I'm sorry, but the only real difference between the Republicans and Democrats is that the Democrats at least use grease when they give the people the shaft. The bottom line is that special interest are the primary interests of both parties and as long as they keep us duped and trapped in a left/right paradigm, there's not a damned thing we WILL do about it.
As long as we hold onto their left/right paradigm we will never get any real change from the powers that be. Do not, kid yourself! There is no incentive for them to do anything in the public interest, because what are you going to do? Where are you going to go? When you're upset with Republicans you vote Democrat and when you get upset with them you go back to voting Republican. Neither party really loses. They just wait for their turn at power to come back around.
The two parties are not worried about you and your needs because they know they've got the game on lock. They have effectively, with your permission (silence condones), continued to make it nearly impossible for third and fourth party candidates to get on the ballot and they have locked third and fourth party candidates out of the national debates.
The two parties are smart; they know that making sure that people identify with being either a Republican or a Democrat makes the people suggestible and gullible.The parties can present their ideologies knowing that once these ideas take root as a a subject's identity, the subject will be open to accepting the suggestions of their political parties practically without question or critical examination. So the parties can decide the public discourse, candidates for elections, talking points, and the issues that are supposed to be important to voters.
Furthermore, the left/right paradigm insures that you will remain on your couch waiting for the day your party returns to power and puts things right. But probably the most destructive thing that the left/right paradigm has done is to make we the people forget that WE are the government. Those folks on the Hill are our representatives. We are the government, and we need to come out of our trance. We have to break the strange hold the two parties have our political system.We must, we, must, we must, first THINK!!!! and then do whatever needs to be done to open the political system to third and fourth parties. America Elects 2012 may be a step in that direction. Check out the video below.
http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/ThirdPartyPresi
Monday, September 26, 2011
Friday, September 23, 2011
Plantation Inc.
I am always amazed at what is considered the middle-class these days. I grew up in Brooklyn, New York before the construction of the "working class" or "working poor." Back then you were either poor, middle class, or rich. The poor were those who worked but were barely making it. They had just enough to get by. The rich, as the old folks used to say back then, were "Those folks who don't have to work much because their money is working for them." So, if you were somebody who had to bust your hump working everyday like the rest of us, you damn sure weren't rich: even though you had fine house, new car, and your kids attended private school. No you were not rich; you were middle class.
The economic/financial criteria for middle class status seems to have been much higher than it is now. To buy a house you had to have at least a 20% downpayment and excellentsuperfantastic credit. You had to have things like assets and collateral to get bank loans. Financing and credit cards were not so easy to obtain. You had to demonstrate a high level of credit worthiness, have a certain level of steady income and savings in order to get a credit card. Shucks, back in the day, if you had a credit card you were considered to be "big time" (or what the kids would now consider "living large") because institutions were not giving out credit cards to all comers.
So cash was king! "Cash and carry" was a popular saying; if you had enough cash to pay for an item in full, you could carry it out the store with you that day. If you didn't have enough cash to pay for an item in full, there was financing for the middle class and layaway for the rest of us. Then something changed.
I don't know exactly what it was except to speculate that financial institutions figured out they could increase their profit margin significantly by keeping a large amount of people in a never ending cycle of debt. Everyone wants the American dream of which legends and Madison Ave advertisement firms speak. After all, you are not successful, not worthy, not good enough, not a real American if you can't continually amass an array of material things: most of them absolutely needless. But, we have been duped into believing that our self worth is in direct correlation to the types and sizes of things that we buy, and the financial institutions know this. So, they began to extend credit to practically any and everybody with little regard for their ability to pay.
What a racket! High interest rates, exorbitant late fees, sub prime mortgages, adjusted rate mortgages and no money down was the new order of the day. Make a late payment or miss a payment, and your interest rate went through the roof. Still people had the urge to buy more to "be" more, and buying on credit made it so easy. It also made it easy for people to live above their means. In many cases, as the interest rates and credit card purchases were increasing, wages for some people remained the same or decreased. Now add a recession, a few wars, mass unemployment, the near extinction of the American manufacturing base, bailouts, and the bursting of the housing bubble, and here we are--a nation of debtors.
We are stuck paying for wars, and bailouts in addition to our own debt, and we are to do this even though jobs continue to be outsourced, we continue to run a trade deficit, and corporate lobbyists continue to buy AND WRITE legislation that favors the corporations at the expense of the American people. The deck has been stacked against the people. We seem to be stuck paying off Wall Street's debt, the government's debt and our own debt as our savings and investments draw little interest, the value of the dollar continues to plunge, and everything costs more.
I am so sickened by the amount of elders I see working in Walmart and fast food restaurants. These are people who are well past retirement age and here they are standing on their feet all day working. I know that most of them are there because they have to be. There is no way they cannot be there and survive. The scary part is they may have to work until they die, especially if the powers that be get their way and all but eradicate social security.
Then there are those who have been lucky enough to have a steady job for years who still can't afford to retire because their 401k's lost so much money during the financial meltdown.
Then you have the college graduates with advanced degrees who are underemployed or can't get a job. Many of them were already behind the eight ball when they graduated because they have so much student loan debt. Now they have no job or not enough job to repay their loans.
So how are many of these people trying to make ends meet? Some are using credit cards for necessities in between pay checks and/or using the services of title loan and cash advance companies. Others are borrowing money from their pension plans, 401k's, and taking out home equity loans. It is a continual cycle of debt that waaaaay too many people will be trying to pay off practically until they die. There is a talking point that is so overused I could spit every every time I hear it, but it is so true. We have created so much debt as a country that our children and grandchildren will be trying to pay it off. Don't kid yourself ; there is no more middle class in this country and hasn't been for quite some time now. The majority of Americans are the working class (translation: working poor). 1 in 6 Americans is living in poverty. Too many Americans will never get out from under. Their paychecks are spent before they even receive them.
Welcome to 21st Century sharecropping.
The economic/financial criteria for middle class status seems to have been much higher than it is now. To buy a house you had to have at least a 20% downpayment and excellentsuperfantastic credit. You had to have things like assets and collateral to get bank loans. Financing and credit cards were not so easy to obtain. You had to demonstrate a high level of credit worthiness, have a certain level of steady income and savings in order to get a credit card. Shucks, back in the day, if you had a credit card you were considered to be "big time" (or what the kids would now consider "living large") because institutions were not giving out credit cards to all comers.
So cash was king! "Cash and carry" was a popular saying; if you had enough cash to pay for an item in full, you could carry it out the store with you that day. If you didn't have enough cash to pay for an item in full, there was financing for the middle class and layaway for the rest of us. Then something changed.
I don't know exactly what it was except to speculate that financial institutions figured out they could increase their profit margin significantly by keeping a large amount of people in a never ending cycle of debt. Everyone wants the American dream of which legends and Madison Ave advertisement firms speak. After all, you are not successful, not worthy, not good enough, not a real American if you can't continually amass an array of material things: most of them absolutely needless. But, we have been duped into believing that our self worth is in direct correlation to the types and sizes of things that we buy, and the financial institutions know this. So, they began to extend credit to practically any and everybody with little regard for their ability to pay.
What a racket! High interest rates, exorbitant late fees, sub prime mortgages, adjusted rate mortgages and no money down was the new order of the day. Make a late payment or miss a payment, and your interest rate went through the roof. Still people had the urge to buy more to "be" more, and buying on credit made it so easy. It also made it easy for people to live above their means. In many cases, as the interest rates and credit card purchases were increasing, wages for some people remained the same or decreased. Now add a recession, a few wars, mass unemployment, the near extinction of the American manufacturing base, bailouts, and the bursting of the housing bubble, and here we are--a nation of debtors.
We are stuck paying for wars, and bailouts in addition to our own debt, and we are to do this even though jobs continue to be outsourced, we continue to run a trade deficit, and corporate lobbyists continue to buy AND WRITE legislation that favors the corporations at the expense of the American people. The deck has been stacked against the people. We seem to be stuck paying off Wall Street's debt, the government's debt and our own debt as our savings and investments draw little interest, the value of the dollar continues to plunge, and everything costs more.
I am so sickened by the amount of elders I see working in Walmart and fast food restaurants. These are people who are well past retirement age and here they are standing on their feet all day working. I know that most of them are there because they have to be. There is no way they cannot be there and survive. The scary part is they may have to work until they die, especially if the powers that be get their way and all but eradicate social security.
Then there are those who have been lucky enough to have a steady job for years who still can't afford to retire because their 401k's lost so much money during the financial meltdown.
Then you have the college graduates with advanced degrees who are underemployed or can't get a job. Many of them were already behind the eight ball when they graduated because they have so much student loan debt. Now they have no job or not enough job to repay their loans.
So how are many of these people trying to make ends meet? Some are using credit cards for necessities in between pay checks and/or using the services of title loan and cash advance companies. Others are borrowing money from their pension plans, 401k's, and taking out home equity loans. It is a continual cycle of debt that waaaaay too many people will be trying to pay off practically until they die. There is a talking point that is so overused I could spit every every time I hear it, but it is so true. We have created so much debt as a country that our children and grandchildren will be trying to pay it off. Don't kid yourself ; there is no more middle class in this country and hasn't been for quite some time now. The majority of Americans are the working class (translation: working poor). 1 in 6 Americans is living in poverty. Too many Americans will never get out from under. Their paychecks are spent before they even receive them.
Welcome to 21st Century sharecropping.
No! It's Not the Corporate Tax Rate
The biggest problem with continuing to buy into the left/right political paradigm is that we the people allow the two political parties to determine the public discourse rather than we the people speaking truth to power. I am amazed at how day after day so many of us believe the hype that the reason many big American businesses are not hiring in America is because the corporate tax rate is too high. This, even though in recent months we have seen instances of of mega corporations making record profits and paying little, if any, taxes.
Let me break this down . Yeah, the high corporate tax rate argument may have some merit, but it's not the primary reason as to why many American corporations are not hiring in America. Taxes my foot! The bottom line is that they don't want to pay YOU--period! Why? Because YOU Americans will not accept less than $7.25 (minimum wage) for your labor, and you have the nerve to want $7.25 for every hour you work. Are you crazy!? They can go overseas and pay somebody $7.25 for a whole 12 hour day.
(Now you and I both know that even in the most rural areas of this country you could barely take care of a goldfish for $7.25 an hour. If you are living some place like New York City, you couldn't afford a good corrugated cardboard box under the Brooklyn Bridge for that money, but I digress.)
Not only do you want at least $7.25 an hour, you want to share in a portion of the wealth that your labor generates for the company. Most of you want your portion in the form of of healthcare benefits. You also want a safe work environment, protective gear, a 35-40 work week max, and vacation time. On top of that you want these companies to spend money to safely dispose of any toxic waste they produce when it would be much cheaper for them to just dump industrial waste in your water supply, local landfills, or some wooded area or vacant lot in the community you live in. HELLO! Do you think they have all of these nagging costs and considerations in so many of these places overseas? Please.
I am always amazed at how many people will call C-Span's Washington Journal demanding that the U.S.lift environmental regulations, and Americans accept lower wages to lure jobs back America from places like China and India. I always wonder who these callers really are. Are they really willing to work in an environment for a wage commensurate to that of many Chinese, Indian, and Mexican workers? Really? Are they watching PBS and reading alternative news sources that more and more often are reporting about Chinese citizens protesting the dumping of toxic waste and debris in their villages? Are these callers really willing to live under such conditions? Please.
However, I do think such calls are very telling in that they reveal a profound truth. A high corporate tax rate is not the primary reason many American corporations don't hire Americans. The real reason is you want a living wage, safe drinking water, and healthcare. You want to be treated like a human being. Unfortunately for you, that just costs too damned much.
Let me break this down . Yeah, the high corporate tax rate argument may have some merit, but it's not the primary reason as to why many American corporations are not hiring in America. Taxes my foot! The bottom line is that they don't want to pay YOU--period! Why? Because YOU Americans will not accept less than $7.25 (minimum wage) for your labor, and you have the nerve to want $7.25 for every hour you work. Are you crazy!? They can go overseas and pay somebody $7.25 for a whole 12 hour day.
(Now you and I both know that even in the most rural areas of this country you could barely take care of a goldfish for $7.25 an hour. If you are living some place like New York City, you couldn't afford a good corrugated cardboard box under the Brooklyn Bridge for that money, but I digress.)
Not only do you want at least $7.25 an hour, you want to share in a portion of the wealth that your labor generates for the company. Most of you want your portion in the form of of healthcare benefits. You also want a safe work environment, protective gear, a 35-40 work week max, and vacation time. On top of that you want these companies to spend money to safely dispose of any toxic waste they produce when it would be much cheaper for them to just dump industrial waste in your water supply, local landfills, or some wooded area or vacant lot in the community you live in. HELLO! Do you think they have all of these nagging costs and considerations in so many of these places overseas? Please.
I am always amazed at how many people will call C-Span's Washington Journal demanding that the U.S.lift environmental regulations, and Americans accept lower wages to lure jobs back America from places like China and India. I always wonder who these callers really are. Are they really willing to work in an environment for a wage commensurate to that of many Chinese, Indian, and Mexican workers? Really? Are they watching PBS and reading alternative news sources that more and more often are reporting about Chinese citizens protesting the dumping of toxic waste and debris in their villages? Are these callers really willing to live under such conditions? Please.
However, I do think such calls are very telling in that they reveal a profound truth. A high corporate tax rate is not the primary reason many American corporations don't hire Americans. The real reason is you want a living wage, safe drinking water, and healthcare. You want to be treated like a human being. Unfortunately for you, that just costs too damned much.
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