The $175 Burger

[waldopaper]

There's a really good metaphor/ analogy in the “$175 Burger,” considering the portion (nearly half) of the world's population that lives on the equivalent of $2 a day. Those $4 "cheap" burgers are 2 days' "wages."

Now... imagine a bunch of stock brokers, bankers and derivative fund floozies having a food fight with the $175 burgers... and there's the world view of the USA's "global war on terror."

It’s all about perspective. Think of it as altitude. ‘Ever been in an airliner at 40,000 feet and you see the stratus deck waaaayyy down there? You are further above those clouds than you are below them when you’re on the ground, and only 100 years ago nothing saw that deck from above except the stars.

In the “developed world,” we think we are prosperous and “free” because we can afford to ride a bus. And that SUV that just whizzed by? That was your boss. See that light twin piston aircraft up there just below the deck? Those are the middle managers… the people who sit on the boards and are part of the “senior management team” of your employer’s holding company, making their way to a small private field.

Now you can’t see it… it’s above the clouds… further than you are below them aboard the wheezy greasy “middle class Amerikkka” bus… there’s a Boeing 747 (like Air Force One) or an Airbus A380. That’s where the food fight is going on with the $175 burgers… lighting farts with $1000 bills… snorting coke off live lobsters… they’re having a helluva party. THAT’s the REAL “senior management team.”

But remember… they’re still only “managers.” Too Much. Above the atmosphere itself are the “owners” in some kind of orbital vehicle. We can only speculate about who THEY are. The Owners feed $175 burgers to their Attack Dogs.

What- did you think this was about rising food prices? Well… it is.

[BO]

Excellent. Well done. This one needs to be propagated onto sites--like the SC--where readers/posters still think politics has anything to do with our current condition.

Feudalism is alive (it never died) and well. It's so fucking simple, why don't people get it?

Greed and Good sums it up nicely. Now all we need is Good vs. Greed.

[Cal]

Referring to your link to "The Great Iraq Swindle" - gosh - are things really that bad with the US of A? That's the kind of stuff one expects from Africa ... where it is all blamed on the evils of a colonial past ... although that particular rhetoric has long since past its sell-by-date. Horrifying to read about things like that emanating from the 'leading light of western civilisation'. I think I shall give over to total depression today - it is getting very difficult to know where to fit in anywhere and participate in life worthy of living ... sighs heavily ....

[curt]

had to think of you Cal, the other day. SA was in the news. The killings. Obviously, MSM is filtering great amounts before presenting us with their watered down version of SA. I admit to not knowing the first thing about life in the USA even though I come from there. I do know a bit of history, though. That last link in waldo's piece.....I read very carefully, a few years ago. A friend who was a friend of the author suggested I read it to better understand his situation. Many lights went on after reading a ton of material. Born in the USA in 1960, I was born into what had already become a fascist police state. The disguises kept my sight blurred for the longest time. The distance between me and the US + my personal developments have served to provide a much clearer view of what lies ahead. The painful, most painful part of it all is the loneliness. It's like going blind and finally seeing colours. You cannot explain it to anyone who is not enduring the same situation. Madness usually follows but I treat the onset of madness the same as I treated the onset of depression ; self-induced and controlled. That's why we're here.