I don’t understand unrestrained avarice. It has to be a sickness. I have been dirt poor (lived in a shack, have been homeless), and I’ve never wanted anything more than to be healthy and having a clean place to live with my books, my bed, my little computer, and being surrounded by people I love.
Mansions? Don’t want them, don’t need them, what am I doing with 20,000 square feet of space?
Exotic cars? I drive on public roads. What do I need 200+mph speeds?
I live in a 700 sq. ft. apartment with my father, and we are both free to move about without interfering with one another’s tasks or privacy. Granted, that situation isn’t going to be the same for everyone, but there’s a world of difference between a family living in a 2,000 sq. ft. home, and one or two people living in a 10,000 sq. ft. home.
When I think about having what I need, I think of having a nice set of pots and pans for cooking, I think of having decent furniture for myself and for any guests who visit me. I think of appliances that I need in order to do basic household chores, adequate plumbing so I can take a shower and do the normal hygienic routines to keep myself clean and healthy.
Warm in the winter. Cool in the summer. Safe electrical wiring and fixtures so I can use my electronics like my TV without worrying a fire will start.
Along those lines, clean and safe carpeting and paint, you know, nothing with asbestos or lead in it, nothing that is so old and outdated that even touching it causes allergic reactions.
To me these are basic things that everyone should have, that everyone should HAVE.
Yet here we are, people living in shacks, people who are homeless, people who can’t afford to have functioning plumbing, who don’t have reliable electricity, so that a few people can have multiple mansions, exotic cars, and properties they make “passive” income on.
You know what passive income is? Other people’s money that you gain just by “owning” something. Because you “own” the machinery, your employees wages and excess generated value are drained into your pocketbook.
Why is that seen as okay? Why is that normalized? It shouldn’t be normal, it should be seen as a disease, as a serious flaw in human beings that is worked out, not something enshrined in a system that also claims to be just and democratic.
We don’t live in a just or democratic society, we live in the same feudal castes we did back in the old countries, back in the dark ages, except worse because we have that history to learn from and clearly haven’t.
Why do we see millionaires and billionaires as figured to be lauded instead of mentally disturbed individuals who have stolen the resources of society and claimed them as their own?
We deserve better than that.
.Red
