Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Corruption is killing democracy
From the RoundTable blog
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Arnold D. St.Clair
St. Clair, of Hardy, is a communications technician for Norfolk Southern Corp.
Concerning the relentless rising cost of everything: When the economy falters and governments go bust, when the working man can no longer support himself or his family, when society fails completely and finally collapses, what then will be the fate of the worker? What will the ruling class have of us? What is their grand plan? What will be the final solution -- a quick execution? Or maybe we will all just slowly starve.
As prices climb, seemingly on a daily basis, federal number-crunchers regularly understate the true inflation rate in order to minimize needed pay raises. What variety of voodoo economics will our esteemed leaders attempt to mislead us with or to con us into believing they can fix this mess? The Democrats' current sideshow is merely a diversion from the real challenges at hand. The Republican business-as-usual, anything-but-the-truth bullheadedness will only make matters worse. Open dialogue about real issues is nonexistent. The feds have devolved into a bunch of conniving control freaks running roughshod over the people. Their stranglehold on the freedoms of the working-class while the well-heeled run amok is shameful.
The actions, or conversely, the inactions of our financial institutions and the double-dealing corporate world at large are inexcusable. Corporate heads have conspired among themselves and with national governments to shortchange the worker by suppressing wages and swindling the consumer by overpricing their products. They dishonor loyal workers by moving manufacturing facilities offshore (this act deprives the middle class of their livelihood, their anchor). The corporate creed is if a job cannot be exported to the cheap labor, then the cheap labor must be imported to the job here. They benefit at both ends of this arrangement and thereby amass ungodly sums of wealth for themselves and their cronies.
These greed-driven predators exhibit no conscience, no concern for the less fortunate, not even a hint of remorse. Their would-be moral superiority is a fraud. Then, incredibly, at the first sign of a financial downturn, they have the gall to approach their victims (taxpaying consumers) hat in hand, expecting a bailout. These outrageous demands are dutifully met by their corrupt political cohorts. This rape of the worker, of the national treasury and of corporate coffers continues unabated as federal regulators turn a blind eye.
Corporations employ high-powered lobbyist who can originate bills that protect their greedy self-interests and introduce them to Congress for ratification. They exert disproportional direct influence over lawmakers, allowing them to hijack the legislative process. Either banish this despicable practice or allow we, the constituency, to employ it with, hopefully, a more influential lobbyist of our own.
We are ignored while their high-rolling influence-peddlers seek yet another tax loophole. Since the inception of individual income taxes in 1913, the tax burden has shifted almost entirely away from businesses to individuals (aah, Republicanism at its finest).
Be wary of unlimited population growth. When population density reaches critical mass, famine and disease spread like wildfire. We must reduce all forms of immigration. What is gained by domestically limiting our family size only to be surpassed by the unabated influx of outsiders (many of them unaccustomed to any form of birth control). This serves only to demote the established citizenry to possible minority status in his own country. As populations increase, there is, invariably, a (mis)perceived need for Congress to enact more and more restrictive laws limiting all sorts of freedoms in order to control the expanding masses until, alas, we are relegated to sheepdom.
In these troubled times and, coincidentally, an election year, where is the real leadership? Where is commitment? Where is morality?
If our forefathers were here, they would denounce our expansive all-encompassing government and immoral corporate culture and would spit in our collective myopic eye. Isn't it sad to watch a great experiment fail? Death of democracy caused by corruption is a sorrowful end. It is painful to witness and leaves a bad taste in one's mouth. Even though we, the people, have adjusted to expecting less, we should demand better.
