The rich continue to exploit the poor

Published 9:00 pm Wednesday, June 6, 2007

Ever read the book “The Jungle” by Sinclair Lewis? I have no doubt the politicos and the money-men who pull their strings certainly have. It’s about the meat packing corporations in Chicago in the first decade of the 1900s and politicos under their influence. It’s about their attempt to exploit the workers in that industry, to abuse them and pay them slave wages. Even scouring Europe for laborers to keep pay and decent treatment down. At least since Reagan, even to the present, it’s as if the tactics were exactly the same. They must have read the book.

To have their economy the way they want it, they feel entitled to pay as low a wage as they can get away with paying. They’ll see this country flooded with foreign labor. Despite what may come out of their mouths, the truth is they don’t care a bit about common folk born and raised in this country. They are in it for themselves and that’s it.

Bush speak: When he says, “justice” he means, “just us.” When they say “freedom” they mean, “freedom for the rich to exploit the poor with impunity.” When they say, “A government of the people, by the people, and for the people” they mean “A government for the rich, by the rich, and for the rich.”

I could almost feel sorry for Bush. I mean, I think he actually believes in values he adheres to. But he is being used to work dirt. And the politicos and the money-men who pull their strings are working dirt. I can’t think of a better way to describe them than this: A wink, a smile and a slither.

And that’s the sum total of all they are about.

LAIRD BASHOUR

Everett