1-877-UNITY08

Fault and Responsibility

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  • posted by texo on June 12, 2024 - 9:23pm
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    I guess I will be the one to stand up, strap a target on my back, and say this is OUR fault. It isn't the politician's and it isn't that bogeyman "Big Corporations" that we can all so easily rally around. We get what we ask for, and it is our responsbility to fix it. For instance:

    Politicians cater to the big corporate money because we MAKE them. If we were willing to spend even a minimal amount of time learning about candidates' positions and voting records on our own, they would have to stand on their records alone. But we WANT to veg on the couch in front of the TV and learn about our leaders via 30 second spots during American Idol. We make it so expensive for politicians to reach us with their message that they have to round up an enormous amount of money to stand any chance of winning. We have survivorship bias in our sample of politicians because only those willing to go for that money can survive.

    Big corporations are focused on profit because we mandate that they focus on profits, after all, that is where our retirement plans are invested and I want mine to be as valuable as possible. And as investors, if a corporation misses a quarterly profit increase we pummel the stock and string up the CEO. CEOs are turning over now much faster than at any previous point in history. They export jobs because we MAKE them do that to keep profits maxxed. Remember the days when you used to see the labels "Proudly Union Made", or "Proudly Made in the USA"? You don't see that much anymore do you? you know why? because no one cared including those with jobs at stake. When it came right down to it they would rather have 4 cheap color TVs made in Indonesia than 1 expensive one made in Indiana. Think about the last time you willing paid more for an item (or bought stock in a company) because it was union made, made in the US, eco-friendly, or Fair Trade certified. Those are all concepts we want others to get excited about, but for ourselves we want the most stuff for the least amount money.

    Should we prevent corporations from being involved in the political process? when they have our retirement funds and all of our jobs at stake?

    Corporations and politicians are not saints, but let's keep in mind that they are REACTING to the game as we have dictated it to them.

    (even if you disagree with the rest of this post, you have to agree there is little that can be done to drastically change the system in the short run, so lets get over laying all the blame on these two bogeymen and focus on feasible ways to work on the issues)

    Flame away . . .

    Comments

    CrazyGoose on June 29, 2024 - 6:39pm

    I agree. We have slipped and let our politicians rule instead of lead us. We successfully traded one dictator for another in a sense. This is a great start to change and if Unity '08 can wake enough people from their vegitative state then change can occur the good way, i hope it can. Its time for the people to realize that in any good republic, nothing is more powerful then the mob, as it was in rome it is today and the people must fix what they themselves messed up, just gota get the msg out

    -civus americanus

    Lynn Robb on June 19, 2024 - 8:43am

    I personally can do absolutely nothing about public institutional change, but I can change the only instution over which I have complete control--myself.

    When I was in grade school, we studied Benjamin Franklin's methods of self-improvement. I don't think this has ever been a required subject, and it ought to be. Our founding fathers wrestled with the same problem we are discussing here today; institutional complacency. It took a series of major political blunders over many years on the part of the central government in England to jolt the colonists into action.

    As is commonly said, "Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it."

    Shae on June 18, 2024 - 12:51am

    While I believe we must own a part of the blame I also believe we've paid the politicians, who make empty promises and outright lies, we can't know what they are going to do when they get elected. I believe the media is a huge factor in this. They tell the American people to trust them. They "report" what the truth is suppose to be but ok. I just realize we are to blame. Most are just plain too trusting and lazy to follow up to know what is what in the world of govt. That's why I want to send this url to everyone I know and urge them to take an active role in taking America back. If these people aren't serious and it's another ruse then we will realize it eventually and it will die out. In the meantime we must give it a chance and truly unify!! Your children depend on it.

    texo on June 15, 2024 - 1:55pm

    You bring up a good point about the environment- again largely a problem of wanting to have as much as we can for as little money as possible, "why should I live in a small house in the cramped city? If I bulldoze a couple of acres of forest/farmland and just drive my Hummer an hour each way to work every day, I can afford a 20,000 square foot house (and then spend my weekends shopping at Walmart for stuff I don't need to fill it with). And if everyone else would kindly live in an apartment in the city and take public transit to work, I wouldn't have to sit idling in traffic all day."

    To start fixing things, we have to admit that most of these problems (and thereby their solutions) are ultimately of our own creation - not big corporations, crooked politicians, or a CIA conspiracy.

    Saloma on June 15, 2024 - 12:35am

    No, you're right. There are many other things we are responsible for...like energy dependence. I can't tell you how high and fast my blood pressure rises every time I see someone driving a Hummer.

    Yes, I've TRIED to buy American, but you can't find it anymore...guess I was born too late.

    But, now that we're a self-admitted, self-absorbored, entertainment-focused group of troglodytes, what can we do to start fixing it? I think that's what this is all about.