CSotD: Let them stream video
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In the current Doonesbury story arc, Zonker is considering joining a strike against the restaurant where he works.
Such base ingratitude! Such disloyalty!
I'd like to see the Venn diagram of people who don't want to raise the minimum wage and those who think we spend too much on welfare and other entitlement programs. Based on public statements and what I read on-line, my guess is that it would be hard to draw a better circle freehand.
Except that we're starting to see a disconnect between those who make the most noise and the actual numbers. It's pretty obvious in the gay marriage discussion: The floors of Congress may be black with heelmarks, but the Vox Populi is beginning to drown out the Vox Dei, or at least it's drowning out the voices of those who claim to speak for Deus.
I'm even noticing that the trolls are facing opposition in the comments sections of many news sites. Oh, they still dominate, with their clever talk of "libtards" and "Obummer," but there are other voices in that swirl of sewage.
But it certainly isn't a roar. So far, the resurrection of Ebenezer Scrooge continues, and he's still complaining about what he already pays to support the workhouses and prisons, and he still sees the poor as surplus population.
Speaking of resurrection, as we were a few days ago, I saw a cartoon complaining about people who care more about bunnies and colored eggs than the risen Lord.
Back when I was a kid, we were able to enjoy the Easter Bunny and still go to church and keep in our minds that it was a holiday and that "holiday" and "Holy Day" are one and the same.
Part of why it was so easy to keep in mind is that our parents made Easter a big deal. And part of it was that there was nothing else to do anyway.
Because all the freaking stores were closed and all the parents were home with their kids where they belonged.
You want family values? How about you worry a little less about penises and vaginas and work a little harder to build a nation where parents of whatever gender, sexual orientation or marital status can actually spend some time with their kids?
Ebenezer Scrooge begrudged Bob Crachitt his day off, but he saw it as unavoidable.
In this economy, however, the robber barons believe nothing is unavoidable when it comes to trimming the fat and taking advantage of business opportunities.
It's the disloyalty and unpatriotic attitudes of ungrateful workers that are holding our economy back. Ask Edison Lee:
Edison is joking, of course. Harley isn't an "employee." He's an "associate," or, if you are really planning to put the screws to him, a "partner."
But where indeed can an employer find associates and partners with the kind of work ethic you would find, for instance, in the slums of Bangladesh?
There are so many ways in which the system doesn't work that I hardly know where to start. But, for one thing, the poor of Bangladesh aren't relentlessly urged to purchase big screen TVs and then blamed for wanting them.
Although it doesn't take much to start that process: Back in the early 80s, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat expressed concern about Western television.
The problem was that he favored using low-orbit, geo-synchronous satellites to beam television into isolated rural communities, with the idea that you would have one television at the equivalent of the town hall, and people could gather there and see educational programs about how to grow crops with saline water.
Getting the people to gather, however, required something more entertaining than that, and using shows like "Dallas" meant good crowds, but showing them lush green lawns, beautiful houses, fast cars and flashy clothing sent an unintended message of how life in the big city differs from life in the rural desert and sent little Fatima and Muhammad off to Cairo, where, in place of the plain but sustainable life they had known, or the glorious life they thought they would enjoy, they found only the grinding poverty and despair of the already overcrowded slums.
Which would piss them off and motivate them to do things like assassinate Anwar Sadat.
He didn't say that last part. I did.
Meanwhile, back in the First World, you have to create consumer need. However, if you want it to remain the First World, you also need to create credible, sustainable consumers, and that isn't happening.
Check this out: It's a chart from the National Low Income Housing Coalition on how many hours a minimum-wage worker needs to put in each week, in order to afford a two-bedroom apartment:
You can click on that for a larger version or go here to download the full report.
This assumes that you would be devoting 30 percent of your gross income to housing, which is part of how it should work, if you intend to feed yourself and perhaps a child, wear clothing, pay utilities and get back and forth to work on the kind of regular basis that leads to successful employment.
If you'd like a more cheerful assessment, here's the most Marie-Antionette-friendly set of recommendations I've ever read. If you now or have ever worked for minimum wage, I would suggest you bolt your computer to the desk before clicking on that link, to prevent you from hurling it across the room.
On the other hand, if you have a taste for dark humor, this is one helluva lot funnier than any cartoon you'll ever see posted here. Marie Antoinette didn't actually make that crack about how people who couldn't afford bread should eat cake instead.
These recommendations, by contrast, are for real.
For instance, you should live near your job, so you can walk or ride your bike, and that saves you having to own a car or pay for the bus. Fair enough, I guess, as long as you can find work in the ghetto, and I'm sure you'll be the only one looking there.
But you don't have to live in those expensive cities. You should move to a rural area where minimum wage jobs are plentiful and you can find an apartment for $200 a month.
(Editor's note: If you do find that $200 a month country apartment, you'll also save $$$ on utilities, because it isn't going to have plumbing or electricity.)
And, they recommend, rather than pay $20 a month for cable TV, you just stream free on-line video at the library.
Out in the country, within walking distance of both your job and your $200 a month apartment.
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