#the schools social workers to make the rules against racism more strict (or at least enforce those better)

[transgaysex]

amount of people ive had a hand in getting kicked out of a college gay club: 2

[forsetti]

On Conservative Economics: America As A Company Town

Just like how the racism that led to slavery morphed into Jim Crow laws and morphed again after the Civil Rights Act, conservative economic ideology has done the same. Before FDR's New Deal, the government played a limited role in society.  Roosevelt showed not only that the government can help society, but it can do so much better and without the self-serving interests of the private sector.  Conservatives have been trying to undo not just FDR's New Deal, but LBJ's Great Society and every other government program that helps society.  Their mantra is “government isn't the solution to problems, it is the problem.” They believe the private sector can do anything the government does better and for less money.  Never mind the history of the country shows differently, conservative ideology isn't beholden to facts. When left unchecked, conservatives push policies that undo and disempower the public sector in favor of the private sector. Currently, Kansas under Governor Brownback and a Republican-dominated legislature have put this conservative economic ideology to the test and within a few short years have turned the state into an economic wasteland.  

Kansas should be the canary in the conservative coal mine.  Anyone with two working neurons and a single moral fiber would look at the results in Kansas and say, “This approach not only doesn't work, it makes the problems much, much worse.”  This is what the lesson from Kansas should be.  In reality, the lesson for conservatives, as it always is when their ideas fail, is to say, “The only reason it failed is that it wasn't CONSERVATIVE ENOUGH!  Conservatism doesn't fail. People fail conservatism.”  Don't try and make sense of this “logic” because none exists.  It is like saying, “I got really, really sick drinking this concoction that was promised to bring me vitality.  The reason I got sick must be I didn't drink enough.” The idea that the concoction is the problem and not the solution does not cannot enter their analysis because their view is it is the cure is an accepted, fundamental belief.  It is a belief they've been spouting for over a century.  For conservatives, The Great Depression didn't happen because of the failures of the private sector, FDR's policies didn't help us get out of it, George W. Bush's policies didn't lead to the Great Recession, President Obama's policies didn't have any impact on getting us out of it...  A Mount Everest of evidence-be-damned.   The conservative economic failures of Kansas are going to be promoted from Single-A to the Majors with Republicans controlling the Executive and Legislative branches for at least the next two years.  The economic policies that turned Kansas into an economic wasteland are going to be given a triple shot of stupidity, zealotry, and scope as they are imposed on a lot more states and the country in general.  America is about to be Kansas on steroids.  The government programs and services that helped create the largest middle class in the world are about to be severely damaged or outright destroyed.  America is about to be turned into a company town.

During the industrial revolution, company towns sprung up around the country usually near factories, plants, and mines.  A company town is one where almost all of the businesses, housing, and services are owned by the company.  The company controlled every aspect of your life-job, wages, supplies, water,  housing...  In a few select cases, like Hershey Pennsylvania, these places were model towns.  A benevolent owner would create and use the amenities the company town offered to attract workers.  Places like Hershey PA were the exception, not the rule.  Far too many companies used the monopoly in their town to mistreat and basically enslave their workers. Sometimes companies only paid in company script that was good only in the company-owned business in town.  The company could, and did, lower wages and/or raised the cost of goods and housing high forcing workers to go into debt to the company, then they made it so employees could not leave until they paid their debt in full. Children of employees went to the company-owned school and learned only what the company deemed permissible.  Company towns in their less than benevolent sense are an example of what happens when the private sector takes over public services.  The company benefits, the public suffers.

The privatization of social services and programs is nothing more than the conservative economic morphing of company towns into a modern form.  If the private sector controls your health care, your roads, your food safety, your water supply, your education system...then they control you.  You'll take what they feel like giving you and like it because there will be nothing to stop them, nothing to protect you.  If the private sector gets a hold of your social security, it can and will be put into risky ventures by people who will benefit whether or not the ventures pan out or flop.  Private prisons lobby for more strict laws and sentencing because they help their bottom line.  Private health insurance with no regulations intentionally kicks people off their plans if they look like they might become a liability.  Privatizing schools pushes disadvantaged students out, takes money from the states who in turn cut funding from public schools, leading to even greater disadvantages which lead to workers who are forced to take low-paying jobs with no power.  Privatizing the public sector leaves no one to protect the public.  When the private sector controls the resources, the laws, and the power over just about every aspect of people's lives, the result is a company town. In order to make a company town work for the company and not for the workers, it needs to make sure the employees have few choices, few rights, and no power.  Anything that gives the workers power must be eliminated.  This is why conservatives are so anti-union and against collective bargaining. These give some leverage to the workers.  In 1894, the Pullman strike occurred because the Pullman company town on Chicago's Southside when the company laid-off workers and cut wages but kept the cost of housing and services the same.  This resulted in Eugene Debs forming a union of many of the unskilled Pullman workers who later went on strike.  This strike impacted most of the railway lines west of Detroit.  Opposition to the union was formed.  Riots and violence broke out.  Thirty people were killed.  Finally, President Grover Cleveland ordered the Army to break up the strike which led to more violence.  When the strike was broken, Debs was tried and found guilty of violating a court order and sentenced to prison and the union was dissolved.  This cycle of abuse, workers organizing, violent opposition, and unions dissolved or made powerless was played out over and over again across the country.  It wasn't until FDR's New Deal that unions really began to prosper.  By 1954 35% of American workers belong to a union.  Today it is 11.3% almost exclusively due to conservative efforts and policies to take away the power unions have to represent and bargain for workers.  They want people to think that a single individual has power against a company. They don't and what little power they do have is consistently being taken away by conservative policies.

Conservatives don't want workers to have any leverage of any kind.  Their hatred of the Affordable Care Act is rooted in a lot of conservative ideology, that it gives workers freedom, choices, and leverage is part of this. If your health insurance is tied to your job, then the company controls your health outcomes.  If it is difficult to quit or take another job because you will lose your health insurance, then the company has undue influence and control over your choices.  If your health insurance coverage is not tied to your job, then you can take a job that doesn't offer coverage, start your own business, take a part-time job, quit working... because you have access to affordable coverage through the exchanges.  Along with not wanting a minimum wage, stripping workers of bargaining rights, and gutting unions, repealing the Affordable Care Act is part of the conservative plan to turn America into a company town. Conservatives have sold and convinced a lot of their base that wealthy business owners are wealthy and successful because they are better, smarter, and more moral people.  Workers don't deserve leverage because they aren't smart or good enough.  They also don't need it because the company is being run by a good, moral person who will do what's best.  The entire idea of trickle-down economics rests on this assumption about the nature of the wealthy.  If they get massive tax cuts and have more money, they, in their benevolent kindness, will spread this wealth down.  Of course, this is complete bullshit and defies all evidence and understanding of human nature.  There are some business owners who do this, but they are a rarity.  The main reason income inequality has risen so sharply since Reagan and the conservatives pushed trickle-down policies is because the wealthy often not kind, moral people but rather egocentric, hyper-competitive individuals who want more and more no matter how much they have.  As wealth has become more concentrated in the hands of a few, so too has power. With conservative efforts and policies limiting workers' rights, companies have more power and control over their workers.  With no way for Democrats to stop conservatives from imposing even more company-friendly policies and taking away even more workers' rights. Kansas was just the beta test.  Conservatives want to turn America into a company town.  It's what they want.  It's what they've always wanted. While conservative politicians are in the process of turning America into a company town, conservative voters are more than willing to play along.  How many rural towns are dominated by a single company or sector?  How many rural conservatives work in a mine, plant, business that has economic control of the area?  How many of them have been more than willing to allow the company to hold their town/area hostage when it comes to paying their share of taxes? How many have become so used to and comfortable with the expectation they and their kids will get a job at the company, they don't broaden their education?  How many of these towns haven't diversified their economic base relying too heavily on one company?  Conservative voters have been more than willing to create situations where their economic well-being is reliant on a single company.  When this company becomes outdated or decides to move, the people who allowed it to dominate their area are left with nothing.  When this happens, it isn't the fault of coastal liberal elites or immigrants or social safety net spending.  It is the fault of conservative politicians and conservative voters. The COVID-19 pandemic is laying bare the conservative desire to turn America into a company town. They want people to be completely reliant on their employers for their health insurance, their wages, their well-being, almost everything. They want to undo social safety nets so people will not only have to work longer but be willing to do whatever the company requires just to barely survive. They want workers to be forced to put their health and lives at risk in order to prop up the stock market.  This would be fine if the only people affected were the ones responsible for the situation but they aren't. Everyone in the area is negatively affected when a company controls the economics in that area.  Everyone in the state is affected when conservative politicians allow this to happen across a state. Everyone in the country is affected when enough states allow this to happen and right now, this is exactly what is happening and it is about to get a whole lot worse.  The Republican-led Congress and the Trump administration are going to do everything they can to privatize as many things as they can, undo regulations that keep companies in check, and turn America into a company town.  When this happened in the 1800s, the only thing that stopped it was massive strikes, protests, and a lot of violence. I’m not sure what will have to happen for people to revolt and hold massive strikes. A good chunk of the country seems willing to toe the company line, even at the risk of their lives and others.