The fragile USA

[The_vagabond7]

Capitalism is great in theory, but also it eventually is self defeating. Largely for the same reason communism is great in theory but self defeating (it just takes longer for capitalism to self destruct). The human propensity for Greed, and a lust for power. The reason the USA became a super power was because groups of people poured themselves into their work passionately and reaped the rewards for it. Now they own the country. There is no government anymore, there is a puppet government owned by insurance companies, oil companies, food companies, banks, farming companies, and anyone else with enough money to buy a congressmen, a senator and a TV ad.

When Obama had the debates this week on health care reform, Insurance companies flew all of their lobbyists there to tell everyone to go fuck themselves. That congress is powerless, and if you make things more expensive for us, we will just pass the buck to everyone else because we are getting rich regardless and you can't stop us, so don't bother trying. The instant our government tries to act in any way, there will be an army of lobbyists buying legislation that works in there favor, even if it is detrimental to the country as a whole. And they can buy it because people are greedy, and people want power. Congressmen, and senators, and corporations they all want the same thing.

You can say that Obama's health care plan sucks, and I will probably agree with you. But I will also add that our current healthcare system sucks, and any changes to healthcare are not going to benefit America, it will benefit insurance companies the same as our current plan. New energy technology will only exist if somebody finds a model that they can profit from more in the short term than what they are currently doing. No company will tell it's stock holders "Well for the next two decades we are going to be stagnant, but then it's smooth sailing". Because we have developed a lust for getting rich and getting rich fast. There is no long term anymore. There is only this fiscal year, and there is only a 20k limit on my credit card, and that's all that matters. Fuck ten year plans, how much money can you make me this year and next? If it takes longer than that I will go somewhere else. And Fuck saving up for a house that I will buy in five years, or a new entertainment system. I have a credit card.

It used to be that was was good for the few trickled down and became good for the many. But that's no longer the case. As a case study, look at Fast food corporations, and junk food corporations that pay hundreds of millions to advertise, make their food as addictive as possible, make sure that they continue to have beneficial legislation and subsidies, and most importantly make sure people are as uneducated about their products as possible. America is grossly obese, and only becoming more obese. McDonalds and Coca-cola make billions. Commercials air talking about the stupid misconceptions about high fructose corn syrup, Coca-cola puts paragraphs on the back of their boxes extolling the scientific hydrating benefits of Coca-cola during the summer, and they both try to get their products inside of schools. At some point the corporation is no longer benefiting the country as a whole, they are hurting the populous for their own gain.

Ideally people would be educated consumers, and companies would have to stay nimble and responsive to the thoughtful demands of the populous with each individual seeking their own benefit. But ideally communism should work too. In reality communist regimes are owned by authoritarian dictators, and capitalism creates fat ignorant masses controlled by huge corporations that purchased their government, their education, and their world view.

America is fragile, in fact it's going to self destruct. This is not a question of if, but of how long will it take. Not because of socialist government policies stealing our freedom, but because large corporations bought the country, exploited it, and ran away to different countries with their sacks of cash, because that's what we do.