WASHINGTON — It’s entirely up to House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) whether 2.6 million unemployed Americans get their benefits back, at least according to the two senators most involved in legislation to restore the compensation. SOURCE: Unemployment Extension In Boehner’s Hands, Says Heller.
It troubles me that so much power is being concentrated in so few people. When one person can decide whether millions will fall through the safety net. But something else troubles me even more.
What happens when a substantial majority of U.S. citizens no longer have any empathy for others in our society? It is pretty much a fact that about 25% of us want to eliminate help for those who need it. Some say they are ripping apart the safety net to rescue those caught in it. Some say outright that they just don’t want to have to pay the taxes necessary to be their brother’s keeper. Some have absolutely no sense of community or the common good. They are just too busy looking out for themselves to see any good from helping a neighbor. And then there are some who flat out don’t want government in any form to intrude into their lives.
What happens when these groups become a majority in the country? The primary motivation for all of the above things is greed. They just don’t want anyone taking things from them that they consider theirs alone. Another part of this trend is driven by fear. Fear is such a strong motivator in our society today. We fear that there won’t be enough for all of us so we want to make sure we are the ones who survive. I try to be an optimist and think that eventually the pendulum will swing back in a more balanced direction and that somehow we will quit views those who disagree with us in any manner as our enemy.
I hope we have learned our lesson about putting too much power in the hands of a few people. Hitler is the most recent example of this but by no means the only one. When a small handful of politicians can control what all of us do we are in trouble of losing our democracy. In order to prevent that from getting worse than it is now we all most realize that “we the people” inevitably have the power and not the politicians. We must take our right to vote with the utmost seriousness or it just maybe eventually stripped from us.
RJ's Corner 
If people would realize the basic reality that nothing we have is truly ours, it comes from God, and ultimately returns to him, then the greed and desperate drive to feather our own nest at the expense of others would cease.
The “American Dream” of today is nothing like it was in generations past. Now, the haves are desperately pulling every trick in the book to increase their power and wealth, while doubling down on their efforts to squash the powerless have-nots.
I keep expecting the majority to rise up and say, “enough!” Why it does’t happen speaks to the secular nature of our current culture, and the unrealistic belief that the brass ring still exists if one just works hard enough.Unfortunately, the deck has been stacked so that power and wealth will only continue to be concentrated at the top, built on the suffering and toil of the rest.
Not too optimistic, am I?
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I think the time will eventually come where enough people say “enough” but when that will be I just don’t have a guess. By our constitution power does reside with the people but too many just refuse to see it. What is happening now is much like it was in the 1890s. Most of the wealth had accumulated at the top. It took Teddy Roosevelt the “trust buster” to help balance the scale and Henry Ford to start paying a living wage. Will someone come to the stage to repeat those roles. I certainly hope so.
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I don’t things are all that different from most of human history. I enjoy pretending that I would have been a noblewoman in Germany, but the reality is that my ancestors were tenant farmers.
Yes, everyone can get rich in America- but most do not.
We had one (maybe two) generations who tried to equalize as much as possible- the last one. Unfortunately, it didn’t last.
In reality, I like just doing my own thing and not worrying too far outside of my community. The local system, by in large, works.
Which country would you base our country off of? Who does it better (with basically the same immigration and access to education) then we do?
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I don’t think the U.S. is in such dire straits that a revolution is eminent or required. Yes, wealth is not equally distributed and never will be. Can you go back in time and find a country or era that was perfect and stayed that way? I agree with Janette….It will always be an ongoing struggle to keep powers in check. It will always be a challenge to help the poor and struggling. It will always be a contest to get more. I see all this as part of human nature and not likely to go away. At times a strong leader will emerge to make a big change in one thing or another. But the rest of us just have to keep going on …. voting our conscious … doing our own bit as best we can. I still consider myself fortunate to have been born and live in this great country despite it’s faults. I can’t continuously despair about the less the perfect conditions of the world. I can’t dwell on the “what if this happens”. It’s too discouraging. I can only work in my own little piece of the world to keep things going as best they can. But then, I have no power…I’m just a simple person with a nice simple life that I’m grateful for.
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Thanks for the comments you two. I appreciate your wisdom on the topics I post. I know some of my posts get a little dark but I also am not totally down on our country. See the June 6 post for an example of what I think is great about our country.
I am a believer in if you are not progressing then you are just spinning your tires in a rut. I won’t be satisfied with this country or the world for that matter until God’s kingdom comes to earth as all us Christians pray. No, our country is not (yet) on the verge of revolution but that does not mean that justice an equality abound as it should and has in the U.S. in the past. We are not always moving forward. Like everything else in this world we have had our good and our bad times… but we should never stop trying to make things better. That is one of the primary tenets of this blog. Good is never good enough….
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