Land of Opportunism
Insurgency, we understand perhaps a little bit more because of the Taliban. And that is that they went about systematically understanding how to disrupt and change a person’s entire processes. - Republican Congressman Peter Sessions
There has arisen a movement to disassemble the United States government one piece at a time. It appears to be a throwback to Confederate secessionism that focused on states’ rights and an attempt to decentralize the federal government. There are references to state sovereignty even though states are no more sovereign than Canadian territories or Afghan tribal regions. They lack the power to wage war with foreign or domestic governments, sign treaties with foreign powers or issue their own currency.
They call themselves Tea Party activists, libertarians and objectivists. This is done under the premise that the country has progressed in a manner not intended by the Founding Fathers. This is apparently done through some spiritual clairvoyance that allows them to have intimate knowledge of these Founding Fathers’ intentions. Those who advocate this philosophy play upon their own amateur interpretation of the Constitution much like religious zealots play on their own interpretation of the Bible. Their vision of America is fairly sociopathic with little regard for governance or social accountability. Although they oppose government intervention and spending, many attend rallies while being supported by unemployment insurance, social security and socialized Medicare insurance. Their direction is free market and laissez-faire driven.
Although the free market’s claim is that this is an honest pursuit of the American Dream, it has no regard for or protection of the American economy. Exploitation of support systems has gone from a scorned subculture to a way of life. Although the welfare system was overhauled and reduced during the Clinton administration, the free market has been allowed to run roughshod over the American economy. American ingenuity has been has been reduced to an empty catchphrase. Predatory marketing practices have not only become commonplace in America, it has become widely accepted by free market proponents. We have become a culture that only sells and does not excel.
Finance no longer has any allegiance to any borders or nation, even the world economy. American small businesses are suffering from this phenomenon just as much as individual Americans. It’s time to remember whose predatory methods put us into this worldwide recession. It is also time to remember that free market advocates resisted bailouts and government interventions expecting free market solutions to resolve the crisis. These so called solutions didn’t improve the situation since mid 2007 when the recession started.
Anyone who holds allegiance to the ideal that business America is a victim of government is looking in the wrong direction. The GDP was not returning before the government passed its financial regulation program. While everyone is looking to the government to solve our economic problems, we need to look to American industry to lift us out of this mess. The whole worldwide recession is a free market failure that can only be solved by returning to solid free market principles and not by rolling our government back to 1776. The current system has become parasitic upon our nation. America has created a business culture of tax dodging, political influence peddling and legal gamesmanship.
The reason that politicians are blamed so heavily is because they come under public scrutiny that businesses would not be able to withstand. It is now the responsibility of our nation to extract maximum benefit from the businesses that drain our country’s resources and equity. We need to mold business to fit America and not America to fit business.
The American economy is bloated and paper heavy. American corporations are sitting on piles of cash and not investing in America or making an effort towards excellence in their industries. The only industries where we excel are financial paper and war machines.
We need to demand more accountability, allegiance and transparency from them. Considering consumer money drives business, businesses should be as accountable to consumers as the government is to its taxpayers. Private industry has a mission to safeguard credit in this country. American companies are commercial entities that are owned properties, just like cars and homes. This ownership carries the duty to hold the public at large harmless. That is the purpose of regulation. It isn’t the role of government to correct and compensate for free market abuses. Although the task of the nation is to maintain some safeguards for our economy, it must do so without the power to control it. As a result, the free market has been assigned to create, direct and maintain the economy. Why hasn’t the private sector been held culpable for excessive gas and health costs? That is the private sector’s job, not the government’s.
The Constitution was created to protect the people of this country, not the financial interests of a select few. Hence the phrase "We the People". Nonetheless, the Constitution is not an all inclusive document that dictates every situation. It wasn’t intended to be adjudicated by Monday morning arm chair quarterbacks in the legislature. That is what the Judicial branch is for.
We need to quit acting like companies are granting us privilege because they exist. They exist to serve their own purposes and not even in the interest of the free market system overall. They hire to serve their own interests as well and not out of any sense or pretense of benevolence. There is nothing noble about their mission. As broken as the U.S. government may seem, the U.S. free market is worse.