Last night I posted the following to my Facebook page:
I tend to not talk about politics on my blog. I worry that I am not well-informed enough and that I could possibly spread misinformation, but I wrote the following off the top of my head. It's my view on politics. It's what I would like to see happen. It's what pisses me off. It's what in my opinion has gone wrong and what needs to change.
It's why I'm 100% behind and in support of movements that could affect change.
I believe that:
Lobbying for any interest, think tank, or industry should be made completely illegal and the only way to insure that lobbying does not dictate government is to change the election process entirely.
If all campaigns were paid for by public funds and if each candidate were allotted the same amount of funds, not only would this insure that future politicians wouldn't already be "in debt" to contributors, but it also means that ANY person who met a list of criteria (in sync with the Constitution) could run for public office. This means that the real people with real issues and a real understanding of what concerns the people could actually make decisions for the people they represent - which is the very premise that the American republic (because it's not a democracy) was founded on.
The deregulation of the banking industry is a crime against the American people. Big banks need to be broken up not only to avert catastrophe in times of financial crisis, but because there is an obvious conflict of interest. The greatest con in American history was getting the government and American taxpayers to bail the banks out when the failure of these institutions was due to greed, negligence, and a complete disregard for what little regulation remained.
Why people are angry now is not only because they have less money, less jobs, and less opportunities to accumulate their own wealth - but they also need to be angry about the fact that the same lobbyists pushing for further deregulation screaming "big government is communism" is the same fucking industry that accepted a bail out and didn't admit that by doing so they were actually accepting a level of government help that is more akin to socialism. Terms like "government interference" are thrown around loosely to confuse those Americans who see the involvement of the government as a bad thing and rightfully so in many cases. With the propaganda used against the American people, it is no wonder that many Americans don't understand the inherent differences between a communist government and a socialist one. Why should they? Reagan pretty much made it his sole purpose during his presidency to make Americans fear communism and socialism as "evil" without bothering to explain they are not the same systems even by the simplest of definitions.
In France the govenrment has a history of bailing out big French companies such as TGV/Alstrom and Air France because letting them fail was worse for the greater good. It meant that tens of thousands of people would lose their jobs and the impact to the French economy and the reputation of French industry was too high a price for the French people to pay in the long run. However regulations were tightened further as a preventive measure and to give people more faith in the government's abilities.
Let's be clear: bailing out the banks was better for the banks. The American people were given no choice but to pay for the mistakes made without their knowledge. Instead of the brunt of the impact being absorbed by the government, the impact was felt in every wallet of every American who doesn't sleep on a mattress stuffed with bills in a massive McMansion that also contains a "Scrooge McDuck" room where they could (if physics didn't mean you would die instantly upon impact) dive into massive piles of gold.
I am sick of seeing the wealth that is built upon the backs of the people. I am sick of seeing people profit from the human need to simply be physically healthy in order to live free of disease and pain.
I am tired of the consumerism and the resulting problem of what happens when you can't actually keep up with the Jones' - and all in a country where a vast majority of the population adheres to a religious principle of "do not covet thy neighbour's goods". Thankfully in America (and other countries thanks to America's biggest export: capitalism) if you can't keep up with the Jones' you can always get a high interest credit card with the actual terms in extremely fine print.
Nevermind that the company might a) be owned by a bank or b) that the cardholder can pay up to $0.40 on the dollar for the priviledge of owing these credit companies money, without accounting for other fees and costs they don't understand but will eventually be held accountable to pay or c) that banks make a tremendous profit from selling these debts on the market.
I am further disgusted by the religious right that won't support universal health care; that judges when they should not lest they be judged; and have essentially turned religion into a for-profit industry while maintaining 501(c)(3) tax exempt charity status that allows groups like the Mormons to throw $40 million at halting gay marriage because it conflicts with their belief system or the billions of dollars spent by the Catholic Church to overturn Roe vs. Wade.
As long as government officials can be bought and paid for by those who have no interest in helping the American people in any way except to continue to profit off of their hard work, pain, and suffering there will be no real change for America.
The rich 2% will weather this crisis as the rich weathered 1929 and other economic recessions. As the gap widens more and more people will fall into it or, as the bail outs proved, be thrown into it.
Combine economic depression with lobbyists fighting against the people on every possible level from religion to destroying the environment to insuring that health care will be more and more unaffordable for the middle and lower classes - and the only thing that can and must happen is that every individual who sees the real problems must then communicate their knowledge to another individual until there are enough people to stand up and say NO, WE AREN'T GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE.
I broke my rule about writing openly about politics because I can't be in New York right now standing alongside the protestors in Liberty Park. I want to be. I want to be there because I represent a contingent that the media says isn't present in Liberty Park, but I can assure you is.
My friends aren't hippies. My friends are highly educated with degrees from Wharton, Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Columbia, and my alma mater, M.I.T. We represent a generation that was told that by accumulating these degrees we were insuring our future success. Some of our parents took out mortages to pay for our expensive educations. Some of us have hundred of thousands of dollars worth of debt from getting these degrees.
The media wants to pant the protestors with the same brush, but the real beauty of what is happening in Liberty Park is that the real America is there. There are people from each and every walk of life - bankers who quit their jobs to be there because even they can no longer ignore the obvious stink wafting around their offices; teachers who are fed up with cuts to the education budget who see the disadvantage these cuts inflict upon the young; the people who without them there would be no infrastructure, no order, no basic services.
Regardless of where you come from or what you "have", the same government makes decisions that effect everyone except the 2% who use their wealth to purchase a "have it your way" government that only benefits their profit margins that didn't even translate to profit for Burger King when it was their company jingle because it is not profitable to let people have exactly what they want whether its burgers or banking.
The people need to make those in government accountable to the people again and for the first time in a really long time, I feel like real change is going to happen.
If you are one of the people standing up for the rest of us, I just want to say thank you. While I cannot be in the US right now, I am doing what I can and that means speaking up, staying informed, and offering my support albeit from afar.
The tenacity, resolve, and solidarity that the Occupy movement has displayed across the world has made me want to give more to the world I live in and to stand up for what I believe.
The OWS retweeted a quote I posted the other night: "If you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything".
Monsieur Redacteur would like to add, "You don't have to know what you're fighting for, when it's clear what you're fighting against", said by George Orwell.
So let's stand up and fight!
I tend to not talk about politics on my blog. I worry that I am not well-informed enough and that I could possibly spread misinformation, but I wrote the following off the top of my head. It's my view on politics. It's what I would like to see happen. It's what pisses me off. It's what in my opinion has gone wrong and what needs to change.
It's why I'm 100% behind and in support of movements that could affect change.
I believe that:
Lobbying for any interest, think tank, or industry should be made completely illegal and the only way to insure that lobbying does not dictate government is to change the election process entirely.
If all campaigns were paid for by public funds and if each candidate were allotted the same amount of funds, not only would this insure that future politicians wouldn't already be "in debt" to contributors, but it also means that ANY person who met a list of criteria (in sync with the Constitution) could run for public office. This means that the real people with real issues and a real understanding of what concerns the people could actually make decisions for the people they represent - which is the very premise that the American republic (because it's not a democracy) was founded on.
The deregulation of the banking industry is a crime against the American people. Big banks need to be broken up not only to avert catastrophe in times of financial crisis, but because there is an obvious conflict of interest. The greatest con in American history was getting the government and American taxpayers to bail the banks out when the failure of these institutions was due to greed, negligence, and a complete disregard for what little regulation remained.
Why people are angry now is not only because they have less money, less jobs, and less opportunities to accumulate their own wealth - but they also need to be angry about the fact that the same lobbyists pushing for further deregulation screaming "big government is communism" is the same fucking industry that accepted a bail out and didn't admit that by doing so they were actually accepting a level of government help that is more akin to socialism. Terms like "government interference" are thrown around loosely to confuse those Americans who see the involvement of the government as a bad thing and rightfully so in many cases. With the propaganda used against the American people, it is no wonder that many Americans don't understand the inherent differences between a communist government and a socialist one. Why should they? Reagan pretty much made it his sole purpose during his presidency to make Americans fear communism and socialism as "evil" without bothering to explain they are not the same systems even by the simplest of definitions.
In France the govenrment has a history of bailing out big French companies such as TGV/Alstrom and Air France because letting them fail was worse for the greater good. It meant that tens of thousands of people would lose their jobs and the impact to the French economy and the reputation of French industry was too high a price for the French people to pay in the long run. However regulations were tightened further as a preventive measure and to give people more faith in the government's abilities.
Let's be clear: bailing out the banks was better for the banks. The American people were given no choice but to pay for the mistakes made without their knowledge. Instead of the brunt of the impact being absorbed by the government, the impact was felt in every wallet of every American who doesn't sleep on a mattress stuffed with bills in a massive McMansion that also contains a "Scrooge McDuck" room where they could (if physics didn't mean you would die instantly upon impact) dive into massive piles of gold.
I am sick of seeing the wealth that is built upon the backs of the people. I am sick of seeing people profit from the human need to simply be physically healthy in order to live free of disease and pain.
I am tired of the consumerism and the resulting problem of what happens when you can't actually keep up with the Jones' - and all in a country where a vast majority of the population adheres to a religious principle of "do not covet thy neighbour's goods". Thankfully in America (and other countries thanks to America's biggest export: capitalism) if you can't keep up with the Jones' you can always get a high interest credit card with the actual terms in extremely fine print.
Nevermind that the company might a) be owned by a bank or b) that the cardholder can pay up to $0.40 on the dollar for the priviledge of owing these credit companies money, without accounting for other fees and costs they don't understand but will eventually be held accountable to pay or c) that banks make a tremendous profit from selling these debts on the market.
I am further disgusted by the religious right that won't support universal health care; that judges when they should not lest they be judged; and have essentially turned religion into a for-profit industry while maintaining 501(c)(3) tax exempt charity status that allows groups like the Mormons to throw $40 million at halting gay marriage because it conflicts with their belief system or the billions of dollars spent by the Catholic Church to overturn Roe vs. Wade.
As long as government officials can be bought and paid for by those who have no interest in helping the American people in any way except to continue to profit off of their hard work, pain, and suffering there will be no real change for America.
The rich 2% will weather this crisis as the rich weathered 1929 and other economic recessions. As the gap widens more and more people will fall into it or, as the bail outs proved, be thrown into it.
Combine economic depression with lobbyists fighting against the people on every possible level from religion to destroying the environment to insuring that health care will be more and more unaffordable for the middle and lower classes - and the only thing that can and must happen is that every individual who sees the real problems must then communicate their knowledge to another individual until there are enough people to stand up and say NO, WE AREN'T GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE.
I broke my rule about writing openly about politics because I can't be in New York right now standing alongside the protestors in Liberty Park. I want to be. I want to be there because I represent a contingent that the media says isn't present in Liberty Park, but I can assure you is.
My friends aren't hippies. My friends are highly educated with degrees from Wharton, Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Columbia, and my alma mater, M.I.T. We represent a generation that was told that by accumulating these degrees we were insuring our future success. Some of our parents took out mortages to pay for our expensive educations. Some of us have hundred of thousands of dollars worth of debt from getting these degrees.
The media wants to pant the protestors with the same brush, but the real beauty of what is happening in Liberty Park is that the real America is there. There are people from each and every walk of life - bankers who quit their jobs to be there because even they can no longer ignore the obvious stink wafting around their offices; teachers who are fed up with cuts to the education budget who see the disadvantage these cuts inflict upon the young; the people who without them there would be no infrastructure, no order, no basic services.
Regardless of where you come from or what you "have", the same government makes decisions that effect everyone except the 2% who use their wealth to purchase a "have it your way" government that only benefits their profit margins that didn't even translate to profit for Burger King when it was their company jingle because it is not profitable to let people have exactly what they want whether its burgers or banking.
The people need to make those in government accountable to the people again and for the first time in a really long time, I feel like real change is going to happen.
If you are one of the people standing up for the rest of us, I just want to say thank you. While I cannot be in the US right now, I am doing what I can and that means speaking up, staying informed, and offering my support albeit from afar.
The tenacity, resolve, and solidarity that the Occupy movement has displayed across the world has made me want to give more to the world I live in and to stand up for what I believe.
The OWS retweeted a quote I posted the other night: "If you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything".
Monsieur Redacteur would like to add, "You don't have to know what you're fighting for, when it's clear what you're fighting against", said by George Orwell.
So let's stand up and fight!
