Washington D.C. -- Underscoring his Administration's commitment to jumpstarting the nation's nuclear power industry, President Obama today announced that the Department of Energy has offered conditional commitments for a total of $8.33 billion in loan guarantees for the construction and operation of two new nuclear reactors at a plant in Burke, Georgia. The project is scheduled to be the first U.S. nuclear power plant to break ground in nearly three decades. ~ WhiteHouse.gov
Did the Fukushima disaster change the President's policy? Why does the free market need government loan guarantees? If nuclear power is such a great idea, why aren't investors clamoring to be let in? At a time in this country when 19 percent of the population is on some form of public assistance, is this a wise use of government funds? Of course not, but in a capitalist democracy where courts rule, money is free speech, money rules. When vote tallies are kept on computer systems proven to be untrustworthy, can it even be called a democracy at all?
The only goal of capitalism is to make a profit and if a few acorns of social improvement fall to the ground, well and good, as long as we don't remember that the roots of the tree are feeding on those pushed below ground. Can a little shade in exchange for their life's blood, be considered a fair exchange?
Socialism says your children are as important as mine. Your health is as important as mine. Your city is as important as mine. Your prosperity in the end makes my life better. Capitalism creates problems for society -- Socialism solves problems. Wouldn't public schools in economically depressed areas equal to those in wealthy neighborhoods be more cost-effective than public assistance for a lifetime?
Currently, there are 22 empty homes for every homeless person in the country. Many are dilapidated and some beyond repair. These properties could be picked up for pennies. The homeless need homes, the unemployed need work. Save the homes that can be repaired, demolish those that can't. Create new neighborhoods and manage the program through lease ownership. Train the young, help the old. Invest in people, creating a profit of better lives for all. No longer is it a question of guns or butter; the question becomes societal survival or disintegration.
The issues of fracking and continental pipelines are constantly in the headlines. Fracking is the injection of toxic fluids to break loose, low-grade oil deposits in the Earth's strata. When we must frack the Earth to supply our energy needs, we are down to stems and seeds as a country. Fracking and tar sands are not necessary, only profitable; the very idea of destroying water tables for the profits of oil companies is a crime and an absurdity. The real issue is our trade balance. Forty percent of our monthly trade deficit is for oil purchases. Either we must reduce our energy usage or we must find alternative sources of energy. Those sources are out there and well-known. The United States of America has the greatest wind energy and solar potential of any country on the face of the Earth.
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