'Bamboozle' A Golden Rule for Some

I'm a naysayer, a contrarian.  I've always been that way. It comes in handy, especially when sorting out the abundant tomfoolery hoisted upon us by "them that have the gold," the Tarnished Golden Rule of Politics. An abundance of news, opinions and blogs about poverty-related issues illustrate how this rule works.

Recent news accounts of Wall Street's audacious behavior and self-interested medical providers illustrate the power of money in guiding (mis) behavior. Follow the money and you'll figure out this nation's and world's woes.  Many in Congress and most corporations tend to follow the bucks which gets them in trouble.

This tarnished Golden Rule also affects the employment dependent worker-bees, reliant on The Corporation. Look at companies you deal with as a consumer. Do they mold people into lemmings forced to comply with inane corporate policies to enrich the owners/stock holders? Are people forced to go along with corporate mentality because of employment (and health insurance) insecurity? Former mortgage industry employees, just one example, have lately been spilling their toxic guts about corporate practices that contributed mightily to our nation/world's meltdown.

Author Chris Hedges explores the "happiness mentality" in a provocative column sure to disturb the corporate workers torn between paychecks and integrity of self. Hedges offers

The driving ideology of corporate culture is a blind faith in the power and virtue of the corporate collective. All quotas can be met. All things are possible. Profits can always be raised. It is only a question of the right attitude. The highest form of personal happiness, we are told, is when the corporation thrives.

He identifies the promoters of the corporate culture as retired military officers, professional athletes, billionaires and self-help gurus. HELLO!!??!! Some may be fine specimens of leadership, but the military/athlete mentality tends to center on "win at any cost." I'm ready to try Dr. Seuss!

To reiterate the excellent point made by my PIA (ok, how many are thinking 'Pain in the A*s?!) blogger NYCweboy,

Unless and until we have politicians who can speak, frankly and directly, about the need to help people in poverty, it's unlikely we will see progress on poverty issues.

I think you could safely say POVERTY issues have been far from the fruitful discussion table.  Among the poverty issues getting little to no attention: health care, mental health, nutrition, affordable housing, homelessness, child care, fair wages, criminal justice, substance abuse treatment and education. And I'd take the leap to say the corporate culture (for the most part) and the "win at any cost" mentality, seemingly imbedded in partisan politics steering Congress, is, um, perhaps not the best model to guide our poverty policies.

Recently I found myself ranting at a Change.org guest blogger for extolling her version of virtues of the (abysmal) federal approach to homelessness, the McKinney-Vento Act. What set me off, perhaps more than her points, was that she works for a national "advocacy" group that has been horrendously at odds with me and my colleagues who want to realistically expand, rather than deceptively reduce, HUD's definition of  "homeless."

A recent report, although filled with bad news about the predominance of homelessness experienced by children, points to what some of us know is true--numbers of homeless families and teens are much higher than HUD recently reported to Congress, and their plight far worse than most people realize.

Seems to me it's time for POTUS to appoint a new Secretary of Contrariness. It would be a refreshing change to the delusional reports of great progress in the poverty and homelessness arenas.

photos by the author