The dangers of letting money talk

Corporations have too much political, legal, and influential power in America.  The past decade has seen an increase in the powers of corporate entities and the super rich not seen since the days of the robber barons.  Continually decreased taxes on the higher tax brackets, artificially low estate and capital gains taxes, and a strict adherence to the 'trickle down' theory have left our middle class struggling, our poor teetering on the edge of poverty, and not enough services for the impoverished to go around.  The ratio of what top paid corporate employees make in comparison to an average worker are at their highest point since the 'gilded age' of the robber barons, when the poor literally starved while the rich built sprawling mansion complexes.  On top of this corporations, they themselves run by the ultra rich plutocratic elite, have seen restrictions on their influence and destructive capabilities decreased, including the recent ruling in 2010 of allowing corporations to spend unlimited amounts on elections.  Those who have fought hard to win this inequity, the top 0.5% of wage earners, truly believe they deserve their four homes complete with staff, four yachts, private plane, twelve cars, and two months of vacation a year, while the bottom 50% of wage earners (of those lucky enough to be employed fulltime) deserve just enough to barely pay the mortgage, put food on the table, and gas in their cars.  The law on the books even states that corporations MUST prioritize profit for their shareholders above all else, the practical result of which is that worker's rights and pay have decreased, what used to be two 40 hour jobs is often now one 50 hour a week job, ecological responsibility is on the way out, and business ethics in general tend to follow one rule "if it makes money, do it"!  So, the rich are getting so rich they could easily make you do anything, and I mean anything, for the right price.  Human life and suffering have become cheap: those who cannot afford to feed their kids obviously shouldn't have had them; the sick should obviously go into debt, because the healthcare market here is so fair and reasonably priced; the homeless and jobless just aren't trying hard enough; and so many other similar narratives bought and paid for by the ultra-rich, and distributed by their bought and paid for representatives, like politicians, corporations, and pundits.  Meanwhile 'We The People' have for the most part bought it hook line and sinker.  Who cares if your neighbor is drowning in debt and can't afford to get his roof fixed AND make payments on his house, as long as you've got yours.  We've forgotten to care about each other, identifying any, and every, person we don't know as 'the other'.  There is little, if any, sense of community anymore.  The news keeps us tense, afraid, and guarding our little patch of dirt fiercely.  The economic state keeps us squabbling over jobs, begging for benefits, and pretty fairly at the complete mercy of our employers.  While the state of politics keeps us fighting over which of two sides, both of which are wrong and do not represent us, is right.  All of this has happened with our tacit consent.  While we have been looking to those with the greatest wealth as something to be emulated, a gold to attain, and a lifestyle to be envied, they have been walking away with our rights, claiming they are owed more, stealing the wealth of our nation for themselves, and arguing that we should all have to beg them for scraps, because it is by their wealth alone that the economy continues.  This is wrong!  Those who do nothing are making billions, companies who do nothing are making billions, meanwhile jobs that actually produce something, instead of just pushing paper and serving the public, are disappearing at a rate never before heard of.  Our economy is in dire straights and allowing those at the top to keep more of the fruits of our collective labor will never help matters.  We, as a nation, need to stand together and loudly and constantly proclaim that rights and lives of the collective individuals that make up this nation are more important and should be given greater weight than the profits of our largest companies and the wealth accumulation of the already rich.  We need to agree that a man who hasn't worked a day in his life should be charged more taxes for having been born with money, than a man making 50k a year working as a plumber.  I urge anyone unfamiliar with our national tax rates to go take a good look at what people actually get charged.  Why should you only pay 15% in taxes for owning millions of dollars of shares in company, when the workers at that company making significantly less per month are expected to pay more.  We The People formed this government, and We The People need to take it back.  Most of our politicians have been bought, through donations, schmoozing, and influence brokering, by one or more corporate special interests.  Almost every industry in America has a lobby, that doesn't work for the workers of that industry, doesn't work for the streamlining of that industry, doesn't even work to make being in that industry easier, their only goal is to make it more profitable by requesting favors, promising favors, wining and dining, and making their voices louder than those of any politicians constituents.  Our companies are not our country.  Our people are our country.  We need to work together as the people of this country to demand that those taking the largest share of the pie give back a significantly larger piece, otherwise they will continue to get fat while the majority of us starve on the crumbs.

It's your fault

Right now our country and my state are falling to shit, and It's your fault.  Every American who reads this, know that it is your fault our country has gone this far down the crapper.  For too long we have lived beyond our means, without producing enough, and letting our balance of trade go to hell, but that's not why it's your fault.  For too long we have expanded our laws to the ridiculous point of every person reading this is guilty of at least one crime punishable by jailtime in the last year, they just don't know it, but that's still not why it's your fault.  It's your fault because for most of your entire life you have tolerated a system of governance that makes little to no progress, has repeatedly and constantly taken away the rights of it's citizens since it's inception, and is controlled in it's entirety by two extreme and opposite parties.  I'm saying it right now: the entirety of American politics is, and will remain, broken, as long as the Democrats and the Republicans continue to control anything over 20% of the vote based on party loyalties.  The political parties of America have begun to more resemble the extreme differences of the Shiite and Sunni Muslims than that of elected officials working for the future of our country.  It's a situation in which the parties, and those faithful to them, barely tolerate each other's existence, only just acknowledging that they have anything in common, and secretly wishing they could squeeze the life out of the other side.  These sides do not make progress, with very few exceptions the elected members of these parties do very little to work for the good of your average American, let alone their actual constituents, both sides only care about re-election and 'pleasing the base', and above all they want to make their friends happy, party, casual, and donor.  The self serving noise and money machine that is two party politics does not serve the greater good, and it is sinking our great nation.  That's my opinion, I welcome yours.

About what constitutes 'news' in this country

24 hour news networks are a terrible source for news, every single biased one of them.  Some are biased as company policy such as Fox News, some are biased based on the views of the writers, but all are biased towards whatever is profitable.  Some newspapers and television news broadcasts strive to make their selling point a dedication to the actual news, namely: important world, national, and local events; offering in depth analysis of the situation, development, and points of view involved in the issue being reported upon.  I don't see anything that I would call "news", with the sole exception of the occasional "breaking news" story, on any of the 24 hour news networks.  Those in the 24 hour news game can only call their channels 'news' networks in the same way that the 'history' channel can claim their current show lineup has anything to do with history.  Every single 24 hour news network manages at most 2 hours of actual news in a day, with up to another 6 hours of them repeating the same story without any developments if it was a really big story, even longer if it was a catastrophe.  This leaves a full two thirds to eleven twelfths of the day for them to fill.  So, what do they choose to fill it with?  Not well thought out pieces on the developments in old stories.  Not an intelligent exploration of the issues at hand.  Certainly not a moderate average American look at what is going on in our lives today.  These networks deliberately focus on sensationalism, scandal, tragedy, horror, sex, fluff, and loud angry partisan wing nuts, from either side of insanity.  So, because it isn't as profitable to actually attempt to do the news 24 hours a day, and it's so damn hard, and costly to pay all those field reporters to *gasp* investigate something, they pollute the minds of millions of Americans into believing that the world is a horrible frightening lascivious place where they have to choose a side, one of the two they sell you, in terms of politics and views, and you're not allowed to mix these sides, you can only be a conservative or a liberal, because that's what sells.