A Matter of Perspective

Those of you who are so sure this is a hoax or a conspiracy, listen up, and then think.

Who’s at greatest financial risk from this virus.  Answer: the wealthy.  The stock market is crashing. American Senators dumped their stocks just prior to the fall after receiving confidential information about the seriousness of this virus. That’s illegal. Will they get away with it? Probably.

How many poor people do you know who give a shit about the stock market?  They don’t have stocks and bonds, do they? They are living paycheck to paycheck and still not making it.  Why?  Because they aren’t paid a living wage for their hard work, that’s why.

Those who imagine that the wealthy and powerful are faking this to get more power over us are missing the facts: we’re already enslaved to them. They already have us by the balls. The infrastructure they rely on to move their manufactured goods, for instance, was built by us, not just physically, but using our tax dollars. (The wealthy have ample loopholes to avoid paying taxes. Why do you think Trump won’t show us his tax returns? C’mon! Think!) So they use our roads and bridges to move their goods which were made and financed by poorly paid labour.  And you imagine they want more?  Fact is, they’re suffering financial losses from all this.

Who's getting preferential treatment in this?  Why, the wealthy and famous of course. There are tests a-plenty for them.  But if we go to the hospital with symptoms but haven’t traveled recently (where can we afford to go?) we don’t get a test. And yet who’s at greatest risk of human to human contact?  Why, we are. Because while the wealthy and well-known are safely sequestered in their lovely homes, who is out there in the world, taking care of business?  Stock people, clerks, site attendants, garbage collectors... all those “essential”services.  Not to mention doctors and nurses.

Let’s look at the overview now: who’s safe in their homes after having been tested?  The rich and famous. Who’s at the greater risk of exposure and can’t get a test? The working poor.

Well, that seems cushy, except for that falling stock market, eh?

So why are companies suddenly giving some of their workers raises?  Why are some landlords waiving immediate rent payments? Why are gov’ts giving the working class an allowance to help them get by? (Mnuchin thinks $1200. should last you 10 weeks.) Is it out of some genuine concern for us and some sudden benevolence or generosity on their part?

It’s because they need us.

The world turns on the backs of the underpaid, overworked and over-taxed. This is what you need to notice and understand. The rich and powerful aren’t faking this pandemic. It’s been thrust upon them, it’s lowering the value of their stocks, and it’s killing their workers. They very much want things back to normal where we’re increasing their wealth for them. They had it good already. Same goes for gov’t. We might grumble, but we pay those taxes, those rents, those prices for goods and services and for the most part, we obey those laws, even the stupid ones.  They all have us by the balls, no hoax needed.

Conspiracy theories are only going to distract people from the truth... that things need to change, and that maybe this pandemic will actually cause some change in favour of the working poor. The ones that don’t die that is.

I have one “friend” who is sure it’s a hoax. “Use your own brain,” he says.  Yeah. Use it.  Please. Take every precaution you can to protect yourself from this novel virus that comes to us from selfish human abuse of wild animals, and that’s killing us. Do not even imagine that you are invincible. Protect yourself, your families and your friends. Not just so you can go back to working hard for the man, but so you can live to help change our society.