The statistics aren’t surprising. I
can’t say that I knew it the exact statistics of the distribution of wealth,
but had I been questioned during this survey, my answer would have been far
from what most “Americans THINK The Distribution Is”. I probably would have
thought it was much worse than it actually is. While I wasn’t sure of the exact
numbers, I am familiar with the issue as someone who was somewhat involved in
the Occupy Movement that represented the 99-percent against that 1-percent of
wealthy Americans.
Who are the people in that
1-percent? Well, it includes Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Larry Ellison (who
apparently lives in Woodside, where I work regularly), Charles and David Koch
and the Walton family, who if they put their money together would surpass every
other rich person BY FAAAAR. Blame it on Wal-Mart. If you shop at Wal-Mart,
this is your fault, you “Mom & Pop Killers”.
Growing up I watched both of my
parents work multiple jobs to provide my brother and me with a roof over our
heads, food on our table and clothes on our backs. We didn’t always have the
toys we wanted, but we had what we needed. More important than watching them
work those jobs was watching the progress they made as two immigrants from two
completely different countries. It was the “American Dream”. The dream lived
through them for me and while I went to our already addressed and broken school
system, I said, “Fuck it.” They made it to the middle class and bought their
own house. A Mexican “illegal immigrant” and a Samoan lady with no education
made it, I’ll be ok with barely passing high school… and then I started
working.
After a while I realized, “man, this
shit isn’t working.” No time to sit their and cry though, I had people to tell
me…
Straying
slightly off topic, but that was just to explain that at one point in my life,
I really did believe in the American dream. I believed in the middle class.
That’s not the case anymore. As much as my parents tried to hide some of their
financial woes from my brother and me, as we grew up those woes were easy to
see. What is that house with the white picket fence really worth when you have
to work two or three jobs just to pay for it? Not much. But those CEO’s with
their multi-million dollar homes, well, estates really, they probably have the
time to enjoy it. 380 times more than their average employee, huh? Call me a
socialist, a communist, a Marxist or whatever, but do people really think this
is better than an even distribution of wealth?
To hell with Fidel Castro. Damn you
Hugo Chavez. Don’t even mention Pablo Escobar. Is it weird that the poor people
in Cuba, Venezuela and Colombia loved these public figures? I don’t think so. I
guess leaders have to choose whether they want to be loved by the rich or the
poor though. That’s probably a conversation for another day though.
We’re really blind to all of this,
aren’t we? Even me. Although I know a little bit about these issues, I refuse
to dive deeper into what’s really going on in fear of finding out that there
really is no hope. So we just keep on keeping on. Pretending like the American
dream still lives. Pretending like we’re okay. Pretending like these rich
people don’t have all the power in the world do whatever they please, whenever
they please. Because what the hell are we going to do? I’ll tell you what they
think we’ll do. They think we’ll just sit there and take it. But they’re wrong ese. Somos pocos pero locos ese. Or as
you would say in English, we’re small but we’re [FUCKING] crazy ese. Sorry, had to throw that in there.
Sangre
por sangre. Ok, now it’s getting ridiculous. Let’s get back to the subject.
I’ve long fought a battle inside of myself where I try to figure out how I
balance my hunger for change and activism with my responsibilities to my
family. Talking about this subject doesn’t make me feel good. It makes me feel
like I’m not doing enough. Where do I start though? That’s always the most
difficult question to answer. Where the hell do we start when trying to take
down a monster...
(oh no!
the illuminati!) … a monster this big? (No, I’m not talking about Rick Ross) I
don’t know. Is a coup d’etat actually possible in this country, and is that how
far we actually have to go? I don’t know. What do we do? Where do we go? What
does the future hold? I don’t know. I hope to find out though, or at least just
help when it comes time.
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