By Tom Hunter

All those high falutin’ economists from Harvard are somewhat muted with their economic models.  Meanwhile, the real economic model being adopted in the United States is that of our largest corporation.  The old theory is that Henry Ford was a fool for paying his people enough to buy his car.  The modern theory would have him ship their jobs to Mexico or China and to hell with the domestic sales, as they are no longer the largest market.

Wal-Mart has about three guiding principles.  First, the only thing they’ve got going for them is low prices.  These are achieved by paying their people just enough so they can get food stamps supplemented by food banks.  Their suppliers are continually required to find cheaper ways to deliver the goods or they will be replaced seamlessly with some outfit that will.

They have carried their low wages one step further by not having enough employees to keep the shelves stocked.  Kind of a shame, as their supply system is faultless at getting the goods to the store.  But the final step is to get those goods from the back room to the shelves.

Now, if we carry this theory out to it’s logical conclusion, wages will drop, taxes will have to support the workers who don’t make enough to live on and-Wal-Mart will grow stronger and stronger.  Sadly, this is not theory – this is fact.

Now Wal-mart doesn’t want to piss off their ’employees’ in Congress, so they have them working on cutting back on all this socialistic food stamp nonsense.  Of course, for this to be successful, Wal-Mart will require tax breaks so they can afford more lobbyists.

Not to worry, Wal-Mart is a person.  You might be thinking that the rich will get richer and the poor will get poorer.  Pretty much.  One of the greatest concerns of Congress in recent years has  been to limit and defame any kind of labor union.  The labor movement in America has been battered continuously since the 1950’s.  Most of the surviving unions are those of government employees.

Congress and State Legislatures now love the idea of “Right to Work” laws (read: right to starve).  The greedy rich getting richer are even turning on their own kind, and the group of elites has grown smaller.  This is known as concentration of power.  The more you get the more you want and the easier it becomes to get.

One million dollars spent on lobbying can be worth hundreds of millions to a corporation.  (Soilent Green is People!)

Now what could we possibly do with twice as many Border Patrol agents?  Well they could easily be turned on Americans trying to escape to retirement in Mexico.  700 miles of new border fence?  Do you know what kind of money we’re talking about?

Good thing those pesky Mexicans don’t have boats – oh the humanity.

At what point will democracy return to its roots – feudalism?  Oops – too soon?  The one percent make the laws and the supreme court says they can also say who can vote in their gerrymandered districts.  So it’s really bitchin’ that we elected Barack Obama and the Democrats control the Senate.

Unfortunately, laws are born in the House of Representatives and approved by the Roberts court.  The House of Representatives has stopped the government in its tracks.  The radical right wing doesn’t care how small they are – they’ve got the Republican Party living in terror of crossing them.  Historically, something happens when government no longer even pretends to be responsive to its citizens.

What could it be, what could it be?