07.09.08

If we throw money at it, it will fix the problem

Posted in Social Commentary at 11:15 am by Administrator

I can’t believe that it has been a month and a half since I last posted to my blog. This summer has been way too busy and is passing way too fast.

I just finished reading the following post from the Wall Street Journal, and it prompted me into action; ”

“Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said the Bush administration has been scrambling to help some distressed homeowners stay in their homes but many of today’s high number of home foreclosures cannot be prevented. Paulson also highlighted the potential of covered bonds as a “promising” solution to resuscitate weak homebuying activity.”

Excuse me for being a little miffed by this statement from our esteemed Treasury Secretary. We can not save people, who during the housing boom were suckered into financing home purchases in excess of 100% using a below market ARM combined with a fixed high interest rate second mortgage and who at the time of financing had no savings and a credit score of less than 550. These individuals now find themselves facing a first mortgage payment that has adjusted to an amortizing payment level along with the already high payment of the second mortgage. To add icing to the cake, these individuals are either now unemployed or are employed at half of what they were making in 2000. To further compound the issue, fuel costs have gone through the ceiling and are continuing to rise along with food costs.

Our government and big business have left the majority of Americans with no place to turn, except for the streets. America was once the land of dreams. It has now become the land of night mares.

Why does our government continue, time after time, to treat the symptoms instead of the disease. When a patient has been diagnosed with Cancer, Doctors don’t treat the symptoms, they opt for the most pragmatic approach of cutting out the cancer and putting the patient through a round of chemo or radiation thereapy in order to cure the patient. It is time we do the same. Yes, the cure is painful, but left untreated the disease is devastating.

We the people need to demand that our government act in our best interest and not in the best interest of the rich and powerful. We the people need to demand that our government put in place a system of rewards and penalties. We need to reward the forward thinkers who develop, for example alternate fuels, and we need to penalize those that continue to use petroleum. We need to reward those who are brave enough to start new business ventures that create jobs and penalize those that cut jobs and/or move them overseas to reduce costs and bolster phoney profits.

If we want to save American homes and bolster the home buying market, we have to put Americans to work in jobs that pay in excess of minimum wage, that offer health care, that provide a career path, that provide training and education. We need to make America work for Americans, not special interest groups and big business.

If we were to sit down and itemize what makes up the cost of most of the products we buy, I think that the vast majority of individuals would be horrified. For example when we purchase a pair of shoes, the cost we pay covers the cost of the materials and the shipping of those materials to the manufacturer; plus the cost of the manufacturers plant and equipment depreciation, employee salaries (plant and corporate), employee benefits, product packaging, product shipping to the retailer, product liability insurance and other insurance as needed, utilities, waste disposal, taxes, etc; plus the retailers cost of building(s) and equipment depreciation, employee salaries (store and corporate level), employee benefits, insurance as needed, advertising, etc. The actual cost of the product is minimal. Wallstreet and Madison Avenue have taken a nation of hard working individuals and has sold them on the idea that happiness lies in owning everything from a bread maker to a $30,000 automobile. But unfortunately, happiness lies in freedom, family, friends and the essentials. Everything else takes away from what true happiness is.

We the people need to demand that solutions be found, that the government works for the people, that we become a contributor to the human race. We the people need to realize that hapiness is found at home, in our neighborhood, in our childeren and not in owning stuff. We the people have to become less the consumer and less wasteful. We the people need to become aware of the world around us and the earth that houses us all. We the people need to realize that we are all the same, we are all flesh and blood regardless of race, color or religious beliefs. We the people need to stand up for our God given rights as human beings. We the people need to respect each other for what we are and who we are. We the people need to respect the earth and realize that it is the only one we will have. We the people need to realize what we do now, will affect many generations to come.

05.22.08

Where are we headed?

Posted in Social Commentary at 2:52 pm by Administrator

I think it is time that we stop calling our social system Capitalism. We really should be referring to it as Greedism. True Capitalism is founded on individual rights. Our founding fathers, the crafters of our social system, envisioned a nation of free thinkers. In fact they felt so strongly about the freedom of thought, the preamble to the Declaration of Independence states:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security

Our form of Greedism has successfully ensured that our government protects the rights of business, not the rights of the individual. Business has also ensured that we no longer work toward our own betterment, but for the betterment of business. We are now faced with some very difficult decisions. Business has gotten to the point where it no longer respects; our government, we as individuals, other nations or the very earth we all depend on for sustinance.

When faced with tougher legislation, accountability and higher costs, business merely moves it’s activities to other countries that have; little or no legislation governing business activities, cheaper labor, lower standards of living, lack of labor laws, etc. Yet no one does anything to curb or stop this activity because theoretically it does not affect us. But that is the falicy - it does affect us. Business is soiling the name of the United States, Business is being allowed to polute the earth, Business is removing both blue and white collar jobs from this country, Business is plundering and raping the nations of the world in its unbridled pursuit of wealth and power without returning anything to anyone except the top executives and shareholders.

The Human Race is being held captive by business, news organizations and organized religion. We are deliberatly being diverted from dealing with the critical issues that are facing humanity by trival, insignificant issues. If you had to pick between the issue of addressing Oil, Oil Prices and the fact that the world’s oil supply will be depleted in the next 10 years, and the right to burn the American Flag in protest, what issue do you think our duly elected officials should be grappling with?

More to come!