Anti Wage-Slavery Pro-Freedom Quotations Of The Week 1826-1828

Capitalism promised Americans that if they just worked hard and long enough — which means if they exploited themselves and everyone else enough — then one day they would join the ranks of the bourgeoisie one day. Americans happily consented to that bargain — only to discover that, just as with most things in which life which seem to be true, that it was a Faustian one. The average American is poorer than his grandparents, not richer — broke, impoverished, and desperate. He or she lives right at the edge of ruin, every single, day, one perpetual misstep, one illness, unpaid bill, or emergency away from disaster. Which means true ruin — homelessness, bankruptcy, healthcare that no one can afford, and so on. Capitalism’s promise that if you exploit yourself, and everyone else, fortune will shower down on you turned out to be a con game. What really trickled downwards was exploitation, not riches.
umair haque
Sep 19, 2018
How Capitalism Taught Americans Exploitation Was Good For Them

The Trump administration is providing up to $12 billion in emergency relief funds for American farmers, with roughly $6 billion in an initial round.
...
Rob Johansson, the Agriculture Department's chief economist [...]He estimated that there would be more than 784,000 applications for relief.
...
The breakdown has stunned corn and wheat farmers who say the payments are uneven and won't do much of anything to help keep struggling farms afloat.
As aid checks go out, farmers worry bailout won't be enough,
By juliet linderman, associated press
WASHINGTON — Sep 23, 2018

Education is facing the threat of computer-based learning posed by Khan Academy, Coursera and other upstart companies. Government is changing, too. India recently introduced a site that allows anybody to see which government workers are showing up for their jobs on time (or at all) and which are shirking. Similarly, Houston recently developed a complex database that helps managers put an end to runaway overtime costs. These changes are still new, in part because so many large businesses benefit from the old system and use their capital to impede innovation. But the changes will inevitably become greater, and the results will be drastic. Those four industries — health care, finance, education and government — represent well more than half of the U.S. economy. The lives of tens of millions of people will change.

...

Generally, those with power and wealth resist any significant shift in the existing institutions. Robber barons fought many of the changes of the Progressive Era, and Wall Street fought the reforms of the 1930s. Today, the political system seems incapable of wholesale reinvention. But Acemoglu said that could change in an instant if enough people demand it.

Adam Davidson

Welcome to the Failure Age!

The New York Tines Magazine