“People often say that, in a democracy, decisions are made by a majority of the people. Of course, that is not true. Decisions are made by a majority of those who make themselves heard and who vote – a very different thing.”
- Walter H. Judd
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Filed under: 2008 Presidential election, elections, politics, quotables, rights
“The 400 of us pay a lower part of our income in taxes than our receptionists do, or our cleaning ladies, for that matter. If you’re in the luckiest 1 per cent of humanity, you owe it to the rest of humanity to think about the other 99 per cent.”
That’s from Warren Buffett, the second-richest man in the U.S., addressing the guests at a $4,600-a-seat political fund-raiser. When one of the world’s richest men is complaining he doesn’t pay enough in taxes, maybe that should tell you something.
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Filed under: politics, poverty and wealth, quotables
Willard Plumerson was dead before his time
but he was born again
in a burst of economic paranoia
heaven and white skin privilege
holding more promise
than his sliding stock quotationshe kept busy
scurrying to the foreman’s office
to tattle on other workers’ toilet activities
in between cutting train axles
on an engine lathe he called his own
for over forty yearsWillard made few friends
with his boasts of blue chip stocks
had no friends for support
when they plummeted sometime in the ’60s
in a smoldering heap
like the trash tray’s steel fragments
in the belly of the lathehe couldn’t quite find his class
not “working”
not “middle”
he floated somewhere on a republican cloud
with his white Jesus
and a micrometer that was always at least
three thousandths of an inch
away from accuratehe couldn’t quite place his heart
not “management”
not “union”
his only seat on a board
was the one behind the lathe
where he’d eat his lunch alone
or on special occasions
with a couple others just as scared as hethere they’d argue the body count
of angels dancing on the heads of pins
out of bibles on their blue-jeaned laps
where bankruptcy
plant closures
and quality circle lies
were never listed as realities of life- by Sue Doro, from her book Blue Collar Goodbyes.
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Filed under: quotables, unionism
