Government for the People

April 16th, 2010

“…government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” – The Gettysburg Address, Abraham Lincoln

Why do we have a government? To protect the people! But from what? You will answer that possibly two ways depending on your political views: All agree that the government was formed to protect the people from foreign powers, which at the time was the great European powers of the day but more specifically for our independence revolution and creation the English empire who were exploiting their power in order to obtain raw resources and wealth from us. The English were not the only ones pursuing the new worlds wealth of resources but at the time was the real pain in our rears. So long story short through conflict resolution (to put it simply) we created the United States to protect our land, our people, and our belief system which is documented in our Bill of Rights, Constitution, and other confusing documents.

All Americans regardless of ideology agree the government is here to protect our lands and protect our beliefs (at least the idea though the content is always up for debate). So let’s think about the role of government as it applies to protecting its people. What about the people? It is our people through our efforts and accomplishments that make this nation what it is. We give this nation its character, culture, and identity needed to complete the total package. So is the government here to protect all people or just those of likeminded beliefs and backgrounds? What is the scope of that protection?

As the United States of America is a democratically elected republic, the government reports ultimately to the people. In working for the people, it should be responsible to serve its people, all of its people regardless of their economic status, diversity, or beliefs. At least that is the concept.

What we have today is a government that is run and manipulated by power, driven and motivated by economical gain (money). To sugar coat it by saying lobbyist, special interests, and businesses are to blame only punishes the ‘users’ or ‘customers’ of the problem. It is a system that breads on greed, re-election, and cronyism. To some degree every government has this problem with manipulation but the trend and balance over the last decade has slowly slipping more towards money interests versus serving the people. Everyone sees it, no one does anything about it.

Ask yourself “what is the motivation?”, “what is the bigger picture?”, and “who gains from this?”. Does this issue or change in question benefit the people or the interests with the most money?

You cannot make everyone happy and it is the businesses and interests in the world the keep the lights on but it is the interests of the people that should also ALWAYS be considered and prioritized first in the end. There is give and take, an ebenflow of changes to America but as of late the balance is shifting radically towards those in power and those with the money.

A country can be many things but is nothing without its people.

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The Health Care Argument

March 30th, 2010

When you are born into this world…you have nothing. Immediately you are taken into the care of your parents who, as part of our society’s values, are responsible and will look after you until either you leave to live your own life (or they kick you out). You still have your parents and family to fall back on but once you are an adult, your care is yours to manage. Relationships, careers, expenses, it’s yours. All that freedom you complained about not having as a budding young person is now yours for the taking. You can succeed or you can fail and in your early years you will do a little bit of both. If all goes well you will build great relationships, successful careers, and amass a fortune to retire and live out your days enjoying the spoils of your hard work, living like a child (doing whatever you want), and spoiling your kids and/or grand kids rotten.

How does Health Care tie in to this perfect life? Well, there are two types of health care: regular and life threatening. Regular health care is the normal day to day cold, allergies, broken arm kind of stuff. Annoying and can be a set back but you will live to see another day. Life threatening, well that’s stuff like strokes, cancer, and other terminal or life changing diseases or ailments. Life threatening is the only type of health care that matters because if you cannot get it, you are dead. There is no tomorrow, there is nothing except the afterlife (assuming of course that you believe).

Health Care is expensive. Like REALLY expensive. Unless you are rich or lucky enough to have health insurance you or someone in your immediate family run the risk of dying due to not having the opportunity to get adequate treatment. Do you get it now? Well for many the answer is no. There is a great divide in America between the haves and the have nots which has been blurred and hidden by the media and marketing. America’s economy is sustained by its people’s willingness in spending money which today in 2010 is made up of 60% working and lower class workers. That is people making $32,000 or less. A spend economy. Add into that spend lifestyle the cost of family and living and even with a multiple income household the incoming money barely makes the ends meet.

But Why? Because rich people like being rich. There is a gap between doing the right thing and doing what is right for the fortunate few. America spent 2.5 Trillion or about 8K per person (including kids) just in health care last year. That’s around $650 a month that either you or together with your employer pays an insurance company. America is letting greed win. Half of all bankruptcies in the United Stated of America are due to health care financial burden. This fact is disputed but it is easy to see that spending $200,000 dollars treating cancer (give or take a couple hundred thousand dollars) can break the bank. Remember over half of America is under $32,000 and is spending everything they earn to keep the American economy and way of life going!

Ask yourself:

  • What is the right thing to do?
  • What is the moral thing to do?
  • Should Health Care be a right in America?

When faced with the possibility of death, we would do anything to escape it. People that are not as fortunate, who have limited resources, face this grim reality. If you take care of yourself and are lucky, you will live a long and healthy life. Otherwise you will sacrifice your dignity, your savings, and ultimately your life trying to get the same care others take for granted. Not deadbeats or people scamming the system but people who pay their bills, who have done their part to better society, and have prayed to god only to face the unfortunately reality that it literally takes money to ‘live’ in America.

Health Care should be a right that all Americans have and enjoy. It is the right thing, it is the moral thing, and it is the humane thing to do. Dying because you just didn’t have the money to live is just not the American way.

Look up ‘Social Class in the United States‘, ‘Health Care in the United States‘, and ‘Tax Rates around the World‘ to read more about the economic gap, our Health Care efforts, and what other countries pay in taxes versus the services they receive.

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What is Checkbox Checked?

March 25th, 2010

Well…it’s a phrase that I made up (I think) in passing discussions of how things work, how obvious some mistakes are, and how they are made anyways. It goes something like this:

  • Person #1: Can you believe what they’re doing on Project X?
  • Person #2: Yep, they will not tell us what they want and still expect us to deliver a solution.
  • Person #1: Yeah, checkbox checked!

Not exactly a phrase for sarcastic effect…something a little darker. I will have to think of a perfect example and post it. One is just not coming to me right now.

Other than the name, the blog is really a place for me to vent at all of the stupidity, my take on said stupidity, and possible solutions to such conundrums of logic. I myself work in the technical “IT’ world where of course like oil meeting water, work with my company in understanding, implementing, and changing technology when we’re not busy actually trying to keep the business systems and infrastructure,  stuff like computers, networks, and applications, operational and working. Posts will run the gambit of political (see: fish in barrel), technology, music, and life in general.

I will be using an alias so that said comments are not directly related back to my real life and more to the point of course where I work. In terms of number of posts…if I can get one well written post out a week I feel as though this will have been a success. This blog will be my couch and what I put here will be the release of steam pretty much raw and not censor or so is my hope.

Enjoy!~

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