I Stand for Change

I stand for change - it's hard, it's challenging, it's frightening, it's exasperating, it's all these things & in the end it's exhilarating!

Where do I begin? Does one begin with the employer or the employed? Does one begin with the producer or the consumer? Does one start with the government or private industry? How do you balance free markets with moral character? What comes first, supply or demand?

When I was born to this earth people lived in what could be called an ownership society, a system dominated by individuals pursuing their own self-interest who not only advanced their interests but the interests of society and exhibited positive character traits such as initiative, self-reliance and cautiousness.

Recently we have become an agency or service society, one where many have transferred the right of control of our wealth over to corporate managers of large publicly-held enterprises, call it investment managers' capitalism. We can include our politicians as members of this class.

But these new service agents haven't behaved as agents should. These entities have placed their own financial interests ahead of the interests of the principals whom they are duty-bound to represent. It's been said that managers of other people's money rarely keep watch over it with the same vigilance with which they watch over their own.

A man and moral character is an absolute for one either has it or one does not. So if moral character in our society today is eroding (do you believe that it is?), it can follows that fewer numbers of people display solid character and more people do not.

The values of our financial and corporate leaders have deteriorated over these decades. Not all that long ago, there used to be a set of rules we followed: one such rule was "there are certain lines that one does not cross". We can call it a moral absolutism. Today, the rules appear to have changed, now people find comfort crossing lines if they can say: "if everyone else is doing it, I can do it, too." There can be no other name for this view than moral or normative relativism.

This breakdown in moral character has lead to vast differences in our individual earning capacities. Aggregate income for the United States measures the combined income earned by all persons in our country.

In 2007, all households in the United States earned roughly $7.896 trillion.[26] One half, 49.98%, of all income in the US was earned by households with an income over $100,000, the top twenty percent. Over one quarter, 28.5%, of all income was earned by the top 8%, those households earning more than $150,000 a year. The top 3.65%, with incomes over $200,000, earned 17.5%. Households with annual incomes from $50,000 to $75,000, 18.2% of households, earned 16.5% of all income. Households with annual incomes from $50,000 to $95,000, 28.1% of households, earned 28.8% of all income. The bottom 10.3% earned 1.06% of all income. This reminds me of the unconscionable fact that our enterprise CEO's earn 20, 30, 40 and up 500 times the wage of their average worker.

No wonder we have seen attempts to administer the prices of the goods and services we sell; look at the price of a barrel of oil; when the supply outstrips demand and we have rising prices.

Scandalous sums of money paid to lobbyists hired to shape our laws in favor of the rich and powerful; bail outs of the excess risk-taking and expensive financial innovation by our banking system.

No wonder why our political system is polluted with corporate interests and lobbyists delivering gobs of money in campaign contributions to our elected officials. The seek to further their corporate interests over the interests of the elected officials home state constituents; even against the general citizenry of the country.

Recent court appointees, in a landmark ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday struck down laws that banned corporations from using their own money to support or oppose candidates for public office. By 5-4 vote, the court overturned federal laws, in effect for decades, that prevented corporations from using their profits to buy political campaign ads. The decision, which almost certainly will also allow labor unions to participate more freely in campaigns, threatens similar limits imposed by 24 states. Elections matter!

Does this diminish our individual freedoms taking away from an individual and their ownership in society?

Our citizens have a huge stake in demanding higher moral values in our countrymen, our corporations and our government.

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Your Politics Demands A Wider View of Country
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