Friday, April 28, 2006
Excuse me, but isn't that an elephant in your living room?
More galling news on the home front. This bulletin just in: Americans are mad as hell about oil prices. Oh dear! Now what ever shall we do? Well, just in the nick o' time, here's Dubya with quick, decisive action. Yeah, right. Well, a few suggestions, anyway.
Let's look at the laundry list, shall we? $100 dollar rebates, more drilling in Alaska (this when the oil industry itself decries that it's not supply, but production capacity that is driving the price at the pump), "investigations" into price gouging, and all sorts of pussy-footing around the one true issue: the re-regulation of industry to protect the American public from itself.
Yes, we're addicted to oil. But how does one dare suggest a "tax holiday" from much needed Federal gasoline taxes from one side of the mouth, and from the other, vehemently reject a windfall profit tax on an industry reporting record profits quarter after quarter? Makes you wonder who's running the show here, dunnit?
Exactly when was it that the bottom line became the driving force in American policy? Oh, right; it was 1980, when the corporate cabal hired an actor to play the part of President, distracting the country as they set about the business of ripping any shred of moral or social responsibility from America's statutory conscience. De-regulation was touted as a windfall for the people. Exactly who "the people" were was not discussed.
And yes, Americans use an absolutely insane amount of petrol, and at a severely unrealistic price. It's a shame that no one cares about the obvious sham that allows Joe Corporate to drive a gas-guzzling SUV, get a tax break for having a vehicle that costs more than a house in 3/4 of the world, AND get to write off the fuel used as a "business" expense. And who orchestrated this? Why, the oil executives who run the country, of course. But never mind that.
The beeg picture being missed here is that American government has totally abdicated it's responsibility to the electorate, and has adopted the values of a corporation. Republicans run around decrying government spending, but spending is exactly what the government is both empowered and required to do. The government is supposed to be the guiding conscience that impels petty, parochial, local interests to pay attention to each other's needs. Roads. Medicine. Food. Housing. Energy. Communication.
Although I personally feel the clock is ticking toward the day in less than 13 years when the Chinese march in and take what they will, by that time, own, lock, stock, and barrel, it still makes me wonder why the American populous is so unbelievably stupid that they allow this process of asset liquidation to continue unfettered. How can it be that a true revolution has not materialized where the corporations are told to stop and government is held accountable to it's citizens for it's actions? Dubai ports deals, Haliburton contracts, ad nauseum, are only the symptomatic tips of a huge iceberg of apathy, despair, greed, and fantasy that have overtaken the American collective psyche and rendered it (according to plan) completely irrelevant and powerless.
Still, the yuppies keep popping out kids, developers keep rizzing down forests and squeezing out farms (farms... oh yeah, where the FOOD comes from!!! Idiots!!!), and the emperor parades around in his birthday suit assuring us that Everything, yes Everything is under control and headed in the right direction. For them, it apparently is.
Bollocks.
Let's look at the laundry list, shall we? $100 dollar rebates, more drilling in Alaska (this when the oil industry itself decries that it's not supply, but production capacity that is driving the price at the pump), "investigations" into price gouging, and all sorts of pussy-footing around the one true issue: the re-regulation of industry to protect the American public from itself.
Yes, we're addicted to oil. But how does one dare suggest a "tax holiday" from much needed Federal gasoline taxes from one side of the mouth, and from the other, vehemently reject a windfall profit tax on an industry reporting record profits quarter after quarter? Makes you wonder who's running the show here, dunnit?
Exactly when was it that the bottom line became the driving force in American policy? Oh, right; it was 1980, when the corporate cabal hired an actor to play the part of President, distracting the country as they set about the business of ripping any shred of moral or social responsibility from America's statutory conscience. De-regulation was touted as a windfall for the people. Exactly who "the people" were was not discussed.
And yes, Americans use an absolutely insane amount of petrol, and at a severely unrealistic price. It's a shame that no one cares about the obvious sham that allows Joe Corporate to drive a gas-guzzling SUV, get a tax break for having a vehicle that costs more than a house in 3/4 of the world, AND get to write off the fuel used as a "business" expense. And who orchestrated this? Why, the oil executives who run the country, of course. But never mind that.
The beeg picture being missed here is that American government has totally abdicated it's responsibility to the electorate, and has adopted the values of a corporation. Republicans run around decrying government spending, but spending is exactly what the government is both empowered and required to do. The government is supposed to be the guiding conscience that impels petty, parochial, local interests to pay attention to each other's needs. Roads. Medicine. Food. Housing. Energy. Communication.
Although I personally feel the clock is ticking toward the day in less than 13 years when the Chinese march in and take what they will, by that time, own, lock, stock, and barrel, it still makes me wonder why the American populous is so unbelievably stupid that they allow this process of asset liquidation to continue unfettered. How can it be that a true revolution has not materialized where the corporations are told to stop and government is held accountable to it's citizens for it's actions? Dubai ports deals, Haliburton contracts, ad nauseum, are only the symptomatic tips of a huge iceberg of apathy, despair, greed, and fantasy that have overtaken the American collective psyche and rendered it (according to plan) completely irrelevant and powerless.
Still, the yuppies keep popping out kids, developers keep rizzing down forests and squeezing out farms (farms... oh yeah, where the FOOD comes from!!! Idiots!!!), and the emperor parades around in his birthday suit assuring us that Everything, yes Everything is under control and headed in the right direction. For them, it apparently is.
Bollocks.
