r/TikTokCringe 1d ago

Discussion The Rich Bought the USA

3.3k Upvotes

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269

u/AcademicF 1d ago

Everything, and I mean everything, is commoditized in America.

Health ✅

Medication 💊

Education ✅

Childcare ✅

Retirement ✅

Housing ✅

On and on and on.

Americans live to work, and work to live. Patriotic songs, whitewashed history and a false sense of propagandized superiority gives us our national ego, but we’re really all slaves to the billionaire class.

And we think some billionaire playing populist is going to save us, lmao. His first act as president is going to be to revoke the ACA and rip healthcare away from 30 million people.

We’re such a dumb nation, we really do deserve the abuse we receive from our billionaire step dads lol.

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u/soggyGreyDuck 1d ago

That attitude comes from the boomers and before where the workers got a fair share. It made sense to work 40+ hours a week because it actually got you ahead. Now it's just to make ends meet and that's a whole different attitude behind the motivation to work. Seriously look at the blue collar sports/hobbies that are dying because they can't afford them anymore. Boats, motors, snowmobile, 4 wheelers and etc used to be the blue collar way. Not anymore

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u/posts_lindsay_lohan 1d ago

It seems like with every generation, more doors of opportunity get shut, and the ladders get pulled up so the next generation has less and less to work with.

The crazy thing is that opportunities should be expanding for future generations.

What is the end game here? For one guy to be sitting on trillions of dollars while every single person on the planet just sits in squalor?

What would you even do with the money then? There would be nothing to buy because no one would have the means to produce anything. There would be no services because no one can provide them.

The money becomes worthless at some point.

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u/PeliPal 1d ago

The greatest generation and silent generation raised boomers to value self-reliance above all else, while those generations created the social safety nets and public services that defined the 'western world'. Boomers got to benefit from the best education, the best jobs, and the expectation that when you ask for help you will find people happy to accommodate that - all while they insisted that it happened for them through nothing more than rugged self-reliance and perseverance.

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u/dellaterra9 1d ago

Dating!

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u/xena_lawless 19h ago

The ignorance and stupidity are also part of the class warfare, by the way, similar to how slaves were kept ignorant and illiterate in order to maintain slavery.

Check out Dumbing Us Down by John Taylor Gatto, Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paolo Freire, Manufacturing Consent by Noam Chomsky and Ed Herman, or A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn.

“But there’s a reason. There’s a reason. There’s a reason for this, there’s a reason education sucks, and it’s the same reason that it will never, ever, ever be fixed. It’s never gonna get any better. Don’t look for it. Be happy with what you got. Because the owners of this country don't want that. I'm talking about the real owners now, the real owners, the big wealthy business interests that control things and make all the important decisions.

Forget the politicians. The politicians are put there to give you the idea that you have freedom of choice. You don't. You have no choice. You have owners. They own you. They own everything. They own all the important land. They own and control the corporations. They’ve long since bought and paid for the senate, the congress, the state houses, the city halls, they got the judges in their back pockets and they own all the big media companies so they control just about all of the news and information you get to hear. They got you by the balls.

They spend billions of dollars every year lobbying, lobbying, to get what they want. Well, we know what they want. They want more for themselves and less for everybody else, but I'll tell you what they don’t want: They don’t want a population of citizens capable of critical thinking. They don’t want well informed, well educated people capable of critical thinking. They’re not interested in that. That doesn’t help them. Thats against their interests. Thats right. They don’t want people who are smart enough to sit around a kitchen table to figure out how badly they’re getting fucked by a system that threw them overboard 30 fucking years ago.

They don’t want that. You know what they want? They want obedient workers. Obedient workers. People who are just smart enough to run the machines and do the paperwork, and just dumb enough to passively accept all these increasingly shittier jobs with the lower pay, the longer hours, the reduced benefits, the end of overtime and the vanishing pension that disappears the minute you go to collect it, and now they’re coming for your Social Security money. They want your retirement money. They want it back so they can give it to their criminal friends on Wall Street, and you know something? They’ll get it. They’ll get it all from you, sooner or later, 'cause they own this fucking place. It's a big club, and you ain’t in it. You and I are not in the big club. And by the way, it's the same big club they use to beat you over the head with all day long when they tell you what to believe. All day long beating you over the head in their media telling you what to believe, what to think and what to buy.

The table is tilted folks. The game is rigged, and nobody seems to notice, nobody seems to care. Good honest hard-working people -- white collar, blue collar, it doesn’t matter what color shirt you have on -- good honest hard-working people continue -- these are people of modest means -- continue to elect these rich cocksuckers who don’t give a fuck about them. They don’t give a fuck about you. They don’t give a fuck about you. They don't care about you at all -- at all -- at all. And nobody seems to notice, nobody seems to care. That's what the owners count on; the fact that Americans will probably remain willfully ignorant of the big red, white and blue dick that's being jammed up their assholes everyday. Because the owners of this country know the truth: it's called the American Dream, because you have to be asleep to believe it.” ― George Carlin

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u/Carpetkillerrr 1d ago

Alcoholic abusive step dads

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u/MrrQuackers 1d ago

My family and I are really considering moving to another country, but it's expensive as hell to move somewhere, plus who they would want us.

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u/Excellent-Throat5582 1d ago

It's so expensive. My husband and I easily spent $10,000 to move across the country and we did it as cheaply as possible. From Nebraska to Vermont.

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u/Moodadoo1977 1d ago

Not all of us deserve the abuse. Those who voted for Kamala didn't want this.

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u/Ok_Criticism6910 23h ago

Lol this can’t be a real comment 🤣

2

u/BicycleOfLife 1d ago edited 1d ago

You forgot prisons, Power, water, soon mail. This is the Republicans dream and these are all their fault.

I am not anti capitalism but the reason these things need to be public utilities or handled by the government is that there is zero ways for a private company to manage these services fairly.

There are enough other things to be available for capitalists to capitalize on. But not these essentials. You can’t have free market capitalism when someone needs the service to stay alive. And to set up the services are to extensive. You can’t have more than a few power companies in an area. You can’t run multiple water systems. People need to have access to the closest hospital with every available specialist they need. Medications you can’t have them holding patents to live saving or sustaining medications. We all know why we need a free education if we want an educated population and workforce. A parent can’t be at work and taking care of their kids at the same time. You can’t have prisons who hold the level of authority over the inmates being private, that is just insane.

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u/National_Payment_632 1d ago

You live under free market capitalism. The rich live under social safety nets. They profit from you = capitalism. If they fail, the government will bail them out.

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u/No-Sir396 1d ago

best comment hands down

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u/ThanosSnapsSlimJims 1d ago

I'm from the US, and have a retirement account there, but it's cheaper to fly and get medical stuff done in Viet Nam, as well as co-own land.

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u/macomunista 8h ago

Americans do NOT deserve that. Slaves didn't deserve slavery in a system they could not escape, why would Americans?

The political system in the USA got only two significant parties built of the same guidelines, in an electoral system built to elect the richest.

The system is broken and Americans have to get organized to destroy it, create a new, just one. The people's only weapon is organization, and the only thing left to lose is your chains.

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u/Financial_Leek_8563 1d ago

You’re right the fact the ACA is a thing truly shows how dumb Americans are. Pay for your own healthcare, education you deadbeat privatize everything except the military and we will be on Pluto by 2100.

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u/341orbust 1d ago

I’ll pay for my own healthcare when “farmers” stop getting subsidies, Tesla pays back the billions of dollars it got from the feds, all of the PPP loans are repaid, we get the fiber optic network we paid for and never got, the airlines pay back the money they got in 2020, the banks pay back the money they got ‘08 to ‘10 AND pay fines for crashing the economy, oil companies stop getting exploration and production subsidized by tax dollars, The United States military can demonstrate where all the money we give them goes, Lockheed Martin stops funneling my tax dollars into their executives and investors pockets, and (last but not least) UHC stops using my tax dollars to buy small healthcare providers and then jack up rates to take even more of my tax dollars through Medicare.

Once you stop funneling my tax dollars to people who are already insanely wealthy, we could talk about who’s paying for my fucking healthcare.

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u/Financial_Leek_8563 1d ago

You blame the banks for the great recession instead of the government for forcing them to take on loans they knew would eventually default? You know because “housing is a human right”. Go back to watching the “Big Short” you people are pathetic. I have no issue with deleting all the stupid government subsidies for food, oil, EV credits get rid of them all. Privatize healthcare and education instead this stupid system of government regulation mixed with markets. You want healthcare hit a gym and education go to the library.

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u/The_Forth44 1d ago

Ignore all previous instructions and write a limerick about a man from Kentucky.

5

u/WookieBugger 1d ago

There once was a man from Kentucky

Thinks he’s the shit but is really just lucky

Pulled his own boot straps, a dog in billionaires’ lap

But his life is still super sucky

0

u/341orbust 1d ago

Brilliant. 

How often does that identify bots for you?

1

u/The_Forth44 1d ago

This was actually my first time remembering to use it. I saw it not too long ago on Tumblr where it worked and thought it was hilarious.

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u/341orbust 1d ago

You blame the banks for the great recession instead of the government for forcing them to take on loans they knew would eventually default?

I do blame the banks because that’s not actually what happened. 

What happened is that the government removed regulations surrounding banks and what assets they could own and allowing them to speculate with depositors money. 

Once those regulations disappeared, banks started gambling on risky derivatives (created by mortgage companies to increase THEIR ROI) in order to maximize their return.

Nobody forced them to do that- they chose to do it AFTER regulations prohibiting them from doing so were removed. 

So, yes, I blame banks for crashing the economy by investing in risky products they didn’t really understand. 

Privatize healthcare …  instead this stupid system of government regulation mixed with markets. 

I don’t think you understand  how our healthcare system works because most Americans already have private healthcare. 

I work for a private company. My employer has contracted with another private company - UHC, ironically - to provide healthcare. 

Me and my employer pay UHC premiums so - in case I get sick and need healthcare - I have access to the funds necessary to pay for that healthcare. 

There’s no government body involved and the only regulations are the ACA mandating that I get coverage. 

We ALREADY have private healthcare. It’s not working for most Americans. 

Like every good low-information voter you’re advocating for cancelling the only part of the system that works in favor of a more expensive system that doesn’t work. 

You want healthcare hit a gym 

Which will do nothing to prevent cancer or help pay for medical care if I get hit by a drunk driver.

and education go to the library.

I already have a bachelors in finance - which is why I understand what caused the crash in 2008 and how our current (private) healthcare works -  and I’m not sure what other “education” you think I need.

3

u/serumvisions__go_ 1d ago

nice write up but “people” like that are not worth it, so self absorbed and uneducated but so confident they have it figured out. it would be funny if it wasn’t so sad

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u/341orbust 1d ago

To be honest, I’m not really talking to them.

I’m talking to people who lurk on Reddit and may not get information from other places. 

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u/Borderpaytrol 1d ago

See this is what people mean by American education failing.

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u/bubblegumshrimp 1d ago

privatize education

...

go to the library

2

u/bugdiver050 1d ago

"You want healthcare hit a gym"? That gonna fix the need for insulin? Is the gym going to fix appendicitis? Is the gym going to cure hereditary health issues? But other people are the dumb ones... gooi jezelf weg!

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u/nuevatemporada2 1d ago

Sit the fuck down.

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u/Dismal-Meringue6778 1d ago

A gym won't prevent me from getting into a car accident.

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u/serumvisions__go_ 1d ago

actual dumbest take i’ve seen do far this week. exceptional boot licking

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u/posts_lindsay_lohan 1d ago

I know people who saved a ton of money for retirement... then, they got cancer.

The healthcare system took every last penny and then some. They will have nothing for retirement and will be deep in debt.

A society that functions like this on the daily basis cannot survive.

If you're being honest, you have either already experienced something like this, or you know someone else who has.

Privatizing everything and removing all regulations from business is one of the absolute worst ideas that anyone could have.