just a little observation of the situation

The US wealth divide has been on my mind for a while now and I've concluded that is a little (teeny tiny bit) different than what I thought before. I have held the idea for a while that the reason our country has gone the way of dickheads is that the dickheads are too rich to know what it's like to be poor. They think everyone should be able to pay their own doctor bills without insurance. They think everyone should get to the end of their life and not rely on Social Security. They think if you cannot pay your own doctor bills you don't deserve treatment. They think there is something wrong with people who cannot find a way to be wealthy and they say and think things like Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah said:

Not being able to afford insurance does not mean you shouldn't have it.

"Well we're getting rid of the individual mandate. We're getting rid of those things that people said they don't want. And you know what? Americans have choices. And they've got to make a choice. And so, maybe rather than getting that new iPhone that they just love, and they want to go spend hundreds of dollars on that, maybe they should invest it in their own health care. They've got to make those decisions for themselves."

That only explains a part of the equation. The thing I've arrived at lately is that it goes both ways. Poor people do not understand what rich is. I feel like most poor people think that being rich is the guy next door that works for Budweiser, has a nice house and a new boat. I also think the next level up thinks the same way. I would say anyone making less than $200,000.00 has no idea that they don't really have money. I think in the world today that is chicken feed. Unless we've been poor then we don't know poor. If we've never been rich, we don't know rich.

It's like when I heard a lottery winner (who won a few hundred million) interviewed on the radio about how he'd spend his winnings. He said he was either going to get a new truck or fix the roof on his house. He said it like he had no idea he could do both. That is the thing I'm talking about here.

So, what does this do to the way we see things. Well, for the rich man, he thinks he is carrying everyone on his back. What he never thinks of is, if he actually paid the people who work for him the wage they deserve, he'd not be as rich. He's rich because he hoards the money for himself. And for the poor man and the next level up they get so mad at people on government assistance and they think they are the problem. When the rich man tells them that is the issue, they believe it. They think like the rich man. They think they are carrying them on their backs because they do not understand that they are poor too. They don't understand that the rich man is their problem. They don't understand that the rich man looks down on them as the problem as much as they do the folks on assistance. Now everyone is on the same page and no one is mad at the rich man who hides his money overseas to avoid paying taxes. No one is mad at the rich man who doesn't pay his workers a living wage. No one is mad at the rich man who bribes the government to make laws that favor him and his business. No one is mad when the individuals who govern this nation get richer and richer because they have all the insider information and the kickbacks from the wealthy for spinning things their way.

Here is another thing I'm not sure most people understand when it comes to taking healthcare away from poor people and making the next level up pay more ($162 a month more, on average) for their policy. The Medicaid program is so instilled into the fabric of the healthcare system and workforce of this country that to take it away would literally strip this country of jobs to the point you could not even begin to fathom, not to mention the number of people who'd die. Hospitals would lose the money they get for people who cannot afford treatment, or they'd let people die. Doctors would not be paid to treat people who cannot afford treatment, or they'd let people die. People who go to school for years to become doctors won't be able to repay student loans they took to become doctors. Some of them would be lucky to break even. People who work at other medical jobs would be affected like x-ray techs, lab techs, ultrasound techs, nurses, etc. Those people who administer these healthcare programs in offices like Dept of Human Services would be without jobs. The people at the insurance companies who administer the programs would be out of work. Because these insurance companies would lose the money paid to them by the programs, they would have to increase the premiums on people who could pay because it would not be offset by government funds. These things would happen in every town, in every state in this country. I cannot do that kind of math but a lot of people you know would be affected right down to the people driving the Human Resource vans and the folks delivering Meals on Wheels. These same people would not have jobs. Every person working in my office and the people we employee in the field, no jobs. They'd all be gone if there was not Medicaid.

I hope this country will be happy about cutting welfare for the poor and giving it to the wealthy. It's like bizarro Robin Hood to be giving out billionaire welfare.

These wealthy folks think if you are poor you don't work so they are sending all the brown people out of the country to make sure you have a job. Obviously, they don't believe the unemployment rate in America. It ain't that bad. And since most people who can work are working, who is going to do the job of the people being sent out of the country? Maybe those people I talked about who'd lose their jobs due to Medicaid cuts. What they see as fair is that people who have a seat at the high table are deserving and those who are not should have to beg. They want people who are not rich to serve them.

So, let's keep kicking the little guy and elevating the wealthy to the heavens. And let's do it because they told us Jesus said so. Cause that is really all they need do is make us believe they love the Lord more and we'll eat that shit up. Never mind that their actions are the opposite of what Jesus would do. They will continue to drop the bait and we'll keep eating it up. It's like we are zombies. They drop a little Jesus on us, and we mindlessly head in their direction.