SAG-AFTRA, Social Security and solidarity
All of us are in a union. The Union of American Taxpayers. Republicans want to take away our benefits the way entertainment companies want to shortchange the writers, actors and crew who create their products.
The SAG-AFTRA strike and this from Digby on Sunday brought that home for me:
Of course, it’s important to remember that they are completely shameless and will have no problem screaming “liar!” at anyone who suggests they agreed not to cut social security and medicare. But it will still be useful to have this to point out to voters.
And, by the way, this fatuous “we’re only cutting it for the young” has never worked in the past and it won’t work in the future. The old people have kids and grand kids to protect and the young aren’t that stupid.
Republicans are counting on older Americans not standing in solidarity with the young. Because they wouldn’t.
“Everybody in this business is not rich,” said comedian Leslie Jones in an epic Twitter rant about the SAG-AFTRA strike. She was 47 before she made any money in show business. People like her are striking for the 87% of their members who make less than $26,000 per year.
Why are wealthier SAG-AFTRA members like Jones on the picket line? To defend co-workers who have not made it yet. Because they’ve been there. Because they’ve made it doesn’t mean they will leave their fellow members behind. But that’s what Republicans think seniors on Social Security will do to younger workers who have not yet reached retirement age.
It’s the same dynamic. I’m alright, Jack.
I’m All Right, Jack is the title of a 1959 British comedy featuring Ian Carmichael and Peter Sellers. The plot involves a union on strike and management shenanigans. The title comes from an expression Americans like myself first heard in the 1973 Pink Floyd song, “Money.” As Wikipedia tells it:
“I’m alright, Jack” is a British expression used to describe people who act only in their own best interests, even if providing assistance to others would take minimal to no effort on their behalf. It carries a negative connotation, and is rarely used to describe the person saying it.
The phrase is believed to have originated among Royal Navy sailors; when a ladder was slung over the side of a ship, the last sailor to climb on board would say, “I’m alright Jack, pull up the ladder.” The latter half of the phrase, typically used as “pulling up the ladder behind oneself”, has been used to call out unfairness and hypocrisy on the part of those who are seen to have benefitted from opportunities handed out to them, only to deny such opportunities to others.
Don’t be that asshole.
Wealthier SAG-AFTRA members refuse to pull up the ladder behind them. Americans on Social Security had best refuse to let the GOP to pull it up and screw over younger Americans. Don’t fall for it. We’re all in this together.
“You’ve been pissing on our heads and calling it trickle down for decades,” comedian Trae Crowder in his rant about the strike. “And y’all better come to the table and make this right, because if you don’t, the next time you check your watch it’s liable to be pitchfork 30. How about that?”
It’s not as if Nick Hanauer hasn’t been warning plutocrats about that for nearly a decade.