Original tweet by Drew Hancock @/lockoutdays, being quote tweeted says:
“Saying the bottom 95% isn’t wealthy because the top 1% is wealthier is like saying I’m not tall at 6'3” because Shaq is 7 feet tall.“
All Possums Go to Heaven @/HeavenlyPossum responds by quote tweeting,
"Except that the rich are quite literally rich because everyone else is poor.
Wealth doesn’t exist independent of poverty. Wealth is a social claim to gatekeep access to resources, so that people who lack that claim must labor for you to access those resources to survive.
Quote: "A poor person in America with a phone and a fridge is richer than any medieval king!” End quote.
Except the king didn’t worry about where his next meal would come from, or whether he could heat his hall, or whether he’d be fired from his job because his car wouldn’t start.
The king didn’t worry about those things because his wealth translated into command over people who would labor for him or give him things he wanted.
Wealth isn’t “stuff,” it’s a social relationship of command.
Poverty is the flip side: a social relationship of precariousness that drives subordination.
Poverty has real measurable effects on healh and lifespan that can’t be explained by a lack of as much “stuff” as the rich, but can be explained by a response to chronic stress.“
Il rosso segno della follia (Hatchet for the Honeymoon, 1970)
“My name is John Harrington. I’m thirty years old. I am a paranoiac. Paranoiac… an enchanting word. So civilised and full of possibilities. The fact is, I am completely mad - the realisation of which annoyed me at first, but is now amusing to me. Quite amusing. Nobody suspects that I am a madman; a dangerous murderer.”
