The great British rock group The Kinks, stars of the 60s ‘British Invasion’, outdid themselves in 1979 with ‘Low Budget’. Check out these lyrics:
Cheap is small and not too steep
But best of all cheap is cheap
Circumstance has forced my hand
To be a cut price person in a low budget land
Times are hard but we’ll all survive
I just got to learn to economize
I’m on a low budget
I’m on a low budget
I’m not cheap, you understand
I’m just a cut price person in a low budget land
Excuse my shoes they don’t quite fit
They’re a special offer and they hurt me a bit
Even my trousers are giving me pain
They were reduced in a sale so I shouldn’t complain
They squeeze me so tight so I can’t take no more
They’re size 28 but I take 34
I’m shopping at Woolworth and low discount stores
I’m dropping my standards so that I can buy more
(Quality costs, but quality wastes,
So I’m giving up all of my expensive tastes.
Caviar and champagne are definite no’s,
I’m acquiring a taste for brown ale and cod roes )
Low budget sure keeps me on my toes
I count every penny and I watch where it goes
We’re all on our uppers we’re all going skint
I used to smoke cigars but now I suck polo mints
Art takes time, time is money
Money’s scarce and that ain’t funny
Millionaires are things of the past
We’re in a low budget film where nothing can last
Money’s rare there’s none to be found
So don’t think I’m tight if I don’t buy a round
(I look like a tramp, but don’t write me off,
I’ll have you all know, I was once a toff
At least my hair is all mine, my teeth are my own,
But everything else is on permanent loan.
Once all my clothes were made by hand,
Now I’m a cut price person in a low budget land.
I’m on a low budget
I’ll have you all know
We’re on a low budget
I’m on a low budget)
We are living in the very beginning of a ‘New Normal’ for this entire planet. Sadly, this writer prays that this pandemic is what many on the right and many on the left believe it to be: Just another shot of the flu virus, like we contend with each year. However, what if the rest of us out there are correct, and this is a very serious pandemic, and highly contagious? Well, then all this rhetoric of opening up the economy along with our society, in general, will start to come back to haunt us all. If that is the case, then as the numbers (not the inflated ones that the naysayers believe) keep getting higher, there will be another round of shutdowns. Of course, if the geniuses in the entire Trump gang would have done the correct thing in early January, an ‘army’ of NP 95 facemasks in conjunction with ventilators and sanitizers could have cut down on the number of cases and of course deaths. In addition to comprehensive ‘Social Distancing’ and Uncle Sam sending to the state governments the funds needed to improve our hospitals and their staffing, we all would feel much safer this summer and fall. We know what did happen: Nothing but hoax talk and ‘It’s being contained’ propaganda by this gang of assholes! Now, we will all be suffering until those needs are met!
So, when the **** hits the proverbial fan, our economy will be slowed down to a crawl again. That means many of our low and middle income working stiffs will better understand the Kinks’ message. For many out there NOW, the noose gets tighter as they begin to fear that THEY may very shortly be nearer to the street! All that easy money being thrown at the businesses (with the large corporations getting the lion’s share) will never ease the burdens of us working stiffs. Anyone not earning well over $100k a year will be up the creek… Period! Is there a ‘light’ at the end of this pandemic tunnel? Yes, there is: A Tax free UNIVERSAL BASIC INCOME STIPEND OF ANYWHERE FROM $1000 TO $2000 A MONTH PER CITIZEN. Without that extra income many of us will never be able to survive this Economic Pandemic!! You want to see this economy stimulated? The UBI will do that… and well-informed advocates like public banking expert Ellen Brown inform us that a UBI is NOT INFLATIONARY! So, all that BS from both sides of this Two Party/One Party ‘Embedded in Empire’ system is just that: Propaganda to secure our masters of having total control.
Imagine, if you will, a society whereupon each citizen receives such a stipend, tax free each month, in addition to whatever else they have coming in. For low and even middle class working stiffs, this could mean the ability to pay one’s mortgage or rent, or afford a car, or fix up one’s abode. The options are limitless!! So, get on the horn and phone the offices of your three Congressional Reps. Leave the message that if you do NOT hear about them getting before the cameras (as they surely do and can) and pushing for UBI… they will NEVER get your vote when they run for re-election… which is all they care about anyway.
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