The Problem with America

Might as well string me up right now and get it over with. I'm going to criticize America and there is nothing you can do about it. I'm going to say some terrible things about the way the government is run, how ignorant the public is, and somethings that are just plain wrong with the country I grew up in. By the end of my letter, pitchfork futures will skyrocket. It's one hell of a country, after all.

Since this is the internet, I might as well put a disclaimer right up front:

tl;dr, some guy said a bunch of true yet uncomfortable things with ways to remedy our country's unrest, failing economy, and political system.

Also, I don't mind putting my real name on this post. I'm not affiliated with any political party, and frankly it shouldn't matter one way or another. I am a citizen that wants something different to happen. I'm educated. I'm better off than most. Some of you are already quaking in your boots because that is a dangerous combination of traits to have.

I think this all started late one night when Sarah Palin was being featured for some comments she made on Fox News being shown on The Daily Show. That sort of thing happens all of the time. I finally got fed up with it. It was the kind of quote that makes people on the left facepalm and people on the right all giddy. It was the kind of quote where the next day, people on the right always say "you liberals are scared of Sarah Palin because she is such a strong independent thinker!"

So I began to think about why I really don't like Mrs. Palin, and the answer was incredibly complicated. I don't hate her because she is beautiful, I don't hate her because of what she says. In fact, I don't think I "hate" her at all. She just makes me uncomfortable, that's all. The thought that millions of people hang on her every word and think she is some great speaker and thinker? That's discomfort. When she completely contradicts herself and then lies about her opponents? That's discomfort. When she invents some new meaning for a word like "fungible" and that becomes the topic for debate for over an hour on CNN? That's discomfort.

When I was a kid, we used to watch the Miss America pageant every year. I never understood why Miss Montana never made it to the round of 10. She was just as talented playing her French Horn as Miss Nevada! There would be that talent competition, she would wear a pretty nightgown and walk around to connect a few stars marked on the stage floor, then later in the evening the ladies would do the same thing only this time in skimpy bikinis. Isn't America a great country afterall? They would then whittle the group down to five or three, and the host would ask them some profound question about world peace or international politics and she would fumble around until a little bell would ring by the judges. At the very end, the judges would decide that Miss California was going to be this year's Miss America. She was awarded a bright diamond-encrusted crown and a bag of fresh-cut roses. That would be the last I heard of her until the next years pageant when she got a 15 minute cut-away about her help with mentally handicapped cancer patients during one of the wardrobe changes.

Before I go back to my main point, let's talk about world peace for a second. "World Peace" is a very complicated topic. For tens of thousands of years, humans have survived and evolved because of their fighting nature between tribes. Even though humanity has conquered every square inch of land on this planet, they still live with tribal mentality that demonizes outsiders and protects insiders. England and France, Israel and Palestine, China and Japan all have fought wars because they could not get along. And those people are very similar! Just different land and language disputes, different religions, and different trade policies. Until the entire world homogenizes (which will never ever ever happen unless the number of humans drastically reduces) there will always be fighting and wars.

But, if Miss America spouted off an answer that had anything to do with that, the audience would fall asleep, or would be branded as some person who doesn't think world peace is even possible! We can't have a winner thinking like that, now can we. Even a more classic example is Miss Teen South Carolina a few years ago talking about children not having enough maps. We only care about her image, not her substance.

That brings us back to Sarah Palin. Whenever she speaks, she produces a feel-good answer that never addresses the underlying issues with the topic at hand. Energy policy? Drill, baby, drill. Government regulation? Socialism. The list goes on and on. She never actually discusses her policy positions about these things. They are all one-thought buzz-phrases designed and carefully crafted to elicit certain responses from her audience. She does not need to critically analyze any of these important policy positions because if she did, her audience would fall asleep. This is why I don't like Sarah Palin. She is a beauty pageant contestant who gets a lot of airtime for her softball responses to questions we need to be having a true dialog on in this country. As John Stewart best put it, we don't like Sarah Palin because of "the ... Nothing".

If this post was just about her, I could end now. Unfortunately, she has become such a big distraction that we forget that there are much more pressing issues to be discussed. This is the part of the post where I start sounding like a crazy conspirator socialist, that the Bildenburger group and the Circle of 3 with Lizard People are going to take over the world. Or not, if you actually feel like something needs to be done with the economy.

We have a big budget crisis in this country where the federal government is $13,000,000,000,000 dollars in the red, states are in a similar situation, and even the everyday Joe has to borrow to make ends meet. It sounds like a terrible situation because IT IS. But, there is a totally other side to this that never gets talked about that would solve all of the problems almost instantly, given the right policy.

It's not like that money just disappeared out of thin air. The money is kept very safely and very secure by private citizens in private banks. Whenever somebody needs a loan, one of these rich people gives out a small amount of money (which nowadays is just an electronic record, not actual riches or dollar bills) and over time the person who borrowed is expected to give back all of that money plus some small percentage. What does that mean? The rich are, well, getting richer. There is more money being funneled into private banks and private accounts.

So here is where I get all conspiracy-y. There is plenty of money in the banks and private accounts to completely take care of the debt and economic crisis. Back in the 1950s, people that made more than $400,000 had to give 90% and more of their income in taxes to the government. Now, with some cute accounting, that amount is as low as 15% no matter how many millions or billions you make. No politician would ever want to take the political hit (or the money hit from his donors) to write some law that makes the people that have money give some of it back to the government, or the people who really need it to survive. Are you following me?

If the government took over the banks, all of the debts would be paid off instantly. So why don't we?

Too much money. We only elect politicians we know about. If you've ever traveled to a country where you didn't understand the language, you have no idea what stores sell what products. If you watch TV in those countries, you might catch a commercial for some restaurant - and now when you're on the street, you'll start to recognize those restaurants! Advertising is fabulous that way. But, in America, it's working against us because the things that are being advertised are not always good for us. We could easily elect a completely new set of senators, representatives, and executives that would do this dirty work for us, but there is so much money being spent to make us think the politicians that are in power now are doing the right thing for us. What always happens? They promise the world, and when they get in power they do nothing. A few pen strokes is all it would take to fix everything wrong with this country, give us clean energy legislation, give us a great education system, research tons of new medicines and cures for desease. So why doesn't this happen?

Too much money. Banks don't want to be taken over by the government. They are willing to spend a tiny percentage of a fraction of their operating budget making sure the candidate in your district gets a lot of advertising so he gets elected. His vote is guaranteed to go against any "take over the banks" bill.

Too much money. Big pharmaceutical companies want to make sure they don't have any competition. Did you ever notice how a lot of these pills don't really cure anything, but just treat symptoms? If the government was spending billions to research and develop real cures for things, these big pharmaceutical companies would really take a hit to their bottom line. They are willing to spend a tiny percentage of their money to make sure the candidate in your district gets a lot of advertising so he gets elected. His vote is guaranteed to go against any "have the government spend money curing things pills just treat symptoms for" bill.

Too much money. Big oil companies want to make sure they don't have any competition with electric/solar powered transportation. Why do we still use so much gasoline even if we are positive it is bad for the environment and costs us hundreds of billions a year? If the government was spending billions to research and develop new technologies for energy, oil companies would lose a lot of profit. They are willing to spend a tiny percentage of their money to make sure the candidate in your district gets a lot of advertising so he gets elected. His vote is guaranteed to go against any "research alternative fuels and get us off big oil" bill.

The list goes on and on. Did you ever wonder why we have so much corn in this country, even though there are way more healthy alternatives around? The government gives billions to the farming industry, which turns around and spends it where? You guessed it, to make sure that politicians get elected that will keep giving money to their cause. It's brilliant and so simple. Greed is greed is greed.

The problem is compounded by media companies that only show us non-stories (what pretty white girl was tortured/raped/murdered and in what island nation this year?); they prop up people like Sarah Palin even though she is not going to answer to any of these big issues. We have beautiful distractions like YouTube, Facebook, Monday Night Football and Antiques Roadshow. If any real politician ever spoke out and asked to nationalize the banking system to fix any problems I just talked about, they would be branded a socialist, compared to Hitler, and a significant amount of money would go into his district in the next election cycle to get rid of him. It's a terrible cycle.

So what can we do about it? We have the internet, the most brilliant tool mankind has ever created. But, the vast majority of people have such a small attention span that it's not going to help our cause. Even if Uncle Joe sends you to a webpage to support the perfect candidate, you are going to be bombarded with advertisements of A-tier candidates that say the support everything and the moon and you will see his ad on TV, in the newspapers, in the sidebars of your favorite websites, and more. It is incredibly difficult to mobilize an entire district to elect just one member to the house if he doesn't have any name recognition.

That is all. Good luck, America.