Life under Capitalism

The history of getting you to pee in a cup

Health, Life under Capitalism, Policing, Substance abuse
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Isabel McDonald’s article in The Nation about the history of the drug testing industry is fascinating:

The thirst for urine can be traced to the military’s 1971 Operation Golden Flow, aimed at detecting druggies among Vietnam veterans. Launched in response to rumors of heroin addiction, the test disproportionately netted marijuana users, since one byproduct of marijuana, carboxy-THC, lingers in the body longer than that of harder drugs. (In contrast, the body flushes out the byproducts of harder drugs, such as cocaine and heroin, within a day.) Nevertheless, before long, all service members were required to urinate in a cup at least once every two years.

Who’d have thought the US military could have a sense of humour? Be sure to read the part where one of the drug warriors regularly has her own adult sons drug tested too.

Mental health is a political issue

Health, Life under Capitalism
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Mark Fisher argues that mental health cannot be considered in isolation from our society as a whole and how the economic depression helps cause and worsen mental depression:

It would be facile to argue that every single case of depression can be attributed to economic or political causes; but it is equally facile to maintain – as the dominant approaches to depression do – that the roots of all depression must always lie either in individual brain chemistry or in early childhood experiences. Most psychiatrists assume that mental illnesses such as depression are caused by chemical imbalances in the brain, which can be treated by drugs. But most psychotherapy doesn’t address the social causation of mental illness either.

The radical therapist David Smail argues that Margaret Thatcher’s view that there’s no such thing as society, only individuals and their families, finds “an unacknowledged echo in almost all approaches to therapy”. Therapies such as cognitive behaviour therapy combine a focus on early life with the self-help doctrine that individuals can become masters of their own destiny. The idea is “with the expert help of your therapist or counsellor, you can change the world you are in the last analysis responsible for, so that it no longer cause you distress” – Smail calls this view “magical voluntarism”.

Just because you spent your money doesn’t make you poor

Life under Capitalism
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Here’s Tom Brokaw making an argument about being rich that drives me nuts, courtesy of The Atlantic Wire:

I think this deal will probably get done around the middle class tax cut. It’s at what level. Is it $400,000 or $250,000 or some other number, which is going to be critically important? A lot of people don’t realize in the large urban and suburban areas of America, $250,000 doesn’t make you rich. You’ve got two kids in college at $60,000. If you’re a boomer, you may have a dependent parent of some kind you’re spending another $20-25,000 on. So we have to have the definition of what is the middle class.

You can’t calm you’re not rich or affluent, just because you chose to spent your money. That you can afford to live in an expensive area actually means you’re richer than most other people, not that you’re just as poor just because you’re spending so much on your house. Similarly, being able to afford sending two kids to college out of your own pocket? That’s what being wealthy gets you. Just because you made “virtuous” choices about how to spent your money you don’t become poor or middle class. If you’re poor or middle class you don’t have that choice.

Paying a living wage? Madness!

Life under Capitalism, Uh? WTF?
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Even before the 2008 economic depression food banks were slowly becoming a regretable necessity in many socalled wealthy countries for increasing numbers of people, but this is I think the first time a company opens a food charity for its own employees:

Employees of UPMC can no longer say that their employer hasn’t been listening to their concerns and addressing their needs.

Since non-medical employees began seeking unionization earlier this year from SEIU, they have been telling the public about the low wages paid by the healthcare giant and how it affects their ability to make ends meet. Many employees, like Leslie Poston, have told the public how they’ve had to go to food banks to make sure they have enough food for their families. Others have said they have to go on public assistance.

But fear not, good workers: UPMC Cares, and they’ve come up with a solution. In fact, since Poston was one of the first workers to tell such tales, UPMC brass decided to alert her to the news first.

“It was two days before Thanksgiving and my unit director came up, put an arm around me and said ‘we’ve been hearing what you’ve been saying,'” Poston told City Paper earlier today. “She pulled out a flyer and said, ‘We’re starting a food bank for the employees.'”

“I turned my head and started to cry because I was so angry, although she thought I was crying because of the gesture. They just don’t get that I’d rather they pay me a better wage so I wouldn’t have to go to a food bank.”

More and more low wage workers are actually earning too little and are therefore dependent on either government assistance or food banks, but it’s rare that this is shown as blatantly as at UPMC. It’s an extreme example of a worrying trend, with increasing groups of people in work actually needing support to pay for their daily amenities in all wealthy countries. It’s also a hidden subsidy from the tax payer to employers too cheap to pay their workers a living wage. Not to mention those cases in which working people actually to depend on the charity of the rest of us to get by.