The State Of The Undignified
Besides this passing reference to Kyrsten Sinema looking like a giant banana, there’s only one thing I want to talk about from the State of the Union: the Joe Biden rhetoric enabling the surplusing of millions of Americans.
Ostensibly quoting his father early in the address, the President of the United States sternly informed us that “a job is about a lot more than a paycheck. […] It’s about your dignity. It’s about respect.”
He’d doubtlessly intone that this isn’t what he meant, but this language by its very nature and emphasis communicates that one’s value and one’s worth come from one’s job.
Biden continued: “It’s about being able to look your kid in the eye and say, ‘Honey, it’s going to be OK,’ and mean it.”
You know what else would let people look their kid in the eye and says this? Universal basic income. Medicare For All. Orienting our society around social welfare rather than the scarcity lie of extractive capital.
My dignity is inherent. I’m born with it. So are you. Biden, as I said, would scoff at a suggestion that he doesn’t believe this; no doubt he’d call the charge “malarkey”.
But there’s only one way to read a statement like “a job is about your dignity”, and if it isn’t what he means, then he should say what he means and mean what he says, because saying what he did serves only to lessen the lives of those who can’t work.