What's in Your Wallet?

It doesn't take a genius to realize that greed is not only controlling all aspects of the world today, but it is (also) destroying humanity along with Mother Earth.

Just take a look around you on any given day at any given moment. The, once thriving, middle class in this country has diminished to almost nothing due to the greed of various corporations outsourcing the middle-class jobs to other, cheap labor countries. Everyone is aware of this fact and if they aren't it's because they're either mentally challenged or not paying attention. Hell, it is such an employer's market these days that employers can get away with not giving out raises for years at a time, not giving Christmas bonuses (as they once did in the recent past), not paying "holiday pay" or even offering paid time off/paid vacation let alone paid sick days. Oh, and let's not exclude the employers who are hiring the unemployed masses to do an unpaid, 90 day internship. That's right, there are employers out there with the audacity to expect someone to give up their unemployment benefits by taking a job which will not pay them for an entire 90 days. This time allows the employer to see what kind of employee the intern would be should they decide to hire the poor schmuck after the 90 day internship is completed.

The executives and owners of these companies and corporations still make millions of dollars per year for their un-deserved salaries while the people who are the backbones of each company get their benefits, wages, and (even) jobs cut completely out of the picture. There is nothing fair about what is taking place in this country (predominantly) and many other countries around the globe. It's all designed to keep the wealthiest one percent the wealthiest one percent as well as allowing them to control our government by way of campaign contributions and payoffs. Both of which are entirely legal yet, as inappropriate as it is for this to be legal, it continues to go on election after election and year after year.

When will the American people (the decent, hard working individuals who drive the economy and make the wealthiest one percent all their money) - yes - when will all of us "good Americans" wake up and realize that the greedy, money hoarding, power hungry bastards controlling this country and driving what used to be a country made up of multiple financial classes into a four class system. The four classes being the very rich, the rich, the poor, and the very poor. Those are the four classes which are quickly taking up the old class system of this country. This has all come to pass within my short life of 41 years.

I remember, as a child, seeing a multitude of classes (the old class system) in this country. In my  early childhood we were a middle class family. As I matured so did our family's financial status. By the time I was an adolescent we were considered upper-middle class. By the time I was a teenager we were considered upper-upper-middle class (just a step down from rich). There were many other classes as well. There were the poor (people who worked for minimum wage or slightly above). There were the very poor (people who relied upon welfare or social security as their only source of income). There were the three tiers of middle class which my family went through plus the additional tier of lower-middle class which was a step down from middle class and a step up from poor. Then there was the wide variety of wealthy classes. They were divided up as follows:  the slightly-rich, the moderately-rich, the rich, the very-rich, the very-very-rich, and (finally) the wealthiest of the wealthy or the "elite."

The children who are being born at this time or even as long as ten years ago do not have any idea of the class system which I just mentioned. The broad spectrum of financial classes we used to enjoy as citizens of this once great country. I say, "once great," because there is little to be proud of concerning our country, its economy, the programs it offers its citizens to pursue the old American dream, and so on. I say, "old American dream," because what used to be the American dream has dissipated into the unobtainable for most of us. The old American dream was everyone becoming homeowners at least once within their lifetime, everyone owning at least two, new (or nearly new) automobiles, everyone being able to take a family vacation at least once a year, and (finally) everyone being able to get married and start a family of two or more children. I neglected the biggest part of that old American dream which is every individual could become as wealthy as they desired if they (merely) worked hard and relentlessly pursued their vision of their dream. It was not only a "dream" not too long ago it was the very essence of this country and it was (for many people) reality.

I am so sad and disgusted to say that there is no such thing as that beautiful American dream becoming reality for everyone at this point in time. No, the only people that dream turning to reality applies to are already living the dream. The rest of the good people of this once, great nation are stuck in the cycle of being stuck. Stuck is working a job that pays just enough to pay for housing, utilities, gas to get you back and forth to work every day, insurance on a car that may be new or very old, the bare minimum of food that will last from one paycheck to the next (not even good food that you really enjoy eating or your kids bug you to buy--just stuff that will fill your tummy and keep you alive to stay stuck), and--if you're fortunate--a little left over to pay for grooming. Most of us aren't even allowed the luxury of good grooming these days. Grooming not only includes hair cuts and hygienic products. It, also, includes clothing, shoes, purses (for women), dental visits to keep your mouth healthy and teeth clean, and various other things that we used to take for granted when times were so good. Back when anyone who pursued the dream could make it a reality.

Well, my fellow Americans, I could go on and on about how fucked up we as a society have become.  How fucked up our government has become (even though our president, I believe, has integrity and vision to make good, positive changes for every citizen of this country). How incredibly stupid the average American citizen has become. How the media spews negative rhetoric controlled by the big corporations and companies that have, by the greed of their owners and/or shareholders/executives, destroyed the old American dream and replaced it with "stuck." Along with many other equally important pieces to this complex, yet not so complicated, problem we call staying stuck with hopes of surviving long enough that stuck eventually turns into motion.

I will guarantee that stuck becomes motion. What I can not guarantee is that the motion we begin to move or the direction we begin heading towards will be something better. In fact, it is more likely (considering who's running the show we call "the world") that the direction we move towards will be like falling backwards down a mountain we've all been climbing for a very long time. A mountain so steep and tall that we've exhausted all our resources and strength yet (somehow) we continue to climb. Only until the last bit of sweat drips down the back of our necks and, due to that drop of sweat weighing enough to throw our balance back in its direction, our entire bodies fall backwards. We continue to fall back down the mountain, but not sliding down on our backs. Rather we are rolling backwards from head to toes to head to toes breaking each and every bone while puncturing each and every organ of which our bodies are made. Finally, half dead, we reach the bottom. Yes, we did hit every tree on our way down still that's not quite enough suffering for the wealthy onlookers to have witnessed. You see, as we were falling they dug a hole (a bottomless pit) for us to land in when reaching the bottom. They did this so they could hear our voices echo loudly with pain and fear as we would continue to fall for eternity or until they have finished destroying this planet--whichever comes first.

And that's the way the human ball bounces (as it were)...

Health Care/Western Novel

I was going to take the liberty of posting a comment regarding the medical situation in general, but since I'm on the govt-run medicare program I won't, except to say that medicare will be broke by 2017 under the present financial setup, and who knows what's going to happen if they pass the new bill.  

That said, for the readers, I've published a book through iuniverse entitled, The Stranger from the Valley, a novel of the western genre, which is available at iuniverse.com, amazon.com, bn.com, and others, and the e-book is available at iuniverse.com for only $6.00. Chappie Wesford is sent to Altaveel to give awards to two citizens sometime after the Civil War, but the Henberry family thinks he is there to take over their business, and the fun begins. Altaveel is a fictional town located in the Uintah foothills. 

I've had many compliments on the book from people who have said they read it and enjoyed it, and I'm sure that you will too. I have posted excerpts from this book and others on my blog at the above link.

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!