You Were Never Meant to Succeed in Capitalism

The ruling elite keep power to themselves

author’s photo, revitalizing the neighborhood?

Most programs to help the poor, end up making the rich richer. Every time I hear that the State and corporate developers are “revitalizing” an area, I notice that more people end up homeless.

Buildings chosen for renovation, with promises of “affordable housing” for the poor, mostly become luxury condos for the rich, that remain empty for the majority of the year. The few “affordable” units are anything but affordable, doing nothing to provide housing for the poor.

The whole revitalization scheme basically serves to enrich wealthy corporate developers (who, of course, went over their projected budgets at the expense of the taxpayers). The poor were either evicted, or saw their rents rise, in their “newly developed” neighborhood.

These “affordable” housing programs were never meant to help the poor. Who got richer and who ended up on someone’s sofa or in the street?

Expecting politicians (whether Republican or Democrat) and their grand plans to solve the housing crisis, the inflation crisis, or any other crisis that we find ourselves in, is simply ridiculous.

Democrat Biden has not kept his campaign promises, and it’s not the fault of the Republicans. Blaming is a huge part of the game that’s played in Washington, DC. Both sides are highly skilled in this game — arguing with each other, seemingly on opposite sides of an issue, but both feasting from the same corporate pot, and thus both eventually voting for the decisions that serve corporate interests.

As Mark Engler and Paul Engler write in their article, How Movements Can Keep Politicians from Selling Out:

“Officials in both major parties have described the current structure of American democracy as “a system of legalized bribery and legalized extortion.” The costs of contesting for elected positions in the United States is astronomical. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, the combined total of all spending in House and Senate campaigns came to more than $4 billion in 2016 — almost double the inflation-adjusted total from 2000. Tasked with raising thousands per day throughout the length of their terms, sitting representatives spend…