Leadership development training

While I appreciate your passion, I don’t have time to give you a much-needed lesson in Economics. Socialism & Communism (what you endorse above) work great on paper; not so much in real life.

Virtually everything involved in allowing you to read and respond to this posting was created because of Capitalism. And while Capitalism sucks in a whole lotta ways, it sucks worse than all of the alternatives, combined.

Your hard work is to be applauded. Truly, your desire to get ahead and improve your existence is a worthy endeavor. However, did you really earn all of it by yourself? And can you really say you work harder than ditch diggers, janitors, firemen, police officers, nurses, doctors, utility linemen, and so forth? Because, I gotta tell ya, if you say you work harder than a fireman, you’re a 1%er. If you say you’re worth more to society than a good nurse or doctor, you’re a 1%er. If you say the people picking lettuce every day for about 1/100th of your weekly net aren’t working harder than you and equally worthy, then guess what? You’re a 1%er. And you’re the bad guy.

You’re the bad guy because you use eminent domain to line your own pockets, i.e. the railroad industry.

You’re the bad guy because you use the court system and your money to declare personhood for corporations, which they are not.

You’re the bad guy because until people died in the Triangle fire, you were happy to employ people at low wages, in locked rooms.

You’re the bad guy because Upton Sinclair said so, far better than anyone before or since.

You’re the bad guy because you buy favor with our elected officials, and rig the game against everyone else.

You’re the bad guy because you use patents to harm competitors, instead of working hard yourself.

You’re the bad guy because you extend copyright protection indefinitely, instead of turning over works into the public domain where they belong.

You’re the bad guy because instead of competing on merit, you litigate. You get laws passed to keep municipalities from offering information infrastructure to their own people, i.e. muni-WiFi.

You’re the bad guy because you support ACTA, SOPA, and every other half-assed legislation designed for rent-seeking.

You’re the bad guy because you can market a drug that cases heart attacks, and get away with a fine that represents 1/40th of your net income (Vioxx). And you can also create fake scientific journals with another company, and manage to get away with it.

You think this is about handouts. You think this is about laziness. You think wrong. This is about fairness, transparency, and a fair game. This is being called out on your shenanigans, and replying with weak anecdotal arguments about how hard you’ve worked. There are thousands, if not millions of people who work just as hard as you, but don’t play on your side of a rigged game. Acknowledge you’ve been lucky, you’ve been in the right place, you’ve gotten good breaks from life. Show some humility and compassion for the vast majority that don’t get those breaks. I mean, if you wanna stop being the bad guy.