McCain is still at it with his "spreading opportunity" message. It really frustrates me that he gets away with it so easily. No-one, not a single journalist, ever puts the question, "Exactly what opportunities, and do we all get the same ones?"
Of course, we don't. Just look at the statistics on life expectancy between social groups. US statistics are somewhat opaque on this, almost as though the government doesn't want peopleto find out, so here are the statistics from the UK Office of National Statistics looking at the period 2002-2005:
In the period 2002-05:
- Males in the professional class had a life expectancy at birth of 80.0, compared with 72.7 years for those in the manual unskilled class
- Females in the professional class had a life expectancy at birth of 85.1 years compared with 78.1 years for the unskilled manual class
That is a difference of seven years in life expectancy, depending upon the social class into which you were born. So we can be certain of one thing, it's not the opportunity for us all to live a long life that is being shared around. The rich don't just get richer, they also tend to outlive us.
Why is that? The answer is almost biblical, in that the ecnomic system in which we live (capitalism in it's various forms) punishes the child for the sins of the father.
The child of the most feckless, irresponsible, drunken parents should have the same opportunities in life as those of the most caring, supportive parents, or at least as best as we can make it. And the number one opportunity has to be the chance to live as long as everyone else. Currently 30% of the population are dying before their time, and that is scandalous.
Capitalism not only doesn't work, but be born into the wrong class of parent and it will kill you. Way to go, John.