Parasites and society

 

Arthur Sido has an article (excellent, as usual) about what he calls “Kleptoparasitism” in society.  Here’s a brief excerpt.

When the “Great Society” and “War on Poverty” took shape, a new permanent parasite class formed: people, usually single mothers, who rely in part or in whole on government payments. As the decades have gone by this has become multi-generational with grandmas, moms and then their daughters living in public housing, paying for food with food stamps and receiving cash assistance.

Along came the roaring 1980s and the advent of a new category: the managerial-professional parasite class … corporations began filling up with deadweight staffers, employees who did nothing to increase profitability or efficiency. This is epitomized by the explosion in “human resources” staffed by mostly women who have no idea how their employers make money and really don’t care (see: The Parasite Class). When I left my last corporate job it was clear that a substantial percent of my co-workers were in this parasite class, not customer facing jobs but behind the scenes roles from human resources to “project managers”. No one seemed to know what these people did or why we needed them but everyone was sure we did.

My point being that an increasing percentage of the adult population in the West contributes nothing of value and is instead a parasite that survives (and often thrives) on the productive members of society. 

But kleptoparasitism is a somewhat different beast in that this form of parasitism comes with either the implied threat of violence or overt violence to compel the host to support them. While a beggar on the street appeals to your sense of humanity, the kleptoparasite demands your wealth.

. . .

The “civil rights” parasites have begun to wantonly morph into kleptoparasites. Instead of stealing cameras and demanding food in return, they have been stealing from society with the threat of violence. The familiar refrain of “No Justice, No Peace” is a form of kleptoparasitism. Give us want we demand and keep giving it to us and maybe we won’t burn down your city. They don’t simply ask or cajole, they threaten. Give us what we want and we will give you your hat back and/or won’t riot and block highways.

. . .

But what happens when the number of [kleptoparasites] gets too large in proportion to their potential victims or the victims get fed up with having their camera stolen over and over? Suddenly “No Justice, No Peace” stops working and the tourists say “**** it, burn the city down. I don’t care anymore”. The ecosystem is going to be in turmoil.

. . .

Soon the parasites will outnumber the host and then things are going to get ugly. What is a nation full of millions of middle aged White women who have worked in HR all of their lives combined with racial minorities who don’t know how to support themselves going to do when the well runs dry? No one is really sure but it isn’t going to be pleasant.

There’s more at the link.  Go read the whole thing, and his first article on the subject (linked above).

He’s right, of course.  I don’t know what proportion of our society can be described as “parasites”, but I reckon it’s pretty large.  Indeed, the parasites probably already “outnumber the host”.  After all, we know that as far back as 2012, “55% of Americans have received government benefits from at least one of the six best-known federal entitlement programs“.  Inquisitr reported in 2013:

In early 1960 the United States government spent the equivalent of $24 billion in today’s dollars on entitlement programs, the Bureau of Economic Analysis notes. By 2010, expenses for the same types of aid had grown nearly 100 times larger. Even though the federal spending analysis took into account both population growth and the rate of inflation, social services spending has increased by a whopping 727 percent. The average rate of public aid increases at approximately 4 percent per year.

The WJC analysis also reports that in 2010 alone, a total of $2.2 trillion was spent on assistance programs.

Again, more at the link.

(I don’t wish to suggest that all welfare or entitlement recipients are parasites, klepto or otherwise.  Many are not.  I’ve been one myself, after my crippling workplace injury in 2004, when I received workers compensation funds to pay for my (expensive) medical treatment and to replace my income – and I was devoutly grateful for them, believe me!  That sort of thing isn’t abuse of the system, IMHO.  We need to distinguish between such recipients, and the real parasites who are just mooching off the system for all they can get.  For a start, the legitimate recipients are unlikely to loot!  They know better.)

Such parasites are the main reason why deficit spending by our government (whether Democrats or Republicans are in power – it makes no difference) is so high.  The people of this country want handouts of Government money, one way or another, and many of them will vote on that basis, supporting the party that promises the biggest handouts.  The fact that it’s currently bankrupting America is neither here nor there, as far as they’re concerned.

The big question right now is, with the economy tottering into recession (if not an outright depression), and America running out of people who’ll buy its treasury bonds to prop up such government expenditure, where will the money for entitlements come from?  The answer is, it probably won’t come from anywhere.  Sooner or later, the money will run out and the parasites will find themselves destitute.  What will they do at that point?

We’ve seen harbingers of what they’ll do in previous events.  Remember the SNAP/WIC breakdown of 2013, resulting in the trashing of two Louisiana supermarkets?  Recipients of those benefits stole like there was no tomorrow, as soon as they thought they could get away with it.  If they find they’re no longer getting benefits, what makes you think they won’t steal again just as brazenly, because they believe they’re “entitled” to take what they want?  If you want another blatant example, remember “Christmas in July” in New York City back in 1977?

We’re going to see that, and much worse, if/when our benefit system becomes overloaded and breaks down.  If it goes on more than a day or two, I won’t be surprised to see private homes invaded en masse and the residents’ possessions stolen and trashed.  At that point, the choices are stark.  Either continue to pay benefits to those who are parasites on the system, or cut them off and apply strict discipline to those who riot and/or rob as a result.

If we go on paying, of course, there’ll never be an end to it.  As Rudyard Kipling so wisely put it:

And that is called paying the Dane-geld;
   But we’ve proved it again and again,
That if once you have paid him the Dane-geld
   You never get rid of the Dane.

“Kleptoparasites”.  “Danes”.  Whatever you call them, we have a problem to solve.

Peter

9 comments

  1. The women will do what has happened for millenia: they'll roll onto their backs, and take up play-for-pay. Tale as old as time.

    The rest will either starve, or rob and steal until they get the similarly millenia-long reward for FAFO: a thinning of their herd, hopefully to extinction for some good amount of time.

    The transition from kleptoparsitism to meritocracy is where things get dicey. For some people.

    "Worms gotta eat. Buzzards too."

    Nota bene that most petty crime all but disappeared in the Depression, an once Prohibition was repealed, crime was only notable for those by whom the mediots' interest was captured, and they all came to sticky ends.

    Crime only flourishes under prosperous times, like the Roaring 20s, or the Excessive '80s.

    In harsher times, civilization tends to simply get a rope.

  2. Sorry, Peter, but it isn't going to change until the Federal government can't kick that can down the road any more and the EBT cards stop working. Then it will change all at once and very painfully for all concerned.

    I figure at least another 10 years of this, more or less depending on who's supposedly running the show. The Feds will increasingly squeeze the productive members of our society in order to pay off the parasites, until there's nothing more to squeeze. That's when the VIPs cut and run, or at least try to do so.

    The parasites, having killed their host, will be looking for more gibs from anywhere. As Ringo noted, the grasshoppers will turn into locusts and swarm. Bad things will happen. Small government will take charge and try to save their people, success will vary. Eventually a new equilibrium will be reached, although I doubt that you or I will live long enough to see it.

  3. The government doesn't need people to buy bonds as long as the Fed will continue to print digital currency out of nothing to buy bonds, also created out of nothing. The fact that this reduces the value of the currency and causes inflation is a problem for future Congresscritters to solve, sometime after the next election.

    "I will gladly pay you Tuesday, for a hamburger today."

  4. At my company, the running joke is people in the accounting department standing around the coffee maker saying "We could save sooo much money if we didn't have to support those darned ships.".
    Our business is OFFSHORE oil exploration…

  5. I would argue anyone, at any level, who gets paid by the government is a parasite. The one caveat I would allow is Social Security. Those checks are funded by the working class for workers.

    I am sure I will be schooled on this but I think I am right.

  6. The PARASITES are those that work for the fed-gov. When the masses realize what their cost/benefit ratio is, well likely the cost will start going down.

  7. The reason we have so many parasites is the demand for labor is such that we cannot pay people enough to live.

    Maybe they can live on it technically but they are not going to. Last generation gets us just as much as China

    Sure envy might be a sin but huge level of inequality provokes it. Same reason we warn women about miniskirts and being drunk around horny low impulse control people , you have to keep inequality within sane levels

    Reality is that the real healthy fertility rate in modernity is about 1.5 with or without welfare. If we can get "big" everything to accept that and population decline we'll be fine

    As for Aesop's statement, the criminals will just end up you new boss. They have organization, weapons, some combat skills and resources no number if I barely know ,y neighbors types can manage

    As a White guy in L.A where IIRC you live or work, you are worm food in days unless you have some kind of clan or tribe.

    Law and order often loses

  8. The have neither the intelligence, character, temperament, nor inclination to do any such thing.

    They're only alive now because it's illegal to shoot them on sight.

    Once that impediment goes by the wayside, the bodies will be stacked by noon: "no game regs, and screw the bag limit" will be the orders of the day, UFN.

    The James-Younger Gang's foray into Northfield MN is instructively predictive. Government isn't what hinders crime, it's what allows it to fester, and ever was.

Leave a Reply to 5stonegames Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *