Home of the free, Really?

Home of the free, really?

We are not free from fear it is fed to us by our leaders on a daily basis. It is the reason we illegally overthrow governments under the guise of protecting our country from small groups of fundamentalist religious fanatics. The fear mongering has depleted our national defense capabilities, eroded the very freedoms we proclaim as our reason for the illegal wars, and has compromised our economy through borrowing and increased deficits.

We are not free to speak our minds or debate because our views will be used against us to limit our opportunities. You and I are not free to have opinions lest we will be ostracized. We are not free to worship unless it is the Christian religion that has become the de facto religion of this country.

We are not free to live in our homes without an annual tax lien imposed by our government to “support” social services. And if anyone has seen our school systems you can see how well that has worked for us.

We are not free from the corruption in nearly every sector of our society crimes are committed by corporate officers.

Food producers do not maintain adequate control of their processes as evidenced by salmonella, e coli, and the colossal mistake of industrialized farming causing us to rely on the high cost of transportation and single providers.

Banking and financial companies are constantly guilty of fraud and abuse, creating financial trading vehicles that are impossible to understand and manage.

Corporations receive federal subsidies in way of contracts that are not negotiated, not regulated, not verified, and with no accountability for failure to deliver. Especially sacrosanct defense (offense) industries, when profits lag, start a war.

Mine safety, oil rigs, ships and vessels, pipelines, transmission grids, drug companies, schools, food processing etc. all sectors are unregulated, not scrutinized, and cheat on their process controls.

Insurance companies can change their policies indiscriminately. On the Gulf Coast, insurance companies cancelled wind policies for homes below I 10 immediately following the hurricane seasons of 04-05. Then there were few storms for the next 4-5 years. They request a rate increase to make up for the money they would have received in wind coverage which would have been all pocket money because of the low hurricane incidents.

Insurance companies lobby for seat belt laws, the resultant windfall, fewer damages paid for injuries is not refunded to policy holders or realized as reduced cost in policy charges.

There has been no tort reform or caps on insurance awards, why, because the capitalist pyramid scam only works when the cost of insurance overwhelms the money paid out in awards. We all lose, insurance have a license to print money.

We still wage a war on drugs, when, to hold a decent job you need to take a drug test. Another “war” to maintain and subsidize the defense industry sector, or corporate welfare.

How absurd is it that employees have to sign vows to behave ethically, when we are surrounded by corruption at every level of leadership?