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In the wake of Katrina’s long trail of devastation, one thing have been made apparent: America is completely fucked up. Many people already knew this since a good deal of time, at least since Bush took office for a second term, but now, this fact has become completely unavoidable. I mean, we’re talking about the sole superpower on the planet, the one that preaches liberty and capitalism everywhere, the richest nation on earth; yet, they can’t handle helping their own citizens out of their misery. What the hell is wrong in this picture?
Why the hell should we preach capitalism again? What is it so great about it again? What does a “free market” can bring to the people? Yes, I’m talking about the people. I’m talking about all those poor and middle-class people that comprise most of the U.S. population. I want to know how this “capitalism” thing is doing that is so good for them right now. Obviously, it does something good for them; otherwise, they wouldn’t have put a miserable businessman failure up there as their “commander in chief”! I’m still searching what good there is in all of this… or is it? Because right now, it seems the big capitalism boat is starting to sink.
Just look at it this way: people are losing everything they have in a natural disaster, many of them actually lose their life, and on the other hand, oil companies are profiting out of this big time. In the two days that followed Katrina’s devastation, the market value of oil companies stock holdings (U.S. and Canada), rose by 20 billions. Yes, in two days. Oil companies are doing record profits right now as we speak. So not only those companies are profiting from a natural disaster that affected millions of people, but they also used that as an excuse to shaft all the average Joes out there who need to fill up at the pump. Pass the Vaseline please.
Since the hurricane, oil companies have all tripled their profit margins. And this leads me to another point, that being of those companies illegally agreeing on fixing prices to eliminate competition. How can you otherwise explain their ridiculously adjustment on their profit margins by 300%, all at the same time? We’re not talking about the international cost of crude oil. We’re talking here about the profit these companies are making at the oil refinery. Before Katrina, those companies took around 25 cents of profit per gallon. After Katrina, all oil companies chose, all at the same time, to now take around 75 cents of profit per gallon. How’s that possible if they don’t talk to each other and agree on a fixed price? Answer: It’s impossible. You have right here the proof that oil companies are working together to avoid competition as much as possible, which goes against the very essence of a capitalist society, which is, free competition.
Which also bring me to another point. Capitalism would be indeed good for the population if there would be a healthy competition, and a good dose of honesty in it. But that’s far from the case. Simply because the goal of any modern corporation is exactly the contrary, which is, to get rid of the competition and use any trick necessary to convince people to buy their products. If you take a dictionary, and look up the word “capitalism”, I’m pretty sure that what you’ll find won’t apply to most companies nowadays, simply because, by their actions, they don’t adhere to the principle of free market and free competition. Oil companies’ actions, post-Katrina, are amply proving this.
But exactly what a population should do? Every arena of the political spectrum is populated with rich white businessmen. The rich white businessmen are running the show. They’re voting and passing laws that advantages them, that protect their assets (and their asses). They appoint judges who share their own views on both social and economic issues. And every time the poor or the working class ask for a little help, they’re saying they can’t do anything because it will “hurt the economy”, the “economy” being corporate profits. Except when there’s money to be made out of the situation, of course. That’s exactly why Halliburton (yes, them again) has been sent in New Orleans to clean out everything. Here are your billions of dollars in aid, New Orleans citizens. All swallowed by Halliburton, thank you very much. In fact, Halliburton executives should probably send a letter to all American citizens to thank them for their continuous support in helping the company achieving record profits in the recent years. They could AT LEAST send a Christmas card to every American out there saying “Merry Christmas, thanks for your tax dollars…and bend over a bit further please…” all written in cute holiday letters with stars, candies and all that shit.
But seriously...
America, just wake the fuck up!
Your country is turning into a freaking joke, and worse, many citizens haven’t noticed yet. Savage capitalism is, more than ever, creating abysmal gaps in the social tissue. The poor are dying and are in an urgent need of help, yet at the same time, some executive from some energy-related company is swimming in a pool overflowing with money. Katrina only pointed this out to us in a perfectly unavoidable manner. The wealthiest nation on earth is now receiving monetary aid from others, some of them being quite poor. So again, the poor are paying for the rich. We should stop this madness. We should stop this NOW.
The only way to stop this will be to kick out the rich white businessmen from the political arena. But this will probably only be possible when our society will grow a collective pair of balls, something that, I’m afraid, could take some time...
In the meantime, I sincerely hope that people affected by the hurricane get all the help and support they need. Because they deserve it more than oil companies deserve their profits.
Noize out.
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