What is truly amazing is the seeming lack of concern displayed by so many of our so-called leaders. I used to become despondent when I would write an article and get comments that suggested that I was some kind of alarmist and maybe I was becoming a little too paranoid. At least, even if our public figures won't talk about it, the average citizen is becoming very aware.
We are at a point where we must either take a stand on the issues we're facing or watch everything go to hell in a hand-basket. The mainstream media will gladly give us ways to occupy ourselves as our government plots to secure the World's resources. We can now live in an "alternate reality" that has nothing to do with the real world.
While all that's happening in the world that involves wars and threats of war, don't you wonder why most people really don't want to talk about it? The economy is in tatters, the unemployment rate is hanging at around 9.5%. People are being foreclosed on and jobs are scarce, yet the Dow-Jones keeps rising. How can this be justified? The truth is that the financial markets are STILL nothing more than a giant Ponzi scheme. Even after Trillions of dollars are pumped into the financial coffers on Wall Street and the automotive industry is underwritten by the taxpayers of America, the sharks that run the banks and investment houses keep inventing new investment vehicles they can sell to justify making crazy profits for each other.
Meanwhile our manufacturing base has been disappearing; States are closing agencies and social programs and firing teachers, the stock market keeps rising. This has got to be a neat trick.
The United States has been trying to goad North
Korea or Iran into a war with us so they can get people back to work. Bullets,
bombs and missiles we can keep replacing. We continue to underwrite the nation
of Israel while they humiliate us by kicking sand in the Palestinians faces as
they keep building settlements on the West Bank. Does anyone see any rhyme or
reason with our foreign policy? I sure don't.
This is not a pretty picture. The only constant in U.S. foreign policy is that we are involved in some military adventure or another, constantly. At this particular time we have about 150,000 NATO troops (with about half of them ours) and we are engaged with about 25,000 Taliban and around 100 al Qaeda and we are not even close to any kind of victory. The only reason we are there is so that we can set-up an oil pipeline from the Caspian Sea. Another interesting fact is that Afghanistan now produces 90 percent of the world's illicit opium, and its opium production has increased 40X. It seems that wherever the U.S. military sets up shop for any extended period, drug production rises.
So in conclusion, I see a year coming that will not be much different than the one we just went through. The only way I see the American Middle Class surviving is if we stop this transfer of wealth from the Middle Class to the rich. So far, since 2008, it has been the largest transfer of wealth in history. The only way that the American Middle Class will survive is if we act in unity. The two political parties that are in power will do nothing for those that don't have the money to pay for it.
The average American will do nothing as long as
there is food on the table and the rent or mortgage payment and utilities are
paid. The outlook for the economic climate of 2011 is bleak. If the ranks of
the homeless increases along with high unemployment, the current economic
situation where the Middle-Class dwindles and people continue to lose their
homes and their jobs, the only way to stop it is if the people show some unity
and act with direction by forming unions and boycotting those companies that
are cutting salaries and hiring part-timers so as to reduce benefits.
Americans must realize that the only way we are going to keep the things we have fought for, things like being paid for overtime, a 40 hour work-week, and benefits, it will mean that we must continue to fight to keep those things. The minute an employer believes that they have the upper-hand you will see salaries and benefits drop.
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