Willing Victims

I've been accused of harboring out-group bias, that is, of reflexively disliking people because of their political views, of holding them in contempt and being disrespectful.

I have some harsh things to say both to and about cheerleaders for the status quo, but I really don't think it's due to out-group bias.

I have a real problem with people who are too stupid to recognize when they're getting rolled, robbed, mugged, or strongarmed.

First of all, no one except multi-millionaires and billionaires has anything to gain by continuing to endorse the prevailing policies. I'm not even sure how much we have left to lose.

Secondly, the Gini coefficient in the U.S. was .379 in 1950. By 2000 it was .430 and still rising, i.e., moving toward the right-hand side of the page. By now I would estimate that it's .5 or more.

The transfer of wealth toward the poor (left-hand side) and middle classes from the wealthiest Americans was the trend from the time of FD Roosevelt through the last year of the Carter administration. Then the direction of flow reversed and went the other way -- toward the wealthy, especially the wealthiest.

This regressive, retrograde movement was a tide under Reagan, and under Bush II it's become a tsunami.

I dream of Gini, and I suspect that the dictator's dismantling of Social Security, which he has secretly written into this year's budget, will complete the process and impoverish what's left of the elderly middle class.

It's all about money, folks. Money money money money money.

And also about those who inexplicably cheer for the crooks who are robbing them. Maybe some of them think they're going to win the capitalist lottery, and be among the "winners" one day. That's the "something for nothing" philosophy.