Whoever Robs And Steals The Nourishment Of Another, That Man Ought To Be Hanging On The Gallows And Be Eaten By As Many Ravens As He Has Stolen Guilders If Only There Were So Much Flesh On Him

Martin Luther (1483-1546), quoted by Karl Marx in Capital: A Critical Analysis of Capitalist Production:

The heathen were able, by the light of reason, to conclude that a usurer [someone who lends money at unreasonably high rates of interest] is a double-dyed thief and murderer. We Christians, however, hold them in such honour, that we fairly worship them for the sake of their money. . . . Whoever eats up, robs, and steals the nourishment of another, that man commits as great a murder . . . as he who starves a man or utterly undoes him. Such does a usurer, and sits the while safe on his stool, when he ought rather to be hanging on the gallows, and be eaten by as many ravens as he has stolen guilders, if only there were so much flesh on him, that so many ravens could stick their beaks in and share it. Meanwhile, we hang the small thieves . . . Little thieves are put in the stocks, great thieves go flaunting in gold and silk . . . Therefore is there, on this earth, no greater enemy of man (after the devil) than a gripe-money, and usurer, for he wants to be God over all men. . . . [A] usurer and money-glutton, such a one would have the whole world perish of hunger and thirst, misery and want, so far as in him lies, so that he may have all to himself, and every one may receive from him as from a God, and be his serf forever. . . . Usury is a great huge monster, like a werewolf, who lays waste all . . . And since we break on the wheel, and behead highwaymen, murderers and housebreakers, how much more ought we to break on the wheel and kill . . . hunt down, curse and behead all usurers.

Or, as the late Ian Fraser Kilmister (1945-2015) put it:

Come on, baby, eat the rich,
Put the bite on the son of a bitch

Paul Street writes that the current situation offers "yet more undeniable evidence of the complete craziness and cruelty of American capitalism and class rule":

It is absurd that the nation's economic system can't pause and hold in place without taxpayers being compelled to spend trillions of dollars to protect the profitability of the wealthy Few's giant corporations and financial institutions (while providing a bare minimum for the working-class majority). ...

A system that throws millions out of work and off absurdly employment-based health insurance when their employment is no longer suitably profitable for the employer class is vicious and absurd.

A globally super-powerful industrial "democracy" that (thanks to extreme corporate power) never made health care a human right is cruel and irrational. ...

A system that has downsized hospitals and medical resources in the name of profitability ... is absurd, hazardous, and cruel. ...

A system that hitches the retirement incomes of senior citizens to the manic boom and bust cycles of unbalanced and inadequately regulated financial and stock markets is cruel and absurd.

A system that rations exposure to and protection from a deadly virus by class position and status is cruel and absurd.

A system that makes frontline health-care workers perform life-saving duties without adequate protective gear while medical-industry elites stay sheltered from danger is cruel and absurd.

There have been reports of health care workers facing disciplinary action or job termination for wearing protective masks in hallways and elevators of hospitals or for simply talking with co-workers about inadequate equipment and testing.

A nurse in Oklahoma was threatened with immediate termination after he was seen wearing a procedural mask in a patient's room while inserting an intravenous line. An emergency room physician in Washington state was fired after talking to a newspaper about inadequate protective equipment. A nurse in Chicago was fired after telling co-workers by email that she wanted to wear a more protective mask while on duty.

Street says a friend asked him: "People who heal the sick and shelter the weak vs. a bunch of executives worried about PR. Which side are you on?"

"For we struggle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." (Ephesians 6:12).

I'm not religious myself but Jesus was just alright with me if and when he said stuff like that.

Capitalism, intimately related to the mastery of money, is the very contemporary embodiment of "spiritual wickedness in high places." We must choose. We cannot serve humanity and capitalism at one and the same time.