Progressive Thinking An Oxymoron

The morning paper always brings indications that the Neo-Marxists, now called Progressives, simply don’t understand economics, politics, or people. They continue their attacks on that moron in the White House, without actually specifically describing his failures and attributing his successes to the invisible and not so invisible puppet-masters. But their lack of thinking and understanding go far beyond this because they simply cannot give up their commitment to individual “rights”. Among these rights we find the right to hold a job – not any job but a job that pays a “living wage”. Presumably what this means is that these narco-illiterates must be given jobs that allow them to continue supporting their various offspring, keep up their child support, maintain their drug habits, and keep a roof over their heads. Therefore, it is time to raise the minimum wage apparently on the assumption that these minimum wage jobs should allow for the foregoing.

Then we find the right to an education. Of course for most of us taxpayers, we think that this right already exists. The public schools are available to everyone but of course you have to actually attend the classes. These means getting up early, catching the bus, going to class, and actually listening to what is being taught and of course – doing the work. Unfortunately, that four letter word “work” keeps appearing and those people, who were raised on the progressive ideas of entitlement, work never enters the equation. After all – what was the purpose of affirmative action? The whole idea was to provide the “minorities” with an equal opportunity to get an education at a prestigious university, without actually doing all of the work to either get there or stay there. Fortunately the alarm has been sounded within the minority community and while the progressives continue to beat the drum of racism it is sounding more and more like a dirge and less and less like a call to arms.

But to return to the morning paper, we find that the union movement is spending most of its time and money on political causes – causes generally not supported by the membership – and less and less on organization and recruiting. Naturally the real issue here is the anti-labor Republicans are in power and everything must be done to return the progressives to power. However, when you read the fine print, it seems that the overly generous benefits garnered by the unions, is killing jobs. It seems that the UAW members pay only 7% of their healthcare costs while the average American pays 32%. The Japanese auto manufacturers have approximately $1400 in profit in each vehicle with $400 going to healthcare. General Motors has only $700 in profit in each vehicle with $1000 going to healthcare. Of course nothing is said about the featherbedding and counterproductive union rules that keep excess employees and slow down the manufacturing process and even less is said about the declining membership which is driven by the declining number of jobs.

The progressives cannot give up their idea of rights and the responsibility of the government to redistribute wealth more equitably. Essentially these neo-Marxists, which is what they are, think that those people who worked hard, who attended school, who got an education or training that prepared them for the workforce, are obligated to share what they earn with the “less fortunate.” How I hate that term because the implication is that those who worked hard some how “got lucky” and got a good high paying job, while those who slacked off in school, who failed to get an education, who had multiple children they couldn’t afford, and who are too lazy to fix the situation, deserve to share in the wealth generated by the hard worker. This idea of wealth redistribution is called ‘progressive taxation (ironic or honest terminology -??)” and masquerades under the banner of “equality”. Of course the actual term is “egalitarianism`” which is the cornerstone of Marxism, but the Progressives really expect to take your money and redistribute it, not theirs. They are truly the embodiment of Orwell’s Animal Farm – where some Pigs are more equal than others.