To China: America is Here to Serve

Is anyone in this country under the mistaken illusion that America is number one in anything?

For some startling facts designed to wake us all up to the fact that we are becoming financial slaves to China, here is a partial list copied from Permaculture & Regenerative Design News.

The United States has lost approximately 42,400 factories since 2001. 

In 2008, 1.2 billion cellphones were sold worldwide.  So how many of them were manufactured inside the United States?  Zero.

As of the end of July, the U.S. trade deficit with China had risen 18 percent compared to the same time period a year ago.

In the United States today, consumption accounts for 70 percent of GDP. Of this 70 percent, over half is spent on services.

In 2001, the United States ranked fourth in the world in per capita broadband Internet use.  Today it ranks 15th.

Put the American People Back on Top

What I read about the looming tax-cuts that Republicans are gunning for, is that social services and education will take the biggest hit. My question is: Why do these two areas have to be cut? Is it because these are areas where the recipients have the smallest voice? Tax cuts to these areas represent the ‘easy way out’ of tax reform pressure and by taking this route our leadership is turning its back on the American tax payer.

I agree taxes need to be cut. Our government has become bloated with the income it brings in from taxes and whenever there is more than enough money waste is more likely to be the result. Judging by how much money is being spent on research grants, pork barrel projects, politicians salaries and the military, we are wasting a lot of money.

Tax payers recognize that this country already collects more than enough money to cover its expenditures and judging by how much money is spent on research grants, pork barrel projects, politicians salaries and the military, we also know where the real cuts should begin.

There are many people who may think that any talk of cutting spending to these areas is heresy. Spending on these sacred cows far outstrip the rate of return we should expect for the investment.

Tax payers feel the harsh reality of the financial crisis this country has fallen under. Politicians, with their above average salaries and perks do not feel the reality of it as we do.  State governments are defaulting, citizens are losing their homes, and now we are facing forced healthcare which promises to take even more money from our already over-burdened paychecks.

Medicare and Medicaid fraud and corporate welfare are two major areas where funding could be reduced to counter-balance any tax cuts Republicans want to make.

Social programs are necessary to help us get back on our feet. They are not permanent. Allow them to do what they are intended to do.

Part of the reason tax-backed public education is failing is because the administration is top heavy. Examine how administrative spending on such areas as salaries and unnecessary, frivolous expenditures are taking money away from classrooms and teachers salaries.

I am pleading with our leadership to not take the easy way out by increasing the burden on American citizens who have fallen on hard times. Dig deeper into where the true waste is. Social programs and education, if administered correctly are far too valuable to this country’s future and the welfare of the American worker.

Politicians need to stop taking away from the people who pay their salaries. Politicians need to put the American public back on the top of the list of reasons they are in the political arena. They need to cut their salaries and forego their perks to show the American people they understand the hardships being faced in order to keep food on our tables and a roof over our heads.

Return the balance of power to the American citizen. Show them they are valuable to our economic recovery and are more than ATM’s for when you need more money.

Resist of Become Serfs

clipped from www.truthdig.com America is devolving into a third-world nation. And if we do not immediately halt our elite’s rapacious looting of the public treasury we will be left with trillions in debts, which can never be repaid, and widespread human misery which we will be helpless to ameliorate Our anemic democracy will be replaced with a robust national police state. The elite will withdraw into heavily guarded gated communities where they will have access to security, goods and services that cannot be afforded by the rest of us Tens of millions of people, brutally controlled, will live in perpetual poverty. This is the inevitable result of unchecked corporate capitalism. The stimulus and bailout plans are not about saving us. They are about saving them. We can resist, which means street protests, disruptions of the system and demonstrations, or become serfs

The author paints a dismal and truthful image. What we are witnessing is capitalism run amok and misplaced loyalties.

The old platitude “Money is the root of all evil” can be applied here. The government thinks it is obligated to step in and save capitalism from itself but is going about it the wrong way.

Throughout history businesses have made the proper adjustments to save themselves without the wholesale give away that Geithner and company is participating in. And isn’t it great to have other peoples money to play with?

I say let them sink or swim. Prosecute the thieves. The incompetent will fall to the wayside. We tax payers cannot endure this current course of action.

China Takes Aim at Dollar

clipped from online.wsj.com China called for the creation of a new currency to eventually replace the dollar as the world's standard, proposing a sweeping overhaul of global finance that reflects developing nations' growing unhappiness with the U.S. role in the world economy The unusual proposal, made by central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan in an essay released Monday in Beijing, is part of China's increasingly assertive approach to shaping the global response to the financial crisis. Mr. Zhou's proposal comes amid preparations for a summit of the world's industrial and developing nations, the Group of 20, in London next week. At past such meetings, developed nations have criticized China's economic and currency policies. This time, China is on the offensive, backed by other emerging economies such as Russia in making clear they want a global economic order less dominated by the U.S. and other wealthy nations.

See previous clip: Obama’s Toxic Advisors

China’s proposal may not affect the dollar in the short term, but introducing this issue now is a means of alerting the world this could become a reality.

From the article: “Central banks around the world hold more U.S. dollars and dollar securities than they do assets denominated in any other individual foreign currency”. So, we are almost at the point of one world currency already.

International leaders are beginning to see an advantage of having one world currency so that fluctuations in one market would not disrupt the rest of the world, as is the current situation.

Moving to a reserve currency that belongs to no individual nation would make it easier for all nations to manage their economies better, because it would give the reserve-currency nations more freedom to shift monetary policy and exchange rates. It could also be the basis for a more equitable way of financing the IMF.

Russia made a similar proposal just this month

Obama’s Toxic Advisors

clipped from www.truthdig.com Bernie Sanders, the senator from Vermont who is independent in spirit as well as party label, has placed a hold on President Obama’s nomination of Gary Gensler to head the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Sounds like a minor issue to get worked up about, but the senator is right. Like most Americans, I am eager for Barack Obama to succeed, but I see this appointment as further evidence that the president has entrusted his economic policy to the wrong people. Gensler helped create this financial crisis when he was in the Treasury Department back in the Clinton era Mr. Gensler worked with Senator Phil Gramm and Alan Greenspan to exempt credit default swaps from regulation, which led to the collapse of A.I.G. and has resulted in the largest taxpayer bailout in U.S. history Congress and the president want to give Wall Street whatever it wants to make the stock market go up

Read this article carefully.

Is Obama so eager to be surrounded with ‘experience’ in his cabinet that he is over looking what that particular experience cost us as a nation, or is there a hidden agenda?

Allow me to speculate: If someone in the 1990’s, or earlier, was to formulate a plan to create a ‘One World Order’, with either America at the head or a committee of international leaders, surely a major stepping stone in achieving this dream would be to control the world’s financial markets.

The best method to take over these markets would be to first crash them to the point that they would need help to become solvent again. A group of nations, say for example the G20, would step in to take over the markets, thereby “saving the world”, and appointing themselves as the de facto leaders in this “One World Order”.

Next step, would be to formulate a one world currency to make it easier to control.

Call me paranoid but too many signs are pointing in this direction.

Cutting Back on Public Safety Will Endanger Us All

According to an article on the Boston Globe website, city police departments are cutting outreach services in an attempt to close budget shortfalls.

Those services deemed ‘extra’ in protecting our citizenry such as: gang units, bicycle, horse and foot patrols are going to be taken away to save money. Other funding that will soon dry up are grant programs that fund extra officers, programs, and equipment to enhance community policing.

All of these cuts, of course, mean less protection for every citizen. Tax paying citizens who expect to have police and fire protection. Tax paying citizens who expect our government to educate our children. Tax paying citizens who expect to have our roads and infrastructure safely maintained. Tax paying citizens who expect to have representation at city council and in mayors offices and in governors offices to do something more constructive than give us band-aid ‘solutions’ that add to the problem.

It is in our nature to first recognize the cause of a problem (the finger pointing phase) and then to find a solution.

The Finger Pointing Phase
Greed is what got us into this mess and greed needs to be overcome to get out of it. In my opinion, it is obvious how eight years of failed ‘leadership’ by a power hungry, greed-driven, unethical, immoral administration created the ideal atmosphere for this financial collapse. If there had been more conscientious adherence to regulation, more ethics, and more concern about the health of our economy instead of how to beat the law and fatten personal banking accounts then we would not be in this mess.

And now, on with The Solution.
The obvious answer to this economic morass is to reduce the pay of every salaried employee in every sector, public and private. I am certain this is not a very popular position to take, but we are ALL in this together. We are ALL suffering from it. Those not suffering as much are the institutions that the federal government determined should receive huge influxes of money despite their role in creating it. Instead of eliminating a handful of job positions (people with bills to pay and mouths to feed) and adding to the unemployment drain, let’s reduce everyone’s salary and keep everyone employed.

We all need to participate in the solution. By cutting back on salaries we will be forced to reduce spending and businesses will be forced to cut back on product and service prices. Let’s alleviate the pressure on the system by not always striving to sell more than last quarter. Growth needs to take a break until we can all get on firmer ground. This is the ‘trickle down’ theory of the 21st century, reflecting a 21st century problem.

The bottom line is that we can not continue the lifestyle we enjoyed during economic boom times. Those times are gone. The sooner we all recognize it the better we will all be.

Reducing public safety is only going to compound society's problems. With rising unemployment we will see rising crime. It has historical precedence. I don’t relish the idea of citizen policing but if cities continue cutting public services, I can see it coming.

We talk about pulling together in times of crisis, about how volunteerism and neighbor helping neighbor are such laudable attributes of a well-knit community, well let’s put those attributes into play now because, brother, the hard times have arrived.

Clinton discusses global warming in China, but stays away from human rights

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton set a new tone Saturday for U.S. relations with China, saying the two nations would join a common battle against global warming even as they look for ways to pull the world out of economic turmoil and recession.

Clinton cited the "tremendous opportunity" before Washington and Beijing as they unite on "one of the most important issues that has ever, ever faced humanity."

She side stepped the "tremendous opportunity" before Washington and Beijing to unite on an even more important issue that has ever, ever faced humanity.

What can you expect from a politician. Money and economics always wins out over human rights. There just isn’t enough money to be made in human rights.

To the apparent relief of China, Clinton downplayed issues of human rights and religious freedom, saying they were raised in her meetings but that the administration of President Barack Obama saw advantage to working with Beijing on areas of greater agreement.

Several human rights groups decried Clinton's suggestion that human rights would not be a priority in U.S. engagement with China. Amnesty International said it was "shocked and extremely disappointed."

Another advocacy group, China Human Rights Defenders, said police confined some dissidents to their homes during Clinton's weekend visit to Beijing.

Among those under lockdown was constitutional scholar Zhang Zuhua, one of hundreds of dissidents who late last year signed Charter 08, which calls for greater civil rights and political reforms.

Thankfully, human rights groups will not allow China’s continued human rights violations to go unnoticed, even when ‘our leaders’ will.

Benefits Claims Are Being Increasingly Challenged

It's hard enough to lose a job. But for a growing proportion of U.S. workers, the troubles really set in when they apply for unemployment benefits.

More than a quarter of people applying for such claims have their rights to the benefit challenged as employers increasingly act to block payouts to former workers.

The proportion of claims disputed by former employers and state agencies has reached record levels in recent years, according to the Labor Department numbers tallied by the Urban Institute.

Under state and federal laws, employees who are fired for misbehavior or quit voluntarily are ineligible for unemployment compensation. When jobless claims are blocked, employers save money because their unemployment insurance rates are based on the amount of the benefits their workers collect.

As unemployment rolls swell in the recession, many workers seem surprised to find their benefits challenged, their former bosses providing testimony against them. On one recent morning in what amounts to one of Maryland's unemployment courts, employees and employers squared off at conference tables to rehash reports of bad customer service, anger management and absenteeism.

Unemployment compensation programs are administered by the states and funded by payroll taxes that employers pay. In 2007, employers put up about $31.5 billion in such taxes, and those taxes typically rise during and after recessions, as states seek to replenish the funds.

When these current economic times get rough, laws forcing employers to do the right thing are increasingly being challenged. In a recent Washington Post article, the case of an electrician who was collecting unemployment benefits after losing his job at a Maryland hotel was being challenged by his ex-employer, the owners of the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center. A Washington Post reporter showed up in the courtroom resulting in the ex-employer withdrawing their appeal to challenge the unemployment benefits.

Why is it that someone who is fired for a reason out of their control has to hold the threat of public attention to force a company to uphold their end of the legal bargain?

This illustrates yet another of America’s problems, people trying to bypass laws to keep money for themselves without regard to how it affects an innocent victim.

We are all in this together, none of us turned this economy sour and treating people like tools to be thrown away instead of keeping in mind they are trying to survive too is only going to prolong the recovery.

Another result of this behavior is trust and faith in your fellow man is being further eroded away. This life does not have to be dog eat dog.

Several things an employee needs to do is keep your nose clean, do what is asked of you as long as it falls within the purview of your job description and keep a record of requests by your employer that fall outside of those guidelines. This record can become invaluable if you are ever fired and your claim to unemployment benefits is subsequently challenged. Trust me, employers will keep a written record of your work history and will not hesitate to use it against you in an attempt to save them from having to pay out legal benefits.

Court rulings have slowly enlarged the definition of employee misconduct, making it easier for employers to say they rightfully fired a worker which equates to a higher standard of behavior for employees. This of course automatically puts the employee at a distinct disadvantage, so just don’t give the employer reasons to fire you.

Feds Going to ‘Save’ us with Stimulus Package

Please excuse the skeptic in me, I guess he hasn’t been properly fed lately.

By now you have all heard that Obama’s Gurus have put together a handy how-to guide to help our faltering economy. The price tag, as of this writing, is $787 billion of our tax dollars. Wow, that should stimulate even the most stubborn spend thrift amongst us. Do you hear that bankers, we don’t need your stinking money.

Let’s look at how this kick in the financial pants is going to help us.

$120 billion for infrastructure – repairing bridges, roads, and government buildings. I wonder what percentage is going to go for government buildings. Personally, I think the roads and bridges should get it first, after all it is our money.

$100 billion plus for education – keep it all from the administrators, we have seen far too often how they like to spend top dollar for coffee makers and cushy office digs for themselves first. How about letting the kids and teachers have the lions share this time, okay guys.

$30 billion on energy-related projects to create “green jobs”. Since this “green jobs” things is such a new concept, and apparently the latest hot button issue, expect this money to be frittered away before someone can get a real handle on how it should be spent. I wonder if this is the 1-3 million new jobs the Budget Office is claiming will be created. Since so many jobs have been lost this past year is this going to equal a net loss or gain?

Over $212 billion in tax breaks for individuals and businesses – this way the money only goes to those who actually file taxes. What a concept, giving back to the people who actually footed the bill for this monster plan. $400 per person doesn’t sound like very much and we all now it won’t go very far.

But, there’s plenty to go around, so for those of you who no longer have jobs because of the way those greed-meisters on Wall Street ripped this economy apart, here’s a little something for you: $267 billion in direct spending like food stamps and unemployment benefits. There’s even enough for all the illegals who live off of us.

Realistically speaking, this is more of a band-aid than any real help. It is rightfully labeled a ‘stimulus plan’ and not a big fix. It will take some very fancy footwork and hard introspections to get this economy to the stable and prosperous condition it was in before the Bush administration dipped their greedy fingers into the till.

Hmmm, according to my calculations this comes to $729 billion. I wonder where the remaining $58 billion is going? Oh well, I'm sure Obama's crew has the matter under control. No worries, right?

So, let’s not sit on the sidelines holding our breath for this financial wizardry to take effect, go out and spend your $400 bucks like the ‘gift’ it is meant to be. We’ll worry about how we’re going to pay for it tomorrow. After all, we’re carrying on and old American tradition.

New Economic Stimulus Plan: Suspend the Personal Income Tax

Congress is getting an earful from their constituents over the bailout program and taxes. The U.S. public has become accustomed to learning of misappropriations of funds, pork barrel spending, earmarks, and the like. It is not unheard of to learn that a politician did not pay their fair share of taxes. But when the federal government wants to use our tax dollars to bail out every company who is experiencing hard times for the purpose of ‘stimulating’ the economy, we need to rethink our governments spending strategy.

With hundreds of thousands of layoffs every month now, input into the treasury’s coffers are slowing down. Typically, when a company’s income starts waning they raise prices to existing customers to cover the deficit. What is the government going to do in this same situation? Raise taxes?

It is going to be a hard sell, especially when we learn of politician who vote for these raises are not paying their share and still receive annual pay raises.

I think the best way to get this economy back on the right track is to suspend the personal income tax. Allow us, the individuals who still have jobs, to use that money that currently goes to pay our politicians, to decide how to best spend our money. Only then will politicians experience the real pain of facing the threat of not having a paycheck to put food on the table. Maybe being forced to feel what it is like to face possible eviction from their family home will they be ‘stimulated’ to pass some meaningful legislation.

Unethical and Immoral Behavior Hurts Us All

The most persistent and egregious problem we face today, actually, we have always faced it, is unethical and immoral behavior. The distrust and fear it breeds cripples and severely stifles production and efficiency in every facet of every society.

Every individual will publicly say that they abhor unethical and immoral behavior from our business and political leaders. These same individuals will tell you that those who abuse our trust in them should be removed from their position and punished.

We will all, at some point in our lives, find ourselves in a situation where our moral and ethical character is tested. I have met and spoken with thousands of people in my short life on this planet, and I can tell you that the vast majority of them are down to earth, good hearted people who would not think to screw over a friend. A few others, not so much. I can’t speak for how they will treat someone they don’t know but I have read many accounts where people have screwed over someone (or even committed murder) and then their friends say they can’t believe their friend would do this. So, what are we left to believe? Some people may pass a test of their moral character but succumb to constant and repeated tests. Very few will pass every time. So prevalent is this unethical and immoral behavior that we all know of some untrustworthy person.

If we are truly honest with ourselves we will recognize that the potential to be immoral or unethical is present in all of us. Such is the nature of the human being.

To protect ourselves from being taken advantage of, whether by politicians, business people, or friends, some of us never put ourselves in a position to trust them. Unfortunately, we cannot go through life without trusting at least one or some of these people. So, to keep an eye on our politicians and business executives we hire other people to oversee them, supposedly to prevent them from committing, or at least, getting away with committing, unethical and immoral behavior.

When these people who are being scrutinized commit unethical and immoral behavior, as they seemingly always eventually do, and then get caught we call for some sort of punishment for their wrongdoing that should also serve as a deterrent against future ethical and moral breeches from others. Yet invariably the punishment is toned down by the very people we hire to carry out the punish which results in leniency for committing what cripples us the most. The end result is that there is no real deterrent therefore the unethical and immoral behavior continues.

The root of this behavior, the driving force, always centers around money and power.

These two goals: to have more money than you can possibly spend, and to be the most powerful (whether it be over other people or over property), are the two most corruptible forces we will ever be faced with. We don’t possess the ability to obtain power and money, it possesses us.

Why do we continue to play the game of pretending to be ethical and moral to get ourselves into a position where we will be caught abusing ethics and moral standards? Simply put, because we are all we have. Sad to say, there is no methodology or deterrent that will prevent greed from rearing its ugly head and taking down another seemingly once moral and ethical person.

Why do we allow our principles to be compromised so easily? Why do we bow down to these masters? Any explanation we can come up with will only serve to become a rationalization which will further allow this behavior to continue. Each of us needs to constantly remind ourselves that empathy in relation to others peoples’ trust and money must be the rule for our conduct. We need to ask ourselves, if this was my money and someone else stole it from me how would I feel, instead of thinking how can I take this money without getting caught.

The motto “do unto others before they do unto you” has replaced “do unto others as you would have them do unto you”. Why? I don’t know. But stealing from someone because a third party stole from you does not balance anything. That behavior simply feeds an evil society that no one can possibly live in peace with.

We sell our souls to have more than what we have worked for. This moral dilemma can only be addressed at the individual level. And therein lies the problem. So far, we are doing a pretty miserable job at policing ourselves. The recent default of the economic situation plus the last eight years of the Bush administrations’ wholesale sell-off of corporate America and invading a sovereign nation based on lies, as well as a whole host of other atrocities and attacks on our personal freedoms should serve as enough proof.

If the predictions are correct, our economy is going to get worse before it gets better. This is going to create more pressure on us to be on guard against unscrupulous individuals who would rather steal from us than try to get by on what they have worked for. In the meantime, please remember that we are all suffering. Don’t make it worse on someone else just improve your position. You will only be breeding more hate and fear.

Reconstruction in Iraq and Our Economy Are Failing for the Same Reason

An unpublished, 513-page federal history of the U.S.-led reconstruction of Iraq depicts an effort crippled before the invasion by Pentagon planners who were hostile to the idea of rebuilding a foreign country.

The reconstruction effort is being hampered by fake numbers, mismanaged funds, ill-thought out plans, technical ineptness, poor organizational structure, political turf wars, personal greed, and a ‘cover-your-ass’ mentality. Our economic leadership has been guilty of the same short-comings. This is yet another legacy that Bush cannot hide from.

The only ‘success’ that has come out of the rebuilding effort thus far can be claimed by the CEOs of the construction companies and building-materials suppliers that were given contracts by a corrupted bidding system. Contractors working in Iraq know they are being paid for slip-shod work and they are well aware of the mismanagement of funds and lack of over-sight. Yet their conscience will be placated by the overly exaggerated paychecks they receive. Paychecks funded in part by their fellow Americans’ tax dollars.

These ‘leaders of industry’, these so-called ‘professionals’ were given the task of rebuilding Iraq and the single most driving force to ‘win’ the contract was not in producing quality workmanship, but in how to make the most money for themselves. How to set up companies and an infrastructure that would funnel the most money into their own pockets.

The only ‘success’ to come out of the banking system bailout goes to the CEO’s who received outrageous bonuses and to mortgage brokers who made money from taking advantage of the ‘dream of home ownership’ of families they knew would not be able to payoff the loans. They were all aware of the failings of the system but sloughed off their responsibility and took their paychecks and walked away from it.

These leaders of the banking and home mortgage industry who kept a close watch on the pulse of our economy knew how to make the most money from the unwary and under-informed consumer and manipulated the system to funnel the most money into their own pockets.

We Americans have collectively been bilked out of billions of dollars over the course of our history by conniving, thieving individuals who greased the palms of corrupted political office holders in order to have money diverted from more deserving projects to fall under their control. Cost overruns are nothing new to construction projects and the manipulation of the contract bidding process has become an art for those who know how to do it. Especially when you have politicians pushing and pulling for you on the inside.

If we take a leap of faith, and conclude that politicians are being taken advantage of by contractors in regards to how contracts are awarded and money is managed and spent, then it is time for our government to put in place strict controls over how contracts are awarded and how money is used. We also need to have stricter over-sight on how the process is overseen. Corruption that has become inherent in this capitalist society has made this type of bureaucracy management an unfortunate necessity.

Capitalism has taken too great a hold on this country for us to ever get anything done without the expectation of every individual involved to arrive with their hand out.

Before Iraq reconstruction plans were put to paper the planning was disjointed and botched due to jostling of position of who was going to get the biggest cut. American homes and office buildings are constructed in record time in the U.S. There is no reason why these buildings cannot go up just as quickly and just as cheaply in Iraq unless delaying the process meant more money for project managers and workers. The construction field is filled with areas where a master of manipulating costs can exaggerate building time and increase building materials costs because of a lack of honest oversight.

We are a nation that is supposed to work together for a common cause. We have flag-waving politicians who tirelessly spout off about how we Americans stick together against outside forces bent on our destruction, yet behind closed doors they plan and scheme on how to take the American tax payer for even more money to bail out a banking system that they themselves refuse to regulate. Anytime any politician slings his/her line of crap under the banner of patriotism and not have to gargle to rid themselves of the resulting foul taste is a crooked politician corrupted beyond redemption. They cannot possibly believe their own rhetoric. We sure as hell don’t.

Money for construction projects are divided up by a spoils system controlled by neighborhood politicians and tribal chiefs. "Our district council chairman has become the Tony Soprano of Rasheed, in terms of controlling resources," said a U.S. Embassy official working in a dangerous Baghdad neighborhood, referring to the popular TV mob boss. “You will use my contractor or the work will not get done.”

Pentagon officials should be held to account for mismanagement and the inflated numbers (lies) it gave the public and the administration to show progress being made in Iraq. These officials are more concerned with covering their own asses when reality doesn’t look as rosy as their expectations or when things go wrong than they are in working to improve the situation.

The reconstruction effort has failed because no single agency in the U.S. government has responsibility for the job.

This can also be said for the current collapsing economy we Americans are being forced to endure.

Bailout Demands Increase

Now states are asking to be bailed out. Is there no end to this? Taxpayers are overwhelmed enough without having to bailout everyone affected by how one industry screwed us all in the name of profit.

We need to prosecute everyone involved with throwing caution to the wind to allow loans without collateral, everyone who looked the other way while these institutions raped us and foremost we need to stop the government from raiding that great ATM called the American taxpayer to reward everyone affected.

We are in a recession because our government relaxed regulations and did nothing while the banking industry irresponsibly created this economic nightmare. And where in the long line of handouts are we? At the very end, if we are allowed to join the line at all.

Ohio Governor Strickland wants the federal government to grant $5 billion to help cover the tax shortfall created by our latest recession.

The three governors and six U.S. senators from Connecticut, New York and New Jersey have asked the federal labor secretary for $48.2 million to retrain people who've lost jobs because of the crisis on Wall Street.

Governor Jim Doyle Tuesday said Barack Obama is likely to have a bill that would help Wisconsin and 44 other states dealing with budget shortfalls either this year or next dig their way out of the financial hole.

Sure we are all suffering and will soon will be suffering even more from the increased taxes that our elected official see fit to raise to cover their shortfalls. But what recourse do we taxpayers have to cover our shortfalls? We are all going to have to tighten our belts to get through this. We need to stop this gift wagon that is the federal government bailout system that only makes the problem worse for the taxpayer. Those of us losing jobs cannot afford to bailout others and still expect to feed, house and clothe our families.

Put an end to this madness, now.

I have some sobering news for all of you with your hands out, the well is running dry.

Big 3 Automakers Need to Change Course

Bailing out the auto industry, without making significant changes to how they do business and what they produce, is not in the best long term interest of America or the environment. Bankruptcy may “not be an option” for automakers but it may very well be the best thing that could happen for consumers.

We are facing difficult economic times and America needs to change its attitude concerning what is really necessary to maintain healthy, satisfied lives. Our excesses have finally caught up with us and we must learn to now become more frugal. We have adopted a destructive throw-away mentality in this country that has to be reversed. The automotive industry is no exception.

There are far too many cars on the market. A Long Beach California port is warehousing thousands of new cars due to lack of buyers. Detroit has housed thousands of unwanted American-made cars over the last two years at Michigan’s state fairground and in lots at its airports. Car lots across the country remain crowded with unsold new cars. We need to make our cars last longer. We will survive without a new car every year or even every three years. Automakers do not need to make new model changes every year.

What is wrong with driving a used car a little longer? The Big 3 likes to tell us that the after-market parts industry will suffer without new cars every year, this is simply a scare tactic. As their cars age, car owners will need to replace parts and this will keep the after-market parts industry alive. Automakers need to concern themselves with making a product that produces less pollution, gets better fuel economy and lasts longer than just a couple of years. All of this can be done by combining current and developing technologies.

Wages in the auto industry are out of whack with the rest of the nations work force. They need to be brought in-line with everyone else.

Automaker CEO’s will actually survive without their exorbitant multi-million dollar a year salaries and private jets. My advice to them is to get your heads out of the clouds and live amongst the consumers you claim to care so much about. Take this time and the money already given to you to build the new breed of cars that the environment needs and Americans truly want.

Flying private jets to Washington to ask for financial help and then defending the practice as ‘standard procedure’ shows that their ‘standard procedure’ leans towards excess that a financially troubled corporation should not be indulging in. Are they more concerned with hanging on to their exalted perch so they can continue to loot their respective corporations than they are in keeping millions of Americans employed? Extremely high executive salaries and membership in exclusive country clubs, use of private jets, and various other miscellaneous fluff that typically goes with being the figurehead of a large American corporation does not help the average American auto worker put food on their table.

Auto executives say they are going to streamline business operations, keeping in mind that their idea of streamlined business operations in the past was to layoff thousands of workers and move their operations overseas, I can’t help but think they are a bit disingenuous in trying to convince us that asking for our help is going to benefit us.

This request for help, from an industry that affects so many aspects of American life, comes at a pivotal point in our economic and environmental health. The concerns of both must be taken into account, for they can both benefit if we proceed responsibly.

Should we bail them out of a situation of their own making? The painful lesson of British Leyland must be heeded in the limited effectiveness of bailouts. The government got in the business of trying to make a winner out of a structurally flawed company. Is the U.S. auto industry structurally flawed? They have already proven they are willing to deprive U.S. auto workers of jobs by sending those jobs outside the U.S. Flint Michigan, and ultimately the entire state, has been devastated due to auto executives decisions to hire cheaper labor in Mexico. And GM is currently building a $300 million facility to build cars in Russia.

And when Americans began turning away from American made cars in favor of foreign made cars that got better gas mileage, the U.S. auto makers, instead of listening to the trend and retooling their industry to make what Americans obviously wanted, their answer was to increase the production of gas guzzling behemoths to help keep the price of their product down. By ignoring consumers U.S. auto makers took a path that led to an oversaturated market of ever larger vehicles that increased our dependence on fossil fuel which in turn increased pollution. Environmentalist have been demanding for decades to have access to vehicles that addressed these two major concerns. Auto executives chose to ignore these demands and that decision put them in their current situation.

I don’t think they can be trusted to put America’s best interest first. Their current business model of bleeding the industry dry to pad their executives’ lifestyle and let their employees fend for themselves needs to end. They need to listen to their consumers to produce a safer and more fuel efficient product and prove they are willing to put America first by keeping jobs here in America.

Bailing them out is not going to force changes that need to take place. Perhaps the humbling experience of a bankruptcy is exactly what is called for.

Bailout? What Bailout?

Does acting quickly have the desired effect of appearing to know what you are doing? In the case of the $700B Wall Street bailout, the answer is apparently, No.

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson panicked and cajoled Congress into passing a bailout that was identified as needed immediately in order to avert a looming economic crash that would have rivaled the stock market crash of 1929. In hindsight, his plan failed to have any effect and the stock market is still fluctuating wildly. Now, after being given complete control over how that money is to be used, he has changed course. This action has angered many who voted for the measure and has raised the question of his credibility and competence.

The plan was to buy troubled assets. Then the money was used to buy shares in banks. Now it’s going to be used to support financial institutions offering consumer credit. Democrats in Congress want some of the money to go to the auto industry.

The money was to be used to “stabilize” the economy. It didn’t stabilize anything.

The money was supposed to buy “troubled assets”, but it will not buy troubled assets.

The money was supposed to “rescue” Wall Street, but has only rescued some big banks and corporations. (The conspiracy theorist in me wants to think that those who were rescued had some ties to the Bush administration. Another theory has the federal government socializing the banking system. But these are fodder for other posts at another time).

The fact is Henry Paulson doesn’t have a clue how to best use this money and the program that was originally passed has changed. (Sounds an awful lot like a scam, doesn’t it).

The majority of House Republicans didn’t want any part of the original plan without more details and therefore did not vote for it. The plan was voted for by House GOP Leadership defying the wishes of the majority of members of their own House caucus. Now, some members of Congress, republicans and democrats alike, are supporting Bloomberg News in its legal demand that the Federal Reserve provide details of the bailout process.

It is down right scary to know that Congress will vote for a plan without details of that plan and place unprecedented power in the hands of a man who has now clearly shown does not know what to do with the money.

So, what we have is an extremely large pool of money (many say is not large enough), a man in charge of that fund who admittedly does not know what to do with it, and a faltering economy that desperately needs to be stabilized. Would demanding Paulson’s resignation improve things? I doubt it.

People are still loosing their homes and jobs, and our faith in our future is being badly shaken. CEO’s and big oil are walking away with record profits. Politicians grasp at any glimmer of hope to keep things working and no one is truly in control of anything.

Bailing out the auto industry

America’s automobile industry is suffering, along with the rest of our economy. Few of us are shedding tears over it. Those that are crying bailout depend on the auto industry for their livelihood.

Auto sales are at their lowest in 25 years. Chrysler sales are down 35%, General Motors sales are down 45%, Ford posted a loss of $3 billion in its latest report. They are all asking the federal government for a $25 billion bailout. This is in addition to the $25 billion already granted them just last quarter.

Let’s get past the question of whether or not the federal government should bail out all of the hard working middle class Americans who are suffering from the result of corporate greed and mismanagement and take a close look at what caused this problem and what we can do to turn it around.

The auto industry has a long history of sleeping with big oil and believe that since they are considered the manufacturing backbone of our economy that they should receive special benefit of a bailout anytime industry leaders decisions backfire on them.

In a free enterprise system, there are winners and there are losers. Winners keep themselves abreast of the latest technologies and consumer trends and adapt their products to keep up with the market. This is simple economic strategy and every successful business owner knows this rule inside and out. The American auto manufacturers have not followed this rule. They have repeatedly lost sales to far superior foreign products all the while knowing they had the ability to change their methodology to match or exceed their competitors products. They simply did not keep up with the competition. They lobbied the federal government to pass laws so that their products did not have to meet strict emissions standards even while foreign manufacturers were beating those standards. They did not take it upon themselves to make their product financially attractive enough to American consumers.

Why should they be bailed out when their own behavior has put them in this position? They ignored the writing on the wall when people began buying more fuel efficient foreign vehicles and instead of reinvesting in retooling to produce lighter-weight, more fuel-efficient vehicles continued to build the largest ‘land-yachts’ in the world.

Another major problem adding to the auto industry woes is the rising cost of doing business in America. Both the federal government and the union should share the blame for this. Runaway insurance costs, the increasing tax burden, wages and inflation have made it more attractive for many industries to move their operations overseas to healthier financial environments where they realized greater profits due to not having to pay such high overhead.

The American auto industry relied too heavily on the old sentimental loyalty of Americans to “buy American” and it backfired on them.

Now the auto industry is using American jobs as the reason they should be bailed out. They are probably correct in assuming that if this industry goes under the loss of tax revenue generated from automobile sales, the loss of income tax generated by workers and the loss of payments into social security will cripple this economy even further. The America economy will suffer far greater damage than we can imagine.

Some people compare bailing this industry out with bailing out the bankers and Wall Street CEO’s and they don’t want to see it. This industry differs in that it directly affects hundreds of thousands of jobs, each contributing to a tax base that drives this economy.

What can be done to help the economy and the auto industry in the long run depends on the cooperation of the federal government and the auto industry.

Government should rewrite its laws to allow, and force, auto manufacturers to produce competitive products.

Any foreign country that sells a car here should be required to manufacture it here, this will create jobs here and will help keep some of the money here in this country instead of shipping it overseas.

Create an international standard for fuel efficiency, gas emissions, and alternative means of power to help us get away from fossil fuels and force the auto industry to adhere to these standards.

Any car manufacturer that wants to ship vehicles to the U.S. should pay higher tariffs making less attractive for them to do so.

In fact, raising tariffs on everything that comes into this country would help other American industries as well. America has become the dumping ground of cheap products made overseas and this needs to stop. Americans used to feel a certain pride in making quality American products. There is no pride in sending our money overseas for product that should be made here.

Ideally, these changes will entice all industry to bring their manufacturing back to America and re-employ Americans.

Let’s face it, Americans are not loyal to American products, we are loyal to getting the best product for our money. It will always be this way.

It Should Be Obvious…Bush has Failed the American People

Is isn’t any secret that higher gasoline prices are affecting every person and every business. The effects are being felt in many ways that a lot of us did not even consider. Some communities have cut school bus routes, police patrols, traveling libraries and lawn maintenance. The St. Paul Police Department is encouraging officers to use horses and bikes. Other police departments are asking police officers to park their cars and return to foot patrol. Holly Springs, Georgia is beginning to add a “fuel surcharge” to all moving violation tickets that police issue. A number of state agencies, including those in Utah, are going to four-day workweeks to save energy costs and reduce commuting expenses for their employees.

Rising gas prices are affecting every product that is made, transported, eaten and sold at your local shopping center. Well, the list goes on. But the people who are hardest hit are those who depend on others to bring them the daily care they desperately need. I’m talking about the elderly and homebound without the ability to care for themselves. These people depend on volunteer agencies to deliver food, transportation assistance and home care.

In a recent survey by the National Association of Area Agencies on Aging, more than half said they had already cut back on programs because of gas costs, and 90 percent said they expected to make cuts in the 2009 fiscal year. In the survey of agencies, more than 70 percent said it was more difficult to recruit and keep volunteers.

The obvious answer for these people may be to place them in nursing care facilities. But the unfortunate sad fact is that many of them cannot afford this very expensive solution. Many are on social security which just barely covers their basic daily necessities. If they are placed in facilities they will become an additional financial burden on the taxpayer.

Agencies have suffered from Medicare cuts in recent years and are lobbying Congress to account for fuel inflation in reimbursement rates and to reinstate special increases for providers in rural areas, a program that expired in 2006.

Now, one would think that since higher gas prices are forcing people to drive less that less gas is being purchased which means those record profits that oil companies enjoyed last year are going to suffer. So is it really in the best interest of oil companies to keep jacking up their prices? Just what is the cause of rising gas prices?

Bush claims demand is raising gas prices. Our population size did not suddenly increase two-fold to justify a doubling of demand and therefore doubling of gas prices. The 13-nation Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) disputes his claim. The true reason for the increase is the U.S. economy and President Bush’s policies are directly to blame for it. He keeps spouting “It should be obvious...” Well, Mr. Bush, saying it should be obvious is not a valid argumentative point. Give us some proof. People are driving less but the prices keep going up.

No sir, the biggest cause of higher oil prices is the demise of the American dollar and investors reactions to it. Oil is traded in dollars. A weak dollar means that foreign investors can buy more oil, which helps drive up the price so here is where your twisted view of demand comes into play. Huge institutional investors start buying oil as a safe place to put their money, safer than the dollar or the stock market.

"Oil is the new gold," said James Burkhard, director of global oil market analysis at the Cambridge Energy Research Associates consulting firm. "Oil has some intrinsic value, and that value remains even if the dollar depreciates."

It was only in March of this year that analysts said the fundamental issues of oil supply and demand should bring oil prices down. "At some point, the fundamentals have to reassert themselves," says Burkhard. "At some point, this has to stop, unless the dollar is in a terminal freefall."

The U.S. economy has been losing steam since last year's mortgage meltdown, which can be blamed on irresponsible home mortgage lending practices and the unscrupulous lenders who reason they will be bailed out by the government if it all fails. The weakening economy has investors uninterested in putting their money in the stock market so they put it in oil, the value of which has tripled in five years. When less money goes into the stock market the ripple effect brings the economy down even further.

This administration seizes the opportunity when discussing fossil fuel price increases to push their “commitment to renewable energy”, mainly the use of corn for biofuel production which feeds yet another corporate moneymaking scheme through even more federal subsidies and pushes food prices up as well. He is trying to refocus our attention from the real problems he has caused, because he doesn’t have any answers, to a positive spin that we will soon be free of foreign oil dependence. But this amounts to a load of rubbish.

We will be forced to pay an ever higher cost of living in America for fuel and every product that requires it for transportation whether it come from foreign shores or America’s own corn fields. We will be forced to pay ever higher costs for food because it will continue to be shipped from foreign shores because of Bush’s “world open market” economic policies. And corporations will continue to reap record profits.

Bush claims that a growing demand for fuel in China and India are placing pressure on the fuel supply to America. If this were to be true then China and India should pay the higher prices, not the U.S.

The bottom line is that this administration’s poor economic policies and rich corporate welfare policies has forced an increase in:

food prices,
gas prices,
the number of Americans losing their homes,
the number of Americans who are going hungry
the number of Americas poor

So I ask, has this president been good for America? It should be obvious.

Where Are We Going?

Do we have a direction for this country? What are America’s goals? After living (stumbling) under what passes for “leadership” these days, I feel this country is more lost today than ever.

Actually, we are headed in several directions. We are headed for a second great depression, according to economic experts; we are headed for war with Iran, according to U.S. News and World Report and according to the rhetoric that our paranoid, war-hawkish ‘leaders’ are spouting; we are headed toward environmental disaster, according to environmentalists everywhere; we are headed toward third world status, according to our downward trend on the list of information technology rankings. Our increasing illiteracy, our increasing waistlines and our vanishing chances of having a workable and equitable healthcare plan has us decreasing in the rankings of the world’s healthiest nations. We are leading the world in number of incarcerated individuals, a dubious honor at best.

In a recent poll, 70% of respondents to a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey say things are going badly for this country.

We are told as individuals that we should have a 5-year plan, a 10-year-plan, and beyond. Can anyone tell me what those plans are for this country?

The U.S. has become more dangerously polarized through our blind impassioned pursuit of terrorist (that we certainly have had a hand in creating) and we are antagonizing them even more with each sip of oil from foreign wells.

As a nation, we have lost our sense of what is right and wrong, fair and unfair, just and unjust. George Bush’s gang thought it right that we destroy a nation to protect our interests and access to oil. They thought it just to use telecoms to secretly gather information on millions of Americans in their pursuit of terrorists that, oddly enough, has not led to any arrests. They thought it fair to hold hundreds of those who they consider to be ‘enemy combatants’ for years without a trial. They thought it fair to place unqualified cronies in such high government positions as the head of the U.S. Attorneys Office, Director of FEMA, Commissioner FDA, Chair of Corporation for Public Broadcasting and Administrator of Medicare & Medicaid Services. But ask any individual you come into contact with throughout your busy day for their opinion on any of these topics and they will give you a very different version of what is right, fair and just.

Our emerging world market economy is creating an ‘every-man-for-himself’ value system. Traditional morality, i.e., selflessness, altruism, sharing and cooperation, is the glue that built our society and it is crumbling.

This is the key factor behind much of the social unrest globally, according to George Matafonov, author of a new book entitled Fire & Water: Market Morality & Civil Society. "While the threat of terrorism and multiculturalism are often convenient and easy scapegoats, the root causes of social unrest globally lie in the experiment in trying to model the moral core of society on economic theory, rather than traditional human values," said Matafonov. "While economic theory results in efficiency in competitive markets, it has no place outside the market," he added.

As humans, we have been living in societies for tens of thousands of years and have developed values and a sense of morality to enable us to live in peace, harmony and prosperity. In the space of less than 50 years, economic theory has turned all this upside down by insisting our chief value should be competitive self-interest.

Religion has taken a beating by people who lack the incentive or the inclination to give it a ‘test drive’ and by reports that prove clergy are humans. Catholic church sex scandals have become legendary. Evangelical church leaders become involved in sexual immoral conduct, tax evasion, extramarital affairs, shameless theatrics to raise money, and infighting. Christianity has taken on so many different doctrines that there is no longer one central belief. Even the idea of God holding dominion over earth as its creator is no longer acceptable to a growing number of people. Supreme Court decisions that ban recognition of God in public life have the effect of abolishing Christianity in public life and discrediting Christianity in private life. These Supreme Court decisions are driven by organizations such as American Atheists, the group founded by Madelyn Murray O'Hair in 1963, the American Civil Liberties Union and many others.

Family values are deteriorating through moral decay that allows adulterous relationships that in turn increases the divorce rate. The resulting increased divorce rate increases out-of-wedlock pregnancies that are costing taxpayers more than $112 billion annually. The unfortunate side effect of divorce is a single-parent family that is subject to a life filled with early pregnancy, school dropout, and delinquent behavior. Children who grow up without a father present, even when adjustments are made for income, are 375% more likely to need professional assistance for emotional problems, twice as likely to repeat a grade of school, and more likely to suffer a wide variety of other disorders including anxiety, peer conflict, and hyperactivity. While television and the movies gather headlines as the motivation behind teen violence, school administrators blame "family breakup" for violence in the schools. As a result of economic pressures to work longer hours or multiple jobs, children of single-parent families find themselves unsupervised. They can’t help but have feelings of abandonment even if they understand why they are left alone.

The idea of a democratically elected government has become a joke. Our elected officials are guided more by whichever corporation has the most lobbyist who gets the most attention with the most money as opposed to what the taxpayers really need in their struggle to survive. Super delegates have a disproportionate voting power and can back any candidate they want regardless of who their peers vote for.

As we search for alternative energy sources in an attempt to wean ourselves from fossil based fuel, the very symbols of what we are fighting against, big oil, is busy developing a corporate environmentalism designed to appeal to green consumers, while fighting tooth and nail any legislation that would interfere with their financial bottom line. This hypocrisy is nothing more than an overt attempt to maintain their influence, and product brand, over a society that should be focused on finding alternative energy sources.

David Suzuki, a noted environmental activist, author and host of CBC Television science magazine, published a post on guardian.co.uk on how humans have lost the vital skill of forethought. He asks why we choose to ignore the warnings from the worlds leading scientists and Nobel prize winners of the coming ecological disaster. We have the capacity to alter our current course of ‘the degradation of our very life support systems - air, water, soil, energy and biodiversity’ and yet we choose to devote our attention to ‘every antic of Paris Hilton or Britney Spears’.

All in all, this is a pretty dismal picture of life in America. As long as this nation is devoid of strong moral leadership we cannot hope to focus our many talents and our creativity towards finding equitable and viable solutions that will benefit everyone.

What lies ahead is anybody’s guess. Somehow, just making more money seems pretty unfulfilling. What do you think?

Changes in latitudes, changes in attitudes

Our economy is taking a major hit due to the home mortgage crisis, rising credit card interest rates, rising fuel prices, rising food prices, and the shrinking value of our dollar. All of this combined is forcing lifestyle changes.

Daily commuters are moving closer to their jobs or giving up higher paying jobs to find one closer to home as a result of higher gasoline prices.

People are finally getting rid of their hulking, low-mileage SUV’s and trucks for more fuel efficient smaller cars, because of higher fuel prices. (Who is buying these gas-guzzlers from them and why?). Obviously, not everyone is doing their part to bring fuel prices back down or to slow down the usage of our dwindling oil supply.

Independent business people who rely on driving as part of their business are scaling back and therefore are struggling to keep employees, because of fuel prices.

Every business that depends on trucking is beginning to suffer from increasing fuel costs. Independent truckers are loosing their livelihood as well as their homes because of severe increases in the cost of diesel fuel. They are forced to park or sell their rigs, leaving fewer trucks to get products to market, allowing public trucking companies free to raise their shipping rates in order to help defray fuel prices, which in turn increases the retail price of the products they haul. Repossession of these big-rigs have doubled over last year.

Food prices are increasing because of transportation costs and the added burden of biofuel manufacture from the same corn crop that was previously used exclusively for food manufacturing.

Vacations have been put off or scaled way back. Discretionary spending has been cut. Necessities such as health insurance, weekly trips to see family and friends, eating out more than once a week, are now being referred to as luxuries and are all being cut back.

Families whose incomes were once considered comfortable are now just barely getting by. The effect is devastating for egos as well as wallets, creating strained relations within the family. What do you do when a $50,000 annual salary can no longer buy a prom dress for your daughter, or your kids don’t get everything they want for Christmas and birthdays?

All of these changes in our lifestyles are a direct result of increasing fuel prices which in turn is a result to our refusal to change our driving habits and our federal governments refusal to take a leadership role in forcing big oil to stop bleeding us dry.

Are We Green Yet posted about how by working together we can counteract these increasing fuel prices simply by changing our driving habits. Americans, with their affinity for bigger, more powerful vehicles, carry the biggest share of the guilt. Our driving habits are atrocious compared to foreign countries.

We all have to do our part.

A common misconception is that biofuel production will save us from having to drive more conservatively or to embrace mass transit. But the increased demand for corn as a biofuel is driving food prices up. The increased production of biofuels has not slowed down the price of oil and OPEC is continuing to squeeze us all.

Cocooning has become the latest buzz word in suburbs everywhere. People are staying at home more because they can’t afford to go out for entertainment. They have to save fuel to get to and from work and the grocery store.

Soon, only the wealthy will inhabit movie theaters, restaurants, concert halls, and amusement parks.

I come from a family of six children. We were born from 1951 to 1961 and were raised under very modest financial conditions. We were forced to share everything. Not because of an idealistic unselfishness, we had to do it to make ends meet. Today, I see kids with everything I only dreamed about having when I was their age. I see super-sized homes with enough space inside that every child gets their own bedroom. They get their own iPods, their own cell phones, their own computers. These Americans have become truly spoiled, others not so much. I don’t begrudge anyone who has the financial ability to give their kids everything they want, but when those spending habits begin consuming more than their ‘fair share’ of gasoline and food, and all of this gluttony leads to shortages for the rest of us, that’s when I have a real problem with hearing them complain about how their $50,000+ income no longer meets their demands. No, I find it very difficult to empathize with them.

Changing our lifestyles is the best answer to the financial situation in which we find ourselves. It is a sad commentary that we are forced to do this as a result of our own habits. No one wants to give up an opulent lifestyle. No one wants to scale down our luxuries. Everyone wants to be able to take the family to a restaurant and/or movie. We all enjoy our day at the amusement park. But we cannot continue to over spend, to waste fuel, to live beyond our means.

There is a law of nature at play here. Nature will tend to slough off wastefulness when it becomes too great a burden to carry and becomes detrimental to the safety and continued operation of the system. We have over-spent and over-extended our use of what nature has made available to us and we expect to not have to change our ways when nature is showing signs of crashing. This trend cannot continue.

We must change our attitude toward what we can expect from nature. We cannot continue to take and not give.

Consumers lose to big business again

So, here is yet another way in which the U.S. government bows to economic pressure over the consumer well-being and pushes the consumer further down the list of who they are protecting. This time the USDA takes a crack it, again.

I learned from a fellow gardening blogger that the USDA changed the standards by which they label a “food” as organic.

The USDA has authorized 38 “other” substances to be added to the list of what can be called organic. Most items are food colorings, but the big beer brewers and the pork industry are the big winners here. They lobbied hard (call that legalized bribery and coercion) and won the right to add ‘other’ items that no one in their right mind would ever consider to be organic.

Here's an example: mega beer brewer Anheuser-Bush (they have lots of money to get what they want, thanks to all of you alcoholics and drunks out there) will be allowed to sell what it calls ‘Organic Wild Hops Beer’ without using any organic hops at all! Take a moment and think about this. Anheuser-Bush just bought the rights to use the word ‘organic’ so they can jump on the ‘organic’ bandwagon without having to actually go organic. The USDA sold the right to them! I am outraged! How much is the USDA getting for this sell-out?

Here's another example: USDA ‘Organic-certified’ sausages, brats, and breakfast links will be allowed to contain intestines from factory-farmed animals raised on chemically grown feed, synthetic hormones, slaughterhouse waste, and antibiotics! This is because the cost to actually go organic is too prohibitive. Additionally, pork raised without growth hormones and chemically grown feed would revert to the smaller sizes that used to be the norm for pork before all of this scientific intervention. That would be like taking a step backwards. Heaven forbid we would ever have to forego science in order to eat healthy.

There was a time when we all ate healthier than we do today. That time was before science got involved to help industry produce larger and more, more, more! They did not get involved to 'help' the consumer, they did it first of all because they could and secondly because when industry saw they could they shelled out money for science to continue doing it.

The truth is people don’t really want to pay the higher prices to eat healthier. Oh, they say they do, when they are around other people so they can ‘show’ everyone how they are part of the modern trend to go ‘natural’. It always comes down to money. Let’s not forget this is the good ole United States of Capitalism after all. The USDA did not forget.

If you are outraged enough, and if you believe your voice will actually be heard, much less considered in this matter then go to this link and make yourself feel better.