Month: April 2016

Bernie doesn’t want a bigger government.

He wants the government to work for the people; he wants to downsize it, reduce its corruption, reduce its frivolous spending on special interest projects, reduce its tax breaks to the super corps who already have massive profits and continue to move jobs overseas. Bernie wants to reprioritize the governments focus. That’s all I’ve ever heard from him.

Why bail out banks, why give tax breaks to huge mega corps who offshore jobs, why give massive subsidizes to corrupt private contractors or corporations for projects that never come to fruition, why spend money on frivolous and costly wars… Why spend billions on militarizing police, on the war on drugs, on privatized prisons? This is the government status quo we want?

All the while… We have huge healthcare problems. Huge education problems. Huge job problems. Huge infrastructure problems. Huge justice problems.

The gov isn’t serving the people. Trickle down is a lie. Inequality has gotten extremely worse… An indication that past gov policies are not equalizing and working for the common good.

People can buy less today than they did every year past. This is a problem. This is a continual recession that’s been normalized. People live in debt and its normal. GDP continues to go up, but real inflation adjusted wages stay the same, or go down. This is a problem.

I do NOT believe Bernie wants a big government. I do believe that what government we have should be accountable to the common good, to elevating every citizen, all the workers that build this country.

I don’t believe in hand outs, and neither does Bernie.

Our country has the money. Our GDP and productivity speaks for itself. We’re not a poor or weak nation. 15 people own more than 40% of the Americans. That’s grossly unequal. That money will continue accumulating in their hands, it will not reenter the market place and make the country better if the rich hoard it in banks and investments. The tax code favors these people. It’s unethical. It’s wrong.

People don’t appreciate the inequality. They think America has it good, even the poor think this. What they don’t realize is that as a nation, every man and woman that has worked has in some way made this country wealthy and productive— and America is obscenely wealthy and productive. But if you aren’t paying people their fair share, it’s exploitative and wrong. And contributing to inequality. It’s not a handout to get a fair share.

People cannot live on minimum wage.The nation’s lowest paying companies operate within one of three industries: restaurant chains, department stores, or hotels, which according to the BLS, account for more than 70% of U.S. workers paid at or below the minimum wage of $7.25 per hour. These are mega corporations, not mom and pop small businesses.

$15 minimum wage is the same as $7.25 was 35+ years ago. Inflation and cost of goods have risen: people don’t seem to appreciate what this means.

Our country wants to blame irresponsibility of people. But you can’t save when your paycheck doesn’t keep up with inflation.

The problems we face our systemic. Hence the need for a revolution.

It’s time to force the people who have taken so much to reinvest in this country.

It’s not stealing. It’s not socialism. It’s being a responsible citizen. It’s giving back to the country that made the wealth. It’s investing in the long term success of our country.

It’s getting the corporate interests out of education. The obscene text book costs. The obscene corporate sports cultures, that has institutions of higher learning investing in stadiums and not tuition grants. It’s getting corporate interests out of politics.

It’s holding insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies accountable to keep their prices down, to not put profits over care. To make healthcare affordable for all. Every Doctor swears an oath to treat any person in need, as a human right, and in turn we bankrupt them? We spend 300% more than Canada and UK and France and all these other countries in healthcare. It’s corporate corruption. And policy makers allow it and benefit from it.

Comcast and ATT have our internet cables costs the highest in the world. It’s preventing the flow of information to the poor: it’s wrong

There are countless injustices like this, that have risen from unrestrained capitalism.

I do not believe in a bigger government.

I believe in accountability.

And our politicians CANNOT keep our corporations accountable if they are being PAID for in elections.

Life is very simple

It’s all tribalism

It’s all which narrative you want to buy into.

Which story you want to believe.

This gets us up in the morning at the end of the day. These stories. They cause us to fight. They cause us to work. They cause us to plan and build.

You have to believe in these stories, and some you are born into, and some you go out and find, and some you create within you and sell to others.

It’s hard to fake when you won’t die for what you believe in.

Good god this is complicated: this is a matter of hashing out an equitable moral philosophy, economic theory, and political theory. Moral capitalism is GOOD. It creates and innovates and lifts humanity up! Unrestrained capitalism is BAD. It exploits and destroys and dehumanizes! (Read: A People’s History of the United Sates by Howard Zinn to learn about the capitalism’s collateral damage)

When resources are plentiful and relatively distributed, capitalism seems fantastic. When resources are scarce and centralized and concentrated, capitalism seems horrible.

People that control the wealth control the laws. They control the market. They control the land and resources, all the media and all the information, and thus jobs and livelihoods. If the wealth is relatively evenly distributed, democracy can function for all. When it is concentrated in the hands of a few, democracy cannot function.

Consider a capitalistic society that continued to see an increase in inequality, where eventually 10 people owned all the wealth and all the land. Everyone that lived in the society had to rent homes from these 10 people. And they were given jobs by these 10 people. They were paid a wage to survive, but not to save. Because they couldn’t save, they couldn’t buy their own land or a home, they couldn’t invest in entrepreneurial activities and create their own wealth. They are essentially slaves.

This is an extreme illustration of the path we’re headed down.

It seems very obvious to me of the dangers of continuing down this path.

A government is only available vehicle for curbing over zealous capitalism

You can have a moral economy or an immoral economy.

You can have a moral government or an immoral government.

If you have an immoral, overzealous and corrupt government, the PEOPLE can revolt. Revolution is the only way to overthrow an immoral government.

If you have an immoral, overzealous and greedy capitalistic economy/ oligarchy, the government is the only vehicle for protecting the people.

It’s complicated. It’s really a discussion we need to sit down and just talk it out.