Of, nearly half of all Americans (146.4 million Americans, or 48% of the U.S. population) are poor or in poverty…
Guess that whole globalization-Free Trade agreement crap worked – the most productive nation in the world (and we still are per working capita) has been reduced to the living standard of the rest of it!
Our once thriving country filled with people of spirit and drive pushed out/phased out/dropped out by their own government and corporation and their pro-business policies over the past 25 years (25 years ago their were over 100 major banks – now there are 6; there were over 100 major media companies, now there are 6; major retail outlets were local/regional, now owned by major national conglomerates) …
It’s a shame that the U.S. has turned from a global engine of production and the personal freedoms, has been turned into a consumer state, whose purpose globally is as a idiotic thug state attacking others, striking out like a wounded bully at the rest of the world – for our diplomatic failures – all the while crushing the freedoms of its own people by selling a fear prduct to make them cow and surrender to a police state-like environment…
Wonder when the actual rhetoric of change will stop and people will begin to make the real ones – hopefully, the efforts of the #Occupy movements and the efforts of others who see this and hope to inform, won’t be co-opted commericalized, sold, and then repeated by the apathetic who just repeat the talking points that are fed to them — ‘why don’t they have demands?” – they do dumb-asses – they want a fucking job and opportunities to grow as human beings rather than having to apologize for being broke in a system that’s designed to keep them that way; and they want to stop killing foreign people just so we can justify stealing money from Americans!”…
This morning’s list of Top 10 things we can do to reverse this trend:
1. Cancel all Free-Trade Agreements (there are three pending now – South Korea, Columbia, Panama) – that means NAFTA, CAFTA, etc.; get out of GATT and WTO, reimpose tarriffs on foreign imports
2. Cancel U.S. government contracts with foreign corporations (such as Halliburton), and off-shore entities.
3. Allow only direct importation of goods to the U.S., so shell companies in the Caribbean and elsewhere aren’t used to hide profits (if you understood this, you’d be pissed about your iPhone costs)
4. Standardize and simplify corporate tax code, and remove the amortization of debt and expenditures by corporations.
5. Tax paper gains at the same rate as income gains.
6. Reduce the size, scope and reach of the federal government – de-integrate Department of Homeland Security – ensure all federal exercise of power/reach passes a constitutional test.
7. Require Congress to pass all 12 federal budget bills before they can work on any other issues.
8. End the federal reserve system – in 2009 they were authorized to loan banks 700 billion in taxpayer funds/liabilities – they in turn loaned out 7.7 trillion at .01% interest and those banks then bought treasury bonds at 2.5 interest – this is a ponzi scheme, and they are not honest brokers, they are criminals…
9. End U.S. foreign military operations – in 2005 the U.S. was involved in operations in 60 different nations – in 2011 we have added secret operations and are now acting in 120 countries.
10. Prohibit export of raw materials removed from federal areas/lands, as these are a national resources owned by Americans for domestic use – this includes mining (reform of Mining Act of 1872), timber, oil, natural gas, coal, fish and water…
These are a good start, and would put Americans back to work – without subsidies to business, without additional expenditures, without hurting anyone except those who got us into this mess in the first place – they made their profits – now, it’s time for us to tell them that’s enough!