Tom the Dancing Bug by Ruben Bolling for July 05, 2018

REPUBLICAN Senator Daniel J. Morrell of Pennsylvania, speaking to Congress in 1866: "The American workingman must live in a house, not a hut; he must wear decent clothes and eat wholesome and nourishing food. He is an integral part of the municipality, the State, and the Nation; subject to no fetters of class or caste; neither pauper, nor peasant, nor serf, but a free American citizen. He has the ballot, and if it were possible it would be dangerous to degrade him.

The country stands pledged to give him education, political power, and a higher form of life than foreign nations accord their laborers, and he must be sustained by higher rates of wages than those of Europe. Our industries operated by American citizens must be freed from foreign interference and organized into a distinct American system, which will exact some temporary sacrifices but result in general prosperity and true national independence. In maintaining diversified industries we utilize every talent, provide a field for every capacity, and bind together the whole people in mutual dependence and support, assuring the strength and security of our Republic."

So, what happened to the Republican Party of 1866? I think they are now called Democrats.

Henry Ford paid his workers because he needed to sell CARS! He knew if they couldn’t afford them, he would not make any money. Today many service workers CANNOT AFFORD TO BUY THE PRODUCTS THEY SERVE! Conservatives are too greedy to see that nor do they care. But American Economy is based ON SPENDING. If half the country has not expendable income, the economy will tank taking their investments with them. Conservatives have no logic skills, only greed, fear and hate.

“Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration.”

I know many people who believe that people’s poverty raises up the economy as a whole….as long it isn’t them that have to be poor.

Consider the rise in CEO pay to the company’s ‘median’ pay. We have now insane ratios. A CEO being paid 103 Million dollars in 2017. Look, if you own the company and want to pay yourself 2 billion a year – more power to you. But if you’re running a publicly traded company, then you are just another employee – albeit, with great responsibility but you are NOT worth 300 times the median (average) wage of your company – its BS, period.

Unfortunately, the world is overpopulated with the “I Got Mines” – the selfish, the greedy, the self-centered, the uncaring, the sociopaths, and the psychopaths.

“Rugged Individualism” is applauded and social justice and ecological preservation is condemned.

Not in my lifetime, nor probably in my children’s, but I fear that in my grandchildren’s lifetime, the world will have reaped the dire consequences from the greed, insensitivity, and social blindness of my generation and the current one.

I always thought it was hilarious that people like Trump and Leona Helmsley (“Taxes? My Dear, ONLY the little people pay taxes!”) will spend 2 or 3 times as much on Lawyer’s fees to avoid paying taxes as the taxes themselves would have cost them!

There are many cases in recent history of a state raising the minimum wage while an adjacent state doesn’t. No effect on employment whatever. (For starters, not many people are free to pack up and move for the sake of another dollar an hour.)

Republican Principle: It’s not enough for me to succeed.

Others must fail.

Like the say, give till’ it hurts.