Kshama Sawant: Super Genius

Here’s a genuine quote from Ms. Sawant. I know it’s authentic because I got it from the Facebook page of one of her fans.

Besides that, it just sounds like her:

“You know that your poverty is not a result of you not being able to balance your checkbook. Your poverty is a result of not enough money. That’s all.”

~ Kshama Sawant at Seattle Central Community College panel on $15 Now.

Oh, yes. That’s brilliant Ms. Sawant. Poverty is a result of not having money. Just like wealth is a result of having lots of money. It’s good to see you putting your economics degree to use there . . .

Of course, what Ms. Sawant meant to say is that college students are poor because income is not being distributed fairly. And as a matter of fact, she’s right: Income is not distributed fairly. In this society or any other. Moreover, it is logical to assume that unfair income distribution plays a role in the relative impoverishment of college students. The average football star or software geek, for example, tends to make out much better than the average nursing student.

But ya know what? There’s a reason why people go to college, and for most people that reason is that they want to raise their income level relative to that of football stars and software geeks. And if they’re wise and diligent, the plan will pay off and they’ll get a better job. And if they’re not wise and diligent, then they’re pretty much stuck where they’re at. That’s what’s know as “motivation.”

But here’s another thing about college students. Many of them are young and foolish. And of all the many things they are foolish about they are particularly foolish about money. As in, they have a tendency to WASTE it.

$5 espresso drink? – D’natch!
$200 phone bill? – Ya gots ta!
$1200 a month for a shit-flop on Cap Hill? – Beats living with the folks.

This is just a tiny speck of the shit college kids in Seattle blow their money on, even as they’re racking up $10-20-30 grand in student-loan debt that they have no plan for paying off. Ever.

And now, along comes Ms. Sawant to reassure these kids that if they’re broke, it’s not their fault. No! It’s because life is unfair. But fear not! She’s about to fix that, by making sure the local burger joint pays $15 an hour instead of $10.

Right!

In a rational world Ms. Sawant’s statements would be considered demagogy.

In a rational world.

Share with:


This entry was posted in General and tagged , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

3 Responses to Kshama Sawant: Super Genius

  1. ittybitty says:

    How the people of seattle voted for this bitch is beyond me.

  2. Duckitude says:

    Uh, okay….. I voted for Ms. Sawant. Guess I could be called a lot of names too, maybe bitch enabler or something like that. Whatever term you choose to use, believe me, I will be proud of it.

    So, if you haven’t seen my take on incumbents on the day before the last election, then you wouldn’t know that I was voting a straight ticket — The Non-Incumbent Party. That is, I vote for whoever the non-incumbent is, even if he or she or it is hallucinating. I don’t care. It is time to send a message, and if you think that anything rational could or would work, good luck on that one. You can’t fix irrationality with rationality. You have to out-bully it and out-irrational it. Look up “overthrow.”

    Ms. Sawant is the equivalent of throwing ceramic dishes on the floor to get the attention that is needed. Once you have their attention, then bully them into submission, if you can. No point in being rational. Unless you just like being beat up every day of your life by powerful, “acceptably” irrational people. Oh, and look up “rational.” Rational is in the mind of the beholder… and is often used to beat others into submission (sheepify them) since it is often used to mean customary, acceptable, and appropriate. I am sure you must know that “common sense” can, and is, often the result of powerful, culturally and politically biased brain-washing.

    Call me a bitch. I love it. Got bitchitude?

  3. DBP says:

    No sweat, Dux. Your protest vote was understand as being just that: A protest vote.

    I don’t agree that Ms. Sawant is a bitch. I think she’s a nice person, even if she is a little ditzy. People are entitled to their own opinions, though. And here on TBQ we don’t censor.

    Here’s what I think Ms. Sawant could do better . . .

    In the first place, she should tone down the class struggle thing. Nobody’s going to overthrow the capitalist system in Seattle anytime soon; the best you can hope for is to make some tweaks. You build support for that slowly, not suddenly. As we know, Americans don’t like sudden moves in their system. (See also: Obamacare.)

    On the $15 minimum wage, Ms. Sawant is fully justified in raising it as an issue. However, as I’ve said from the beginning, what we need are studies that will give us a good idea of how that will affect the job situation here. We also need to know how the Ms. Sawant plans on having the City enforce it. After all, they’re not enforcing immigration law, so when the wage goes to $15, how is the city going to keep businesses from laying off legit workers and hiring illegals?

    These are just some of the questions that need attending to before we make any drastic changes to the local economy.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *