{"id":2533,"date":"2017-11-03T13:03:19","date_gmt":"2017-11-03T21:03:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/iwasmisinformed.com\/?p=2533"},"modified":"2017-11-05T08:23:54","modified_gmt":"2017-11-05T16:23:54","slug":"the-new-gilded-age","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iwasmisinformed.com\/?p=2533","title":{"rendered":"The New Gilded Age"},"content":{"rendered":"

“I can\u2019t help but wonder if the real desire behind the tax bill is to end social mobility completely. It\u2019s all to keep people in their place.”<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2028-Catherynne Valente<\/em><\/p>\n

She\u2019s not wrong. What the proposed tax bill does targets all the things that heretofore allowed you to avoid living hand-to-mouth as a subsistence worker. Blowing away the home mortgage interest deduction makes home ownership more expensive than renting. Messing with 401(k) in a world that already did away with defined-benefit pensions takes away any prospect of retiring in comfort. Removing the deductibility of student loan interest makes higher education an even greater burden, but one that if not borne prevents you being able to get anything other than hourly work forever.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s difficult not to feel like the last two or three recessions were all about giving business the excuse to cut until we were left with nothing but walking wounded. Outsource everything that isn\u2019t a core function. Your general services, your IT, your facilities, even your payroll and HR – all that is shuffled off to one contract or another. Create a permanent level of structural unemployment and you can start cutting salary and benefits and any kind of security, because you should just be grateful to have a job at all.<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t accidental, this isn\u2019t inadvertent – this is the whole plan. The goal is to perpetuate financial insecurity. Because when you don\u2019t have financial security, you have to take whatever you\u2019re offered. If you have student loans you can\u2019t write down, if you have no benefit for home ownership, if you\u2019re going to bear the whole brunt of medical emergencies, you can\u2019t afford to roll the dice. You can\u2019t leave and build your own business. You can\u2019t risk a bird in the hand. So the bosses and the owners can keep more for themselves and you can scuffle for peanuts, because what\u2019s the alternative? Strike out on your own and if you don\u2019t make it, you\u2019re cooked.<\/p>\n

The entire organizing principle of this tax bill is 99% of America saying \u201cplease sir can I have some more?\u201d Forever. It\u2019s a piss-poor way to run a country, but then, we\u2019re proving to be a piss-poor country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“I can\u2019t help but wonder if the real desire behind the tax bill is to end social mobility completely. It\u2019s all to keep people in their place.” \u2028-Catherynne Valente She\u2019s not wrong. What the proposed tax bill does targets all the things that heretofore allowed you to avoid living hand-to-mouth as a subsistence worker. Blowing … <\/p>\n

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