They Say they’re Willing to Die for the Economy~ Let’s Hold them to that
Capitalists want the American economy to reopen, for everyone to go back to work. Many of them, from Texas lieutenant governor Dan Patrick, to Fox News’ Brit Hume, to the blonde hemorrhoid that just won’t pop, shut the fuck up and disappear, Glenn Beck, formerly of Fox News, now of some even less credible right-wing batshit soapbox, have publically claimed that they are willing to die to save the American economy.
I think we should let them.
Of course, none of these loudmouthed crackers of excess privilege are actually willing to die, for the economy, for the country, for anything. These men are cowards. They’re the same kind of people, in some cases literally the same people, who cheer for war, despite, or rather because, they never have or will serve in the military themselves. These chickenhawks are no more willing to “die for their country” in a domestic pandemic crisis than they are in a meaningless foreign war. They simply like to sound tough while other people struggle and die for their benefit. Whether they be public figures, or among the common jackassery polluting the social media world, they are one and all nothing more than tough-talking bitches, cowards pretending at bravery to inflate their egos, and their stock portfolios.
What they really mean when they say that they are willing to die for the US economy is, obviously, as has been pointed out repeatedly, that they are willing to lead other people to die for it. Their boasts are bullshit, but so is their argument. You’re not going to save anything by forcing the country back to work. You’re going to cause potentially millions of people to die, which by the way, apart from being mass murder, would be terrible for the economy. See how prosperous the country is with hundreds or thousands of its people filling hospitals and dying every day. Not the country, nor even the economy, really, is at risk of dying because of much of the workforce being at home. The short-term profits of the wealthy are at risk, and national commitment to the old ways of doing things, the structure of our corporate-run, market-based economy is potentially at risk.
A system which fails the moment a crisis hits, fails within a few short weeks of not functioning at its peak, is by that demonstration a failed system. Capitalism is a failed system. It has failed repeatedly, and it’s only been through government intervention, bailing out companies at the expense of people, that the failed system has managed to stay afloat. Large companies that can’t weather a temporary drop in profits deserve to fail and die. That’s the supposed law of capitalism: if you’re not good enough, if the market “decides” you’re a failure, you're gone. None of this corporate welfare bailout bullshit.
Let the failed system die, and build a better, more resilient, one in its place.
This is not a partisan issue, or shouldn’t be taken for one. Not in the sense of Democrats vs Republicans, because frankly the Democratic party is downright lousy with capitalist stooges, all too happy to bailout Wall Street. They’ve done it before and they’re doing it again. For all the talk, all the harumphing that many Democrats are doing over how the passage and signing of the massive bailout bill went this past week, specifically focusing on President Deranged Turd’s decision to override, ignore, the provision about having an inspector general overseeing the bailout process and reporting to congress, the bill that they, the Democrats, helped pass was a mess as it was. There should have been no half-trillion, or any such unconscionable amount, apportioned to bailout corporations to begin with. Of course you can’t trust Trump and Mnuchin with oversight of that much money, or any money, but there should have been no corporate carveout to begin with, let alone so staggering an amount.
Oh, and there was the tax provision snuck into the bill by despicable Republicans, and either allowed or overlooked by comparably despicable or simply stupid and careless Democrats, that will allow for large tax breaks for wealthy real estate investors. As if the 1% needs more tax breaks, more money, while people are losing their jobs, being kicked out of their homes, getting sick, dying. A piddly $1,200 check for regular people, an amount that won’t even cover a month’s rent in many cities, and we’ll see how forthcoming that even is, and millions in tax write-offs for the super-rich. Even in a crisis, capitalists are making money off us. That’s the system they want to save.
Whichever corrupt and idiotic ideology all these assholes ascribe to, capitalism, conservatism, libertarianism, neoliberalism, they’re not even doing them right. Virtually everyone with a position of power maintaining the system’s status quo is too stupid or corrupt to follow the rules of the stupid and corrupt system itself. It might be slightly less enraging if they were at least honest in their commitment to their sick philosophy.
Which brings us back to our cowardly, wolf ticket-selling chickenhawks, making their devil-may-care statements about being willing to die for the economy, safely in their homes or company studios, securely behind screens. If they say that they want to die for the economy, then let them. Encourage them. It is a diseased mentality born of capitalism which values profit over human life, which deems people unworthy of living unless they are “productive.” And capitalists have shown, more than ever in this desperate time, how little they think of the productive, of the workers. Glenn Beck won’t really give his life for the working people who are the productivity of the economy, the people who are the economy, laborers without whom our farce of an economy doesn’t exist. But he should.
Rather than forcing the working class to bear the dual burdens of poverty and deathly illness, let’s take the capitalist class at their word, and let them die. Let them sacrifice themselves at the altar of capitalism. Every millionaire and billionaire, especially the billionaires, and especially those who are continuing to force their employees to work during the pandemic, who aren’t providing hazard pay, or quality health insurance, or any health insurance, who are giving their at-risk, essential employees maybe a temporary raise of two fucking dollars, and who are going to the public, to the taxpayers, to the government, for bailouts, for more fucking money that they haven’t earned and do not need, should die.
They should kill themselves, and leave the entirety of their fortunes in a national trust to benefit those in need. They should put the entirety of the US workforce into their wills, and then die. Then they will have lived up to the grandeur of their boasts and purported convictions. Then they will have actually done one honest act of value with their lives.
By all means, Trump, Beck, Hume, Patrick, and all the rest of you cowardly crackers, please, die for America.