As I watched history being made this week I felt something I hadn't felt about our country in a very long time. A tiny bit of optimism. I really want to believe that this one man can make a difference, can change the path we have been on and unite us together for the greater good. But I keep reminding myself he is but one man. I know... I know... One person can make a difference, but can one person alone change an entire country? Of course, after saying that I think... look where the election of the village idiot got us!! Yet I try to look at this realistically. The senate and the house hold all the cards really, and both sides of the isle have been bought and sold so many times by big business that it is hard for me to believe we are going to see the change that so many of us yearn for. Our government moves at a snails pace, and we are a society searching for instant gratifications. I think of all those millions of people we saw celebrating the inauguration in Washington this week. The majority of them will become bored with it all when they don't get that instant action on our governments part and will find themselves once again apathetic to the cause. Sad thing is, without them no change will ever occur. At times I think the only thing that CAN change the ways of Washington is a mass uprising of her people. A scholar once said when asked about the difference between American politics and European politics, that in Europe the government fears the people, but in America the people fear the government. We need to show our government that they are our servants, not vise versa, before any change will ever materialize.
Changing the subject a bit, but I was so very tense while watching the inauguration. I was so fearful that this grassy knoll, JFK moment was going to flash before my eyes. It seems like any time there has been a leader that represented the working class man, someone has been there to take them out before they could rally us to the call! When Obama got out and walked down Pennsylvania Avenue, I was cringing the entire time. I bet the secret service had to be a wee bit nervous about the position he put himself in there. I know it's all about custom and tradition, but I kept thinking.... OBAMA... i thought you are a smart man!! Why are you doing this?? Get yourself a pope mobile cause we need you ALIVE!!
Friday, January 23, 2009
Saturday, January 3, 2009
BAILOUT CENTRAL
OK. So we are coming up on the third financial bailout of astronomical proportions. I had many discussions with family and friends about this during the holidays. No one seemed overly excited about handing these huge corporations all this free money. Especially after finding out about the phat bonuses they handed themselves after receiving our tax dollars. If your company is on the brinks of bankruptcy, do you deserve to be financially rewarded for your contributions to it's demise??? HELL NO!!
The most interesting conversation and most compelling I think was with my father. His political views are pretty straight forward. He asked me what the population of the United States was. A little over 300 million. He says... how much was the Bailout we gave wall street. 700 BILLION. His thoughts were as follows. Why not give each and every American a million dollars. That would cost the government less than this corporate bailout, plus it would be giving the American people their own tax dollars back. The banks are in trouble because people can't pay their mortgages... give someone a million dollars and I bet they pay their mortgage so they don't lose their home which puts money back into the banking systems. If I had a sweet mil, you can bet I would be buying a house as would countless other Americans, rejuvenating the housing and real estate markets. Give people a million bucks and I bet a few of them will go buy a new car, saving the car industry as well as the many manufacturers tied to the industry. It would be fair. Everyone would get the same amount regardless of income or debt. At first I thought there's no way that could work, but then i started thinking about it. If we have all these BILLIONS of dollars that our government can throw at corporate America, then why not?? It's the "taxpayers" dollars, so why not give them to the TAXPAYERS. Let the taxpayers fix the problem by injecting the economy with cash flow where they see fit. It would be a better strategy than continuing to concentrate all our money into fewer and fewer hands by bailing out these corporations. Are we so consumed by greed on the legislative levels that sharing the wealth is worse than destroying our nation by devastating her people with financial crisis??
In college I had a class about Geo politics. We learned that in order for super power nations to exist, there have to be poor periphery nations for these super powers to feed off of and exploit in order to remain powerful. I feel that we have developed a similar form of geopolitics within our own country. The middle class has become the periphery that the ultra elite must continue to exploit in order to remain wealthy and powerful. Our governments leaders have become financially entangled with this social class of elitists, and in turn have become less and less of a true representation of their people.
Until we stop drinking the cool aid and wake up and see this, our country will continue down this path until we are all starving next to one another in the streets while Bill Gates flies over us in his private solar jet.
The most interesting conversation and most compelling I think was with my father. His political views are pretty straight forward. He asked me what the population of the United States was. A little over 300 million. He says... how much was the Bailout we gave wall street. 700 BILLION. His thoughts were as follows. Why not give each and every American a million dollars. That would cost the government less than this corporate bailout, plus it would be giving the American people their own tax dollars back. The banks are in trouble because people can't pay their mortgages... give someone a million dollars and I bet they pay their mortgage so they don't lose their home which puts money back into the banking systems. If I had a sweet mil, you can bet I would be buying a house as would countless other Americans, rejuvenating the housing and real estate markets. Give people a million bucks and I bet a few of them will go buy a new car, saving the car industry as well as the many manufacturers tied to the industry. It would be fair. Everyone would get the same amount regardless of income or debt. At first I thought there's no way that could work, but then i started thinking about it. If we have all these BILLIONS of dollars that our government can throw at corporate America, then why not?? It's the "taxpayers" dollars, so why not give them to the TAXPAYERS. Let the taxpayers fix the problem by injecting the economy with cash flow where they see fit. It would be a better strategy than continuing to concentrate all our money into fewer and fewer hands by bailing out these corporations. Are we so consumed by greed on the legislative levels that sharing the wealth is worse than destroying our nation by devastating her people with financial crisis??
In college I had a class about Geo politics. We learned that in order for super power nations to exist, there have to be poor periphery nations for these super powers to feed off of and exploit in order to remain powerful. I feel that we have developed a similar form of geopolitics within our own country. The middle class has become the periphery that the ultra elite must continue to exploit in order to remain wealthy and powerful. Our governments leaders have become financially entangled with this social class of elitists, and in turn have become less and less of a true representation of their people.
Until we stop drinking the cool aid and wake up and see this, our country will continue down this path until we are all starving next to one another in the streets while Bill Gates flies over us in his private solar jet.
Alas.. the end of the holidays!!
I haven't been on my site since THANKSGIVING. Thats what working retail does to you. I am back now. Ready to refocus on my political discourse!
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