From kerriko@soda.csua.berkeley.edu Sat May 8 18:02:12 1999 Date: 25 Apr 1995 18:24:03 GMT From: kerriko Newsgroups: alt.gothic Subject: Re: A Social Issue... In article <1995Apr25.100601.3799@leeds.ac.uk> menmsds@sun.leeds.ac.uk (CZI) writes: > When there are people earning over .5 million quid a year, I don't think > there's any argument about who should be contributing to whose welfare. > Fact is, beyond a certain level of wages, you don't need the extra cash - > it is exclusively for luxuries (better house, better car, better food etc). I was thinking this very same thought, last night. Sometimes I think people like Steven Spielberg ought to be footing the bill. What are these rich folks doing with all that extra dough? Churning out more crap for the rest of us to consume... ? Observation: One of last week's daily Chron's showed a photo of a child weeping beside a tree. The caption revealed that this child was distressed because he did not find a single Easter egg, in the annual Easter egg hunt. All the eggs were snapped up by other, eagle-eyed children. That photo distressed me too, and I cried over it. The following day there was another Easter photo, this one of a happy child gamboling over the White House lawn. THIS child had found an Easter egg. Well of COURSE he found one, they'd planted 25,000 eggs at the White House, NO kid was going to go home empty-handed. These 25,000 eggs were made of wood (not chicken genes) and imprinted with some Presidential seal or White House scene or somesuch. The White House Easter egg hunt provided 25,000 keepsakes, that didn't require refrigeration. Something to hand down thru the family. Those two Easter children, and their remarkable differences, really bugged me. I've been upset all week over it. Does it make sense to you? There seem to be plenty of people (whether in Hollywood or Washington DC) who have far too much money. Okay, let them buy a Rolls. Let them buy million dollar apartments. Let them buy guitar shaped swimming pools with pink tiles. And let them make MORE commercials, MORE movies, and MORE decisions about the rest of our lives. No. Let them put their money to better use. Somewhat irrelevant: OJ Simpson, for example, came from an SF ghetto and came UP. He made plenty of money. But he didn't do shit for his home community. That's wrong. Also irrelevant: Ice Cube, apparently, with all *his* dough, still wants to live in the ghetto. He reputedly puts money back into his community (social programs, etc.). For fuck's sake, he even slipped into a recent script of Beverly Hills 90210. Cube is trying to make a difference. I'm not familiar with the details of many "-ists" and "-isms"...though I don't mind being called Nihilist or Communist or hell, even Socialist. Nice ring to each. The truth is, I don't really care what 'they' call me. But IS it a Communist thought, that those with the most should contribute to those with less? Or is that Socialist... :/ America seems so caught up with consumerism and oneupmanship. Those who started out with more are still ahead of ME, that's for sure. *I* don't expect to be a millionaress, EVER. Doesn't it seem like there is an insurmountable gap between median or lesser income, and say, the income of someone like Spielberg? Gates? Eh? Oh, enough. > If you are going to make a fuss about everyone who gets welfare "without > ever planning to return anything", what are you going to do with severely > disabled people? the mentally ill? Good point here, also. What about the elderly? Don't say Social Security, 'cos these good people are NOT being rewarded adequately for their long years of contribution to our society. They receive paltry sums but know how to make the most of it. How about a caste system? I once thought it might be a great idea to stick SF's homeless population on Treasure Island. I still think that might be neat. (My alternative solution, at the time, was to poison the soup kitchens.) Whoops, pardon that bit of nastiness! Honest to god, doesn't it seem like America's "social ills" could be managed a little more efficiently? Where's Robin Hood when you need him! Why don't the exceedingly rich have any conscience! Cheers, Echo (who vowed a long time ago never to become exceedingly rich)