At the same time, I am not proposing acts of disorderly conduct. Yet, surely the American public can and should develop a collective sense of purpose and the resourcefulness to find ways to effectively insist that major changes in government procedures transpire post haste rather than continue to flaccidly wait for Godot, an unseen persona in a Samuel Beckett play involving two character who pass up potentially tremendous, life changing opportunities in expectation that Godot will, eventually, show up out of the blue.
No Godot will arrive unless he is unequivocally pressured to come forth. Instead, life will continue as always with bailout and other monies continually subverted to provide bonuses, planes, jet rides, pay raises and other extravagances that do not serve the American public one iota.
Simultaneously, the resource wars, unwinnable by any stretch of the imagination based on indigenous populations not wanting their lands bombed and occupied by foreigners coveting fossil fuel or pipeline control, will continue to draw billions of dollars each month away from development of renewable energy sources, infrastructure renewal, development of public transportation, job provision, bankruptcy relief at the state level and other desperately needed uplifts in the homeland. At the same time, the economy will continue to crumble with more and more Americans caught up in severe privation due to home foreclosures, lack of employment and other distressing circumstances without sufficient relief measures being quickly put in place, especially in locations like Mississippi and California that are facing tremendous dire upheavals.
In other words, we need to find a mechanism to ensure that our, yes -- OUR, public servants are made to be accountable for their choices. In addition, we need to help them to realize that many of the bail out recipients garnering generous fiscal support have no intention of altering their self-gratifying habits unless forced to do so.
Likewise, we must encourage them to understand that Main Street folks cannot spend like mad to jumpstart the economy when their jobs disappeared overseas, the fiscal downturn led to their layoffs or their wages dropped to ridiculous levels. Besides, our legislators really should have seen this whole financial mess in which we're all, at some level, embroiled, coming -- particularly so when the division of wealth in America has been increasingly skewed for years.
As Terrance Heath points out in "Concentrating the Wealth, Pt. 2" [5], "It's hard not to wonder about the pure contrarian inanity of the current conservative position. Our military is by far the strongest in the world, while our trains are among the slowest and our sewers are collapsing. So they propose raising spending on the military and cutting domestic investment. We suffer Gilded Age inequality, with the wealthiest 15,000 families - one-one hundredth of one percent of the population - capturing fully one-fourth of the entire income growth from 2000 to 2006. Their average income rose from $15.2 million per year to $29.7 million per year. Meanwhile, the rest of us - 133 million households that make up 90 percent of the country - divided up 4% of the nation's income, adding about $305 to our average $30,354 income. So conservatives push for more tax cuts for the wealthy, while proposing to tax employer based health benefits. Corporate profits (prior to the recession) have catapulted to what is by far the highest percentage of national income in the past half century. So they want to cut corporate taxes, inevitably increasing the burden on labor. The economic future looks dim because consumers, drowning in debt, are cutting back. So they suggest cutting taxes on corporate investments will generate new investments and growth - as if companies don't need someone to buy the products they make."
In a similar vein, Jason Green, in "Eighty-six Percent of Bailout Money Used for Executive Bonuses" [6], indirectly suggests some of the dangers of having wealth collected in the hands of a few, who receive public funds and other forms of support without strict oversight:
"When confronted about these numbers, the executives will always claim that the bonuses are paid out of other funds and company earnings. This completely ignores the fact that without the taxpayers' bailout money, there would be no earnings!" ... "Yet, that didn't stop their campaign contribution money from spewing out. Goldman was Obama's largest corporate campaign contributor, with $874,207. Also in his top 20 were three other recipients of bailout capital: JP Morgan/Chase, Citigroup and Morgan Stanley.
~~~
"Read the full article here. It's worth also noting that Goldman Sachs was John McCain's 4th largest contributor, just behind Merrill Lynch, Citigroup, and Morgan Stanley (source).
"I'm ready for some 'Change we can believe in', but I doubt it will come from those in Washington who are bought and paid for."
In the end, any unwarranted and wasteful spending by a governor, a Congress member or any other civil employee is deeply offensive in and by itself. When it represents a larger problem -- one in which irresponsibility, greed, graft and corruption are carried out across a wide swath of the U. S. landscape, one can only hope that enough Americans will eventually get sufficiently disgusted and outraged to exert the kinds of pressure needed to rid our nation once and for all of so much vulgar ugliness.
Such radical measures are unquestionably necessary, especially as the economy continues to sink, the voluminous public debt approaches eleven trillion dollars, some of our leaders act like oligarchs, we drift towards totalitarianism and barely restrained federal spending reaches an all time high. Hopefully, the public can find successful means to address these intersected woes and apply them soon.
References:
[1] Details are provided at: ABC News: Pentagon Rejects Speaker Pelosi's Request for Mili... (click here and Pelosi Jet Request Sparks Debate, Does Size Matter When It C... (click here
[2] For the entire report, please go to: Congress Members Get $4,000 Pay Raise (click here
[3] Information was derived from:Census Data: Mississippi | Elections | washingtonpost.com (click here
[4] The residential funds reallocation is discussed at: Feds OK Mississippi's Katrina grant diversion - Life- msnbc.... (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22805282/).
[5] A fuller analysis is located at: The Republic of T. » Concentrating the Wealth, Pt. 2 (click here
[6] The related article can be accessed at: 86% of Bailout Money Used for Executive Bonuses | EndTheBail... (click here
