HAT IS --FASCISM-(according to Wikipedia-Fascists seek to organize a nation according to corporatist perspectives, values, and systems, including the political system and the economy) The point of my series called the Corporate Coop of America is my attempt to get the attention of the droids that have been created by the Corporatizing of our Society, I get very little readership so.... in any case, we each need to stop sitting on our hands and allowing corporations to take over everything from the food we eat to the government that controls how we are allowed to live our lives. I dont plan to point fingers and walk away my last post on this series will contain MY solutions for these problems. Nothing burns my mind more than that...finger pointers who have no ideas of their own, persons like Sara Palin who stand on a soap box and use phrases like "we can fix this" but offer no agenda on how to fix it. Agendas such as where to begin, where the change will come from, who is going to do it, where will the money come from? These are solid questions that need answers--not hushed away with foo foo phrasing--
So this is part two...
Corporate Bleeding Of The Middle Class
What about the Smith Barney Coup...before they folded that is....
Financial Wizzardery--American workers are sold a bill of goods called a 401-K or an IRA and guess what you are not going to have those thousands they promised you!! We can’t get rich earning less than 30K a yr I dont care how much of it is invested UNLESS you get some super inside info...You can't get rich using these methods, but they sure can! Remember when the Feds tried to convince us that we should invest the SS fund in Wall St? Good thing someone with some clout said NO!! Actually your chances are probably better of winning the Lottery!! {E-Trade Baby, go get a diaper change-Please!!]
We were shown all these amazing pie charts, and how the money taken right out of our paycheck builds and grows year after year and they projected this absolute amazing story...but it never happened!! In fact most Americans lost BIG TIME in the recent crash, and the one in 2000. The only people who make money in the stock market are the ones who have money they can put at RISK, (why do you think the financial wizzards told everyone DONT panic, let your money ride it will weather the storm...because THEY would go broke if you took your money out)
I dont know about you but I cant afford to lose any money not one cent on speculation. So when we should have been putting money in a totally safe savings account or at the very least a money market, instead it was being invested in HIGH risk Mortgage Loans, that the FUND Managers KNEW would fail, they purchased insurance to cover their asses….that’s how certain they were that the mortgages would fail…wonder why they didnt tell everyone to purchase insurance to cover their losses?
SO we all put our middle class money in, but who is walking around in fine Italian suits and shoes and has a house in the Hamptons, and a yatch at the Marina? Do you have one, I dont have one...so its very easy to see who is making a KILLING off the stock market and who is getting KILLED by the stock market...and its also easy to see where that money is coming from--Yours n Mine!!!
We were seduced into investing as if we all had a $$million$$ in the bank to fall back on. It was a working stiff’s nest egg the risky investments ate up…it was college educations, and hopeful retirement funds that went up in smoke.
Don’t believe me? Why in the world do all the TV MORNING NEWS shows employ a financial analyst to come on periodically and speak to the viewing public? They are talking to you-- John Q. Public...in order to keep us thinking that everyone is investing (its as simple as Homemade Apple Pie) and we should too, its to keep us questioning what we are doing to save for our future, it's to keep us scared of NOT being on that Gravey Train... its as common as eating a cheeseburger, and its about as deadly…
I don’t know about you, but I can’t afford to speculate on my future!! If you have a job you probably have money in the stock market!! They take it right out of your paycheck!! (SO easy for them to Tap Your KEG) YOU would be better off to forget that…and put that money away yourself. I paid off a $25,000 debt and saved $10,000 in cash by taking charge of my own finances, it took me 2 ½ yrs!! (I didnt invest a dime!!)(did your IRA give you that kind of money in 2.5 yrs?)
Robber Barons
Banks and Credit card companies have robbed us blind for years as our Govt. sat on its hands and did nothing…then the Govt came out with the recent HUGE credit and Bank Reform Bill --What?…its baloney!! It does nothing to stop them from robbing us blind. In fact the house n senate allowed them a 3 months Warning period by not making the bill start ASA it was signed....and during that time the banks increased our rates, increased our payments, and ENDed what few deals going in our favor (when is the last time you got one of those super 0% offers?) before the changes went into effect. The banks can still rob us blind, but now they HAVE TO put it in words we can understand…see they know the majoirty of us dont have a college education with a minor in law in order to read the bunky "fine details" --
thanks for the big credit rescue!!
Bank Fee Scam-yes it is a scam but guess what our leaders look the other way while the Banks of this Country rob us blind. Lets say you have $400 in the bank, you write a check for the electric bill, which is $120 ....then you go to the grocery store and spend $80, Then 3 days later ....your car breaks down and you have to pull out $410 to pay for it...WHAM you are over drawn. Now the bank does not PAY these checks in the order you wrote them or in the order they come in...THEY will pay the $410 first because that will over draft your account, then they can charge you overdraft fees on the $120 check, and the $80 check too!!! Even tho it was only the last transaction that caused the overdraft--
Credit card companies can raise your rate because you paid your electric bill late OH YEAH..they can--they watch your credit score closer than you do, and by the way-- who gave these 3 credit score companies the rights to either make us or break us? Did you vote on that? THEY are in control of your financial life yet where did they come? Who made this decision? Why do we allow this type of Corporate Harrassment, and like sheep we just wiggle our tails and keep moovin...with our baa-baa-backs against the wall?
Verizon gobbled my prepaid phone service up. We had a great little deal with Alltel, but Verizon bought them out…now we have all sorts of changes, they will now charge us $4 per month if we DON’T use the phone!! Our rate went up and now every other day it’s a letter in the mail about Changes, they do what they want…THEY are stealing our money…and we cant do a damn thing about it, yeah we can get rid of the phone which is probably what will happen when we reach our limit… What about all the research that proved cell phone usage causes cancer? What happened to that? Cell phones emit something called electromagnetic radiation. This is a low, pulsing energy that can actually interfere with our cells, they wont let a plane take off IF ONE CELL PHONE IS ON..so what is it doing to the natural flow of energy around us? Around your baby, your pets, your brain?
Everyone has one glued to their ear…everyday it’s a new phone from Apple, or Verizon…what’s the reasoning behind it? Money that’s all!!
Who Is Really Running Washington?
What about our government? From local to federal-- lobbyists are in control of how the vote goes and Corporations are calling the shots and pulling the strings on the puppets we ELECT to go to Washington…they are controlling our laws, our national budget and our politicians. These lobbyists are representing corporations and organizations founded and run by these corporations. The decisions, and budgets are geared toward whatever makes more money for the corporations these lobbyists are representing.
The lobbyists who tell our Senators how to vote are in control…the conservative Justices we have rule to keep us in the dark more and more as the Corporate blinders go in, i.e. the recent vote to allow Corporations unlimited access via the way of campaign contributions, that’s just about the most outrageous thing I’ve seen come out of Washington lately. DID the public cry out in outrage..NO they just went back to work their job and get their pay check, you cant take a day off to go protest at the Supreme Court building and if you try you would PROBABLY be fired then arrested!!!
On tv I sometimes see HUGE crowds of people screaming out about an injustice..NOT HERE IN other countries..wonder why that is?---I marched in a Protest against the GOP at the Rep Convention in NYC in 2004---the street was barracaded and police in riot gear and ARMED With M-16's stood all along our Pre-arranged route---SO NO you dont see OUTRAGE IN THIS NATION..its NOT ALLOWED.
JUST look at the way BP has handled the Gulf Oil Spill, and the way our Government is looking to businessmen n women who sit in Board Rooms to solve this problem!! This is not a BUSINESS problem it’s an environmental disaster more than Katrina ever was—the Bush administration botched the Katrina relief and the Obama administration is botching this catastrophe. I voted for change, but so far its business as usual with the current administration.
We need to curtail corporate control, hold them accountable but take Charge of this disaster, I don’t get it…Trust me they never saw this coming, all the structuring of the company was done with only the bottom line in their sights...the almighty American Dollar Bill-and not a care was given to the threat of an environmental disaster, who will handle it, what is the first line of defense, what’s the agenda? So are we to believe if the Center for Disease Control lets loose a super virus, it will be up to them and them alone to curtail and contain it? If the oil leak was a virus (which it is to our OCEANS) we would all be dead! In the end Im sure BP will spend more money on the AD campaign and the TV personalities it hired to MAKE them LOOK GOOD, than they will ever spend on cleaning up gunk from the water and shoreline.
As far as their environmental impact concerns BP execs were all satisfied when they changed their logo to that cute little GREEN FLOWER. "Aw look at us we are environmentally minded"…yeah right!! That’s Corporate crap that I’m sure a very expensive marketing firm was paid BIG BUCKS to come up with…we are so easily bought and sold out, we working stiffs and consumers. I look for BP to get out of paying for this disaster, to take some legal chapter 11 or 13 or some such and then restructure and come back to life under a brand new name and begin making billions again--and people who are so busy on the hamster wheel trying to make ends meet will buy their gas and oil. Don’t forget they tried to file in a Louisiana court right away to put a limit on their liability at first…I guess that court couldn’t be bribed. ME I don’t buy BP I just traveled over 5,000 miles and never once filled up at a BP!! (thats a solution friends)
YOU CAN NOT run a government like a business-a government is not supposed to be about making money, it's supposed to be about making laws and paving the way for ALL to prosper and be happy...(the pursuit of happiness-justice for all etc) yet more and more of the offices elected and appointed are being filled with people coming from the business sector of the population!
Loss of Empathy and Compassion for the Poor & Downtrodden
The Bush Whacking Tax Cut-
Our Federal government is bought and paid for. Most right wing conservatives frown on giving money to welfare mothers to feed and house under privileged children while billions are given to banks and no one is talking about how these fat cat bankers are giving themselves huge bonuses yet they will talk about a poor mother trying to live on $125 a week like she is a dog not worth the trouble…WHAT IS UP WITH THAT KIND OF THINKING??? They dont want a welfare mother to get a small sum, but they want the HUGE TAX CUT BUSH gave all of them to continue. They say it will bring jobs...EXCUSE me, but wasnt that tax cut in Force when the JOBS disappeared???? NOW the Tea Party is yelling "stop Obama's tax HIKE" making it sound like he is raising taxes on everyone, he is only not REinstating the BUSH tax cut that the RICH and Corporate have enjoyed, wage earners making over $130,000 a yr!!
EX: WHAT IF I make 30K a yr and you make 300K a yr, we both pay 10% tax then I go home with $27,000 and you go home with $270,000 looks to me like you are still Living VERY High on the HOG..you can live very well in this country with that kind of income....while me Im barely making it on my $27,000. People who earn more should pay more ---the tax burden can no longer be shifted to the Shrinking jobless Middle Class---and who can make it on minimum wage? Maybe more people could/would come off welfare if the minimum wages were decent.
END A WELFARE STATE-For Rich or Poor?
The rich want to cut the poor off at the knees, and take away their livihood and have them do what? Get a GOOD JOB--doing what?? You show me those jobs that welfare mother can do and EARN enough to feed her family, pay rent, medical care, etc. THE nation would be richer if they stop the welfare state to the RICH--tax breaks, capital gains, Im SO out of the rich loop I dont even know about all the loop holes they use to protect themselves yet they want to put a loop around the very neck of welfare recipients.
Same welfare mother may collect $125 a week, how does that hurt society? Where does that money go? IT goes to the LOCAL ECONOMY...You think if she was not getting the money, she would get a job…where? Doing What? Do you think she will get a job at Wal-Mart and still have time to take care of her kids? She will have LESS if she works!! SO raise the minimum wage…Tea Partiers -PUT YOUR MONEY WHERE YOUR MOUTH IS—Yes she can get a job, can she survive and raise her family on that minimum wage job after TAXES?-- NO!! Will the system help her get a better education, give her child care, cook dinner for her family while she goes to night school, will they guarantee her a job with health care for her whole family? Doubtful, maybe if she lived in France!! The rich need and depend on a u huge uneducated and desperate lower class workforce in order for them to keep most of the profits and spread it among their investors and board members. (rich employ child care, house keepers, gardeners & landscapers who earn p-nuts...do you have a child care worker, gardener, cook, or housekeeper?) WHY NOT?
Why do you think Mexican Immigration has NOT been addressed. The poor Mexicans coming here illegally are being USED and ABUSED by the super rich of this country. DO you have a Mexican working for you? WHY NOT? Because its the protected rich who are the dominating employers of the illegal Mexican population and the poor. Yet they dont pay a decent wage to these people!! I would prefer welfare as to work for an employer who thinks they are MORE worthy and More valuable than I am...The elitist attitude runs rampart as the middle and lower classes are left to flounder in a society that believes if you are not flourishing it’s due to your lack of trying…
By allowing the huge earners to NOT pay their fair share of tax it is Welfare for the RICH! EX: a lawyer who works 60 hr a week earns $130 an hr.
A ditch digger who works 60 hr a week makes minimum wage- and yet the ditch digger is paying MORE Of his share of the tax burden than the Lawyer!!
Why is one man’s time more valuable than another man’s time, is the ditch digger not digging hard enough, he is not sweating enough, what? The difference is Education and that is becoming more available to Special Interest and the Wealthy and less available to the middle class and poor.!! You have a better chance of getting a free education in this country if you come from Ughanda than if you come from Kentucky.
Thank you for reading and stay tuned for the next part in this series
Who is Watching the Hen House...and more.
