Where do we go from here?

Over the past few years we all watched as the powerful and greedy rapped, pillaged and plundered this country.  We put our faith in another man that promised change.  We put our faith in a system that is corrupt and has no moral direction.  Profit is our god and we put our energies into anything that will honor him.  We are impoverished by our complacency so we allowed our great country to digress to third world status.  We are subjugated by our faith in a broken system.  OUR SYSTEM IS BROKEN!  We sit idly by as it falls to pieces at our feet and placed blame on everyone but where it clearly belongs.  On Us!

Our recent elections are a strong example of my point.  Candidates spent billions of dollars to obtain jobs that pay a very small fraction of the costs, yet they threw money at these positions as if money had no value.  Meg Whitman spent over $600.00 per vote on this election; but to what end?  Is this seat of power really worth the investment?  Obviously it is or no one would throw money at it like this.

The other races were very similar.  Millions of dollars spent to obtain an elected position that pays a fraction of the investment.  Again, to what end?  I believe it’s the power.  The hierarchy of greed seems to be money and then power.  Why this order, because money can buy power and the more money you have the more power you can purchase.  If you look at the history of this country you can easily see that the wealthiest men in the world are the most powerful.  Why, because they can buy the things that afford them power: things like people, property, loyalty (to a certain extent), and most of all position.  So using your money to be elected to the lofty position of Governor of California, Mining Inspector, Attorney General, Judge, all afford you the position of power.  What you do with this power after you obtain it is another thing.  Let’s just say that “power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely…”

So, where do we go from here?  This solution is not simple nor is it palatable, but certainly necessary in my opinion.  We need to rethink our goals first as people, then as a society.  Sitting idly by as this train derails is one option.  We can be reasonably comfortable on the couch watching FOX or MSNBC new and buying into the scare tactics that these sensationalists present or we can start re-educating ourselves and taking back control.

Here’s how we can make a difference.

·         Start with your own thought process.  How do you really feel about this country?  Are you willing to do something other than sit and bitch about the costs of everything, and the condition of the economy?  Are you willing to leave the debt legacy of $42,000 per person to your children?  Are you comfortable with the government handing you decisions, about topics over which you have no say or control? 

·         Make your own decisions about information.  I know this will require us to think and reason and obviously to question the pabulum we are fed through the popular media.  We need to question authority.  Remember the 60’s and early 70’s when you were encouraged to question “THE MAN”?  Well those times are back, but we need to get up off of our lazy asses and start reading and researching issues; don’t take the talking heads word for anything.  Find out for yourself.

·         Do something for yourself and for your family.  Pick a cause at home; something like your personal financial situation.  Now REALLY examine it…  IS there something that you can do to reduce you over expenses?  Do you really need 4 cars?  Do you really a TV in every room?  Do you really need cable or satellite with over 500 channels, most of which you never watch?  Do your kids really need cell phones?  Do you REALLY need that $500.00 iPhone?  We have become so used to conspicuous consumption, and buying what we want on credit rather than waiting to save the money.  We are all nearly bankrupt.  Credit card debt in America is over $15,700.00 per household according to some internet sources.  Average household income in America is estimated at $46,000 per household.  That credit card debt to earnings ratio is 3:1.  That means that we spent 1/3 of our income on just credit card debt.  If you want a great place to start…  This is it.  Pay them off and start saving for what you need.  Yes, most people will never be able to save enough for a car or house of major appliance, but you can significantly reduce you indebtedness and be more frugal.  Start taking back control from the banks.

·         Teach your children.  Stop expecting the educational system in this country to raise them for you.  They are your responsibility and our future.  If you want a country of service workers, then start teaching them to ask “do you want fries with that and can I super-size that for you…?  Or you can start discussing current events at the dinner table.  Teach them functional math at an early age: addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.  Did you know that the calculating cash register was developed because merchants were complaining that their clerks could not make correct change, and guessed it was costing them hundreds of millions of dollars annually…

·         This is for the more advanced activists – Become familiar with the propositions before you state and federal legislature.  Let YOUR representatives know your thoughts.  These people are elected by you (supposedly) and are supposed to be working to serve our interests, not theirs and certainly not those of the “Special Interest Groups” (SIG).  If you find that these representatives are not working for you… Get rid of them.

I hope you are starting to see that this is all up to us, no one can or will do it except us.  We have been so busy with our comfortable lives and chasing the “American Dream” that we let the power mongers take control.  If you can remember your world history, the French revolution started because the masses (that would be us) we starving while the aristocracy were living extremely.  The masses (us) revolted violently and took back control from the extremely rich.  Unfortunately, the French have squandered that control and became ultra-liberals.  That’s another rant…

Together we have the power to make these changes but they start at home, not in the public sector.  A very wise man, Benjamin Franklin, wrote a small book called “Poor Richards Almanac.”  This book was full of wise little sayings like; ‘a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush…’ etc.  But the best is that ‘change starts within…’  That means that before we tackle the world’s problems we need to make sure that our house is in order first.