I know you’re used to only one Lexicon entry a week, but this week is extra special. Queen Kamala the Appointed came out with a policy position!
And it’s just as vapid and nonsensical as you can imagine.
Recently, the current Vice President, Democrat Presidential hopeful, and word salad aficionado came up with a new concept: opportunity economy. Apparently, Queen Kamala the Appointed doesn’t think people can live the American Dream anymore, at least not without her help. After all, she came from a middle class family.
Did you know she came from a middle class family? I sure didn’t! If only she would say something about it…
Anyway, such a special occasion as this requires a special response!
opportunity economy
What the Left thinks it means – an economy that allows the middle class to get stronger and make the economy and the country better
What it really means – a buzzword made up by people who have no idea what free market capitalism is
For the sake of transparency and because Leftists tend to be slow on the uptake, I am a fan of free market capitalism. While most of you are saying “no fucking duh,” those of you who didn’t know that (I’m looking at you Leftists) might be confused. You have been indoctrinated…I mean taught that free market capitalism is responsible for global warming, environmental disasters, exploited workers, and yet another Nickelback album, but that’s not the case. Well, except for that Nickelback one. That’s totes on free market capitalism.
Where you were lead astray was not being given the other side of the argument, which I will try to present to you now as simply as I can. Free market capitalism has its faults including pollution, but it also tends to raise the standard of living for those who practice it. Those workers you claim are being exploited so the super-duper-mega-evil corporations can make money? They’re willing participants. They have as much stake in the company succeeding as the CEOs because without money coming in the door, those doors slam shut pretty damn fast.
For all of its faults, free market capitalism is still pretty fucking awesome. If you have a good enough idea (or, in the case of Hollywood, a good enough revamp of a good idea) and you can find people to back it (see previous reference to Hollywood), you can make serious bank once you build a market for whatever it is you’re selling. Of course, even if a movie bombs worse than Hiroshima, that doesn’t stop Hollywood from cranking out more stinkers.
As an aside, for those upset over the Hiroshima reference, too soon?
Anyway, the point is free market capitalism is based on opportunities. So, why does Queen Kamala the Appointed think it doesn’t?
Because she’s that fucking dumb.
With the vague and, frankly, uninspiring rollout of “opportunity economy” comes a new Leftist squawking point focusing on the middle class. Why else would Queen Kamala keep harping on the fact she was raise middle class? (You know, when she mentions it, which is rarer than the way Count Dracula likes his steaks.) It’s because the concept has power over us as Americans. If only some ruggedly handsome, yet witty and brilliant blogger would mention that…
To Queen Kamala and her Leftist followers, the middle class has gotten the shaft, and we all know that shaft is a bad mutha…
Seriously, though, the Left labors under the notion the middle class just needs to be successful for things to get better. At the same time, they want to raise taxes and create more bureaucratic red tape that cause prices to raise, hurting the middle and lower classes more so…yay, I guess? All they need is for someone to fight for them and give them a chance to succeed, dammit!
News Flash for ya, kids: the middle class already has that chance. America is the land of opportunity for anyone who wants to try to make it big, or at least make it close enough to big that they can see it from their house. The concept of an opportunity economy rejects that notion under the guise of being patriotic. How many times have we heard politicians leg-hump the middle class as being the backbone of our country? Too many times.
And that’s the way it’s always going to be from the political class: all talk, no action.
The opportunity economy concept also raises a lot of questions. How does Queen Kamala the Appointed plan to create it? Well, she was raised middle class! Don’t you get it?????
Actually, I don’t. Being middle class doesn’t equate to a thought-out policy position any more than playing Minecraft makes you a structural engineer. There’s a lot more that goes into it than what Queen Kamala wants us to believe, and a vague word salad ain’t in that recipe.
Given the Left’s propensity to rely on government to provide everything good and just in the world, I get the feeling it’s going to be enforced at the business end of a big regulatory stick. If some government bureaucrat with an ego and a budget that far exceeds his or her intellectual capacity to understand basic economics decides you’re not doing enough to create opportunity, you’re gonna get in trouble in a way that gives the Mafia nightmares.
Before you go off and think I’m running off the rails on a crazy train, let me also point out Queen Kamala’s other big-brain idea: punishing price gouging. Although her initial offering was met with the appropriate confusion and criticism, she has since come out with a more specific policy paper on the subject…which is just as confusing and worthy of criticism. Her big-brain idea: a federal law banning price gouging. Brilliant!
One tiny problem, though. How is she defining price gouging? I’m sure she’ll get around to it before her next sit-down interview, which is scheduled for sometime in October…of 2038.
Although the idea sounds good, the lack of specifics make it a non-starter for me. If we can’t even agree on the definition, what’s the point of making a law banning it? But, don’t worry, folks! This is an opportunity economy we’re talking about here! Don’t think about the fact there are more red flags than a Chinese military parade! Become unburdened by what has been and look at the significance of the passage of time! FEEL THE JOY, DAMMIT!
The funniest aspect of the opportunity economy is when you consider Queen Kamala says she worked at McDonald’s. Whether she did or not is immaterial to the point, but her attempt to relate to people actually shows how little she understands about the economy and how her “experience” undercuts the idea of an opportunity economy.
For all the shit you can say about Mickey D’s, there is one thing that is rock solid, take it to the bank truth. The ice cream machine is always broken. But another thing is McDonald’s loves being an employment opportunity for anyone willing to ask “Do you want fries with that?” For many young people, this is their first job, and it tends to open up opportunities beyond the Golden Arches. Promotions from within are common, and McDonald’s even offers leadership programs for those looking to get into leadership positions.
In other words, McDonald’s is the ultimate opportunity economy.
Funny how someone who allegedly “did the fries” missed that. Then again, this is Queen Kamala the Appointed we’re dealing with here, so let’s cut her a little slack.
Where I can’t cut her some slack is in thinking the current mostly-free market economy doesn’t provide the opportunities she thinks we need. What we have right now works pretty well, especially considering 80% of the millionaires today are first generation. But I’m sure if the remaining 20% would be coerced…I mean forced…I mean persuaded to give up more, it would totally create more millionaires among the middle class…who will then have to pay even more taxes thanks to the kind of regressive taxation ideas Queen Kamala think are needed.
So, Madame Vice President, we already have an opportunity economy and don’t need what you’re peddling. However, I do want to present you with an opportunity should the November election not go your way.
Become the Ice Cream Machine Czar. You can’t fuck that up any worse than you did the border.
Tag: middle class
Leftist Lexicon Word of the Week
One of the biggest voting blocs (according to politicians seeing election) is the middle class. Democrats and Republicans equally talk about how much they care about the middle class, even going so far as to LARP as working people when it suits their needs.
Our latest LARPer is current Queen Kamala the Appointed. She’s claimed to have been raised middle class, even working at McDonalds during her college years, so she’s totes relatable! On a completely unrelated note, during her tenure at the Golden Arches she was made Ice Cream Machine Czar. Make of that what you will.
Even as her hobbling mate Tim Walz tries to support Queen Kamala the Appointed’s middle class bonafides, the rest of us are left to wonder what the middle class actually is. And, let me tell ya, that’s a hard thing to pin down.
middle class
What the Left thinks it means – hard working average Americans living paycheck-to-paycheck because of Republican policies
What the Right thinks it means – hard working average Americans living paycheck-to-paycheck because of Democrat policies
What it really means – a socioeconomic group that both major parties want to claim as their own without actually doing anything to warrant it
Political parties using humans as political pawns? I’m just as shocked as you are, folks!
Anyway, it’s hard to pin down what the middle class is because there are so many definitions from the “no fucking duh” to the more calculated. In general, it’s people making between $30,000 and $210,000 depending on the size of the family according to the Pew Research Center and the US Census Bureau in 2020.
But it goes beyond this salary range, at least to your humble correspondent. Middle class is also a mindset shaped less by politics and more by the daily grind. This swath of the American public comes from all different political and intellectual backgrounds and are united by the fact they’re not rich enough to be upper class, but too rich to be the lower class. They are dead center.
Which makes them the perfect targets for the Left and the Right.
From a PR standpoint, the middle class is the most revered socioeconomic status in America. They are the working class, the men and women who get their hands dirty because they’re the ones getting shit done (especially if you’re a manure salesman). When you think of the middle class, you think of the people from a Norman Rockwell painting. They are America!
And what better way to convince dimwitted potential voters to support your candidate than to tap into that version of America?
The problem is neither major party actually understands the middle class, mainly because neither major party is middle class. They are the well-off whose only interaction with the middle class is when they’re looking out of place amongst them. For every photo op where a Congresscritter puts on a pair of Carhartts and does a slow-motion walk next to a cornfield, there are at least 2 or 3 fundraisers he/she will attend where anyone wearing Carhartts wouldn’t even be allowed in the building. There are a few exceptions, but you can count them on the hand of the world’s unluckiest fireworks enthusiast.
So, the Left and the Right do what they always do when trying to appeal to the middle class: throw money at them. The Left are big fans of middle class tax cuts while the Right fights for good paying middle class jobs that can’t be taken by foreigners.
For some reason, a Stealers Wheel song is playing in my head right now…
Meanwhile, the middle class is still struggling, and the promise of money and jobs won’t fix things. A tax cut is nice, but when the money is swallowed up by high prices for gas, food, and clothes due to Leftist policies, it doesn’t do shit. Good paying jobs would be a plus, but it opens the door for a lot of government micromanagement and, thus, macro-waste that will only favor guess who (and I ain’t talking about that band here, kids).
The only politician that has even come close to understanding the middle class is Donald Trump, which is odd considering he sure as shit isn’t one of us. And even he gets it wrong, like when he pushes for higher tariffs on foreign goods. Sure, it sounds good and is certainly a red-meat issue for the middle class, but it will make things worse on the very people Trump is trying to appeal to in this case.
Having said all that, there is a reason Trump is popular with the middle class: he makes it sound like he’s listening to them. And that is something middle class people don’t always have. The wealthy and the poor are by and large okay with where they are, leaving the work to be done by those in neither category. Need some tomatoes grown? Done by the middle class. Need some people to work in factories? Done by the middle class. Need a rubber butt plug in the shape of a Dalek for a very unusual bat mitzvah? Maybe not done by the middle class, but since we’re here, does anyone have any leads? I’m asking for a friend.
Trump has touched on a source of political power that both major parties have ignored for reasons I mentioned earlier. His campaign has done a masterful job courting people who might not have voted for him otherwise, but sure as shit can’t vote for those looking to continue the way are going right now.
Not that it’s going to deter the Left from trying to convince people to take a big bite of their shit sandwich for another 4 years. To counteract Trump’s connection to the middle class, Queen Kamala the Appointed brought on the Mirror Universe Dick Cheney known more formally as Tim Walz. Walz looks like a middle class guy who loves donuts and coffee and will be willing to help you change a tire or give you advice on how to make your lawn mower run better in high grass. Hell, he might even bring over a hot dish to pass when you and your family come down with the flu.
One tiny problem with that: his family’s net worth is estimated at over $1 million. Going by the calculations referenced above, that would put him just a little outside of the high end of the middle class. And by a little outside, I’m talking almost 5 times higher. Tim Walz is no more middle class than Bill Gates is, even though they often wear similar clothes.
That’s the thing that infuriates me the most about politicians from either side trying to appeal to the middle class: it’s all an act to them. They cosplay as us when it’s time to get votes, but once the political version of Halloween is over, they go back to being rich assholes who wouldn’t be caught dead wearing coveralls and working for their daily bread. That’s why they have staff.
At some point, the middle class is going to figure out how and how much they’ve been played and there will be hell to pay. If you’re curious at how that might play out, let me recommend a book to read.
It’s called Atlas Shrugged. And, Spoiler Alert, it doesn’t end well for the people reliant upon the workers to get shit done.