In the last few days I've read about proposed legislation to make killing doctors who perform abortions legal as justified homicide, proposed elimination of child labor laws, attempts to break unions, such as the assault on the teacher's union in Wisconsin. This week the House will vote on an amendment that would eliminate family planning and lifesaving preventive care to millions of individuals.

After 17 years of fighting in court for some recompense for the deadly environmental damage done to the Ecuadorian Amazonian environment and the poor indigenous people who live there, by Texaco (now Chevron), an Ecuadorian court finally awarded a meager settlement in the case.

Chevron announced that the judgment was unenforceable under their claim that the Ecuadorian Government does not have recognized authority, and then promptly filed an appeal and counter suit against the plaintiffs (30,000 of them) for fraud. This hypocracy after Chevron fought to have the trial moved from the US to Ecuador.

This assault on the poor and middle class in America and elsewhere is nothing new but when the 'tea party' hijacked our last election, it ushered in a new era of unabashed greed by the uber-monied. No longer do they hide behind fringe religious and hate groups and Republicans, attempting to disguise their greed as some sort of higher principle. They have succeeded in convincing the common man that the real threat to “our way of life” are the poor and lazy, who would game the system and fail to pull themselves up by their non-existent bootstraps.

Take for example this gem of a comment from a Facebook thread about the attempted repeal of child labor laws:

“I am in favor of kids learning the benefit of a good work ethic and the value of a dollar. I think parents need to work with a child to help them find a workplace that is good for them and of course they need to be safe. I didn't see anything in the article about sending 12 yr olds to work in dangerous factory conditions. I guess the other side is keeping them out of the workplace, giving them health care until they're 25 and then sending them out to see what the world is like. I'd rather a 20 something have cash in his hand than his hand out waiting for money."

First of all, had this genius gone to school instead of working at 12, he might have learned about straw-man arguments. A 20 something is not covered by child labor laws and keeping a person insured until they're 25 has no relationship whatsoever with getting a job or learning a work ethic.

My 16 year old works hard at school and is learning plenty about work ethic while preparing herself for a life of something better than working in a factory (or a grocery store). She has a job where she's allowed to work 18 hours a week during the school year. That is more than enough non-school work in order for her to do her main job of getting an education and maintaining her near 4.0 GPA while carrying a heavy load of AP Classes.

If it came to it, I'd make her quit her job to keep her grades up. We, as a society, need our teenagers in school getting educated much more than we need them making sneakers for Nike in some sweatshop.

When we talk of bringing our overseas jobs back to America, creating 3^rd world sweatshops in America is not what we have in mind.

Clearly the uber-rich have won the battle for the feeble minds of feeble-minded Americans. The irony is that they have become so greedy in the “too much is just right” mentality that they've begun to eat the goose. Without the middle class, to whom are they going to sell their non-union uneducated child-produced goods?

We can only hope that before the goose is consumed or starves to death, it is smart enough to eat its master.

_{Photo stolen from here.}