Are There No Prisons? Are There No Workhouses?

   So last week I spontaneously went to see a production of "A Christmas Carol" with some lovely friends. I know what you are thinking..."A Christmas Carol"...cliche cliche cliche. However, this production, apart from being visually stunning and brilliantly performed, offered some new insight. I'm not entirely sure whether it was just because of the season or the political maelstrom spinning over the American public, but watching Dickens's immortal saga of supernatural intervention and personal reformation had a different effect on me this year. We all know the story as it has been adapted to virtually every single holiday known to humanity (Valentines Day, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Kwanzaa, Winter Solstice, you name it) so I will spare the details. Yet when Scrooge looked up from his coin covered desk and into the faces of the charity workers imploring him for a donation and callously asked, "Are there no prisons? Are there no work houses?" there was suddenly something quite relevant in this story.  Later that evening, while driving back to Macon, we drove past the Capital building (yeah, the one with the golden roof) to see a crowd of homeless people sleeping in the freezing night air. This finalized the sentiment. I'll contextualize the upcoming rant and its relevance to the previous allegory with the field of 2012 Republican Presidential candidates. Newt Gingrich (Former American House of Reps Speaker and amoral, sexist, degenerate Capitalist) recently publicly stated that he found child labor laws "stupid." In his mentality, children in poor areas would be better served by acting as paid custodians in the schools that they attend (thus terminating the employment of the current custodians). Furthermore, I came across an editorial in my local newspaper in which a man seriously stated that people should not give to charity as it promotes laziness among those greedy, evil poor people usually working double shifts in order to pay the taxes that the wealthy are shirking thanks to the House of Representatives. It is astounding to me. These people are doing Scrooge one better. They are not merely stating, "Are there no prisons? Are there no work houses?" but are basically asking "Why the fuck are there prisons? Why the fuck are there workhouses? Shit sounds expensive."

    I don't want to believe that Capitalism has grown to such a point where people are legitimately considering assisting the poor and homeless as something not only unnecessary but also something to be discouraged. To people such as Gingrich/ Perry/ Bachmann/ Santorum/ basically any Tea Party-endorsed Candidate, it seems to be a goal to eliminate the strain of government programs for the poor as well as private welfare programs be discouraged simply because it inconveniences those who can afford to give by guilt-tripping them into thinking they actually should . What is worse, there are legitimately workers out there who are not exactly elbow-rubbing with the millionaire class that these candidates are running in who are running to support these policies which basically require those with less to fend for themselves by classifying lower classes as "lazy." I am curious which of Captain John Smith's wet-dreams this concept was pulled from. As Steinbeck said, "Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires.”  

These words are especially true now. At a time of year where people generally try to act nicer, to be a little more compassionate, to drop the change from the money they just spent on gifts that would feed a family of 6 in Cuba for a year into a Salvation Army bucket, we now see men and women essentially calling on people to save money by saying loud and clear, "Fuck the poor," (see the Roman Senate in Mel Brook's History of the World Part One). Laborers are thus alienated against laborers by claiming loyalty to Capitalism and a cruel system of anti-humanitarianism to save a few dollars. As the days get colder and the streets beneath the golden roofs sting a bit more against the skin, I hope Americans will come to their senses about the inhumanity of the policies of those who try to demonize the less privileged and not inquire the next time they are approached for a few coins or God forbid a dollar bill, "Are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses?"