Americans by and large tend to really believe the fantasy that with hard work, we can all become millionaires hence why you end up with schmucks like “Joe the Plumber” who is barely earning a middle class salary and behind on his taxes voting against his self-interest because one day he “might” be rich. Yep, vote for the guy you know will screw you because one day you might be rich….but hey its a great dream
We also like to believe the fantasy that things are really fair, only guilty folks really end up in the clink…shit like that. Yet the sad reality is there is not much that is really fair in this land of ours, in fact whether or not you see “justice” might depend on your bank account.
I was just surfing the net and read that it looks like Bernie Madoff, con man extraordinaire may have a plea deal in the works. No details have been released but unless this sucker is sitting in a cell for the rest of his miserable ass life wearing an orange jumpsuit and dodging becoming the newest bitch on the block, I say whatever the deal is it won’t be just in anyway. At least not the type of justice that would be doled out if his name was Bernie Johnson or Bernie Hernandez from the hood.
Nope, with the US economy in shambles we are seeing the justice that is out there and it doesn’t work for regular folks….riddle me this? Say you are collecting unemployment benefits and some other government benefits which of course really don’t pay enough to live off of, so you land a job and decide to keep claiming benefits until you get a few checks from the new gig, you know you are breaking the law. If caught, you will have to pay the gubment back their money and if you get someone on the wrong day, you might be looking at criminal charges.
Yet you can play funny with the accounting, run a company into the ground, assist in fucking up the US economy, then get a bailout to boot….where the fuck is the justice in that? Seems engaging in those activities is far more serious than someone trying to survive and keep food on the table. It would seem that the folks who engaged in the larger crimes deserve a greater punishment than the occasional person who scams the system for the extra check.
Let me be clear, I am not condoning unlawful behavior but poor folks who require assistance seem to deal with greater scrutiny and criticism and it pisses me off. There is no safety net in this country and since many of those 401K’s are worthless, and folks are scrimping to survive, I suspect soon we will see all sorts of little folks doing whatever they can to make ends meet and it will not be pretty.
Just a Friday rant, have a happy weekend!
