BlogFerret

It shouldn’t come as any surprise that the government doesn’t have your best interests at heart. Oh, wait, who am I talking to, here? Liberals? Conservatives? Some guy living in a bunker with some kind of magical satellite internet service? It doesn’t actually matter. The government is not working to your best interests. The United States got its priorities all mixed up a long time ago.

Heck, maybe the entire world has its priorities mixed up. I know American society does. How in the hell did everyone think he or she was entitled to so much for so little effort? Is there some specific reason why we give kids the impression that once they get out of college they will immediately pull in enough money to buy a house, a really great car, and support a family? Is there some reason that a twelve year old needs an iPhone? And speaking of such, we’re all ready to judge each other at the drop of a hat, but do any of us take steps to become responsible consumers? Are we too busy wanting instant gratification and justifying our excesses to ourselves? Hell, I know I’m guilty, and I don’t really consume a great deal of material goods. We’ve been trained from childhood to somehow think that our excesses are somehow necessary instead of special luxuries to be experienced once in a very great while, if we are fortunate.

Now the economy’s in the toilet because the majority of us want more than we can afford, and we want it now. How were we surprised when the economy tanked? And we’re all screaming to members of government “Do something! Do something!” Sure, it’s easy to flap your arms and cry, “Au secours! Au secours!” while driving your SUV to work every day (if you still have a job and can put gas in that thing), but as soon as “somebody” does “something,” we jump right in and say “You’re doing it wrong.” Well, we need to get up off our asses and form a union or something. So then we can tell ‘em how to do it. Right? Right? Because the loudest complainers are the guys who know how to fix all of it, aren’t they?

Hell, I’m perfectly aware that Obama wiped his ass with some campaign promises, as his predecessors did before him. And just as all the Liberals sent out mass emails regaling readers with tales of Dubby’s incompetence, so too does my inbox receive tirades against Obama and his plans to sink the small business owner, take everything away from the people who earned it and give it all to the “undeserving poor” and kill your children and eat them. Most of these emails, no matter which “side” they are on, go into file 13.  Because no matter how you vote, whether it be by political affiliation or by individual platform or proposition, the same tired old dynasties are going to be in charge, period.

Know what that means? It almost certainly means that the major decisions about how your country is run are going to be made by people who have no idea of what it is like to be you. Period. Everyone, and I mean everyone, who is charged with proposing and implementing so-called “solutions” to America’s so-called “problems” (because, face it, have we really been able to define them?) belongs to an entirely different class of people than you or I, or the person who serves your drinks, or even your ophthalmologist.  And these members of the ruling class (because that’s what they are) don’t care. They’re all selling the same brand of snake oil with a different label on it. America, INC Snake Oil: When you want to oil a snake, use America, INC!

The latest tonic we’ve been offered is the health care bill. Many people said it wouldn’t pass, but it did. Personally, this gives me a little hope: at least our government is capable of trying to implement an infrastructure change to this country on a deep and complex level. Face it, what we’ve been doing hasn’t really been working. Will this new bill succeed in reversing the inevitable bankruptcy of our current system while offering affordable care and service to more people? Hell if I know. Is that even possible?

I’ve asked people I know who I consider politically intelligent some questions regarding our government and our economy, but most of them just told me I was asking very good questions and suggested I read certain books. Shit, all of the political scientists I ever met or heard of are either expats or are part of the government now, so I can’t ask them.

Finally, at the end of this tirade, comes my caveat: commenting on this stuff isn’t really any of my business. I’m just a verbose underemployed bitch with an MA in Literature. I’d really prefer not to be at work right now, because (obviously) I get bored and have time to think about stupid crap like how sad it is that this country — and it is a large, beautiful country with many resources — isn’t providing for its citizens or even trying really hard to provide for its citizens. We don’t even get what employees of many other large corporations get, like a healthcare plan, childcare, a cafeteria, or a health club membership. So how are we supposed to work (or be laid off and unemployed) without complaint? But what the hell do I know, anyway?

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