America the Stupid

I'm going to post on two completely separate topics, yet ones I feel illustrate just how dumb the average public is. Yes, I just called most of the people in our country dumb and I believe it. You can be highly intelligent and still be dumb sometimes. I'm living proof.

Anyway, first. Why do middle class Americans feel this desperate need to protect the wealthy from higher taxes? I understand, no one likes taxes. I can accept that.

I also understand we cannot tax our way out of our current spending problem. Ok.

I do not understand why average people, people who's real wages have been steadily declining since the 60s, are protecting those who are making them have less money. When the super-rich, not the 500k-1 million a year people, the REALLY REALLY rich, pay less taxes than ever, and our economy is still spiraling downward with rising unemployment, why can they not see that cutting taxes has nothing to do with spurring economic growth anymore? In the pre-global economy maybe that worked (I don't know) but I KNOW it is not working now.

I'm fairly certain that raising taxes on the ultra-rich, changing capital gains laws and trading laws so that big brokerage firms can't just churn stocks to make fees, and creating true incentives for job creation in the US would all do more to benefit the economy than anything currently being done. If you knew the government was going to take 70% of your income in taxes, might you not lessen your income? Might more of it be available to pay employees and hire new employees?

Maybe stocks would go back to being used to raise capital for companies instead of currently being used as a gambling tool and a way to make $10 off someone else's $1.

But no, apparently a vast segment of middle class America thinks this is bad. They appear to think that the relatively small cabal of ultra-rich that do essentially control our economy (this is NOT crazy conspiracy talk, its a simple fact that a tiny percentage of 1% of our population controls the VAST majority of wealth, hence, they essentially control the economy) is a good thing, that they should be left alone, and that all of them deserve every last penny they made. Sure many of them didn't make it by building factories or doing anything more than coming up with a new way to shuffle imaginary money around inside computers, but hey, that's something right?

Now, an interesting thing I've noticed about many of these same people is a dislike of immigrants and a borderline (if not outright) racist attitude towards certain minority groups, usually hispanic and black. They blame the hispanics for illegally coming here to take our jobs, traffic drugs, and ruin our health care system. They call blacks lazy, gang bangers and worthless.

Well, let me point out a few issues with those thoughts.

First, the reason illegal immigrants come here is because for years now jobs have been made available to them. How do you think so many of those massive homes were built so inexpensively during the housing boom? Union labor? HAH. Much was with cheap, and often illegal, immigrant labor. Same with farming, landscaping, meat processing and a large number of other industries. To keep prices low, use cheaper labor! Its not that Americans won't do the jobs, its that American's won't do the jobs for the wages the companies are willing to pay. Nor do I blame them. The rush of illegals has slowed during EVERY economic downturn as there are less jobs. The vast majority don't come to mooch, they come to work. And if there is no work, they don't come.

Second, to drug and gang violence. Mexico is currently in the midst of a war. The drug cartels kill thousands every year and some northern cities are practically under siege. Now, often, it is Mexicans or other hispanics bringing the drugs in and distributing them. But who's buying them? White people.

White people are the biggest consumers of most drugs out there. Partially its because there are more of them, but its also because they can afford them. Cocaine is pricey. Good weed costs money. Its supply and demand. There is a demand for drugs in America, therefore someone is going to supply it. I'm not condoning the drug trade, its horrible, but if you want drug violence to stop, stop buying drugs. Pretty dang simple really.

Finally, the "black" situation in America. Its far from simple. I'm not going to excuse the behavior of too many blacks in America. However, I can understand it. We have treated them as second class citizens, then created well meaning laws that enabled them instead of helping them. There are no simple solutions here, but it is far beyond a "black problem." It is an American problem and prejudice and blame do nothing to move our country forward.

Americans are stupid because they refuse to ever point the finger at themselves. They continue to elect crooks. They continue to allow judges to destroy our electoral system. They continue to protect the wealthy who give back a fraction of what they consume. They refuse to see why people come to this country illegally. The refuse to stop buying illegal drugs, or allowing the legalization of certain drugs to help stem the constant violence. They refuse to take accountability for past issues and see how those issues can still be affecting people today. They refuse to care about how their actions effect other countries and then are incensed when those countries say negative things about the US.

America is not a city on a hill. We aren't the pinnacle of civilization, shining for the world to see. We are a unique nation that can do much good, but we also do much harm, both inwardly and outwardly. Until we accept that we aren't special, we aren't inherently better than others and begin to work on our own problems, things will continue to get worse for the vast majority of the nation.

But, if we want to keep pointing fingers in every other direction, well, we can do that too.

Did I ramble enough here? I'm just tired of people being idiots. I'm not saying I'm always right, but I am saying too many people are never right. And they can't even see that.