In a recent poll, 61 percent of respondents
stated that the first thing to do about the budget crisis and severe
cuts in social services is tax the rich. Interestingly enough, the second most
popular choice, selected by 20 percent of respondents, was to severely reduce
so-called defense spending.
Most workers realize that social programs that are
being cut are needed services. Only 4 percent of respondents stated that
Medicare should be cut back, and only 3 percent supported scaling back Social
Security.
Sadly, the government is unlikely to respond to
the desires of the people in this case, despite the level of “democracy” we are
supposed to enjoy here in the United States. Under capitalism, a system of
massive wealth for the very few and increasing poverty and misery for the many,
this unresponsiveness to the will of the people is inevitable.
We cannot expect
the government to concern itself with the economic needs of the masses while it
is controlled by corporate monopolies and big banks. In the
face of their real bosses, the politicians are servants to
the interests of their wealthy puppet masters.
As capitalism continues to spiral down, the gap
between the rich and the working class becomes even more apparent. While
unemployment, underemployment and poverty ravage poor and working communities
and needed social services are put on the chopping block, the government—a
government that exists to serve the capitalist class—positions itself firmly on
the side of those who profit from human need, despite its assertions of being
“democratic.”
Tax cuts for the super wealthy, thought of as foolish by most
people, were extended under Pres. Obama and a Democratic House and Senate in
exchange for the most timid of requests, a 13- month extension of unemployment
benefits for workers desperately trying to survive.
How much longer will the working-class majority
stand by and be trampled by a government that serves only the rich? We are the
majority and we create the wealth of society. The capitalists—a tiny minority
who do not work and create nothing—get rich by stealing the value that we
create over and above wages. In a truly democratic society, exploitation will
be outlawed and the needs of the people will take precedence.
