Serfin' USA - the Feudal Economy is here.

What else do you call working for no pay? Except, you know, slavery.

Tom B. at They Gave Us A Republic does this abomination true justice:

Yeah, it's the wave of the fricking future alright but it's been around forever under various names like slavery, indentured servitude, sharecropping, tenant farming... there's always been a way for fat cats to sit on their fat asses and make fat profits solely by exploiting the people who make them fat.

And believe it or not, some people in the American working class have become so beaten down, so demeaned, so degraded... that being screwed into the ground by some fat toad in a paneled office somewhere for nothing actually BOOSTS their morale and self esteem.

SNIP

There's nothing shameful about being unemployed... especially these days when the goal of fat cats everywhere is to MAKE you that way. There's no reason to feel guilty about needing the help and support of others during hard times... even hard times that have been deliberately engineered by those that profit from the misery of the rest of us.

Once the exploited start not only accepting but actually feeling good about BEING exploited however, we're no longer looking at hard times here, we're looking at doom itself, at least for the working classes and especially the working poor. this young lady is flat assed broke, one spat with the boyfriend away from being homeless, she's working for some company for nothing and while it may not be anything to be ashamed of, it's certainly nothing to feel good about. With acceptance comes complacency and those of us who were around when this country was still being rebuilt after the Wall Street rape fest this one is constatly being compared to, didn't do that rebuild by being complacent.

SNIP

When the hell did Americans become such pussies, ready to lay down in front of every Wall Street steamroller that comes rolling down the hill? This country didn't get to where it is used to be because American workers were constantly willing to accept whatever the hell crumbs were sprinkled on them from on high as their just deserts for doing all the fricking work.

Until a relatively few years ago, the working class could rightfully look upon themselves as the backbone of this country without whom the good shit simply couldn't happen. Now we're thought of as the dregs of humanity riding the coattails of the super rich and the cause of all the BAD shit that happens.

And the worst part of it is that many of them agree with that assessment. Like the battered party in an abusive relationship, they not only tolerate every slap in the face or boot in the ass, they actually go out of the way to ensure that's all they're ever going to get by being willing to settle for it.

If masochism is their thing, that's fine with me but I'm getting goddamned sick and tired of being drug along behind those who are willing to settle for what they can get rather than going after what they're capable of having. Settling for evil only begets more evil.

Read the whole wonderful thing.