Through calculated moves, the government has taken a proud country with a proud productive population and turned the country into close to a third world country and the once proud productive people into sheeple. A sheeple is someone who is like a sheep who follows the bell ewe over the cliff to their doom while bleating BAaa BAaa BAaa ineffectively.
This situation did not occur overnight or under the current administration, it started back in the 50’s when innovations came into being and people wanted the appliances and devices to make their lives easier. Things such as bigger T.V.s, dishwashers, washers and dryers and other appliances and technology were desired and bought on time instead of with cash. People wanted bigger houses, fancier cars and more leisure toys. This created more leisure time for some folks and a bigger demand for higher wages to pay for the luxuries which caused prices to go up. People began to live above their means.
During the 60’s, sustenance farmers, who grew enough to raise their families with a little left over to sell, started finding themselves losing money farming and had to find local jobs to supplement their farms and incomes. In the 70’s, these farmers began to disappear and the corporate farms came into being. Huge acreages farmed with huge equipment and huge feedlots took the place of the small family farms.
Today, it is difficult to find even canned goods filled with American grown products much less American meat. Farmland lays fallow here while overseas, under less than perfect conditions, food is grown and imported to the USA. Meat grown here is sent overseas while meat is imported into the USA from
foreign countries. The huge produce fields in California lay dusty and barren because of the concern of the government and a bunch of environmentalists about a minnow which is not even native to the state…yet, the state is bankrupt and people not only are out of work, but going hungry.
Trickle down economics enacted by Ronald Reagan and those who followed did not do much for the American people either. While Reagan is almost worshipped by a great many of those same people, his trickle down policy to spur the economy did not work as Americans are experiencing now. Any economic policy beyond war related takes 20-30 years for the full effects to be felt. The outcome of this policy is that many companies took their tax breaks and went overseas to increase their bottom lines through labor savings thus causing increased transportation costs and loss of jobs right here in America. Of course, Nafta only helped them do so not burdening them with tariffs to bring the goods back here to sell to American consumers.
Then there is the mass immigration to the United States both legal and illegal of people looking for work and the American dream. President after president and congress after congress have allowed these foreign folks to come here and take American jobs; why, because they will work better and cheaper than Americans that got stuck in the mire of having more than they can afford. Of course, the Americans had help getting there.
Banks made credit available to anyone who wanted to buy a house; of course, the government told them to do that. Credit cards came out of the woodwork in droves to those same people who could not afford to buy all the innovations and technology they wanted without charging them. Banks loaned money to contractors and encouraged them to build houses that no one in their right mind needed or could afford instead of homes they could afford…and they were not alone. The government got into the deal too and provided loans to people who had no business, according to both their credit and their income, in trying to buy a house.
Then the biggie happened, 9/11. Whether it was known about by our government beforehand or not is a moot point, what the government did to the American people after it was criminal in effect; they instilled terror into American lives and used that terror to take way American’s rights. The Patriot Act was instituted with weeks of 9/11 and who was punished, Americans. Did Americans stand up in mass to protest this? No, by the time of 9/11, Americans had been indoctrinated to believe that the government only had their best interests to heart, that America was under attack and that war was the only answer. Americans thought that even if they spoke up no one would listen and that it was ok to give up freedom and their rights for an illusion of security.
Now the country is in debt to other countries to the tune of trillions of dollars; and Americans are without work, have lost their houses and are without hope of anything changing. Yes, some are bleating a little louder but as long as the government keeps doing the same thing the same way, bleating is not going to change anything. What needs to occur is that the bell ewe needs to go to slaughter and the sheeple need to stop BAaaaaaing, start standing on their own two feet and shouting ‘HELL NO, WE ARE NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!’ Until that happens, Americans are just sheep being led to their doom…and it is their own danged fault.
I am a long time truck driver, advocate for the disabled and truck drivers, a political and trucking industry activist, writer and published poet and author. I write for 7 international websites and the Canadian Trucking Magazine. My affiliations are: life member of Owner Operators Independent Driver Association and charter member of the Women In Trucking Association. Politically I am just damned well pissed off about how the government of this great country I live in has taken away peoples rights and trampled on the Constitution...are you pissed off too? Let's get busy and get something done about it!