Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Welcome to Obama, Inc.

I've been kind of busy with work, Lacrosse practice 4x a week, 2, 3 and even 4 games on the weekend, etc. I'm not complaining though -- life is good. Unfortunately for so many Americans, it is not so good -- not good at all. ADP just came out with their March jobs report and 742,000 private-sector jobs were cut in March. Instead of getting better, or not as bad, it just keeps getting worse.

It's hard to remain positive when everything you read, or hear, or see on TV is all negative. America, capitalism, liberty, and freedom as I know it is on assault. Not just in our country, which by the way is bad enough, but by the whole world it seems. I've always heard nobody likes the "guy" at the top, and frankly I subscribe to that point of view with regards to sports anyway. I can't stand the Yankees, Red Sox, Patriots (as a Dolfan, I never have though), Cowboys, Lakers, Celtics, etc. America is the "guy" at the top, and foreign governments and some of their citizens have always been envious of us as the leader of the free world. And secretly, and some not so secretly, are smiling at the mess we have gotten ourselves into. Make no mistake, WE have gotten ourselves into this mess because we all fell asleep at the wheel and let our government do whatever it wanted.

This is where it gets interesting though. The liberals believe it is greedy corporate America and Wall Street taking advantage of us. And the "failed Bush policies of the last 8 years" and the rich getting richer; yada, yada, yada. Maybe some of this is true, but I am sick of the populist rhetoric. On the other side, the Republicans blame Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, and Chuck Shumer. Well, if the shoe fits...The bottom line is that there is plenty of blame to go around. This complex mess we are in is simply because of two intertwined words: power and money. Not solely Wall Street executives and corporate CEO's, but more importantly, our federal government -- our U.S. Congress to be more specific. Do you know of any member of Congress that is not "rich"? If they weren't rich when they were "elected" to Congress they sure are when they leave -- although they don't leave...they do not ever leave. Therein lies the problem!

Capitalism has not failed us. Capitalism is not an inherent corrupt system as many in the liberal media would have you believe. If not for Capitalism, we would not have many of the things we have today. One question...when was the last time something of great value was invented in a Socialist or Communist country in which the government dictates what should be produced, how it should be produced and how much one is going to be paid for producing it? I'll let you get back to me on that one, because it is going to take a while...

Unfortunately, the current administration believes the government is the only thing that is going to get us out of this mess. The federal government is not our savior. The federal government is the problem. If you think the banks had too much power before, wait until the government owns the financial system. Nationalization of all important industries is the prize that this government has its eyes on. They will do it just as they have done with the stimulus package, the budget, AIG, and most recently GM. Under cover at night, covertly they take over a private company or vote on a bill (usually a HUGE spending bill) all under the guise of it was necessary to avert further damage to our economy. So we've gone from an administration labeled as "war mongers" to an administration of "fear mongers"? Well, the people wanted change, and they got it! For me though, it's not the change I can believe in!