I am so with you on this one. Sometimes, I feel like I am being selfish; but there are so many here still in financial distress due to the wars charged to a credit card and Republicans "losing" a ridiculous sum of money, which, I believe, was "lost" right before we went to war in Iraq. (I wonder if this was discreetly shoved into the surveillance apparatus, or to help finance Haliburton?) Add to this the huge tax breaks to the wealthy, and a national Medicare prescription drug plan (the only project that helped the elderly, disabled, and poor, which should have been phased out once a person hit a certain income bracket, but wasn't...and won't be). Also, govt. cronies and friends were placed in incredible income brackets as contractors, where much work was never completed, yet these government no-bid contracts got paid in full anyway. And those who got paid millions in salary compensation to ground to a halt, not only our own economy, but the entire freaking world's economy; and add to this the billions to bail the banks out, which probably was necessary, but may have helped more if these funds were directed at Main Street! One bank employee took bail out funds and purchased himself a lovely beach front condo! I can't make this stuff up!!! All this while the homeowners who are supposed to be benefiting from these funds are being evicted from their homes along with their children. I am not a finance expert (serious understatement) but even I understand that these things spell certain disaster.
People say, "Well, the living situations of our poor are so much better than the rest of the world." All I have to say is that if we keep going the way we're going, not only will the lives of the American poor match others in more distressed countries; but there will also be a larger class of these most vulnerable, because of no living wage jobs to be acquired, and many who were once capable, disabled due to war, and unable to provide for themselves. And unless the wealthy change and become less greedy, their riches will surely multiply, further separating them from the reality of nearly half of American's downward spiral away from that once beloved idea of the American Dream...and, as if this isn't enough to make you deeply sigh, from the looks of surveillance tools and their implementation, we sense we are no longer "Land of the Free, nor Home of the Brave".
BTW, let's not forget global warming and the man made disasters of our world, like gigantic oil spills, that were never adequately cleaned up, and of how poorly the workers who performed the cleanup were protected from the chemicals, because BP didn't want anyone to know how bad the damage was or have people concerned about their safety, as well they should have been. In conclusion, you've probably read something about the Fukishima nuclear power plant, of how someone standing nearby would die within four hours from radiation exposure and how they have no choice but to dump the radioactive waste in the OCEAN!! Well, I hope the US is paying close attention to this, because we have one leaking this radiation in Washington state!! (I wonder where is the outrage over this? Nuclear scientists have declared that there is no safety assurances with nuclear plants and that we should be gravitating toward green energy and shutting nuclear plants down, while monitoring them regularly thereafter for leaks, and presenting effective radioactive removal policies. The point is, we built a nuclear facility that we have no idea how to prevent from leaking this waste, nor does Japan (check out Chernobyl today!). I so agree with you how great it would be if we could have a few years of tax payer funds to spend on improving the lives of Americans, for when we are at our best, we can best serve and improve the lives of others.
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