Big Business getting Bigger, war for wages, and another "no shit" moment...

little wannabe-corporate types who have studied "business" and "economics" (read - worship blindly at the alter of all things friedman and unrestricted capitalistic without ever stopping to assess how reality has been over the centuries) are telling us how wonderful things are...how the stock market is high, the housing market won't fall apart, and the dollar won't collapse because the world needs it just too much. but while they were studying their failed economic theories they apparently missed their western history classes...because one of the most blatant indicators of an economy in serious relative decline is getting worse by the day. executive pay is already insanely out of whack with average worker pay...we all knew that...and we all know that every time that has happened in history, the economy which supports it has taken a nosedive. of course the richest of the richest were not satisfied with sharing with the richest of the rich...and so now top executive pay is out of control compared to not-quite-so-top executive pay. there was a time (when the economy was solid...albeit under a war footing) when top executive pay was approximately 40 times that of the average worker...now it is ten times that. in the meantime, top executive pay has jumped over 2nd tier executive pay over threefold where it was a mere 30 years ago. so if you had hopes of joining the upper class...i sure hope you realize you damn well be THE upper class...because one tiny step below and you too will get screwed.

congress turned tail and ran. they are sending money to continue a war that they were sent to end because they were scared of one of the least intelligent men ever to lead this nation. but don't fret...while billions of your tax dollars are going to support death and destruction and a war that anyone with half a brain knew was a really bad fucking idea you will get a pay raise. the minimum wage will increase to $7.25 an hour. woot. never mind that all the social services you once could count on will be gone because the funding for them is being pumped into high-tech weaponry for iraq...just wag your tail and lap up the tiny bone like a good little eletorate...

speaking of the useless war in iraq...turns out the CIA actually did inform the white house that it was a bad idea. get this...big shocker coming...estimates before the war indicated without saddam the place would descend into nasty civil war, splinter the country, and become a haven for international terrorism along with a breeding ground of hatred to be turned on the United States. gee...who would have thunk it...it isn't like the brits didn't already go through all this for us (and then oddly jumped back in for round 2). it isn't like we didn't know iraq was a faux-country made up by westerners carving up the middle east. it isn't like we weren't aware of the warnings of T.E. Lawrence regarding the disaster that awaited trying to tame mesopotamia. it isn't like we didn't notice that the only time iraq was stable was under brutal dictatorship. it just didn't matter...three cheers for millenialism, exceptionalism and ignorance.

what, pray tell, will save you now?