Quasi-legal Looting
When a looter steals a TV worth a few hundred dollars the National Guard is ordered to shoot to kill. The banking and financial industries looted the country mercilessly for billions upon billions often with impunity, quasi-legally.
The banking and financial industries under present electoral laws can greatly influence elections and make demands on the winning candidates. Thus the obviously needed banking regulations are only very partially put in place and applied. So we see a situation where the banking and financial industries profit by the country failing economically. Are you against regulation because it limits freedom? Are you also against laws against murder because they limit freedom? Oh … that’s very different … I don’t think so. Yet unregulated greed in the banking and financial industries do kill thousands of people by causing desperate situations leading to depression, domestic violence, insufficient education, insufficient attention for little ones, drug and alcohol abuse, etc.
The great profits in the banking and financial industries have been proportionate to the great loses of personal worth of the majority of Americans. Here is another example of greedy abuse of the American people where we, the people, are led to believe that lazy people are taking advantage: 80% of the people who receive food stamps are working people. So who is getting the subsidy – our tax money?
The corporations such as McDonald’s, Walmart, and other national chains that don’t pay a living wage are getting it. We, the people, are subsidizing their profits, by helping the poor working people who should be receiving a living wage from said companies and are not! Fulltime employment should pay enough for workers to live. So the huge corporations make a few less billions a year? Tough. This is a clear case of lobbying influence that we unwittingly pay.
In order to restore a healthy American democracy, money must not have so much influence over election campaign results. The candidates and their platforms are printed and also found online. This information can also be available on public education stations and more responsible private stations. Elections must be intelligent declarations of policies and intentions so that the electorate can make intelligent decisions as to what is best for them as individuals and for the country as a whole. Check out Americans for Campaign Reform.