Of all the stupid things that have come out from the White House this past couple of years, this is my nomination for the absolute stupidest. Mind you, I don’t know that every little thing in AOC’s proposed Green New Deal is actually feasible; there is always some disappointment to be experienced in almost any transition from ideality to reality. But nevertheless, I think AOC’s proposals are absolutely worth fighting for, and I think raising the minimum wage is essential.
But then we have Ivanka Trump offering cute little hum-dingers like this one:
“I don’t think most Americans, in their heart, want to be given something. … People want to work for what they get. So, I think that this idea of a guaranteed minimum is not something most people want.” (Source)
Here are all the reasons why Ivanka is wrong:
- Most people want to be able to pay all their bills.
- Most people are unable to pay all their bills.
- This is because most people aren’t being paid enough money by their employers.
Furthermore, it is common knowledge across the entire globe (and possibly the universe) that Americans love to earn more money for doing less work. (I know I certainly do!) Surely, a rich and privileged aristocrat who has never had to earn a living for herself should already be well-acquainted with this fact. But of course, Ivanka isn’t really speaking for the American People here. She’s clearly speaking for the 1% of our population who are billionaires and who use all their social and political leverage to keep the rest of us under their thumbs. You see, people like Ivanka live in a totally different moral universe where a person’s worth is determined entirely by their wealth and status (or their lack thereof). Only those with the most wealth and the highest status are important; everyone else is just an insect to be ignored, manipulated, or perhaps even exterminated. And whenever anyone tries to address the injustice of this system, they are dismissed as some gibbering, wild-eyed “radical.”
Since the dawn of humanity, in every culture and every age, the masses have always been cheated and tyrannized by wealthy assholes who think they know what’s good for all the rest of us. And for most of history, the masses have simply bent over and taken it. It’s only been during the past couple hundred years that we’ve even started articulating this issue. Here it is, a century and a half since the death of Karl Marx, and people still think bridging the gap between the rich and the poor is a “radical,” “ridiculous,” or even “scary” idea. Considering how much the 1% hate us, it’s a miracle there are any “little people” left to refill their martini glasses or powder their noses.
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