Disposability

The politics of “disposability” are in vogue in 2010. What is “disposability?” It is the idea that large segments of our population are in fact, disposable. These segments are the poor, the unemployed and those who have been marginalized for reasons of not conforming to the mainstream idea of acceptability; white, affluent and Christian-right wing. The top .05% has poured millions and millions of dollars into the electoral process in 2010, thanks to the Supreme Court who equated money with political speech earlier this year. This has funded the “citizen movements” like the Tea Party and other groups who from their platform want to turn back the clock in the US to the late 19^th century before Teddy Roosevelt busted up the trusts or the monopolies that controlled the US, lock, stock and barrel.

The new Trusts of the 21^st century are the Koch Brothers, Richard Scaife, Rupert Murdoch and others who want to undo what is left of the framework of a society that cares about all of its citizens, not just those at the top of the pile. Their tool to perform this task is the Republican Party, which is heavily ladened with irony as it was the same party under the leadership of Teddy Roosevelt who broke up the trusts of the 19^th century. What we are looking at is the destruction of civilization as we know it, local schools will be stripped of all revenue from the state and federal government, and programs will be funded by people at the local level; highway construction programs will be curtailed to basic maintenance; the cost of higher education will skyrocket driving a bachelors degree to the range of $100,000 for students and parents; and the idea of our children living better than the preceding generation will be gone forever. Those who hunger for the good old days of 19^th century America, and the spirit of entrepreneurship of that era, forget that for most of the folks in that time, times were very, very bad.

While there was economic expansion going on by the captains of industry, at the same time there was widespread exploitation of men, women and children workers by these same captains of industry. Industry was not regulated at all; as a result it was a dangerous place for those worked there for little or nothing. While they talk about the millions of jobs that will result from turning back the clock to those dark times, will there in fact be any jobs created by these policies? Those who control 70% of the wealth, the top 5% will have little incentive to invest their riches when there are no taxes at home for them to offset. Besides, the super profits from outsourcing our jobs to poor countries will continue to outweigh any tax cuts or even the elimination of taxes at home.

The paradox presented by this election, is that millions of folks who will be desperately impacted by these changes will be voting for the candidates of the super rich in the ill conceived perception that they are working for them. This is a pattern that has been repeated many times in the last 40 years, and the difference now is that we as a nation are on the last step of the plan to reverse the direction of our nation back to the future, the 19^th century future. So all of those elderly citizens who are dependent on keystones of a benevolent society, i.e., Medicare, Social Security; will wake up to find that they and these programs are now “disposable.”  The 50% of school age children who depend on subsidized school lunch programs will also find that these programs are “disposable.” The millions who are dependent on some kind of assistance will find that these programs are “disposable.”  

How do you tell who is disposable in the new economy and who is not? It is not hard, if you are not employed, too old, too young, not able to buy your own healthcare (after healthcare reform is repealed), attend college on your own-no subsidized loans or financial aid and do not look like the founders of this country-white; you are disposable. Although, the elites will always need the poor to fight their wars, so the military will always be needed to fight for the “freedom” of mega corporations to exploit and steal resources of poorer nations. “Disposability,” the ultimate elevation of the commodification of a society who worships money and the things it can buy.