What is with this country?

“Young man, you need to work hard in school, graduate from a good college, work hard and you’ll succeed in life!” That’s what my guidance counselor used to tell me. Poor old thing probably never worked a day in the corporate world… and I’m still not sure why she should be allowed to give advice to teens.

Let’s see, I graduated in the top third of my class with a strong B grade point average. Got into THE state school with a nationally ranked business school and graduated a few years later. I got a job at a large corporation with several thousand employees. I work hard every day and continue to do so. I started as a senior bookkeeper and now, after 5 years of being a dependable hardworking employee I am… a senior bookkeeper.

Most of my friends went to college too, they either work here doing the same things or in jobs quite similar. I don’t have one friend who’s “made it.” I do know, thru acquaintances two people who are doing quite well for themselves, one lucked into a position because his father works at the company he now works for. The other took over his parents business.

I have friends who have started companies, worked 18+ hours a day neglecting their wives and children, yet they have only suffered for their education and hard work. Businesses lost, bankruptcy considered. And no, the guidance counselor didn’t offer to help to explain to their kids why Santa didn’t bring them much last year.

Now let’s look at business success another way.

What if I were to tell you there was a guy, or a group of people who were all paid very well and given lavish expense accounts. This group made risky bets, poor decisions is a more accurate term, they obviously didn’t work at researching the bets, and those bets didn’t hit. It’s perfect right? Exactly how the system is supposed to work. If you don’t work hard you’re not going to make it. So how are these guys doing now?

They’re being fired. YES! The system works! … What’s that? They’re also being given $20 million golden parachutes. Wait, they’re getting paid more than I’ll make in my lifetime for leaving?!?!?!?

This is what happens when our government, I feel that I need to say that again, OUR GOVERNMENT, comes to their aid, bails them out, doesn’t cap executive pay, and continues to reward the rich for their greedy and reckless behavior.

It’s not how hard you work that makes you succeed in capitalism, it’s how greedy you are and how ruthless you can be in going about satiating that greed.

That’s my fundamental problem. I’m not ruthless, unless you really, really piss me off of course. But most of the time I’m a laid back kind of guy. I’m not overly greedy, and my personal wealth and belongings can certainly back up that position. There is one clause concerning my greed. When it comes to sports I want my teams to dominate. Eighty to nothing at the half is just not enough. Don’t even get me started on video games. I will be throwing a controller if I can’t drop 50 on my computer driven college football foe. Or at least I would be throwing a controller if I could afford any of the new game systems.

This brings forth the base flaw of our society. We teach our kids to be good people, to share, to live and let live, to treat others as you’d want them to treat you. We have fairy tales and religions (but I repeat myself) that mirror these qualities of virtue. Yet in the real world the people that live their lives with virtue are often the workhorses that the greedy, reckless, bad people make fortunes off of.

I am punished because I’m not mean enough, because I don’t sit and strategize as to how to take others money away from them so that I might have it. Good people are punished every day simply because they’re good. Oh sure, people say nice things about them when they die in their 60’s due to high stress, bad diet, and lack of appropriate healthcare. But they die nonetheless, and more than likely they spent their last days on earth working too much and worrying about money, about retirement, about what they’d like to leave behind for their children.

This is a system in which evil is rewarded in its abuses of the good. The bailout is a perfect example, they’re not buying up mortgages that are in default, you know the thing that might actually help to shore up the real economic worries. They’re buying up derivatives which aren’t even real, it’s just a bet that Wall Street plays endlessly, nothing more. And the executives who lived high on the hog while this was all bringing money in will be pushed out the window to watch their golden parachutes billow open and land softly in some other place of wealth and extravagance while we still toil away at dead end jobs only to have our pensions and SS benefits be gone by the time we need them.

Why can’t we have a turn? Why can’t the $700 billion be given to the people? Why can’t they pay off mortgages and buy new homes for us? Would that not help the economy by relieving the true backbone of this society of their debt laden lives? Debts many people took on at the urge of the President no less.

When do those of us who live within our means but can’t get ahead because of this awful economic system get bailed out? Did we not bet and drink enough? Do I need to go throw kittens at passing cars? Would that be reckless enough?

I’m not asking for a handout, I’m asking for fairness. The wealth disparity in this country is atrocious and only getting worse. But, in the end I just want to know when our government is actually going to be for the people, by the people, and of the people. I guess it’ll be as soon as we take the responsibility of being the people instead of the apathetic, undereducated couch potatoes that we’ve become.

Just Because I Agree Doesn't Mean I Like It

I was in favor of, and still support the government bailout of AIG. The company was just too large for the economy to handle its collapse and the effects would span the globe.

But, this has gotten out of hand. In the last year our government has purchased three major mortgage holders and the world’s largest insurer, which includes numerous other assets.

This is in direct conflict of free market economy theory since a government should not nationalize or favor a private company in any way. It is a dangerous mixture of power and human greed that cannot be trusted. The temptation to abuse the power of one for the gain of both is too great.

Government concerns laws and the upholding of those laws. Not in business for profit, I’m not against the idea as a whole, but our current economic model has nothing in place to protect against rampant corruption.

Another problem now that we own IndyMac, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae is that the government will ultimately have to make the decision of whether or not to kick people out of their homes. A government is supposed to protect and help provide for its people, not turn them out on the streets.

Further, the financial gains that were made during the good times of these businesses were all private. Individual shareholders and executives made lots of money. But when the problems came for these businesses and they failed the losses became socialized.

We can’t have national healthcare but we can socialize the failures of private business?

The problem, again, comes to greed. It is the monumental flaw of the free market model. I know that it is a sin to say that capitalism is flawed, but let’s be honest, there are myriad flaws in this futile experiment.

The executives are not getting punished for their greed, in this instance there were bad loans made that should never have been made. Both the masses and the corporations are to blame, but we’re paying our debt. It’s our tax payers who saved these businesses from utter failure. What punishment was received by these execs?

This sends a signal that you can take over a company, bleed it dry and it will still be saved and you can simply move on. I’m not accusing AIG of this per se, but I certainly don’t think AIG is an innocent victim here.

A big problem with the corporate structure is that executives make far too much money. Bloated expense accounts and ridiculous salary and incentive packages fuel the greed that fuels these failures.

Our economic system must be overhauled and it needs to start at the top. I don’t want guinea pigs or examples, I want it to change for the better. Unfortunately, I just don’t see anything changing right now. We seem to demand complete catastrophe before we decide to change.

I'm Tired of America's Ignorance

I’m sick of the level of acceptance in this country. People have become so willing to be led along by a leash that they don’t even feel the collar anymore.

Ignorance is a major problem in this country and it disgusts me that so many people either hide behind or ignore the problem based on the idea of tolerance.

Take the housing crash for instance, this happened for one simple reason. Greedy SOB’s sold bad products, sometimes illegal products to stupid people. That may be slightly unfair, the people may not be outright dumb, but they certainly weren’t smart enough to learn the ins and outs of buying a house.

Stupidity and greed put us here. And have we done anything about it? If we have I haven’t seen it. There are no big new programs to educate the huddled masses. There are no new oversight committees. There are no new laws. Why? Because we tolerate stupidity and greed for some reason.

Creationism is another excellent example. Do not ask me to tolerate this viewpoint, I will not tolerate ignorance if it affects me. I will tolerate your philosophies on spirituality because neither your views nor mine can be proved. But creationism has been roundly beaten, over and over again. It can’t win a case in court, it can’t win one accredited scientist to its side, it can’t publish one, not ONE, peer reviewed paper, hell it can’t even get people to go see its movie. Yet I’m supposed to respect some wackaloon because they believe what someone else told them a book said? Lot’s of books say lot’s of things, being in a book does not mean something is true, regardless of who the alleged author is.

When do we stop tolerating this crap? When do we stop letting ignorance and laziness slide by? Why do we do nothing?

Because we’re just as lazy and ignorant as all the rest. Instead of doing something about it we just sit there and wait for the next newscast of the next stupid thing to come along.

Do something! Punish stupidity (no torture or death please, I was thinking more along the lines of educating with maybe a little mocking), make your voice heard, write your congressman, press your boss to better the company you work for, do anything! If we all just did one little thing a week think at how much better this world could be. It won’t be perfect, but better is a good start.

AIG

First off, while I am not a fan of the corporate models that permeate this country this will not be a piece about what went wrong and what is and what isn’t AIG’s fault. I believe that the aspect of government intervention is the more important issue.

To me AIG’s actions or inactions that led up to this are not relevant at this time. Over a long enough time line mankind will always commit one of two treasons against all that we allegedly stand for causing some sort of catastrophe; commit crimes and do stupid things. That’s not even counting outside forces that a person has no control over.

The issue is government. This is a problem for a free market economy, a government can in no way back or sponsor a private company. It goes against the entire notion of a free market.

A government should construct and keep stable to the best of its ability a system for an economy to exist in. But it should never have vested interests in the success or failure of any company or it compromises the system. That is too much potential power for a private business and a government to obtain together and would thus kill the notion of a free and fair market.

That being said I actually think the government stepping in to bail out AIG was a good thing. The global implications of its failure are high as it extends its empire into many markets worldwide.

Greed is the biggest staple of the free market economy, without it the economy itself would cease to exist. The only reason to succeed in the free market is because you get more of the things you want.

That greed founders companies like AIG whose vast necessity to the very countries and livelihoods of so many makes its existence necessary. Companies like AIG have become so large that the government has to kneel to it. AIG is bulletproof; they can pretty much do what they want because the government needs them. This fosters, in very large corporations, the possibility of rampant corruption and greed.

No one should have that kind of power, but more importantly we shouldn’t be that dependent on them. We shouldn’t even allow ourselves to have the temptation.

Corporations have become the absolute powers in this country. Lobbyists are a blight on this society, advertisements inundate us and money is our god. We the people allowed this to happen, we’ve locked the cat in the cage with the canary.

This power has allowed CEOs and other high ranking executives to become richer and richer while the rest of us struggle to make ends meet because we can’t afford all the crap that these corporations have fooled us into “needing.”

It’s clichéd at this point but still true, the rich are getting richer while the poor are getting poorer.

Big corporations have become far too powerful and we have allowed this to happen, we must fix it. The wealth of this land, of this earth is too vast not to share more readily. We need to demand legislation that limits the power of corporations before they devalue, over process, and destroy our entire civilization.

Spirituality

Sometimes I miss spirituality, I know that often conjures images of fruity new age fuzzy wuzzies or archaic childish fantasies but that’s not what I’m getting at. All of those miss the point of the spirituality that I speak of.

I don’t believe there is a god, nor is there some great creator. I just see no proof for it, life, anatomy, society, they’re all too screwed up for this to be a design. But sometimes I wonder if I get too caught up in the facts.

I cannot deny spirituality, there almost has to be something to it. Religions’ highest rewards of servitude are all explained similarly once the semantics are drained out. Oneness, a sense of belonging to something greater, a feeling of thanks and appreciation for life itself, and an understanding of the world around you and peace with that world.

All these religions and teachings and paths to a spiritual apex were thought of by different people, in different places, in different situations. Yet they are remarkably similar. I don’t mean to offend hard line fact’s type people but it almost seems logical from that perspective.

I do believe that spirituality also exists in science, though I know many scientists would be leery of spirituality being attached to science.

But there is a oneness, we are all; trees, humans, animals, insects, rocks, earth, oxygen, all of us made from a relatively small amount of elements. All those elements were born of the same place, stars. And all those stars came from the same place, the matter and energy created in the Big Bang.

A sense of belonging comes in looking at the vastness of space, that in all that I am a part of it. Or conversely into the heart of a cell, right down to the nucleus of an atom, that in such a small thing resides such power when combined with others atoms.

Science certainly gives us an understanding of the world around us, makes our lives easier, more comfortable and allows us to learn more which I am most certainly thankful for.

Maybe I’m reaching, maybe I’m trying to draw connections where there are none and if that’s what you think then by all means pay me no mind. All I know is that I remember the feeling that I thought was god when I was a believer and that sometimes when I look at the discoveries of science I feel that same feeling.

Greed Will Destroy This Country

I was at work today and came across an email I wasn’t quite sure if I’d taken care of so I quickly sent the appropriate information to my contact and went on about my business. A few minutes later I receive a reply, I hit the open button expecting to glance at a “thanks” or some other simple reply and move on. However the reply was much longer which was odd because what I’d written didn’t even require a response, much less a long one.

The email states that this person will soon be leaving her company, which is bad news for me, she was a good contact and always helpful for any information I might need. But the reason for her leaving was the most alarming thing about it.

Her position had been outsourced overseas and she was being let go after several years with this company. And this is a big company, most people would recognize it if they heard the name.

I hate this, I’m very angry about this as a matter of fact. Companies, in their ever increasing need to get more profit so that their execs can make even more lavish amounts of money and make the shareholders happy, will do most anything to lower their costs and increase their bottom line.

I’m disappointed in this country, and I don’t feel guilty about it or ashamed, I’m actually ashamed of people that say they’ve never been disappointed or ashamed to be American.

The cornerstone of our society is not religion or patriotism, or any of that other feel good warm and fuzzy crap, those are just distractions. The foundation of this society is capitalism, money makes this society go round. Sure you may have fuzzy little ideas otherwise, but money is it. Without it we are not what we live.

The problem with capitalism is that there is no inherent check for greed, without some balance of power the scales get tipped and in the end the entire weight slides off crashing to the floor.

Be very clear here, we are that weight.

I understand competition is tough and that capitalism buys wholly into Darwin’s survival of the fittest, but the problem is that if all these execs continue sending good jobs overseas no one here will have any money to buy their product.

CEO wages are atrocious, golden parachutes, buyout clauses, and expense accounts are sickening. There are people in this country who literally scrounge thru garbage cans looking for food while corporate execs have $10,000 garbage cans.

Something must be done to stop this rampant greed at the top levels of business, either we stop it or they stop all of us. I’m not saying I have the answers, but I’m certainly open to any ideas.

More Palin Crap

So her speech last night was apparently rousing, I’ll be honest, I wasn’t watching, I was too busy watching recorded episodes of “Star Trek: DS9”, I also saw some “How It’s Made” and an episode of “Mythbusters.” I would prefer to learn something rather than watch some woman I know nothing about pander to a bunch of creationists.

But I have read some of the “highlights” of her speech this morning and well, she seems like a politician. Best way I know to put it.

She apparently defended her small town mayor status and at the same time took a shot at Obama. “I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a ‘community organizer’ except that you have actual responsibilities.” Oh she’s funny that one, because ya know Obama was an organizer in Chicago. I can see that Sarah, that you had a job with more responsibilities since you were mayor over a town of 5500 people. Seriously? There will be more people in the student section of the stadium at my alma mater’s game on Saturday. Four times more people.

First off how does Wasilla Alaska compare in any way to Chicago? They’re not even both English names!
Secondly, what about being mayor of small town Siberia prepped you for the vice presidency? I don’t think Andy and Helen arguing, and Opie’s small time drug ring are even close.

She went on to challenge Obama further about Iraq “Victory in Iraq is finally in sight;” By all means do tell Sarah… oh you’re not going to tell us why just that Obama is wrong, got ya.
Did Bush tell you to say that, because he’s fond of saying things like that. He’s not right Sarah, he doesn’t know anything about it, victory is nowhere near in sight, barring a massive time-travelling telescope and who knows, maybe one of her fairy friends from the skies gave her a vision.
She further said in that quote “… he (Obama) wants to forfeit. Al-Qaida terrorists still plot to inflict catastrophic harm on America; he’s worried that someone won’t read them their rights.” Because who cares about human rights anyway?

But her speech was not the only one against Obama, I expected no less, but they could have come up with some better arguments I’d think.
Giuliani’s speech contained this tidbit of info “Obama is the least experienced candidate for President in the United States in at least 100 years,” I’m assuming you think Bush had enough experience for the presidency. And if you did think that then may I ask why you’d still think experience helps?

Huckabee and Romney both had similar speeches, Palin is great, Obama is bad, McCain is god’s choice.

But these are really no different than the speeches at the DNC are they? It’s like jokes between rivalry football teams, you can usually just change the order of the names and the joke works either way.

This is what I’m really tired of, I don’t like seeing people say the right things to make crowds happy. I’d rather see a candidate do the right thing even when their constituency may be against it regardless of what party they belong to.
Watching these conventions is like watching a big circle jerk, everyone congratulating one another on believing the same things. It gives me the feeling that nothing is really being done, just pomp and circumstance and little more.

Republicans like to say that they’ve never not been proud to be an American, that’s a blind man’s folly. These conventions don’t make me proud to be American, they serve only as a reminder of the potential that we waste on tradition and pandering.

Tired of Sarah Palin

I have tried very hard to pay as little attention as possible to anything about Palin but, it seems I can't get away from this woman and I already hate her from a blatant overdose of details about her.

I pulled up npr this morning and BAM! there she was, smiling that come hither smile while that twinkle in her eyes denotes hunger for your very soul. This woman is dangerous and should not be given power of any kind.

A few facts on this new media darling:

Just before she became the mayor of whatever small town in Alaska she was mayor of, she tried to have books banned at the local library but the librarian at the time refused. Once Palin won the mayor’s office she had the librarian fired only to be forced by law (an all too often xtian tradition) to reinstate the librarian.
As we all know, nothing is more patriotic and democratic than book banning. I can only assume she had the gas and matches waiting in her car had the librarian initially agreed with her.

She preaches abstinence only sex-ed, a tradition that has been shown countless times to be an utter failure… oh and what’s this? Palin’s very own high-school aged daughter is preggers out of wedlock… and what’s that you say? Palin herself had her first child only 8 months after her shotgun wedding? Interesting.
Nothing but another blowhard hypocrite trying to align herself with god so that the other hypocrites can vote for her. Just power and money folks, the same reason there are still people running the church.

She is a creationist and from what I understand has tried to get ID taught in public schools which should be an automatic qualifier right out of politics. I don’t know why this hasn’t happened yet.
Church and state are supposed to be separate, yet we still allow zealot wackos to run for office for some unknown reason. Huckabee was giving speeches about how we should change the constitution to match god’s laws rather than try to change the bible to match what pop culture wants, because he felt that changing the constitution would be easier than changing god’s word. It’s terrifying to know that the two documents he allegedly based his life on he obviously knew preciously little about.
If a candidate cannot separate their religious beliefs from their political agenda then they have no business in government offices of any kind.

I think I’m calling a verdict on this woman… Succubus.