I Help Pay Your Mortgage

The latest Teabagger B. S. [bumper sticker] to provoke me is the one that says, "Honk if you paid my mortgage!" The obvious intent is to proclaim that "You didn't pay my mortgage, so why should I help pay for yours?" It goes to the core idea of teabagger isolationism: I am where I am without outside help, so I'm done with helping anyone else.

As usual, Teabaggers can only imagine threats, not all of the support they receive from others, directly and indirectly. Here are ways that I help pay your mortgage, Mr. or Ms. Tea Party:

• Are you receiving any government services or funds, whether State, Local or Federal? If so, as a taxpayer, I am helping to pay your mortgage.
• As a consumer, I have purchased goods and services with local, state and national connections. Indirectly, my purchases eventually help you to pay for your mortgage.
  
• As a donor to various causes, it may also be that my contributions have found a way through our vast business network to enable you to pay your mortgage.

No, I alone have not paid your mortgage. But you are not alone, either. Together we have helped to pay each others' mortgages. If you are part of a Social Cooperative, this is the responsibility to one another.

The Market is Not God

Republicans treat the Market as if it was something sacred, like a God unto itself. They worship the “invisible hand” that moves through the Market as if it was God’s hand, dispensing riches or ruin upon mortals in a vast pageant of divine reward and punishment. “Thou shalt not meddle in the Market” is their 11th Commandment, for the Market is a just and omniscient God. Those who sin before the Market shall know Hell, while those who are pure in economic deed and spirit shall prevail. It is blasphemy to advocate secular intervention in the Market. How can we mortals be wiser, or more just? Such is the Market Theology of Republicans.

It is willful self-delusion. The Market is fallible, it can be tricked and defrauded. It is without morals or compassion. It is indifferent to the plights of the populace, and it destroys good people along with the evil. There is nothing divine about it.

The Market is really no more than a tool devised by humans to enhance their survival and pleasure. It is no more sacred than a hammer. A hammer can be useful in many situations, but it is not useful in every situation. Neither is The Market. Furthermore, people have created different kinds of hammers to fit different tasks. There are “claw” hammers, sledgehammers, rubber mallets and gavels. Can you imagine someone declaring that there should be only one form of hammer, and it should not be changed to suit any special circumstance or need? It makes as little sense to declare that The Market should only take one form, and should never be adjusted to meet specific social needs and circumstances.

Alex Budarin

Consumers - Even Poor Ones - Give Us Jobs

Republicans protect the wealthy with arguments like "rich people give us jobs". To this I say, it is consumers who give us jobs, even poor consumers. Rich people would have no jobs to give, were it not for consumers buying their merchandise, using their services, borrowing their money, or renting their property. Without those consumers, including the poor, they would not be rich people. They need to keep that in mind. They are not rich because they are extraordinarily smart or extraordinarily hard-working. They are rich because their communities support them, by purchasing their goods, paying for their services, borrowing their money and renting their property.

Alex Budarin