Ever wonder what it would be like to be on the bottom of the food chain? Well, chances are you’re already experiencing it whenever you go to the super market, or pay your utility bills, or buy anything for that matter. Corporate greed is feeding off everyone who remotely resembles a consumer, and chances are, that includes you.

In the eyes of a corporate CEO, we are not citizens, we are livestock and our commodity is our hard earned pay. They manage to fleece us of virtually everything we own, and all the while convincing us its for our own good.

Take the super market industry for example . . .

Last year when the price of gas rose to over four dollars a gallon, we were told the prices of most products would have to rise as well to cover the extra cost of delivery. That sounded reasonable at the time. It would cost them more to intake all these products, and so “sharing” the expense with their customers was an acceptable way to go.

But the cost of gas is no longer four dollars a gallon, yet it seems food and other product prices continue to rise. Why?

Well, simply put, they’ve gotten us used to paying higher and higher prices, so why stop now. As long as we “need” these products, we’ll be willing to pay the price. So the average Joe will work two to three hours at his job just so he can get his laundry done at home. And mom won’t mind paying five dollars a gallon for milk, because its the only way she can get it to her children for their cereal.

When you think about it, the whole plot is ingenious. But when you think about it as to how it pertains to you and your family, and you don’t feel like you’re very existence is being eaten up by the bigger beast, then you’ve really been asleep at the wheel.

In the long run, one of two things are going to happen . . .

Either the people are going to put their foot down and find a way to fight back, or the entire system we all come to rely on will crumble. Siphoning people’s livelihoods until there isn’t anymore is unsustainable, after all.

A CEO doesn’t need to make $57,000 a hour, especially when families are losing everything they’ve worked their lives for just to pay his salary. But unfortunately it appears Congress doesn’t agree and will make health care reform a big win for these people.

Or maybe Congress knows something we don’t! Perhaps this whole thing is a giant plan to ship everyone to Canada and Mexico so they can turn the United States into one big country club for the 1% who can survive this economic cannibalism we’re all experiencing, and all those in Congress who go along with it can stay for the party.

It’s not very logical no matter how you view it, but who knows?

The United Corporates of America sound good? Nah, once we’re all gone they’ll just start eating each other. Nothing united about that!

Technorati Tags: cannibalism, corporate greed, Economic Cannibalism, Economy, prices

In light of all the hubbub going on with right wing protesters who cry out about big government, and government take overs, it would be good if we took a moment remembering the words of Candidate Obama about that very topic during the presidential campaign.

“It’s not whether we have big government, or we have small government. It’s whether or not we have good government. Government that works.”

Now I know we’re all fed up with government bureaucracy, and how it seems when a crisis comes up, the government builds a new department with a whole new set of requirements and regulations, and how even when the crisis passes, the government never backs down. This has created a real mess in the way the country runs, and the taxpayer has to carry the burden of all that wasted effort to keep those agencies functioning with nothing really to do.

But it seems to me, the now President Obama still holds to the concept of good government. He certainly doesn’t seem the sort to waste time, effort or money. And he definitely doesn’t give one the impression that he’s for the “set it and forget it” style of bureaucratic uselessness we’ve seen over the years.

Rather it appears his methods are designed to handle a crisis, see it through, then back off. We see this in how he’s dealt with Wall Street and various other problems. TARP funding is temporary and will not continue once the banks are recovering. The car industry got a boost from government with a bailout and the “cash for clunkers” program, but now they’re relatively on their own.

Regulations need to be put in place to prevent the same problems from occurring again, but this is not “government take over.” It’s government working for the best interests of the people so the people aren’t faced with the same hardships in the future we face now. It’s government protecting the “common wealth” so we can all prosper.

In essence, it’s government doing the job government is suppose to do. To me, that’s good government.

Technorati Tags: bureaucracy, government, government take over, Obama

Labor Day is when we honor the workers in the country. Most of the time it goes by without a great deal of thought, but this year I think we should really focus on more than just how many hamburgers to cook on the barbecue. Labor is the real force behind our economy, and at this time when corporate greed is taking its toll on our lives, it’d be good to remember where our prosperity actually comes from.

With all the jobs being lost due to corporate cut backs in the workforce designed to keep the CEOs making obscene amounts of money, to all the pensions being dropped, and health insurance becoming virtually useless, someone somewhere has to stand up and take notice. Without the worker, this country would be nowhere, and its high time Congress realizes this.

Our representatives were elected to look after the interests of the people, the average laborer. Taking care of the people is not Socialism, leveling the playing field so the blue collars get a even break is not Fascism, regulating how business is conducted in this country is not government take over. It’s protecting the Commonwealth (common wealth) so the economic machine can keep rolling along smoothly.

Let’s face it folks, Reagan’s “trickle down economics” never worked. No trickle, but plenty of hoarding at the top. So on this Labor Day, perhaps we can dispense with all the foolish talk about President Obama being a Nazi, and really take a look at what’s really going on. On this Labor Day, there’s no honoring as long as the average citizen is being screwed by the corporate machine.

A day off work really doesn’t cut it this time.

Technorati Tags: blue collar, Economy, Labor Day, laborer, workers

Back when gas prices were climbing up to the four dollar mark, the big concern was that all other product would need to see a price increase due to the added costs of shipping and delivery. It happened as expected especially when it came to groceries at the local food stores, and it was actually understandable when you did the math. But then the price of gas dropped.

So why are we still paying an average person’s hourly wage for a pound of hamburg? Why didn’t the two dollar box of cereal come back when the cost of delivery went down? Or didn’t they think anyone would notice?

Is it too much of a bother to put store clerks to work retagging items to match the lower overhead? Or is this just another example of the consumer not mattering in the least to the big corporate greed machine? Let’s face it, if the overhead cost of producing and supplying a product drops, but the product cost remains the same or goes up even higher in some cases, doesn’t that mean someone is making a killing?

You know, stuff happens, and its understandable when viable reasons are given for price increases. But when those reasons are no longer a factor, it would also be understandable and expected to see it reflected in what those products cost the consumer.

There’s a reason for everything, folks. But if you give a reason then it should be the reason. And if that reason goes away, then its reasonable to expect the effects of that reason to go away as well.

Technorati Tags: consumer, Economy, price increase, prices

There’s good news and bad news coming out of Detroit today. According to MSNBC, the new Chevy Volt will boast an incredible 238 MPG highway. That would mean filling my car once a month instead of once a week.

The bad news is, the Chevy Volt, as it comes off the showroom floor will cost upwards of $40,000 USD.

Now my question is . . .

How is this helping the economy, making us less dependent on foreign oil, and cleaning up the environment when the average person (who can’t afford a Cadillac or Land Rover now) won’t be able to afford one?

The car is smaller than the average car, the engine is smaller than the average engine, so what gives?

Is helping the environment and the economy really a luxury item?

Hey GM . . .

Want to sell cars and get yourself out of the financial rut you’re in? Then make cars more people can afford and be proud to drive!

Technorati Tags: Chevy Volt, fuel economy, Volt

With all this talk about how the current administration is taking the nation closer to socialism, I got to thinking about the Magna Carta. In it, it states that a significant purpose of government was to protect and defend the common wealth. And as our government is modeled to some extent after that Magna Carta (which is why states refer to themselves as “The Commonwealth of . . .,” it would seem reasonable that a valid government worth its weight should do everything in its power to assure the citizenry of a stable economy.

Perhaps we’re just not used to an administration that actually includes the “common people” as having a vested interest in the “common wealth” of the nation, but I can see the changes President Obama is implementing as an attempt to bring us non-corporate types back into the playing field.

After all, if a nation is prosperous, then the people should at least feel the prosperity. But for too long the “common folk” have been used by the free market corporations like maple syrup producers use a siphon to sap a tree of its riches. The difference is, the syrup producers know they should leave some sap in the tree.

“Common” means everybody, and not just those who have been afforded with enough deregulation to raise prices at will, or wager on future supply and demand until all the money is siphoned out.

There is no endgame in all of this, nor can there be winners as things stand now. When the maple trees run out of sap, they die. When the trees die, the producers go hungry. Someone needs to tell the corporates that you can’t keep a tree healthy by siphoning out all its sap on one hand, and building fancy furniture with it on the other.

We are people, not resources for the corporate machine. Prosperity shouldn’t hurt, and the commonwealth should be just that . . . common.

Technorati Tags: common wealth, commonwealth, government, Magna Carta, Obama, prosperity, socialism