Falsely Called Freedom Part 5: “Right to Work” As A New Enslavement

A great example of double speak is that of the “Right to Work” states.  Interference in the “free market” is perceived by libertarians anything that challenges the right of the wealthy to their wealth. This is way they can run on “tax breaks” but only give them to the wealthiest while raising them on the poor and middle class.  An overt example of this is the libertarian war against organized labor.  While capitalists can incorporate to protect their rights and wealth, they also wanted to be sure workers had the freedom “not to organize”.  After sixty years of this experiment, the “right to work” states have the lowest wages and fewest employee protections in the country.    While these laws were made popular because the name suggested they gave rights to employees, they continue to be funded by far-right interests for exactly the opposite purpose.  Like “right to work” the Libertarian usage of “liberty”, “free-markets”, “tax breaks” and “choice” are all ways of getting the masses to vote on policies that harm them.  A great recent example of this is “entitlements.”  The jab from the right is that you are not “entitled to anything the government gives you.”  We would counter, “you are entitled to receive what you have paid for.”  That is what entitlements are.  They are systems into which the masses have contributed and expect to get back from, especially social security and Medicare.  They are called “entitlements” because in fact, taxpayers are entitled to them. 

The people who are calling for the privatization of social security are the same people who will have control of your money should you invest it.  In the name of economic freedom, they are after the freedom to use and perhaps loose the money you are saving for retirement.  Many of the cries of “socialism” are this same double speak.  The people who are for increasing privatization of health care, prisons, and even some functions of local courts, water supplies, and other utilities are the very people who gain from these “private interests”.  The trick of this double speak is that the growing danger is not public control of private interests but the private control of public interests.  Corporate control of government is the final aim of this “libertarian” movement.  Ultimately, they believe the best way for the markets to be free of the constraints of government is for the private sector to purchase the government itself.  The massive money funneled into politics through the Koch brothers and others is this aim in action.

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