The biggest mistake… #ows
The biggest mistake made by the people of the United States is allowing the government to divide us. Republicans vs Democrats… what a perfect example. When you think about what the Republicans have done in the past, what the Democrats have done in the past and everything that is happening right now, it is easy to forget to look at the big picture.. the narrative of our country… the historical framework of our economy backed by the facts of today.
The big picture needs to be looked at in a simplified manner. [I suggest you research it yourself to form your own conclusions, but be aware of the sources you trust.]
In the United States we value things, because we have been told that the things we own make us who we are. They define us. This has been instilled in us for over a century, but it was heavily pushed onto the people with the advent of advertising. As technology progressed, workers became more and more productive, but saw little increase in their wages. This did not stop the need for things, the signs of upward mobility that indicate your status in society.
Eventually women and immigrants joined the workforce. As most people in the US are aware, women and immigrants were [and in most cases still are] paid less than their white male counterparts. So at this point businesses are overall able to pay their workers less or at least maintain low wages, technology is making their workers more productive, and because people define themselves by their things, the demand to produce is on the rise.
What is the result? A giant boom in profits. Business owners and their investors love life and find more and more ways to maximize their profits which is a natural part of capitalism but not always a patriotic move. As a result, jobs started moving overseas where labor is cheaper and the people do not feel as entitled [or aware of the possibility of being treated better] as they do in the US.
So some products are cheaper, the people are spending more and more to accumulate more things to show off their new found status, their wages are not going up, and there are more family members in the workforce working longer hours to get that $$$ to spend on these things. Now this cycle worked out really well for the business owners and investors, but they needed to keep pushing the limits to see how much they could make in profits.
Greed is an irresistible flavor once you’ve had a taste of it.
So came the more widespread use of borrowing from banks. The American people turned to loans to buy the things they could not afford. It seemed like a good idea, borrowing money at a low interest rate to be able to afford the things you think you need which are priced just out of your incomes’ range.
Where was this magic borrowed money coming from? Business owners and investors. They made the money, they put it in the banks. The banks loved it! They were able to lend out this money and all decision-making parties gain more money from the interest the workers had to pay to borrow. Meanwhile the American people scramble to make ends meet at times choosing frivolous status spending over securing their basic needs.
This brings us to today where all of these factors have spiraled out of control. Greed, ab-using workers, loans, debt and a constant thirst for the newer, better, more expensive products have all led us to this: economic downturn with an anxious, fearful populous.
This isn’t the Republicans’ fault or the Democrats’ fault. This is a symbiotic system. We fed into their system with our dollars and labor (although our uber-controlled/ censored educational systems and heavy advertising clouded our understanding) and they [business owners/investors] set the system up to favor their interests. This includes using their profits to buy off government officials from both major parties to bend laws in their favor… and giving a thumbs up to starting wars to jump start the economy (which I’m pretty sure is called fascism…[Fascism promotes violence and war as actions that create national regeneration, spirit and vitality. It views conflict as a fact of life that is responsible for all human progress - Wikipedia]).
Allowing anyone to tell you that the people fighting against the status quo are in a “political” fight is feeding in to the propaganda fed to us by our government. This is not a political fight. Politics are an ideological mechanism used to divide a population [as is religion, but that is a topic for another day].
The peaceful Occupy Wall Street movement is the first step to breaking free from a controlling system that has been allowed run rampant. It’s the way our founding fathers wanted us to express our disgust and disappointment with the current system. It’s the way real changes are made, from the ground up.
The disparity is so great that the masses are now realizing the big picture. The masses are now realizing that they need to get themselves away from advertising, away from commercial news media and disaffiliate themselves from the things that are promoted and paid for by the corporations that value money over human progress. The animals who run and invest in these corporations would rather have more money than they would know what to do with than allow everyone in their country to have a home and food everyday. The masses are now understanding that we are at a breaking point, and it is our responsibility to weigh in on how our systems need to be changed.
If anything, the business owners/investors are the people who have fed into the current system the most. They have been hypnotized by the big bucks, consuming unnecessarily expensive things to enjoy the luxurious feeling of their status. It is to a point where they start fighting back if you try to tax them more. They fight back with talking points, rhetoric that works to make their points of view the truth, commercial news outlets and politics. If you make $10 million a year, and you are to pay $5 million in taxes, you still have $5 MILLION DOLLARS. For working for just ONE YEAR. Please stop crying about how you need more. Nobody needs that much money, and if you feel like you do, you need psychological help.
In conclusion, remember this:
We are all human, we are all the same. While we are individually beautiful, our beauty is derived from understanding our mass equality. If we let anyone or anything divide us [government, politics, corporations, fear, propaganda, advertising, status symbols, money], then we are giving in to a system that values money over humans.
Personally, I love humans too much to buy into that.
