what the Sermon on the Mount was all about.  To quote Mel Brooks, "It's good to be the king."

Those Rich Public Workers

In my town, we have a blatantly ultra-right weekly called the Rhino Times - they even admit their bias so they do have more integrity than Fox News. They annually publish the salaries of public officials, including school teachers, administrators, and government workers of all kinds.  Then they get callers who are recorded and published in succeeding issues who are outraged that someone like the person who runs the county government makes $170,000 a year.  Their outrage is focused on the fact that these people make their large salaries from taxpayers' dollars.  Usually the complaint is, "I work very hard and only make $30,000, so why are these people so highly paid."

All of this griping, typical of conservatives, takes its leave from reality and soars into the right wing dogmata-sphere where up is down and right is wrong.  Number one, the taxpayers control how much money public employees make.  They elect the people who set the salaries for the public employees.  The public employees don't set the salaries - the elected officials do.  So, their salaries are subject to the public's votes.

Number two, the reason these people make more money than the complaining taxpayer is that they have the education, experience and expertise that the ordinary citizen doesn't have.  A quality dry wall hanger is certainly worth respect, but not worth $200,000 to run a government that employs 2,000 people.  If he or she were qualified to manage such a large enterprise, then they wouldn't be hanging dry wall.

Number three, the salaries the public employees draw is small when compared to private workers who have similar education, experience and expertise.  CEOs of even small companies make well in excess of $200,000.  And guess who pays their salaries - well, it's not unicorns.  The average taxpayer is also paying for the goods and services that allow CEOs to take home millions.  Yet, the average taxpayer has no say whatsoever in the level of compensation these CEOs receive.  Company boards, often staffed by people handpicked by the CEOs, set the levels of their compensation.  The average Joe doesn't get to vote on that.

So, who is ripping off the general public?  Is it the Superintendent of Schools who makes $184,000 - who can be fired by the duly elected city or county commission which is staffed by people directly elected by we the people? Or is it the head of GE, whose friends make up his board - and who return the favor by appointing him to their company's board so he can vote them extremely large salaries and perks - where multi-million dollar salaries are the norm no matter what the company's performance is?

Once again, the enemy is obvious as far as our economy is concerned - it's the school teachers who only want a good salary and good benefits.  It is definitely not the CEO who gets an obscene salary and benefits that would embarrass a Pharaoh.  No, the CEO is just embodying the beauty of capitalism as espoused by P. T. Barnum, "No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public."  With one corollary, "And it's even easier if they watch Fox News where they believe that enabling the rich to get richer is in the average person's best interest, because the rich, unlike school teachers, give so much back."