Back in 2015 I knew nothing about politics. I didn't spend almost any time thinking about it. But I had decided to write a book and I wanted to understand the world it was set in. So, since I rarely do things half way, I figured I should get educated on how politics works.
Almost 10 years later and it has been quite a journey. I have learned a LOT about politics and it is extremely depression.
I knew, obviously, that debt existed in 2015. What I didn't realize was how it actually works. Companies or universities or whatever price gouge you first. That puts you in debt. Then that debt motivates you to basically take a job, any job, as soon as possible. Why? Well, now you have to keep paying down that debt.
So, basically, it's a way to get you on the hamster wheel. And as soon as you're on that wheel, you can't stop. And that's the number one thing they take advantage of. Somebody who's not in constant fear of falling behind on their debt payments or not being able to afford their next meal is someone who can say no to their employer. Someone who can quit their job and see what happens. Someone who can hold out until a better paying job comes around.
Why do we get told that “wellfare queens are exploiting our system!” when the unemployment in the United States is below 4% meaning that 96% of people are working? We get told it because that way they can cut those benefits so everyone is forced to keep running on that hamster wheel. No matter whether you're sick, or dying, or old, or whatever. The more the social safety net is eroded, the more everyone is forced to take whatever scraps the corporate overlords deign to grant us.
And the blame? Well, that goes to those “dirty wellfare queens who were abusing the system!” Effectively meaning that a huge, gigantic block of voters are tricked into constantly voting against their own interests based on fairytales of exploitation. Based on rich politicians working for rich CEOs convincing middle class folks that it's the dirty poors who are stealing from them. When in reality those CEOs are funneling their tax money into another subsidy for some oil company or the military industrial complex.
After almost a decade I can see how all of the puzzle pieces fit together. How there's an entire system dedicated to exploting the 99% to the benefit of the 1%.
The rich buy the politicians, who in turn convince the middle class to hate the poor so the middle class and the poor both remain enslaved to the rich through things like debt, while the rich run out of the back door with all of the money. Oh, and all doing this while destroying the planet in the process. No doubt certain that the rich will be able to retreat into bunkers and gated communities if things ever get too bad.
And all of it is kept going merely by a combination of the rich giving scraps to those who beggar themselves to them (like the politicians) and the pure difficulty of coordinating gigantic groups of people to do anything (something made harder by those rich and the politicians they own spreading propaganda to convince some people that they're not the problem).
Obviously all of this is an oversimplification and I could write a hundred pages on the topic. But the point is that it's sickening to know how this all works.