Fuck customers. The investor is always right. Part IV.
Let’s begin the New Year talking about loooooove. Loooooove and the Investor Class.
Also posted on my site.
FC. TIIAR. Part II. Part III.
“One of the biggest travesties of the Trump presidency was how America’s business elites stood silently by him in order to secure billions in tax cuts.
This is how fascism takes hold.”
— Robert Reich
Here we are, kicking off 2022.
Another year of transforming the business landscape, from one which places consumers’ needs above all else into a system that puts the wealthy folks’ requirements — giant yachts…high-dollar divorce lawyers…those kinds of things— above all else.
The machine of American commerce once believed that the customer was always right, no matter what. Customers bought the products. So their opinion mattered more than anyone else’s.
But now we know the truth: the investor is always right. We know this because Elon Musk said so and he is Iron Man.
As an economic ethos, Fuck customers. The investor is always right. reeks of loooooove energy. Not love, mind you…
Loooooove.
In the 1960s, corporations paid about a third of Federal Revenues. Now they pay one-tenth. And investors loooooove this.
Why not start off 2022 all positive and talk about loooooove?
Bow-chi-chi-chi-BOW.
A recent world event — the rampant spread of Covid-19 — can be used to create a quick comparison that should convey the differences between love and loooooove:
• Right now, a person in this country is crying and saying to themselves, “I just lost my loved one to Covid-19. And I am so sad because I wish I could have told them that I love them, one last time.”
• At the same time, another person in this country is giggling and saying to themselves, “Whoa, brah! All of us wealthy whitefolks got vaccinated and then told Fox News-watching whitefolks to stay unvaccinated — and they did it! Which has led to like…850,000 deaths! While that’s sad, hey: the stock market’s doin’ great. And I loooooove that news!”
See the difference between love and loooooove?
In my first book, a dark comedy called Fearkiller (Volume 1), I devoted a whole chapter to loooooove. The excerpt takes place in October of 2008 during the beginnings of the mortgage crisis.
Loooooove. Bow-chi-chi-chi-BOW.
Loooooove and predatory capitalism go together like Donald Trump and syphilis.
If you’re wondering why the country believes it’s so necessary for the US Treasury to give handouts to the wealthy and corporations — even though it explodes our deficit — there’s a perfectly good reason for this.
What is that reason?
Loooooove.
What makes a company “investor-friendly” these days?
Loooooove.
Investors loooooove monopolies.
Investors loooooove tax avoidance.
Investors loooooove the recent inflation fearmongering. (On a related note, investors loooooove price gouging.)
Investors loooooove wage theft.
Investors loooooove carried-interest loopholes.
Investors loooooove PPP loans.
Investors loooooove layoffs.
Investors loooooove food stamps.
Investors loooooove Medicaid.
With all of that said, what don’t investors loooooove?
Investors do not love the type of capitalism which — while far from perfect — built this country. The capitalism that paved the way for the modern Investor Class — yeah, the modern Investor Class hates that capitalism.
We find ourselves at a point where the economic principles that spurred the Industrial Revolution forward, through the Post-WWII economic boom, have been replaced. By practices that only favor the wealthy.
Earlier periods in our history were never equal for Black and brown people. I would be ignorant if I said otherwise. But a statistic from Pew Research can tell you a lot about the damage done to the Middle Class, overall, during the last fifty years:
“The share of American adults who live in middle-income households has decreased from 61% in 1971 to 51% in 2019. During this time, the share of adults in the upper-income tier increased from 14% to 20%, and the share in the lower-income tier increased from 25% to 29%.”
If that stat got you excited, guess what? You might be all about the loooooove. Which means you are an overprivileged sociopath. And most likely white.
Yes, millions and millions of folks migrated to the upper income bracket, but millions and millions of folks also migrated to the lower income bracket.
Needless suffering is not a good thing.
Sure, some rich people loooooove the idea that millions live in poverty while the wealthy aim for the loooooove stratosphere.
But again: this is not a good thing.
It’s pathetic that I have to say so.
Part I. Part II. Part III. Also riffing off of:
• MAGA folks don’t really like cops. But they loooooove the idea of cops.
• America will so rock at this fascism thing. Trust me: I released four books during the 2010s.
• The 1% pay enough in taxes to start wars, but not enough to finish them.
• The 2010s: billionaires bitched, their racist bitches died off early.
• September 11th, 2001. The best day ever for high-functioning sociopaths.
• The 1% need a tax increase. Their souls cry out for it.
• The New Einsatzgruppen wants to talk fatherhood. Oh, boy!
• Open letter to a selfie of my drunk-ass self, taken on August 11th, 2001.
I write fiction and have two dark comedies available, Fearkiller (Volume 1) and Notes from Trillionaire Island: Fearkiller (Volume 2), as well as Revolutionizer Alpha, the first book in a sci-fi series. I also wrote a story about God. It was weird, but then I decided to make the story and its sequel free. And all of the sudden, it didn’t seem as weird. Writing about God is much less weird when you write about God without charging money for it. Here’s my professional site, my trade.
