Why Morality Matters

 Why Morality Matters

by C.A. Matthews

America is in its last days. We are suffering from late-stage cancer--er, capitalism. Perhaps my Freudian slip is closer to the truth than many think. Our world is dying because of the long-held belief that rich men know what's best for the rest of us. That is, somehow the obscenely wealthy actually care for their fellow human beings.

If we're honest with ourselves,we know that's not true. The one-percent care for one thing and one thing only--their net worth. Their fellow humans are an afterthought. We are simply here to serve the rich man and to do his bidding. Above all, we're not supposed to get in his way or confound his plans to amass more wealth because of his "golden rule" that states, "One can never have enough gold to rule."

In a purely capitalistic society everyone must meet his/her needs by selling needed products and services. Those who cannot sell (or entice anyone to buy) their products or services are poor. They become dependent on their relatives or other kindhearted people to provide for them--food, clothing, housing, etc. 

In recent times this list also includes providing funds for education or training and health care coverage via a private insurer. When a family cannot afford to provide these necessities for one or more family members, they often all go without. Capitalism sees this unfortunate situation as a necessary evil. You can't sell enough of your product or service because of a natural disaster or unfair trade practices favoring the rich over the working poor? You don't eat. You don't have a place to live of your own (or a home at all). You don't have access to health care even if you or a loved one becomes seriously ill.

Persons who don't produce don't have a reason to exist in a purely capitalistic society. Infants, toddlers, children--they don't produce products or services so they're not needed, are they? The elderly who can no longer work--not needed. The disabled--not needed. People who cannot provide a wanted or needed product or service--not needed.

"But," you say, "We don't throw our children or our blind grandmothers under the bus! We take care of them." If you are able to provide 100% of their care without taking any aid from the government, then you are free to keep the non-necessary people in your household, just as you would take care of a cat or dog. No one can tell you how to spend your money, right? But if you ever find you can't afford these non-productive individuals, or no longer wish to care for them, they will become a burden to society and will have to go.

How do we get rid of these unnecessary and unwanted individuals in a purely capitalistic society? Through the cheapest and easiest methods, one supposes. We stop feeding them. We don't give them health care when they need it. We don't worry if they're homeless or not, unless they are cluttering up our local park benches or sidewalks--then we give them a one-way bus ticket out of town or lock them up in a for-profit prison and force them to work for free. 

It makes sense in a capitalistic society. You don't waste your resources, and you certainly don't waste time and energy on maintaining unnecessary "eaters." You let them die off and fade away.

Is this the sort of society you envision America becoming?

Can you see why morality matters now? Do you have a picture in your mind of how late-stage capitalism acts like a cancer upon our country? The United States isn't a purely capitalistic society, of course. We have instituted several socialistic programs over the last 100 years or so, such as a progressive income tax, Social Security benefits, Medicare and Medicaid. 

When people argue about the "evils of socialism" they seem to forget that without Social Security/Medicare/Medicaid their grandparents might not be able to pay their heating bills or afford to go to the doctors or pay for a bed in a nursing home if they need one. By accepting a "social safety net" for our most vulnerable family members, Americans are acknowledging the fact that we are  already practicing "socialism."

Democratic Socialism is the idea of instituting social safety net programs such as universal health care while maintaining a democratic form of government, one where all can vote and no one is prevented from voting because of race, gender, religion, etc. Alas, Democratic Socialism is often confused by right-wing commentators with Soviet-styled Communism. 

Soviet-styled Communism is authoritarian. It is a government led by an authoritarian leader or governing body. Democratic Socialism on the other hand supports grassroots democracy. The voice of the people is paramount in a Democratic Socialistic society and becoming active in the governing of society is encouraged. It provides social safety nets for the vulnerable members because the people demand a moral and just society. It sees all Americans as equals and having the same rights. Democratic Socialism affirms the dignity of all individuals since all individuals are seen as worthy of having those rights.  Money, class, race, religious preference or gender does not make one person better than another or deserving of more rights than other members of the society.

Whenever someone tells you that morality has no place in a discussion of American politics or government, tell them you believe in a moral and just society, not a selfish and immoral one. Remind them of the social safety nets Americans already have in place and ask them if  they're willing to give them up. Let them know that, if they should become sick or disabled, you're not financially able to care for them or that you believe only certain classes of people deserve to be helped. That statement alone might make them think twice about why morality matters. Nobody likes feeling unwanted.

After all, no man is an island. We exist in society. The word society comes from the Latin for "community." A moral and just society is healthy and productive. And even a die-hard capitalist can see that a productive community is a profitable one, right?

Morality matters because all human beings matter. Make a difference today. Practice moral behaviors and support moral causes.

More on this topic--
Alienation 2.0: Commodification of the Soul in Late-Stage Capitalism:
https://www.johnlaurits.com/2018/alienation-labor-soul-commodification/

Instances of Immorality in the News This Week: 

Gun Violence by the Numbers:
https://everytownresearch.org/gun-violence-by-the-numbers/

Hundreds Allege Donald Trump Doesn't Pay His Bills:
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2016/06/09/donald-trump-unpaid-bills-republican-president-laswuits/85297274/

White People Explain Why They Feel Oppressed:
http://theantimedia.org/rent-for-sex-landlords-exploit-broke-millennials/?utm_source=The+Anti-Media+Newsletter&utm_campaign=06c1b7782e-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_02_05&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_177e8c8195-06c1b7782e-25664505

Landlords' Exploitation of Millennials--Rent for Sex:http://theantimedia.org/rent-for-sex-landlords-exploit-broke-millennials/?utm_source=The+Anti-Media+Newsletter&utm_campaign=06c1b7782e-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_02_05&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_177e8c8195-06c1b7782e-25664505

Porn Star Stormy Daniels Sues Donald Trump Over "Null and Void" Disclosure Statement:
http://time.com/5188928/stormy-daniels-suing-donald-trump-over-nondisclosure/

Here's the story of an individual who takes the immorality of Western culture's "throw away" mentality and turns it into beautiful art and functional furniture:

https://youtu.be/g73esx9z37s



Democratic Socialism in a Nutshell:

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 From the Sum of Us:

More than 837 institutions with total assets of more than $6 trillion, have committed to stop investing in fossil fuels companies, taking a clear stance against the main drivers of climate change. But the Nobel Foundation is not one of them -- yet.

Last year the foundation which awards the Nobel Prizes, was forced by campaigners to divest entirely from nuclear weapons-related companies. Public pressure works!

Let’s add our voices today to the climate activists in Sweden, and Nobel laureates around the world, calling on the institution they love to divest from fossil fuels:

Ask the Nobel Foundation to divest from all fossil fuels.

It will take more than withdrawing Nobel’s money to topple oil and gas giants like Exxon, BP and Shell. But a public commitment to divest from all fossil fuels, from one of the world’s most famous foundations, would be worth its weight in gold as a signal to wealthy institutions everywhere.

The Nobel Prize was awarded to Al Gore and the world’s top climate scientists in 2007. It’s high time that the Nobel Foundation took the next step, and put its money where its mouth is. Responsible investors should no longer be profiting from the destructive activities of corporations like Exxon, BP and Shell. And especially not the Nobel Foundation, which aims to highlight work done for the benefit of mankind.

Fossil Free Sweden began their Nobel Divestment campaign in 2016, after they successfully persuaded the cities of Malmö and Stockholm to divest from fossil fuels. Since then more than 20 Nobel laureates and scientists from around the world have joined the campaign.

The campaign demands that the Nobel Foundation:

• Immediately adopt a new investment policy -- where financial investments that the Nobel Foundation manages are not allowed to be invested in companies that gain more than 5% of their revenue from coal, oil and gas
• Adopt a plan for how to divest all assets within those companies within a 5-year period
• Report the transition process in an open and transparent fashion
• Publicly declare the foundation will divest, i.e. clearly show the intention to completely cease with financial investments in the fossil fuel industry
• Call for other institutions to follow suit

Sign the petition to tell the Nobel Foundation to stop profiting from corporations fueling climate change.

SumOfUs members have weighed in many times to help climate activists and frontline defenders, facing near impossible odds against giant oil pipelines, coal mines, and other fossil fuels projects. We're also pressuring clothing brands to make their supply chains go green, and help spur a planet-saving energy revolution. Let’s raise our voices again to make the Nobel Foundation wake up and finally divest from fossil fuels.

 Sign the Petition 

Thanks for all that you do,
Eoin and the team at SumOfUs

More information:

Open Letter to Nobel Foundation Nobel laureates and scientists. 7 December 2016.

Divestment Commitments 350.org. 2018.

Six Questions and Answers on the Investments of the Nobel Foundation Nobel Foundation. 2017.

***

From Credo:

NRATV is the gun lobby’s propaganda arm. It spreads dangerous misinformation and inflammatory, racist rhetoric to further the NRA’s “guns everywhere” agenda. And it’s brought to you by Apple, Amazon, Google and Roku, that help amplify the NRA’s extremist voice by offering NRATV on their platforms.

Since the Parkland shooting, thanks to activism from CREDO members and people all over the country, the NRA has been under relentless attack. Polling after the Parkland shooting showed record high support for gun control as well as a growing belief that the NRA’s policies are bad for the country.¹   Corporations are abandoning their NRA partnerships in droves.²

Now is the time to go after the NRA from every angle. That’s why we are joining with our friends at Everytown for Gun Safety to increase the pressure on NRATV providers. The more of us who raise our voices, the stronger our pressure will be.


Tell Apple, Amazon, Google and Roku: Dump NRATV. Click here to sign the petition.


NRATV promotes dangerous conspiracy theories, racially charged rhetoric and violent demonization of the NRA's political opponents.³ Their hosts and guests have recently compared their political opponents to Nazis and ISIS, seemed to advocate for violence against peaceful protesters, demonized the Black Lives Matter movement and relentlessly attacked the media. After Parkland, NRATV hosts and guests “spoke chillingly of leftist plots to confiscate weapons, media conspiracies to brainwash Americans into supporting gun control and a “deep state” campaign to undermine President Trump.”⁴


There is no question that the NRA is to blame for our country’s gun violence epidemic. There is also no question that our activism is closing the gap between their power and ours. Part of our power is consumer power, and now is the time to use it.


Streaming services like Apple, Amazon, Google and Roku need to know that we expect them to make ethical decisions about the content they provide on their platforms. They also need to get the message loud and clear that we will hold them accountable if they continue to promote the dangerous extremism that comes from NRATV. Click the link below to tell Apple, Amazon, Google and Roku: Dump NRATV:

https://act.credoaction.com/sign/dump_NRATV?t=7&akid=27612%2E7206293%2Eg1dCSz

Thanks for helping us stand up to the NRA,
Heidi Hess, Co-Director CREDO Action from Working Assets

Add your name:

References:

1. Quinnipiac Poll, "U.S. Support For Gun Control Tops 2-1, Highest Ever, Quinnipiac University National Poll Finds; Let Dreamers Stay, 80 Percent Of Voters Say," Feb. 20, 2018
2. Kira Lerner and Josh Israel, "The NRA is being supported by these companies," ThinkProgress, Feb. 20, 2018
3. Cydney Hargis, "A guide to NRATV: NRA's news outlet is a hybrid of Breitbart and Infowars," Media Matters, Mar. 2, 2018.
4. Jeremy W. Peters and Katie Benner, "Where the N.R.A. Speaks First and Loudest," The New York Times, Feb. 21, 2018.

Top Ten Reasons Why I Support Bernie

 

If you're out at the Star Wars premiere this weekend, you might see members of Bernie's Light Brigade with lighted signs. Tell them you support Bernie, too, and share your thoughts with others in line who may not have heard about him yet. Feel the Bern and may the Force be with you--always!

Now, to quote Julie Andrews from yet another movie classic (The Sound of Music): "Snowflakes and sleighbells and schnitzel with noodles, brown geese that fly with the moon on their wing...These are a few of my favorite things!" 

This week our blogger tells us his favorite things about the senator from Vermont. Read on and see if you don't agree with him. What other things do you like about Bernie? Share them in the comments below. Better yet, write us a blog article and submit it. We'd love to hear from you.

Top Ten Reasons Why I Support Bernie

by Terry Pensel

10) Equality

Bernie Sanders has supported equality and has been active in the civil rights movement from the sixties. He wants everybody to have an equal opportunity at an education, a decent standard of living, and a secure dignified retirement. He believes no one in a country as great as ours should work 40 hours or more a week and still live in poverty.  He is against discrimination by race, gender, sexual orientation, origin, age, and creed. If you don’t believe that all people deserve an equal opportunity, then to me you don’t believe in democracy.

9) Infrastructure

Unlike his opponents, Bernie wants to rebuild this country's infrastructure. We need to repair our bridges, highways, railroads, dams, levees, and schools. This is a function of government to develop municipal projects that improve the well-being of everyone. Even the former Speaker of the House, John Boehner, stated, “We badly need infrastructure improvements, but we have no money for it.” The problem is that Republicans won’t raise taxes on the corporations that pay nothing in federal income tax, or on the top 1% who pay a lower percentage of tax than ordinary people like teachers, truck drivers or electricians. 
 

8) Free Post-High School Public Education

This is a way of life for people in Europe.  Many countries pay for college students to go to school. The return on higher education investment is about six times for every dollar spent. Other countries have done this and continue to do it, and they are reaping the benefits with more high tech jobs, less social problems, better economic conditions and less poverty. The US, on the other hand, has the highest post-high school educational costs, the highest student debt rate, as well as lower paying jobs and less benefits.

7) Tax Code Fairness

Whether you use the Warren Buffett example, or a corporate welfare example, anyone who studies our tax code with any scruples at all can see it’s designed and written to benefit the very, very wealthy.  At least 57% of the new wealth is going to the top 1%, which means people who are making $231,000 per year are making even more and paying a lower percentage of their income in federal taxes.  If we increase just their tax rates, eliminate corporate welfare, offshore tax havens, and other tax loopholes, we would have enough money for all the infrastructure improvements, free health care, and free public higher education we collectively need as a society.

6) History of Progressive Politics

Bernie has a history of progressive politics. You can look at his voting record and what all he has fought for and his principles. You'll find he is very consistent and taken principled stands on the big issues and has been a leader in progressive politics for years. He stood up against the Iraq War. He promotes the single payer plan for universal free health care. He stands up for free public higher education, and daycare and paid family leave for new and parents of young children. All these benefits are a regular part of socialized democratic countries in Europe as well as Australia, New Zealand and Japan.

5) Integrity

This is a big point that everyone needs to consider when selecting any candidate. What do they talk about, and what won't they talk about. Many of the presidential candidates will not talk about tax code changes, exporting/outsourcing jobs overseas, offshore tax havens, for-profit prisons, monopolized industries, big pharma price gouging, out-of-control CEO salaries, huge billion dollar trade imbalances, or police brutality. 

Bernie knows what people are concerned about, and he fights for their interests.  If a candidate starts talking about Planned Parenthood, illegal immigrants, welfare people living high on the hog, takers, totalitarianism, losing your liberty and freedoms, Muslim Sharia law takeover and religious freedoms, they are really trying to make you surrender to fear and scapegoating the poor, so they can continue the economic/social relationships they have helped to create. 

Many of the candidates running don’t want any real or fundamental change in society. They are comfortable being the lackeys of the top 1% who want to take away what little social benefits we have fought for such as minimum wage laws, overtime, benefits, OSHA laws, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, environmental laws, food stamps, and unemployment benefits. Who do these candidates represent, the American public or their rich campaign donors? They want to extend the exploitation and servitude of workers to the status quo.

4) Truth 

I have reviewed Bernie’s numbers on various social and economic issues such as wealth inequality, poverty, unemployment, factories that have moved or shut down since 2001, prisons, pharmaceutical prices, health care costs. The media has not really questioned his numbers. I have vetted the numbers, and I have had no serious challenges on statistics on social/economic relationships Bernie talks about. We are on a downward spiral as a government, a people, and a society. Bernie has a plan and wants genuinely do right by the working people of this country. He stands for their collective interest. He is not afraid of the truth and promotes it everywhere in everything he does. 

3) Medicine/Big Pharma/Health Insurance/Big Money Hospitals

One of the biggest differences between Bernie and everyone else in the field running for president is his stance on health care.  Every major industrialized country has health care as a basic right. Bernie calls the U.S. health care system a national embarrassment. He wants a single payer system like many other countries have. 

The biggest problem with our health care system is it is based on a for-profit model. Health Insurance companies provide no medical services, but take one-third of every dollar spent on health care. Before Obamacare, there was no regulation with regards to profit. No other country spends as much per citizen on health care than the U.S. We spend the most on prescription drugs--anywhere between 3 to 20 times more than other countries for the same drugs made by the same drug manufacturers. We have non-profit hospitals that have CEO and administrators receiving mid-six to seven figure salaries. We need health care as a right, not some privilege only for the elite.  

2) Democracy 

This has been forgotten, but it is worth understanding who Bernie really is. He wants everyone to participate in the political process. He wants everyone to vote, debate and work out the problems of our society and come together to find collective solutions. He talks how Republicans are working hard to shut down early voting, absentee voting and late evening voting. 

Secondly, he is against the excessive stringent ID requirements that keep working class people from getting a voter ID card. Example: A former Speaker of the House, Jim Wright, could not register to vote with his expired driver license and his TCU faculty ID card. The purpose of these new voter ID laws is to keep minorities, working class and poor people from voting, period. Voter fraud is so low that it does not constitute even half of a percent of the total vote, but denying people access to the vote pays huge benefits to the party that does not have the majority to win an election. 

 Bernie is for honest democratic elections and automatic voter registration at age 18. Even more importantly, he wants to eliminate Citizens United that allows a billionaire or large corporation to donate unlimited sums of money to a political candidate. Big money has ruined our democracy, and we have to stand up against the richest and powerful people and organizations that subvert our regulations, our standard of living, and our economic rights.

1) Big Issues

Finally, Bernie wants to talk about the big issues: universal health care, free public higher education, paid family leave, excessive student loan debt, raising the minimum wage to a living wage, poverty, exporting jobs overseas, tax code fairness, inner city youth unemployment, infrastructure repair and improvements, trade deficits, and police brutality.  

Just listen to what other presidential candidates don't talk about, and ask yourself why are they not talking about the big issues. The big issue for other presidential candidates is to maintain the status quo.  One in eleven corporations pay zero federal income tax. Corporations get tax breaks to export jobs overseas. Sixty thousand factories since 2001 have moved overseas or shutdown.  Multi-national companies move their headquarters overseas to elude U.S. tax laws. Corporations overseas don’t have to follow environmental laws, OSHA laws or labor laws such as a minimum wage, overtime or pay benefits. 

The world climate is changing for the worse, and we have wrestle control of this country away from the ultra-rich or we will all suffer. Bernie is fighting for our interests. We need to help ourselves and fight on the big issues with Bernie.

Bio: Terry Pensel says: "I have been a progressive political activist since the late 1980's. I have been championed universal health care, free higher education, and decent living wages. I have a AAS in Electrical Engineering from Hawkeye Community College, Waterloo, Iowa. I have attended University of Illinois at Chicago, and DePaul University in Chicago. I do some web development, and IT support. My hobbies include playing the ukulele, teaching the ukulele, and biking. "

This weekend is twice as special. First, there's the Star Wars premiere and then on December 19th is the next Democratic Debate. Are you throwing a debate watch party/rally? Awesome! Want to attend one? Go to http://map.berniesanders.com/ and type in your zip code to find a party near you. Bring your spouse, significant other and/or a friend along. Introduce them to the best candidate running for the White House--Bernie Sanders!