(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Rich$peak: what it is and how to deal with it [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2024-09-10 Rich$peak: any written, spoken, or visual representation that promotes the financial, moral, or political agenda of the rich whose only interest is continuing to increase their wealth without interference from government, religion, competitors, or civilization by controlling the political and social narrative that describes how we live. Rich$peak is so pervasive and insidious that it goes nearly unnoticed in our everyday lives. We see and hear it every day. It’s on billboards and in newscasts. It is everywhere you look and in everything you hear and read. It dominates propaganda we are especially familiar with: Advertising. It is so powerful that it deserves its own Wikipedia page. Rich$peak Take a familiar phrase from the Middle Ages in Europe, “The Divine Right of Kings”. That single phrase put everyone in a country on notice. The ‘king,’ by ‘divine right,’ owned everything and everyone in the ‘kingdom’. The king was the law of the land. He could take your land, your possessions (only men had possessions), your wife (another possession), your children (yet another possession), or your life without consequence. That phrase was the underlying structure for the social order. Everyone knew it. Everyone believed it. Everyone followed it. “The Divine Right of Kings“ is a perfect example of Rich$peak. In ancient China the emperor had “The Mandate of Heaven” to underpin the social order there. Roman Emperors, Sumerian Kings. and Egyptian Pharaohs (as far back as 3100 B.C.E) all had Rich$peak dogma that justified theft, murder, and all manner of outlandish behavior designed specifically to bolster their power and allow then to do whatever they pleased. The Rich$peak of their lives and deeds has been rhapsodized in books, plays, cinema, TV, and computer games. These tales have literally been carved into stone. Since the beginning of recorded history, we have been indoctrinated to believe that the rich own and run everything. All of it is propaganda known as Rich$peak. America the beautiful – our narrative America is the richest, most powerful country in the world. It is the land of freedom and equality, the land of opportunity. In America anyone can succeed and become rich. The possibilities are endless. Free enterprise. Capitalism. It is what makes our economy tick. Accordingly, we take care of the job creators—the rich. Our government provides subsidies and tax cuts to the rich, so our economy continues to work for everyone. To keep inflation low by controlling interest rates, it is necessary that 3% to 4% of Americans continue to be unemployed. Fossil fuels are the driving energy necessary to continue our economic growth. The economic success that allows anyone to become rich means keeping labor costs and other expenses as low as possible. Providing paid vacations, weekends off, and sick time severely cuts into each business’ profit margin. We are grateful we have jobs and are willing to work overtime gratis to support the company’s needs. We willingly take a certain amount of abuse as a part of the job including calls or texts outside work hours because ‘it must be important’. If we are lucky enough to work from home, it is on our computer, in our house at our expense. Software on our computers to keep track of keystrokes is a must to make sure we are working. To keep American business competitive, we subsidize the lowest paid wage workers with tax dollars (in the form of welfare). We assemble the furniture we buy and check ourselves out at the places we shop. The American rich, in return, are incredibly generous. They build museums, libraries, incredible institutions of higher learning, and create foundations to cure disease and help Third World countries. We keep federal, state, and local governments to a minimum (except for our military and police that keep American interests safe at home and around the world). At home, however, the government has allowed crime to become rampant by making the legal system too soft. Punishment works! So, we budget for more police, bigger private prisons, and stronger sentencing to cut down on theft, property crimes, murder, and keeping unwanted degenerates out of our country. Military and police budgets excepted; we have a government spending problem. Just look at our annual deficit! No one could possibly run a household in this way. If we spend beyond our budget, the National Debt will destroy the economy. Severe cuts are needed in spending and services if our economy is to thrive. Besides, what does the government do that actually works. Our education system is failing the poor and disadvantaged among us. Our government funded safety net is useless. Everyone knows providing support for the poor disincentives them from working. Then they become dependent on handouts. We tell everyone, including ourselves, this story. It is used to motivate and drive America onward. The Truth about America Except for the first sentence, not a single word of the above narrative is the truth. It is the virus speaking, the Rich$peak virus. America is the land of the golden rule: They who have the gold make the rules. We have a government of the rich, by the rich and for the rich. Using wealth stolen from their lowest paid employees, from unpaid taxes, and excessive profits gouged from the poorest among us, they name museums, libraries, colleges/universities, and foundations while buying politicians and elections to reinforce their Rich$peak narrative. The wholly owned Republican Party constantly cries about freedom from excessive regulations, not regulations that apply directly to you and me but, those that allow the rich to do whatever they want to ‘create wealth’ regardless of how many people are in poverty, without jobs, forced to choose between medication and food, or die from preventable accidents and pollutants. Citizens dying is only a problem if we notice who is responsible—the rich. We are constantly exhorted to clean up ‘our’ mess by recycling their waste while they create and release 48% all the greenhouse gases causing the climate change making earth uninhabitable. By keeping the minimum wage low while providing a meagre safety net, the rich get a willing and pliable workforce and reduce their operating expenses. It forces workers to take any job, at any wage, on any schedule. Keeping more than 10% of American citizens living in poverty is a conscious choice by the rich... because it makes them richer. They further increase their wealth by not paying taxes with the added monetary feature of poor public education, inadequate governmental safety net, and unenforceable safety and pollution regulations. Government efforts do not fail because of incompetence but because of conscious financial strangulation. The highly infectious Rich$peak has become so pervasive that it threatens to kill democracy in America. If left unchecked, the disease will allow the climate fever affecting the entire planet to spiral out of control leading to the extinction of homo sapiens. The Cure Rich$peak is a chronic condition. As long as there are rich people, relentless in their pursuit of more, more, more, we will be infected with new and different forms of Rich$peak. If there is any hope of returning to a truly health way of life and an economy that works for all, we must make the effort to recognize Rich$peak in all its forms and cry ‘FOUL’, ‘Untrue’, ‘You Lie.’ Then replace Rich$peak with a new narrative that tells the story of the America we want, the America we need if we are to survive. We must, if necessary, brow beat those we elect to represent us into truly work to meet our needs. To change the narrative in this election year, we must elect Democrats up and down the ballot. Yes, our Democrat representation in congress is a very imperfect lot. Once we ferret out those minions of the wealthy, the Republicans, then we can exact true representation from the Democrats. 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