I was thinking this afternoon of all the strife in the world. It disturbs me greatly at the state of this country in particular. A nation with such promise has failed miserably. It has let fall by the wayside it's greatness. Tarnished it's halo. And for what? Profit it seems. Money has corrupted this country. Greed has become it's master. Money was once an instrument, a tool, used to do great and wondrous things. Now it is a noose around the neck, slowly strangling the good from the country. Corporations now rule the land. It only matters that their coffers are full. Instead of a social responsibility once shown by the former titans of industries of long ago, the CEO and Board of Directors of these companies see dollar signs. There is no great philanthropy left. No goodwill to spread. They earn bonuses for crippling the economy, keeping wages stagnate, and making sure that those who do have, keep it. And those that don't, never get it. We the people, let them and smiled and asked for more. Boost our stock portfolios, mail us our dividend was our mantra. We never questioned. We never demanded. We accepted. We let them lobby our government instead of telling them hands off. We let them by never saying loudly, or often enough, that the people of this country come first. That the citizens come before profit. We let them and now they are in control. Are we gonna retake control of our government for the people, not the corporations? Are we gonna give up our environment, our health care, our educations, our futures for their bottom line?
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5 comments:
Nice post Dave....
It does seem to be moving toward an impossible situation, doesn't it? And so few people have real understanding.
Hope to see you visit some time.
Enjoy your blog immensely...
we saw this before, in the Gilded Age
I hope it comes around like he did last time.
I'm not so sure what you mean about "titans of the past" who were so un-greedy; go wiki up "muckrakers" and see what was going on a hundred years ago.
But I do agree with your basic point here: unrestrained profits, unregulated capitalism is deadly for all the reasons you named.
And yet so many of the poor and the working class keep voting for the Republicans - the party of ignorance, arrogance, and greed - which is diametrically opposed to their own best interests. Because the TV preachers and the radio pundits keep them agitated about stupid stuff.
I don't know what the answer is. Seems to be getting worse, not better.
word verif: choos
Excellent post, Dave. It's truly sad to see how this country, with so much potential, has prostituted itself in the name of greed. No wonder our image around the world is so severely damaged and that we are so well-hated. This latest antic at the Supreme Court is a bitter example of the troubled state we are in.
I posted a similar article a few hours ago, expressing my disgust with it all. I'd bet there are a lot of us of the same disposition today. Reminds me more and more of Victor Hugo's Les Miserables. Are we in a world that cannot hold?
Take care,
Gary
Dave....enjoyed this post. Our "Founding Fathers" knew that "absolute power corrupts absolutely". Originally, the Constitution stated that the federal government could only levy taxes for national defense. Around the turn of the 20th century, we got the big idea to alter the constitution to change this....we certainly have fucked ourselves in the last hundred years! I fear that we, the people, have failed to learn history's mistakes. Rome, move over.
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