America’s favorite pastime!
1. Have a mass shooting
2. Bury the dead and cry.
3. Politicians talk about the need for gun control so this never happens again.
4. Gun manufacturers, through their lobby group the NRA, warns that the government is out to take everyone’s guns.
5. Gun lovers buy lots of guns because they believe the NRA and the right-wing media.
6. Gun manufacturers’ income skyrockets.
7. Gun manufacturers use this money to bribe politicians through their lobby group, the NRA.
8. Despite overwhelming public support, no gun control passes.
9. Another mass shooting occurs.
Repeat every few months
Yawn.
So what’s new? More people dead? More crazy people with guns causing mass destruction?
Yeah, so? Happens every few months here in the gun-loving United States of America. We used to be shocked by these things and vow to do something about it, but that was then.
We couldn’t even get a law passed that said there should be background checks when 90% of Americans agreed with it after a horrific shooting that left many innocent children dead. What makes anyone think we’re going to do something now?
So let’s all shake our heads about this terrible event and go on to do absolutely nothing to try to do something about it.
by Guest blogger Jesse Hendrix
Bill: I’d like to report a crime! I was just carjacked at gunpoint!
Officer: Certainly sir. Do you have insurance?
Bill: Yes, I have car insurance.
Officer: No, not car insurance. Crime insurance.
Bill: Crime insurance?
Officer: Yes, crime insurance. To pay for the cost of the investigation. You should get it from your employer.
Bill: I work for Walmart.
Officer: So, no insurance then. Right. That will be one hundred dollars to start the investigation, sir.
Bill: One hundred dollars!
Officer: It would only be fifteen if you had insurance.
Bill: But there’s a dangerous maniac on the loose! In my car!
Officer: Dangerous maniacs are expensive to deal with, sir.
Bill: You’re the police! You’re supposed to help everyone!
Officer: We don’t go in for any of that socialist un-American clap-trap in here, sir.
Bill: What?!
Officer: (Stands, patriotic music swells) It’s is the duty of every American to take care of themselves and their families! People who don’t prepare for being victims of crime by buying insurance don’t deserve police protection.
Bill: Look, I just need a police report for my car insurance company.
Officer: (Ignoring him) If we gave free police protection to the poor, who knows what they would ask for next? Food? Healthcare? But we’re compassionate. The uninsured can always go to the emergency desk.
Bill: Emergency desk? Where’s that?
Officer: (Sits, music stops) Well with the budget cuts and all, the nearest one is in Hypothetical Big City.
Bill: That’s thirty miles away. How am I supposed to get there with no car?
Officer: Bus stop is right outside.
(A two hour bus ride, two hours in a waiting room, one hour waiting in a questioning room, fifteen minutes of statement giving, another two hour bus ride, and a week of investigation after that, we find ourselves back in the police station.)
Bill: You said you found my car.
Officer: That’s right, sir. Now there is just the little matter of your bill. (He picks up a phone book sized stack of papers from behind the desk and places it in front of the man.
Bill: (flipping through it) $15,000? That’s outrageous!
Officer: Quality costs, sir. We set up road blocks, questioned suspects, consulted with the FBI, brought in the spy satellites…
Bill: And is that how you found my car?
Officer: Yes, and by “Yes” I mean “No.” We found it abandoned on the highway. Two days after your report.
Bill: Then what was all that other stuff for?
Officer: Better safe than sorry, sir.
Bill: Did you at least catch the man that stole it?
Officer: That would have been extra, sir.
Bill: (flipping through the bill) What’s this? $500 for guns! Did you even use them?
Officer: Got to have guns, sir. You never know what could happen.
Bill: Another hundred for bullets … gas for police cars … mileage … uniforms! Don’t you already have those?
Officer: Got to pay for them somehow sir. Look, sir. Our financial office will be happy to work out an arrangement where you pay a large bill every month for the rest of your life, with complementary threatening phone calls every hour should you miss a payment.
Bill: This is outrageous!
Officer: Beats the alternative, sir. You wouldn’t want socialized law enforcement.
Jesse Hendrix is a writer whose blog is located here.
Years ago we were told that trickle down economics will help us all. Hey, it’s only been twenty years or so, you have to give these things time.
The fact of course is that it does no such thing. All economists who aren’t in the pockets of the super rich will tell you that. The US economy always does better when everyone shares in the wealth, because when people have money they spend it, which increases demand and builds growth. I mean, duh.
Of course, none of that has happened since the days of Reaganomics.
You see, back before the Stock Market Crash of 1929, there were practically no controls on the economy. The US averaged a crisis every seventeen years — For example, there was the Panic of 1819, the 1837 Crisis, the Panic of 1873, the Panic of 1893, the 1907 Banker’s Panic, and so on up to the Great Depression. Then Franklin Roosevelt put in controls and restrictions on Wall Street and banking and lo and behold, no depressions and no recessions for fifty years. Reagan comes in and removes those and bang! The S&L crisis, the 2001 recession, the 2007 Mortgage crisis, and the 2008 Bush collapse.
Capitalism works, but it only works with controls.
Here’s a series of charts showing how the economy has fared in the past twenty years or so. Note how no matter what happens, the income of the top 1% goes up. They always do well while the rest of us suffer.
So when someone tells you that restrictions on businesses are bad for the economy, just laugh at them, because clearly they have been brainwashed.
ventrellaquest.com 