“Thus did a handful of rapacious citizens come to control all that was worth controlling in America. Thus was the savage and stupid and entirely inappropriate and unnecessary and humorless American class system created. Honest, industrious, peaceful citizens were classed as bloodsuckers, if they asked to be paid a living wage. And they saw that praise was reserved henceforth for those who devised means of getting paid enormously for committing crimes.”
Kurt Vonnegut
is that from “God Bless You Mr Rosewater?” I like to think I know my Vonnegut.
Personally, my favorite is “We’re here to help each other through this thing, whatever it is.”
B- for the first and last sentences. Minus because KV was just spouting lefty nonsense in the rest and probably didn’t really understand why the first and last sentences were worth contemplating.
If anyone in the world got a living wage — and then some — it was Americans who had the good fortune to live in one of the most vibrant, dynamic, productive countries in human history. Americans didn’t beg for anything. They just acquired skills and made something of themselves. No one EVER called American workers bloodsuckers. KV was just being ridiculous.
Americans have been sold out but that’s another story. Whether they “see” that is not likely, given they way they respond to polls and the morons for whom they vote.