About 88% of us have little or no idea what the other 12% plus is enduring, even though many of them are hard working people, and still cannot afford a roof over their heads. Especially around Thanksgiving, when millions travel long distances, by car or planes to share meals with their families, the people they love. We are so busy with our organized lives we hardly ever give a thought about our brothers and sisters, who are part of the 12% plus population.
My Thanksgiving resolution is to do something nice for someone who belongs to the 12% plus in America; a trusted organization, in my area, which has a clean record of doing good for the down-and-out, will be my target. I highly recommend that you watch the documentary by the DW (Deutsche Welle), to get into the spirit of giving; it worked for me. Please see the link shown below.
DW reports:
"Homelessness, hunger and shame: poverty is rampant in the richest
country in the world. Over 40 million people in the United States live
below the poverty line, twice as many as it was fifty years ago. It can
happen very quickly."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHDkALRz5Rk
Despite the good intentions of President L. B. Johnson's war on poverty, the truth is it was and is a total failure. "The War on Poverty was declared by President Lyndon B. Johnson
in his State of the Union Address on January 8, 1964: This
administration today here and now declares unconditional war on poverty
in America. ... In January 1964, President Johnson gave Sargent Shriver
the task of developing a bill to wage the war against poverty in the
United States. The bill was presented to Congress in March, 1964."
Like all the many other wars we proclaim against this or that, the war on poverty is a disgrace for our nation, as it is an utter failure by any measure. We always have money for external adventures, and buying the good will of other countries/regimes, but when it comes to the needs of our fellow men, we suddenly have the urge to reduce the national debt, by cutting necessary social services.
I am not suggesting to start a fund for the unfortunate brothers and sisters among us but I am suggesting an individual act of kindness by all of us, and by all means urge the people in your circle of family and friends to do the same.
Thanksgiving has come and is gone now but the perils of poverty are an ever present problem for too many of us; it is never too late to act and give a little. We in the 88% group have so much to be thankful for.
Saturday, November 30, 2019
Tuesday, November 12, 2019
Olympics Of Greed
When is enough, enough? When someone amasses billions of dollars, somewhere along the line that
person robbed the public, by overpricing their products and/or
services. How else could they become so filthy rich, while the general population is getting poorer by the year?
Forbes 400 listing of the wealthiest in America is the scoreboard of the addicted to money crowd. Yes, money, like sex for example, is addictive and these on the Forbes list work (more like steal) their way to the top to earn the gold medal of ultimate greed. If it were not so sickening, one could feel sorry for these, apparently, addicted individuals because in the end, they cannot take it with them. Can you imagine, the vast number of poor souls waiting for them to arrive, so they can get even for making their lives miserable on earth?
Assuming all is true what most religions teach, one would have to ponder this singular question, which is longer the suffering of a life span on earth, or the suffering for all eternity? Now, one could say everybody knows the answer to that question. Well, it appears, the filthy rich have no idea about this time-span question, why else would they risk everything? The answer is twofold, addiction to money and greed; nothing else seems to matter for them.
It is a common belief, among most people that death is the great equalizer, if these greedy rich ones would just die and enjoy bliss for all eternity, what great equalization would that be? One hopes that there is justice somewhere, if not in the afterlife, where? One can suspect that the religions of the world are in the service of the filthy rich, mandated to keep the populous quiet with the promise of great rewards in the afterlife for their inflicted suffering on earth. Granted, this promise keeps the sufferers going, in the service of the wealthy and powerful, i.e. mission accomplished but is this just and fair?
Going back in history, were not the biggest scoundrel assuming the position of the Pope through money and power? These often criminals became, according to church doctrine, infallible men; what a crock this was. The political systems of the world are so engineered that, most of the time, only the wealthy and well-connected can enjoy positions of power. In the USA it takes, apparently, one billion dollars to get elected President. Influenced perhaps by church doctrine, the public trusts that whoever is elected has now their interests at heart; nothing could be further from the truth.
Whoever had the most self-serving money contributions from the elites, and is elected, is now ready and empowered to serve not the interest of the people, who elected them, but the interest of those who provided the money to get them into position of power. The Forbes 400 list is just the tip of the iceberg, it shows those who have managed to do it better than the herd of the also wealthy; it is nothing but the scoreboard of the greed Olympics.
https://www.forbes.com/forbes-400/#249787f77e2f
Nowadays, when a politician brags that he or she is very rich the public now applauds; the wealthy politician has now star qualities, go figure. The perceived logic goes like this, when we elect a very wealthy person, he or she won't need to steal from us while in office, however, we overlook the fact that this person now has to make it easier for his friends and sponsors to steal from us. In reality nothing has changed, the former middle-class and the poor still get shafted, overtly or covertly.
I doubt very much that these costly wealth extractions in other countries serve the innocent voter, and his family, it surely serves the filthy rich whose wealth increases exponentially. There has never been such a stark wealth inequality, as we experience now.
Need I say More?
"Where did the phrase 'filthy rich' come from?
The
pejorative nature of the phrase is lessening all the time, and it’s
increasingly used just to denote very rich. The origins of the phrase
come from term filthy lucre, which was first used in
print in the 16th Century, and was then used to denote money that had
come from foul means. This led to filthy being a slang word for money."
In my opinion, the foregoing still applies more than ever.
https://www.bing.com/search?q=definition+of+filthy+rich&qs=n&form=QBRE&sp=-1&pq=definition+of+filthy+rich&sc=1-25&sk=&cvid=3094128499AE44579377CBB06E03006F
Assuming all is true what most religions teach, one would have to ponder this singular question, which is longer the suffering of a life span on earth, or the suffering for all eternity? Now, one could say everybody knows the answer to that question. Well, it appears, the filthy rich have no idea about this time-span question, why else would they risk everything? The answer is twofold, addiction to money and greed; nothing else seems to matter for them.
It is a common belief, among most people that death is the great equalizer, if these greedy rich ones would just die and enjoy bliss for all eternity, what great equalization would that be? One hopes that there is justice somewhere, if not in the afterlife, where? One can suspect that the religions of the world are in the service of the filthy rich, mandated to keep the populous quiet with the promise of great rewards in the afterlife for their inflicted suffering on earth. Granted, this promise keeps the sufferers going, in the service of the wealthy and powerful, i.e. mission accomplished but is this just and fair?
Going back in history, were not the biggest scoundrel assuming the position of the Pope through money and power? These often criminals became, according to church doctrine, infallible men; what a crock this was. The political systems of the world are so engineered that, most of the time, only the wealthy and well-connected can enjoy positions of power. In the USA it takes, apparently, one billion dollars to get elected President. Influenced perhaps by church doctrine, the public trusts that whoever is elected has now their interests at heart; nothing could be further from the truth.
Whoever had the most self-serving money contributions from the elites, and is elected, is now ready and empowered to serve not the interest of the people, who elected them, but the interest of those who provided the money to get them into position of power. The Forbes 400 list is just the tip of the iceberg, it shows those who have managed to do it better than the herd of the also wealthy; it is nothing but the scoreboard of the greed Olympics.
https://www.forbes.com/forbes-400/#249787f77e2f
Nowadays, when a politician brags that he or she is very rich the public now applauds; the wealthy politician has now star qualities, go figure. The perceived logic goes like this, when we elect a very wealthy person, he or she won't need to steal from us while in office, however, we overlook the fact that this person now has to make it easier for his friends and sponsors to steal from us. In reality nothing has changed, the former middle-class and the poor still get shafted, overtly or covertly.
I doubt very much that these costly wealth extractions in other countries serve the innocent voter, and his family, it surely serves the filthy rich whose wealth increases exponentially. There has never been such a stark wealth inequality, as we experience now.
Need I say More?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)