Here’s my favorite quote for the day:

Democracy is not an outgrowth of free markets. Democracy and capitalism are antagonistic entities. Democracy, like individualism, is not based on personal gain but on self-sacrifice. A functioning democracy must defy the economic interests of elites on behalf of citizens. This is not happening.

It’s from Chris Hedges’ article from yesterday in Truthdig.

Hedges’ statement sorts out something cleanly which has been bothering me. I haven’t been able to fathom why Barack Obama has to fight so hard to spin his comment about spreading the wealth around. Isn’t that fundamentally the purpose of governments? Government collects taxes from people who can afford to pay, and then distributes the money to the populace at large, in the form of roads and libraries and food stamps and schools… Why is this considered a bad thing? Why has greed become fashionable?