Tea Party Capitalism (with Chinese characteristics)
Politics / US Politics Sep 19, 2013 - 11:04 AM GMTBy: Michael_T_Bucci
- a dialogue
Bill: Jane, the bills need to be paid. The children can go without. I mean they can eat less - maybe one instead of two meals a day. As far as dentist and doctor visits, they can make do. We can't afford these things any longer. The bills come first! That's my politics; that's my ethics; that's my demand. I'm a right-wing Republican, a Tea Party Republican, and people like me are going to bring this country back to its roots - hard work, accountability and good values. If you don't like it, go live in China!
Jane: Bill, didn't you just fire one-half of your workforce and then hire them back?
Bill: They're back at less pay and no benefits. If I had to, I would have declared bankruptcy to rid myself of the legal contracts, the retirement funds, the endless union demands for money, money, money! The union bosses got paid-off and offered token resistance just to show they were on the workers' side. Now, those same workers are happy to have a job when before they took it for granted. My friends called me a smart man and you think I'm a cannibal. Well, who's paying your bills? The kids or the cannibal?
Jane: The unemployed people across the street once worked in our public school system. Now that the schools have closed they still can't find work.
Bill: I think they are ignorant and conceited liberals. They can teach at the charter school but won't accept work at half pay. Luckily, our kids are taught for free because you do home schooling - marvelous for saving money. The liberals have stolen taxes to support things like libraries. Who reads books these days? Nobody. We live in a new world from our parents. The old people think parks are recreational and should be free and open to the public. Who uses parks? Bums, drifters and unemployed kids protesting Wall Street. So they are gone. Nobody misses parks, only the birds.
Jane: Bill, I never understood why you couldn't defend your mother's Medicare?
Bill: She's old and run her life. We get old and die. That's life. Do you know the unreasonable costs to keep old people alive well past nature's intended time? I'll go so far as to keep her comfortable, but that's all. Why spend government money - our tax money! - to keep old people alive when they give nothing back. They don't work or produce; they just take, take, take. That's socialism!
Jane: She'll never forget when you told her to get out of her wheelchair and get a job as a greeter at Walmart. She was mortified. You know that will apply to you some day too.
Bill: I don't think of tomorrow, I think of today. The markets are peaking; the derivatives in my hedge fund are skyrocketing; the governor is selling off the rest of the state's public land at pennies on the dollar. I have to get in on that! What a bonanza for people who have brains and little extra cash.
Jane: But no cash for your mother or the kids! I suppose the sidewalks will be up for sale next?
Bill: Not quite, and don't be so cynical. But that's not a bad idea either. Imagine charging people to walk across the street! Great idea, but it's ahead of its time. The roots of America are found in property. The whole country has been hood-winked into playing-up human rights instead of property rights. That's about to change whether people like it or not. The other misnomer is belief in that old cliché "love makes the world go round". No, money does that! It's all about profits, Jane, profits, profits, profits. If it isn't profitable, it is useless until it is made profitable. Get it?
Jane: Well, I don't think people understand what your politics has in mind for them.
Bill: That's good. As long as they keep listening to our people on the radio, on our TV news network, on our websites, they're best off not knowing. Besides, they don't care about politics anymore. That's good too. We made politics so uncomfortable they don't want to know anything. Even the reporters back-off. It's a well-oiled machine that is rolling through the land. Just get out of the way or be flattened by it.
Jane: Some very smart people are saying that you and your politics only work with people who are kept ignorant and trained to defeat their own self-interest. But I think people will understand someday and you won't be so self-confident.
Bill: By that time they won't resist because their entire lives will be tied to trying to pay bills. And to pay bills they need a job. And they'll gladly take any job at any wage by then. Unemployment is the best friend of keeping wages low. With unemployment comes the need to finance survival by borrowing on credit. When credit is withdrawn, people will sell themselves at any discount. That's the big secret behind controlling people today. If you get them into debt, you control them. And boy! are they underwater now. How sweet it is.
Jane: You're a cannibal. No! You're a vulture. And what if they revolt like the Russians and Chinese did in the last century?
Bill: They can't. Every movement is watched by surveillance gear. When they use their cell phones, everything they say is heard. When they talk on the phone or use the internet everything is logged, recorded and stored. Did you ever hear of biometrics? Well, there's a ton of it stored that shows everyone's face, finger prints, gestures. No one will be able to think of resisting without someone knowing it. At that point, all that needs to be done is send in local police dressed in riot gear carrying semi-automatics. They'll get the message! Large groups are dispersed on the ground with SWAT teams or militarized police and from the air by drones. But let me be very clear about myself, Jane, I am a responsible conservative undoing the socialism of the last 100 years and preventing this country from losing "liberty". For one, I think if it becomes necessary to suspend the Constitution in order to save it, bring it on!
Jane: And with your politics, jobs will return to this country?
Bill: It depends on whether the worker is willing to work at a competitive wage, and whether banks and investors want to finance the risk.
Jane: Competitive with whom, China?
Bill: Well, why not? The Chinese worker eats, sleeps, has children, gets a little recreation. What more do workers need, a two-car garage in Westchester County? C'mon, you know as well as I that workers never deserved what they got. Opening China to our manufacturers in the past two decades was a godsend. Cheap labor, no regulations, little taxation, off-shore banking, a state-controlled press, no striking unions, no pro-labor politicians, no environmentalists, no minimum wage, no healthcare requirements, no benefits, no vacation time, no government sticking its head into the books. Need I go on?
Jane: No, but you made your politics much easier to understand, Bill.
Bill: How so?
Jane: Because what you just described about China is what your Tea Party wants to create here, isn't it? Cheap labor, no regulations, little taxation, off-shore banking, no striking unions, no pro-labor politicians, no environmentalists, no minimum wage, no healthcare requirements, no benefits, no vacation time, no government sticking its head into the books . . .
Bill: That is about the dumbest unAmerican statement I've heard yet about my Tea Party politics. We're all-Americans. I'll say it again: If you don't like it, go live in China!
Jane: I won't have to go live in China, Bill.
Bill: No? Why not?
Jane: It's because, thanks to Tea Party people like you, China is coming to live here.
By Michael T Bucci
Contact: mbucci@michaelbucci.com
(c) 2013 Michael T Bucci. All Rights reserved.
(Note: responses to emails might be delayed or not met.)
Michael T Bucci is a retired public relations executive from New Jersey presently residing in New England. His essays have appeared at The Market Oracle (UK). He is the author of nine books on practical spirituality including White Book: Cerithous.
© 2013 Copyright Michael T Bucci - All Rights Reserved Disclaimer: The above is a matter of opinion provided for general information purposes only and is not intended as investment advice. Information and analysis above are derived from sources and utilising methods believed to be reliable, but we cannot accept responsibility for any losses you may incur as a result of this analysis. Individuals should consult with their personal financial advisors.
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