Elon Musk and Janet Yellen: Don't Be Like Them

Richard Mellor

Afscme Local 444, retired
GED/HEO

I see Elon Musk’s rocket ship exploded after takeoff but was a great success. Not for the workers whose labor power permitted such a venture, but for Musk and his investor friends who are looking to take other very rich people to Mars at some point in the future, for a price of course. It’s like a child playing with a Meccano set really. Do you remember Meccano?

 

Elon is described as an “entrepreneur” an acceptable word for a greedy blood sucking parasite who’s goal it is in life to accumulate wealth off the backs of others who work. It’s no accident that this term comes from French and originated around the mid 18^th century as capitalism, was arising out of the feudal system that had passed its shelf life. By 1789 of course, the heads of the decaying system began to roll. The capitalist class is very reluctant to admit that their rise to power came about through violent revolution, preferring instead, hard work, cunning and a vision for the future for humanity based on liberty, equality and fraternity.This could be the slogan of the US Chamber of Commerce, the largest and most powerful of all the US gangs.

 

Marx had a different historical lens writing in Capital vol 1:

“The discovery of gold and silver in America, the extirpation enslavement. And entombment in mines of the aboriginal population, the beginning of the conquest and looting of the East Indies, the turning of Africa in to a warren for the hunting of black-skins, signalized the rosy dawn of the era of capitalist production.”

 

He was such a spoiler.

 

Source

I offer my condolences to the workers at Tesla and in other enterprises that Elon owns through, we are told, his hard work and entrepreneurship as it is your labor power, an unpaid portion of it anyway, that is the source of Elon’s billions. It is your rocket ship that exploded, countless hours of labor power, both mental and manual that literally went up in smoke. For this, Elon is a hero, a giant among men.  But methinks workers would direct the wealth we create through labor in to more socially necessary ventures, housing and health care perhaps. For millions of us in the rest of the world, such simple things like drinking water, food and a pipe that might take human waste away and treat it rather than having it run freely down the street.

 

I heard Janet Yellen speak today on US relations with China. There was such hope as a woman took the helm as the US secretary of the treasury as they are gentler, kinder more humane than the other old men that occupy the halls of Congress; toxic male (especially white male) aggression is at the root of social instability and violence. She said that, “China cannot expect the global community to respect its appeals to the principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity in the future if it does not respect those principles now when it counts.”

 

She went on to warn those nasty Chinese that, “As the West imposes punishing sanctions on Russia, nations who flout the values of the international economy will face consequences.”  The values of the international economy? The Chinese leaders aren't the only hypocrites and Putin is not the only ruthless character on the planet. Is there one working class man or woman out there that can explicitly tell us what those international values are? I’m going to pop down to Wal Mart today and ask some of my class brothers and sister.

 

Janet Yellen’s speech today was lies, lies, and more lies. She’s concerned only about national security not fair economic competition she says. The victims of Katrina, Flint or Palestine OH might have some questions about that claim.

 

The aging leaders of a nation that invaded Iraq and slaughtered one million people, never mind Vietnam where some 3 million were murdered or Japan where nuclear bombs were dropped on urban populations is lecturing the world about values.