Job Loss and Betrayal

More people that I know are out of work today, victims of a recession economy. This makes far too many people without a job or in danger of being out of a job. Their families and communities suffer when this happens, and it's happening to too many people. Add an ailing healthcare system (with close to 50 million uninsured), a failed housing market, a failed banking system, a dismal job market, and a lot of people are wondering what the hell happened to the American Dream.

When I was growing up, if you had a good education, were willing to work hard, and did a good job, that was all you needed to make it. You were assured of gainful employ that would sustain you and your family. Part of the reason was that business still had sanity. Executives were compensated on a reasonable scale, not as they are today, totally out of proportion with what they do or how the business is doing. Now executives gouge companies for millions, even while the company is sliding down the tubes. In the mind of many, this is equivalent to theft.

It is evident that the corporate world has failed. Greed has killed the golden goose of American business, where a future is sacrificed for next-quarter profits. Too much emphasis is placed on artificially-mandated numbers tied to dates, rather than actualities. In this insane numbers game, we're all losers. Except the ones who have made these new rules, because they're ripping us off.

Look at the latest banking scandal. Yeah, the latest one, not the Savings and Loan debacle of the 80's. Remember that one? There were supposed to be safeguards, blah, blah. Some present-day politicians were responsible for a good deal of that, but they keep getting elected. And in 25 years, nothing changed. Except we got screwed again.

So here we are, in a climate of fear. Lose your job and you lose your health insurance. How insane is that? Why don't other countries have this problem? Are we too stupid or too lazy or too paralyzed to do anything about it? Lose your job, health, and maybe your home, and you begin to question the entire system. As well you should. This isn't a good system, if this many people are suffering. We can do better.

This doesn't have to be. Hold the politicians in charge responsible—if they won't help, get rid of them. They're holding the reins that are strangling us, being bought off by big business. They've got a GREAT healthcare package- paid for by us. Let's take it away and give them what we've got, and see how long it takes for them to pass a good healthcare bill—24 hours would be my guess. The politicians are supposed to be working for us- they're our employees. But they're running the show, and the multi-millionaire club doesn't do much for us now, does it?