paper flower

There is a plant that a French botanist discovered in the late 1700's in Brazil; the "paper flower" as it is sometimes called comes in many colors and thrives in any soil as long as it is well drained.  If put in soil that retains water these conditions can induce root rot.  Although quite hardy they have been cross-pollinated many times creating the more papery look.

The attributes of these plants sound very human ....ovate to rounded, pale to corky, leathery in texture and hairy underneath, the flowers can be slender or large depending upon the variety...but care is needed as they can be quite thorny.

We humans are "paper flowers", we can thrive anywhere but develop root rot when negative conditions turn our world up side down.  Our bailouts, WARS, unemployment and housing bubbles have all contributed to a wealth inequality that is turning so many "paper flowers" thorny.

Today we see a growing gap between the rich and the poor.  We have been

programed to believe that prejudice, greed, elitism and exclusion should be understood as facts of life.  We are directed to accept these aspects of humanity for our own good rather than understanding them as being unjust.  We are hammered daily in the media with articles proclaiming why some(immigrants or welfare queens) are described as less deserving and others(businessmen) are paragons, shining examples of the demigods we should all look up to.

We are taught that inequality is assured, fixed and fated and greed is good.  Upon reflection we find that an examination of the history of this country shows that we had less wealth disparity from the 50's through the 70's than we do today. 

Inequality fluctuates throughout history and there is nothing "natural" or "inevitable" about the present levels.  Our political and economic "elites" encourage us to support the status quo.  We are bombarded by television and talk radio; Government is the culprit not those that prey upon the uninformed. 

But what is the impact of a low wage?  Why aren't more demanding answers for the enormous wage gaps?  Why aren't teachers who mold and shape our children compensated the way some celebrity is for one week of work?  Why are the lower wage workers who slave day in day and day out viewed as less valuable to society?

Back in the middle ages the poor were referred to as 'unfortunates' meaning that they had experienced some form of bad luck and therefore poverty through no fault of their own; hundreds of years of evolution has resulted in us now seeing the poor as "welfare queens" and "lazy."  No longer enjoying "bad luck" as an option instead they must be engaging in fraudulent activities or just plain lazy.  Losing a job, a medical catastrophe, or a life changing disability never enters the conversation.  In reality those actually committing fraud or just plain lazy are a very small percentage of welfare recipients but you wouldn't know that by listening to the radio or watching television.

Consider where you were born.  You and the rest of humanity had no control over your birth location, parents, or community.  But being born into wealth or poverty has a bigger impact on your life than any other event.  There are real life long effects from being born in the right or wrong place and most can't escape that fact.  Here is a small racial sample:

While the median white family has roughly $90,000 to its name, the median Latino family has just $8,000, and the median Black family has only $6,000.

What liberals favor is equality of opportunity. When we talk about a level playing field, we're not saying guarantee us victory, we're saying give us a fair chance. Not one liberal i know would say that everything should be equal.

Sadly, way too many conservative policies, especially in the last couple of decades, have been explicitly predicated on denying the majority of our citizens equality of opportunity.

Editors at the Nation had this to say about income inequality.     "Over the past three decades, market-worshiping politicians and their corporate backers have engineered the most colossal redistribution of wealth in modern world history, a redistribution from the bottom up, from working people to a tiny global elite.

This three-decade war against common sense has preached that tax cuts for the rich help the poor, that labor unions keep workers from prospering, that regulations protecting consumers attack freedom. Duly inspired, our elected officials have rewritten the rules that run our economy--on taxes and trade, on wage policies and public spending--to benefit wealthy asset owners and global corporations."

The unemployed and the poor reap these trickle up benefits.  Complex partnerships, not-so-blind trusts and dubious real estate schemes have helped the super-rich sidestep billions in taxes, shifting the burden to lower and middle income Americans.  In fact Lord Griffiths, vice-chairman of Goldman Sachs International and a former adviser to Margaret Thatcher, said banks should not be ashamed of rewarding their staff.

Speaking to an audience at St Paul's Cathedral in London about morality in the marketplace last October, Griffiths said the British public should "tolerate the inequality of bonus' as a way to achieve greater prosperity for all."  

In light of the charges against Goldman Sacs you might think the public today would see the Republican Party's phony populism and cries of "socialism" for what they really are: an attempt to perpetuate the economic inequality they helped to create at the expense of the very people they claim to be fighting for.

"If my well-being can exist only at the expense of the suffering of others, then I bear some responsibility for that suffering, whether or not I choose to admit it.  I am complicit in their suffering.

If I allow their hopes and dreams to be irrevocably crushed, then I should not complain when they no longer choose to be bound by the rules and laws that make this an ordered society." teacherken