A Fairytale Fable

Pick up the pooh, and shut the fuck up!!!

  Once upon a time there was a great kingdom. This kingdom was ruled by an elite class, who determined all the laws and currency issued within the kingdom.

  The ruling class, that is the King and his court, lived in opulence and luxury. They had riches aplenty, every wish and every one of their desires could be easily fulfilled. They were the government, and members of the lesser classes were given privileges to elect any within the wealthy elite to govern over them, they were even allowed to elect their 'King', and they called this process democracy.

  The ruling elite had so much wealth that those in the lesser classes strove hard to win their confidence by offering them services in exchange for some of their 'valuable currency', without which no man or woman could possibly purchase a lifestyle of any medieval comfort.

 However there was another class of subjects within this kingdom, a serf class of labourers and merchants who tended to the minutia of the land.   Unlike the Middle class who indulged the luxurious tastes of the King and his elite court, always hoping to reap the benefits of the their 'trickle down' excesses, the Underclass had to work long hard hours, performing menial jobs for very little pay.     Few within the Underclass could even afford a horse, let alone an Ox or other livestock that would allow them them the possibility of a decent living, instead they had little choice but to sweep the streets, collect the trash, point the bricks, and wash the windows, among thousands of other thankless tasks.

   In return for their lowly services, the King asked the Underclass to pay much less tax money on his currency issued. Naturally the Underclass were not pleased to part with any of the very little money they earned for their hard work and long hours, as they were barely able to make ends meet to begin with.

Fortunately though, they were given the opportunity to purchase lottery tickets which would temporarily satiate their anxiety by providing some 'virtual false hope' in exchange for 'relative civility', and watch jousting and other forms of sport that would quench their 'tribalist rage'.

  However the Middle class were expected to pay much more, after all, they possessed far more luxuries than the Underclass, and therefore could afford to surrender a greater portion of their royal currency to taxation.

The Middle class could indulge in a lifestyle only dreamed of by the Underclass, and soon became the envy of the Underclass, for they could indulge in fantasies of living not possible for the Underclass, through access to lines of credit, rewarded to them by the King for shouldering a greater amount of the tax burden.

 The Middle class, despite their relatively comfortable lifestyle, resented paying such a great percentage of their royal income to taxation…they wanted more, and were quite willing to go deep into debt in order to compensate for their loss of income due to the heavy taxation. They wanted nice homes, some even had TWO horses, which required twice as much maintenance. They wanted to send their children to the finest archery classes, and schools of higher learning. They would even go into debt to pay for a re-thatching of their cottage roof, and at Christmas time would often seek out and purchase expensive gifts to give one another, and sometimes even, would travel to distant lands in order to better celebrate their relative wealth.

  One day though, the Kings greed finally caught up with the kingdom, for he had issued too much 'cheap credit' based currency not backed by any labour or resources, and due to the compounding interest on debt, and an inability for the royal subjects to repay the debt, the lesser classes were told to endure austerity measures. Of course, the King had no desire to endure the very austerity he had imposed, so the burden was left to the Middle and Underclasses to suffer, for if they didn't, the King had ensured his subjects that their kingdom would certainly fall.

  The royal subjects began to grow restless, many within the middle class refused to lay blame on those truly responsible for the recession, that is to say the King and his court, and instead chose to criticize the Underclass for not shouldering enough of the tax burden.

 One member of the middle class, the Kings gardner in fact, stood up on a soap-box, and proceeded to make an argument for his suffering. The Villagers gathered around and listened. The Gardner lamented on how this recession was causing him to sink further into debt, whilst the King was expecting him to pay a greater portion of the royal tax with his royal currency.

  Now that his work load had slipped to just a couple of half-days a week, and due to the expenses of his lifestyle, he further lamented on how his sinking into debt could no longer allow him to maintain his former standard of living.

 The Gardner feared perhaps one of his horses would have to be sold, or that the children's archery classes would need to be scaled back. The Villagers listened intently, sympathizing with the plight of the Kings gardner.   Saddened that, given the recession, there was now less royal excess to be enjoyed by him and others in the middle class.

  Members of the Underclass were confused by his plea though, for they knew that even if he were to downsize his lifestyle to half of what it had been, it would still be a far greater wealth than the relative material poverty they lived in.
The King was not worried by this new tumult within the kingdom, he scoffed at one of his advisors who suggested the possibility of a 'revolution', for he knew that when it came to survival, the Middle-class would never 'bight the hand that feeds them', because in the end, they were still living a life of relative prosperity in relation to the Underclass.

Instead of turning their attention on those whose greed had created the austerity,that is to say the King and his court, the Middle class instead chose to support their King who subsequently taxed, criticized, and further regulated the Underclass to the point where their ability to tend to the minutia of making the kingdom function began to exponentially deteriorate, and with it the kingdom itself.    End of story! 

 (oh, by the way, they all got some Ho's and lived happily ever after!)     

                                                                                                                                                                           Dirty CT January 2011