EVERYBODY'S GONE SERFING, SERFING USA!

History is filled with changing economic times.

There have been boom times where many lives were lifted out of poverty and financial disasters where the opposite route was taken.

Governments tend to bring order to the land and if possible stability.

Strong governments are fine as long as they incorporate checks and balances such as the basic hierarchy of the United States.

But without those features strong governments may turn harsh and corrupt as in North Korea and several Middle Eastern lands. A government that rules with an iron fist has many dangers.

But weak governments are worse and open the door to a coup or at the very least a loss of control that spirals down to anarchy.

Nations have been experimenting with different forms of government for centuries and naturally we in America believe ours, while terribly flawed is the best one in existence.

The lord of the Feifdom lived within these walls.

The Middle Ages saw a long period with no strong centralized government.  The land was generally ruled by lords of the land.  These landlords used the labor of what some might consider slaves to work the land for them as a method of paying off a debt.

The debt could be a fine for something bad the pauper had done or a fee for food he needed to survive.  He might owe money to the powers of the day because he sought to marry and asked the landlord to grant him a hut in which to live.  The landlord might oblige in return for favors with the bride and the use of the child’s labor once old enough to work.

But the bottom line was the ‘free’ man was indebted to the landlord and could lose all including his life if he stopped paying what he owed.

One could be excused for confusing this type of situation as slavery but history branded these poor unfortunates, serfs.

Other ‘ages’ followed such as that of enlightenment and the industrial revolution and while the World moved on toward our current modern times it was not without an occasional hiccup.

There were World Wars and the rise of Communism which in many ways can be considered just another form of feudalism.  And many humans still live under totalitarian rule.

We survived the stock market crash of 1929 and the ensuing great depression.

We enjoyed the post war era that ushered in the Middle Class and general prosperity for a majority of Americans.

We continued our rise as the most admired nation in the World and have seen continued immigration throughout and past the 20^th century.

But along with our march toward a more perfect union we have taken a huge step backwards.  And if we are not careful we will end up back in a new age version of Feudalism as the most affluent among us look for easy prey among the less fortunate. You might be excused for coining a new phrase as they GO SERFING!

Not your daddy's idea of surfing

Before you dismiss this out of hand as absurd think about all the other times people sat back and allowed their lives to be turned upside down and ruined due to complacency and denial.

As I stated earlier there are millions of humans living under the total control of a small number of evil greedy dictators even today!

And there are more would be tyrants plotting the takeover of other countries going on as well.

But think something like that cannot happen in America?

You know what’s coming, THINK AGAIN.

Our steady march to the Middle Ages began decades ago

But as with any slow and steady movement it may be hard to notice the trend until it affects your life.

To wit we first fast forward to 2008 and back to 1929.

We will bounce around in time from then but it’s a fantastic place to start as the lives of so many people were adversely affected in ways they may not overcome in their lifetime.

I offer herewith a dozen examples of how the wealthy are SERFING, SERFING USA!

1 – SECOND 'GREAT DEPRESSION' SERFING – As a result of the financial meltdown caused by the greed and subsequent appeasement of the wealthiest among us millions were thrown into turmoil for no fault of their own.

In fact the only ones not hurt by the financial crisis were the very same people who caused it!

It’s hard to believe it’s almost 6 years since the collapse of Lehman Brothers.

And the key players are not only still in power but have cemented their positions.  They have gained more wealth than one would have thought possible just a few short years ago.

And as far as catch phrases go; ‘Too big to fail’ has morphed into ‘Too big to jail.’

None of these criminals have or will see the inside of a cell unless it’s to visit those of us who end up in debtors’ prison.  Or maybe it should be called serfer’s prison.

I know it does not exist – yet.

2 – PARASITIC SERFING – If a company came to you and asked you to promote their product wouldn't you expect some form of compensation?

Let’s say you’re an athlete and Nike asked you to wear theirnew sport shoe so they could get a following and make a killing in the market.  Wouldn't it be nice if you could make a few pennies off their fortune as well?

If you are an athlete in college the powers that be say you are not only NOT entitled to get any money off the sale of your image or the promotion of your name etc but if you do accept money you could lose your scholarship and standing in the NCAA!

In other words the lords of college sports and businesses that make money off those sports have conspired to turn you into fodder for their feudal system.

Welcome the real world, Undergrad Serf, it's only the beginning.

3 – RETIREE SERFING – The awful buyers’ job market has spawned a new terminology, one that should strike fear into the hearts of every near retirement age American; Middle Age Interns!

Everyone knows it is immoral to use unpaid interns to do the job that a full time employee has done or could do but if you complain, well, see ya around pal!

Businesses don’t have to rely on workers sending in resumes anymore.  In fact many consider spending a dime on a ‘worker needed’ ad to be foolish as well as time consuming.

Who has the time to read through the thousands of resumes you will receive from incredibly overqualified serfs?

And besides, they can serf the web or put a sign on the front door for hopefuls to drop their papers in the mail slot.

4 – COLLEGE GRAD SERF – If you were a casualty of the 2008 middle class employment massacre that saw millions ‘laid off’ you suddenly found yourself in the same job pool as your dad or every other new college graduate.

With a tremendously large number of draft choices from which to choose and abuse businesses quickly learned from history.

You want a job?

You have debt?

You have a high rate student loan?

Would you like to intern with us?  We might even offer you a job if you work out well! (Or not.)

This offer of an unpaid form of servitude should be followed by, ‘of course I’ll respect you in the morning!’

However more businesses will say they can hire you but with business down they’ll have to pay you less than half what you are worth.
Oh and forget about a pension or other benefits.  Those are only for me and my friends.  You know the ones who can afford to buy their own with the tremendous profits we will be keeping off your labors.

And don’t think about leaving before normal quitting time or getting paid vacations.  In fact I may need you to work a little late, every night off the books of course!

Don’t like the deal?

NEXT SERF!

5 –PEACE OF MIND SERF – Insurance companies have long considered the average human to be an annuity for them.  First they put the fear of disease or death in your head and then they sit back and count their money as you are forced to buy their product.

Insurance in all forms is sold on a “Peace of mind” platform that lulls one into a stupor thinking you are covered in case of an emergency.  Sadly it isn't until you have an emergency that you find you didn't buy the right insurance or you neglected to note the size 4 font at the bottom of the contract you signed.

So sorry but you aren't covered for that!

You can fight and argue but does anyone really believe a lowly serf can defeat the armies of the overlords and their banks of attorneys?  Dumb Serf!

6 – KEEP THE SERF DOWN – And speaking of banks how’s that interest rate you’re receiving?

Is it enough to keep your head above the rate of inflation?

No?

That’s odd since the inflation rate is so low!

Didn't we bail those banks out with our money, our jobs, and our futures?  So the least you should receive in return is a small amount of payback, right?

Hah, you are such a cute Serf!

7 – RELIGIOUS SERFING – But banks take a back seat to the oldest profession in the world.  No I am not speaking of prostitution although in many ways it fits.

Even older than selling your body was the fine art of selling eternal peace, AKA organized religion.

Religion is the worship of anything and in the case of today’s, and yesterday’s religions that thing money!

The only thing scarier than an angry overlord is a so called holy man threatening an uneducated person with eternal damnation.

The preaching snake behind the pulpit is a constant reminder of the talking snake of Adam and Eve fame.

Religion has been around for centuries.

It was started when someone realized he could scare the hell, as it were out of another man by telling him lies of biblical proportions.

Perhaps after two men were fighting an eclipse of the sun happened and one guy jumped at the idea of the first religious scam.  He could tell everyone he caused the eclipse because he was angry!

He asked his friend the creature of the sky to make others do as he wished or face eternal darkness.  The creature obeyed him with a small taste of what that might be.

Not wanting to face that terrible future others treated the lying scam artist with more respect than he deserved.  Little by little the lie became fact and his power grew.

He passed his evil joke onto his heirs and the lineage of the faithful serfs began.

They gave what little they had to the man who spoke with the gods of the sky.  And they did so as faithfully as did the shop owners of Little Italy when paid protection was demanded by the powers that be.

And the rest is history.

8 – NON UNIONIZED SERFING – There is a virtual moat around the castle that is big business these days.  It is as impossible to ford as is the proverbial glass ceiling to break for most women.

Maybe if enough of us get together and form some kind of group we can finally go back across the Rubicon or rise above the invisible barrier to what once was an attainable American Dream.

Maybe we could form a union of sorts.

Oh, wait.  Those have been under attack ever since Ronald Reagan realized their inherent danger to the wealth and prosperity of the feudal lords.

When PATCO had the nerve to desire pay equal to their skills and importance Lord Trickle Down broke them and the trend has continued to this day!

Nowadays unions are under attack from every quarter and when the ones that still exist make any headway in talks with management they are vilified for causing rates to go up and costs to rise on non-unionized serfs.

Why you may ask would this happen?  Well in case you haven’t been paying attention there is no way management will lower their profit margins one cent so any give backs to unions will be passed along.

9 – STAGNATION SERFING – And as far as not paying attention goes have you noticed how little the Republican Party has done over the last 5 or 6 years?

They have stopped or tried to stop every ounce of progress or measure aimed at getting America back on the road to prosperity in favor of lowering taxes for the overlords.

They have proposed cuts to every social measure known to man while giving their full support to the serf makers.  Please don’t call them job makers anymore it’s embarrassing to anyone with a brain.

And still they are in office!

Polls show they will stay in office and even stand a chance to gain a majority in both chambers of Congress.

But with a little luck we can vote these dolts, these puppets of the overlords out of office and elect a more enlightened group to lead us out of our fiefdom.
We must break from our role as Voter Serfs!

10 – SUFFRAGE SERFING – (Nice segue, no?) Well it will take a lot more than luck since the landlords have hit upon another method to keep the slave revolt from taking place, blocking voter’s rights.

Many serfs cannot afford to take time off from work to vote on Election Day or their lords may insist they work a few extra 'off the book' hours on that Tuesday.

Luckily many states have early voting days and same day registration and extended hours if lines are long.

Oh wait, those have been ruled out by every State with a Republican held majority across America.

And even if you can get to the polling booth on time you may not be allowed to vote if you are a woman who has been divorced and you don’t carry proof of your married name change with you.

You cannot vote if you have ever been arrested or perhaps look like you have been arrested or if the guy at the front door of the polling place doesn't like your face!

Voter’s rights are going the way of the unions in our American fiefdom and it will take a huge concerted effort to stem that tide from drowning our freedom.

11 – KEEP ON SERFING – The righteous fight for Democracy in America will take a great deal of money.  And it is money most of us do not have.

The vast majority of workers are paid far less than they deserve and many take home levels considered below the poverty line.

The meager money these workers make forces the government to subsidize them with programs such as food stamps from SNAP.

But the same companies that pay their workers these obscenely low wages spend fortunes to stop any increase to the federal minimum wage laws.  They vilify these low paid workers calling them lazy takers.

The truth is it is the CEOs of the large corporations who are the takers.

With their ownership of five ninths of the Supreme Court they have taken our labor, our money and our futures and placed them firmly in their off shore tax havens.

The ‘Citizen’s United’ ruling clearly unites only the citizens with unlimited wealth, aka our new overlords.

And these overlords of America fight anything that threatens their fortunes.

They have grown so sure of themselves that they were totally blindsided when their last champion lost his bid for the White House.  They were so certain he was going to win the Presidential election and take back America from the low class takers that even when the polls closed and they showed a massive victory for the other guy they sat stunned claiming fraud.  It was a pathetic show of hubris but certainly not their first and surely not their last.
Serfs of America may be forgiven for a bit of schadenfreude but sadly it didn't last and it was soon business as usual in Feudal America.

12 – SERF THE IGNORANT – The overlords are even waging a war on education and science refusing to believe in any man made or man assisted climate change.  Perhaps they feel if they keep their heads in the sand or somewhere else the sun doesn't shine nothing will stop their ascension to total lords of the World.

Friends of the wealthy who perpetrate and perpetuate this perp-laden practice regularly appear on friendly networks such as Rupert Murdoch’s FOX to keep the under educated just that.

Lulling the masses to sleep with tales of how the Democrats are out to take away your freedom or worse, your guns scare their base almost as much as did the preachers of old.

And since the Republican Party is the puppet of the wealthy one must conclude that they realize an educated electorate is their worst nightmare.
Sad ill-informed Serfs!

Anyone with a brain or a modicum of intelligence must feel frustrated to do anything about this system.

If we continue to act as if it’s futile to fight we will end up in a feudal light!
If all we do is Bitch Boys (and girls) nothing will change.

Our leaders have abdicated the throne to the landlords of the Fiefdom and as the glaciers melt and the oceans rise one wonders if they can swim.

They had better learn fast.

But until then sadly they will continue to serf.

Because everybody’s Serfin, serfin USA.

If we all had a notion

Across the USA

Then no lords would be serfin’

Like they are today!

Leeches, Health Care & the Tax Code

The fight over President Obama’s health care overhaul, the so called Affordable Care Act (ACA) has reignited the wide divide between current political ideologies in America. That divide was always just beneath the surface but has become painfully evident since we had the audacity to send an African American to the White House.

But analyzing the law and its underlying intent merely through the eyes of politicians and special interest groups on either side of the aisle is disingenuous to all interested parties and especially those of us in need of affordable health care.

One side may offer silly arguments about family values and religious freedom, while the other points to fairness and equal justice for all but neither side can win an argument and stand up to 100% scrutiny.

The religious freedom people, with the most vocal being Christians, say they do not want this form of health care because it goes against their religious training and heritage.  But they lose as soon as someone gives them the old WWJD argument as in what would Jesus do?  Clearly their savior was for healing the sick regardless of their ability to pay.  And what would he think of the greedy insurance companies etc. but enough of that for now.

And as for the 'equal justice for all' camp I agree but still say that many people, by their own actions or lack thereof are not deserving of constant coddling.  You must at least attempt to take an interest in your own well being to earn our care and respect in return.

But I digress and will not argue those points here because no matter what is debated in the halls of government everything always boils down to costs and who will be paying.

Pay Your Fair Share!
Unless You're Extremely Wealthy!

The wealthiest of the country feel they should never have to pay for anything, including taxes on the money they make or inherit. They do not wish to part with a penny if it will not come back as two cents for themselves or their family. Sadly the poor, even if employed, generally do not have two pennies to rub together and can not afford to pay for services they so desperately need.

As with all social services in civilized countries taxes pay for the needs of the many. And taxes are levied on all citizens with varying degrees of tax rates depending on their income.

In America we have inverted the fair tax code and it seems to be an impossibility to come up with a system that understands two plus two equals four!

Warren Buffet attempted to make it simple by telling the country it is unfair that his tax rate is lower than that of his secretary. Naturally Mr. Buffet could rectify that by adding a few zeros to the end of her paycheck but that is between those two and not up for discussion.

Mr. Buffet is not alone in his legal gaming of the system even though he decries its inherent unfairness.

One need only look at the absurdly low tax rate Presidential candidate Willard Mitt Romney is asked to pay and with which he all too gladly complies.

Obviously this incredibly wealthy man does not wish to see the tax code changed and will most likely continue to do everything in his power toward that end.

God Save the Queen
And The Caymans

He and his idle friends who add nothing to society but sound-bites and pink slips will do this while laughing all the way to the bailed out banks of America and the tax haven ones of the Cayman Islands and beyond.

The tax code may have started out as a great idea with fairness toward all in the beginning but it has been changed, altered, rewritten, reinterpreted and cut to pieces so often through the years that there are more loopholes in it than actual tax rates and the current incarnation has made the nation loopy!

Mr. Romney’s “carried interest income” which earned him millions over the years is not levied as regular income in the tax code but rather at the lowest allowable rate of 15%.

A family of 4 could comfortably live on that income for decades.

Cheesy way to hide income!

Mr. Romney also conveniently forgot to disclose that aside from his hidden Cayman Island bank accounts he earned quite a handsome sum of loot from his Swiss Bank accounts!

I am using Willard as an example but he is by no means the only one, nor is he the worst offender when it comes to screwing America and Americans out of much needed tax revenue.

Bane of our Existence

Mr. Romney is but an example of how the wealthiest of the country plan to stay in that elite club every day of their lives.

I sometimes wonder if everything they do or say is done with an eye toward keeping or making more money.

“Sir, would you like to wear the red or the blue tie today?”

“Which one will get me more money, Jeeves?”

So if we still wish to help Americans in need of some form of affordable health care and, assuming we will not be able to pry any more pennies from the cold brain-dead hands of the wealthy by way of the skewed tax code, then we must look toward streamlining health care costs.

The wealthy turn the argument in that direction every chance they get using phrases such as “Fee for Service!” (They also say Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid every chance they get but that makes even less sense so we’ll let that go for now.)

These greedy anti-social beings boldly claim that as long as you allow doctors and hospitals to charge fees for every service, test or procedure they perform health care expenses will needlessly rise through the roof.
They naturally hide the fact that they themselves demand payment for every service or rather disservice they perform each and every day!

They further posit that insurance companies are the guardians of our nation’s money constantly pushing back and fighting the evil hoards of medical mercenaries in their pursuit of endless wealth.

Saying the above with straight faces is quite impressive not to mention totally hypocritical since many of them are directors on the boards of those faceless insurance behemoths.

In the end however there may be a glimmer of truth as some doctors can be unscrupulous.  After all they are human and as such err.

But I hazard to say there are far more bean counting insurance accountants with no medical training or knowledge doing the evil than doctors since their salaries and future employment depend on profit.

And in the end it is we the public who pay for this back and forth game of he said she said which inevitably kicks the can down the road on solutions.

Hey SCOTUS
Are Leeches People too?

Many years ago the medical industry used leeches to bleed the sick. The idea was to rid the body of bad blood by using those low cost creatures.

Today’s leeches are the insurance companies who survive by sucking out the life blood of our economy.

The difference is the current parasitic creatures are killing more people than they are saving and getting wealthy along the way.

For years insurance companies have been raising their rates, charging more and more for less and less and using their obscene profits to fund vacations, private jets, and bonuses. But more importantly a significant amount of that ill-gotten cash has found its way into and through the hands of lobbyists and into Congress in order to keep the status quo!

Those of us who have insurance payments deducted from our salaries by our employers pay on average $10,000 per year for healthcare insurance.  But the cost is actually double that because insurance is partly covered by our employer.

If they had to pay less to the leeches we might actually be able to negotiate raises. (Pie in the sky perhaps but worth noting.)

Pray for Health?

We pay all this money for the pleasure of being told by those insurance carriers that much of what we need is not covered and that that which is covered comes with a $50 ‘co-pay,’ a $100 ‘co-insurance,’ a $500 ‘deductible,’ and a cap of $1,500 for any particular occurrence.

I Guess So!!!

And in some States you may also be forced to listen to lectures  in an attempt to shame you out of whatever it is you need to have done!

These insurance industry made-up words could add up to as much as $30,000 per year for a normal HEALTHY family of four.

But for arguments sake let's say it's only 10% of your income.

SO the question we should all be asking ourselves is this:

If I have to pay 10% of my income for good health care and a chance at longer a life to whom would I prefer giving that money?

A. An insurance broker trained in the fine art of bean counting and ledger-keeping whose main job is to make more money for the corporation who hired him

OR

You'd be in good hands
WITHOUT Insurance Companies!

B. A staff of board certified medical professionals and personnel trained in the art of keeping humans alive and healthy?

It is quite apparent that we need regulations but shouldn't we rid ourselves of the leech mentality from the dark ages?

Can we not do without the useless insurance industry entirely and instead regulate and fine-tune the medical industry.

In the long run our tax dollars would go further and the economy as well as ‘we the people’ would all be healthier.

The Rich Envy Us!?!

There are many points of view on the world and these days everyone has a blog that gives voice to them.  One of the many is a blogging duo who go by the name of Lester & Charlie.

I need add nothing to the following poll which comes by way of their collective brain:

Last week, after a national poll showed that two-thirds of the country now sees a strong conflict between the haves and the have-nots, psycho-rich Mitt Romney stated: “You’re all just jealous.”

We wondered if Mitt and his crowd aren't really jealous of US - so we asked why YOU think the haves might be jealous of the have-nots.

And here's how you answered:



Write-in answers include:

• Because they get to own a heart
• They know where to buy the best second-hand clothes
• Because they've never had the joy of receiving an unemployment check
• They can't live with the reality of what they have done
• They want to know what it's like to spend 50% of their income on clothes, just to keep their boss happy
• They're jealous that we pay for all the roads and bridges and they only get to have their names put on them when they're dead
• Because life cannot be appreciated without a struggle
• They suspect that poor people get a discount on the Lester & Charlie newsletter

Can We Save America From Ourselves?

Sancho, I see an Impossible Dream!

America has always embraced the entrepreneur, the Don Quixote and his formidable windmill, the David ‘sling-shotting’ his Goliath. We cheer his or her efforts as they attempt to reach their impossible dream and conquer their mammoth goal. The underdog fighting ridiculous odds.  And to some extent we still do. But something has changed over the years.

No I don’t mean we now root for the dreamers to fail, although there are undoubtedly some who do but they are in the minority. And you may still be assured of a path being paved to your door when you perfect that new mousetrap.

What has changed is the attitude of the entrepreneur himself.

While the public is still in awe of success and everyone still loves a winner the winners no longer seem to care about their public.

Okay obviously any new business enterprise still needs customers to pay for that which they produce but believe it or not the customer isn’t the most important part of the equation anymore.

The Alice's Restaurant of Drugs

When America was young someone would open an apothecary and people would flock to purchase items they needed, or browse, or just to say hi. The store owner became a part of the community and living among his customers became family. When a family member was in trouble the brothers would chip in to help. The formula worked for all involved and success was measured not by the size of the bank account but by the number of lives touched and the friendships cultivated.

Of course no one was naïve enough to believe that profits didn’t matter or that that whole bottom line thingy was wasn’t important it just wasn’t that important!

But the corner drug store is nearly extinct replaced by the ubiquitous, faceless chain of a million links. The family doctor is as rare as a unanimous vote in Congress and business ethics well let’s just say they’ve gone the way of the American buffalo. And I wouldn’t give you a nickel for them.

But before we blame the business owner for blindly climbing up the wealth ladder of success we must look at the whole picture. The environment has made it necessary for him to step on former friends to do so. The financial landscape of this country has been reshaped, eroded if you will into one of huge peaks and tremendously deep valleys. And while some may think it was easy to see it coming it was nevertheless impossible to stop. Like a heavy freight train careening down the tracks at breakneck speed it would need time to slow down let alone change direction.

The moment of conception was when one business owner realized he could replace a trained, trusted and loyal worker with five eager new employees overseas and pocket some cash. He could train the new employees, communicate with them despite the time difference, and have 24/7 coverage while still saving money! Americans suffered but who the hell cared?

Soon he replaced another and another and before long the bulk of his work force was from Asia, his ethics from hunger and his profit margins from the pages of Fortune Magazine.

His strategy and success caused his competitors to take note and in order to keep pace they joined the Orient express.

It became a “lead, follow or get out of the way” situation and before anyone could say high unemployment ‘Made in China’ had taken over as the most common label in America.

Wall St. Investors know a good thing when they see one and they rewarded the newly non-American businesses with fists full of cash with which to continue their business practices.

And the more Americans they fired, I mean laid off, the better the investment community liked them. This was famously noted when the stock price of IBM soared after the company divested itself of over 5,000 workers. It soared again when they dumped another 5,000 Americans prompting many to conclude that if they got rid of everyone but the CEO the stock price would rise to infinity!

You might think that the government would put the brakes on this seemingly unpatriotic practice. But you also might be accused of not paying attention. No tariffs or punishments of any kind were meted out and the flow of foreign goods into the country was equaled only by the flow of cash flying out.

At that point no one could seriously blame the board of directors of any large corporation for following suit lest they lose their share of the business. Remember that lead-follow-fall into obscurity thingy rearing its ugly head again.

And as the internet became easier and speedier a seamless “flat Earth” spawned a new normal. Customer service calls were now routinely answered by people from India and another few thousand Americans went from bread winners to bread lines.

Overall wealth in America remained fairly constant but the distribution was lopsided and top heavy. CEOs were raking in cash and record profits. Investment brokers and hedge fund managers gave new meanings to the word obscene wealth as their income grew out of sight. What exactly did they do for society again?

And once again the government chose not to act instead rewarding the people who were killing the American Dream with huge tax gifts. Billions in profits were instead taxed at ridiculously low rates with loopholes rendering even those rates laughable.

The money being shoveled into the already overstocked coffers was now eagerly being spent not on new employees or benefits for the current ones but on lavish gifts for the same lawmakers who kept the playing field tilted in their direction. “K Street” supplanted Main Street as the most important address in the lives of the wealthy businessman.

Some may call that practice bribery but truthfully the wealthy were just the paying for services rendered.

Football can thank Vince Lombardi for the phrase, “winning isn’t the most important thing. It’s the only thing!” but multi-national corporations scored big using it as their mantra.

And when the small business owner or entrepreneur saw how the big boys were doing it they followed suit. Now when a business grows large enough the workers are asked to do more and more for less and less. They are told to be thankful to have a job. Unfortunately without a champion in DC they realize they realize they are swimming upstream and acquiesce.

But in the long run if you don’t pay your workers a living wage then you cannot expect them to purchase the items you produce. Even Henry Ford, anything but a workers’ advocate knew the value of a fair wage when he said (sic) “I pay my workers more so they can afford to buy my cars!”

So can things change?

Can the genie be coaxed back into the bottle?

Would you go back in if you were him?

The only way for this country to change its current path toward destruction is for Congress and the President to act and act as one. They must force the issue.

The two factions fighting are as usual on opposite sides but they must realize that if the American ship of state goes down they will go down with it.

“Cut spending.” “Raise revenue.” “No cut spending.” “No raise revenue.” “Drop Dead!” “No, you drop dead!”

The argument is ridiculous and disingenuous. Spending is out of control but taxes are outrageously low, especially on that top 2%. Wisdom, something that appears to be missing from all sides these days, must be used to find a solution. If we cut off funding for our elderly while continuing to bestow the lowest tax rates in history upon the wealthiest we will lose the game.

Some Middle Class Americans still want the wealthy to get wealthier in the hopes that when they will join their ranks they will enjoy the same freedom from taxes. They are, to put it politely delusional. They will never make it into the top 2% without winning a lottery because the game is rigged.

The rich and powerful no longer meet on golf courses. The new high profile hideout is Davos or some exclusive resort in the Pacific Northwest. And if you are reading this you need not apply for membership as admission is by invitation only and you ain’t invited!

So is the American Dream now an impossible one?

Am I tilting at windmills?

Perhaps!

But with the same spirit that pushed our first settlers to the pacific coast and 20^th century man to the moon I continue to sling shots at Goliath in the hopes others will join the fight and make our country great again.

In a way I am an entrepreneur. Except I have no employees, only partners, 300,000,000 of them!

Juxtaposition

I love that word.

Juxtapositions conjure up contradictions and opposing views that somehow mesh together into a whirlwind conglomeration of life as we know it.

And if you alter the letters of juxtapose just a little the resulting homonym, ‘just suppose’ is quite thought provoking.

Just suppose that all the peoples of the world worked together as one.

Just suppose we treated the Earth as our home rather than our garbage dump.

Just suppose we all had the common goal of making the universe our backyard.

Just suppose we were able to put all the great minds together to find cures for all that ails our species as well as others.

Just suppose those great minds could instill the desire in current and future generations to become great.

And finally just suppose that we all realized how stupid it is to be fighting wars in the name of peace.

Juxtapositions have been around since before the dawn of mankind and will be here when we are long gone.

But don’t think they all have to be bad.

The inventor of the compound trinitrotoluene, aka TNT was Alfred Nobel of the Nobel Peace Prize!  In other words he gave us the means with which to blow ourselves up and an award for not doing so!

But reality is what it is and ‘just suppose’ is juxtaposed on it every day.

The news fills our lives with stories of new and amazing advances in medicine juxtaposed against those showing our troops searching for terrorists who live like moles in caves.

We see extravagant life styles with lavish parties thrown on yachts or at mansions while millions upon millions of Americans wonder where their next meals will come from.

We witnessed the financial meltdown in Europe that caused citizens to riot over increased educational costs while being told how important education is to our collective futures.

Financial cable shows point to people buying luxury items as proof the recession is over only to broadcast the next story about skyrocketing oil and gas prices that will cause the economy to tank.

There are weather related stories showing record droughts; floods; extreme heat and major snowstorms with bone-chilling cold all blanketed against claims that climate change is a myth.

And speaking of myths there is now a theme park with Noah’s Arc showing man and dinosaur cohabitating, an oxymoronic juxtaposition in and of itself.

Law abiding hard working productive members of society who love each other are barred from being wed at any cost while the World prepares to watch the spectacle of yet another so-called Royal Wedding in London, paid for by whom?

And finally people who have been unemployed for years due to the wrong doings of others and now in need of assistance are used as pawns in a power struggle to help millionaires and billionaires keep even more of their easy earned cash, many of whom caused the problems in the first place.

Now juxtapose all the above with year end celebrations that traditionally bring people together hoping for peace and good will toward all mankind.

So as the final juxtaposition comes and the famed ball drops in Times Square we say goodbye to father time and the dying 2010 while saying hello to the baby that shall become 2011.

Will this finally be the year?

Just suppose!