Freedomstar's Rants

There are many issues concerning Americans today. Health care, rising cost of energy, terrorism, environments destruction and several others. One of the greatest problems I think facing us is greed. This drives a lot of the other issues and hurts Americans in general. Conservatives want less government because they are driven by greed, which leads to selfishness. Right now I equate conservatives with a “I’ve got mine, to hell with you.” attitude. Once people reach a level of financial security and comfort they don’t want to pay for anyone else any more. This can lead to loss of quality of life for Americans and increases the divide between social classes.

The current control conservatives have are eroding or trying to destroy the American way of life. They are trying to use their power to destroy social programs. This can be seen is several areas.

First, there is social security. Conservative politicians talk about the retiring Baby Boomers are going to bankrupt social security. Granted the system must make some adjustments during this time, but the Baby Boomers are not going to live forever. We’re just a bump in the system, but conservatives want to use this as an excuse to destroy social security. Eliminate it and Medicare, and the greedy rich get more money to themselves.

Health care costs are on the rise. More people become uninsured every month because of the high prices of health insurance. Hospitals and doctors try to run like businesses, concerned with the bottom lime instead of patients. Corporations are allowed to drop benefits to workers because of costs. Pharmaceutical companies are allowed to gouge us, getting politicians to vote for laws that protect their interests like the recent Medicare prescription plan. We should be moving toward a system of universal health care for all Americans. Instead, conservatives trot out how such systems like in Canada are terrible. Maybe Canada’s system is not perfect, but it’s better than what we have here. Companies and rich people don’t want this because they would have to pay. Greed is at play here.

Costs for energy are rising along with demand. Prices of gasoline and natural gas rose in the winter partly blamed on damage caused by hurricane Katrina and prices of crude oil going up. Yet, the oil companies reported getting huge profits for the year. How did this occur with damage to their refineries? Every time they have damages they pass the cost on to consumers. This should be against the law. Profits should be used to pay for repairs. Shareholders should suffer losses too. The car industry is no help. They should develop cars with better gas mileage. The government should push harder for the improvements of alternative fuel sources. Consumers can’t pay the price forever.

Corporations and other big business greed for greater profits is eroding worker’s rights. They are getting away from paying into pension, paying for health care insurance and other benefits. They want Americans to work longer hours for less pay. Using globalization as an excuse, they outsource jobs to countries where they can pay less for workers or use slaves. The government lets them get away with this in the name of a free market forgetting that the power lies with the people. It should be supporting us, not the greedy companies. Where are the penalties for them? They should pay higher taxes. Our government should protect the rights of the people not the greed of companies, their executives and shareholders.

In the end, Greed is the greatest problem driving many other problems in our country now. Selfishness is leading the the erosion of our rights and quality of life. we should not let this continue to happen. It drives a wedge between the wealthy, middle class and poor. We need to change things. The people should remind the government who they serve. Consumers and workers should let business know that they gain their money through the hard work of employees an consumers buying their products. If prices continue to rise to fuel greed and more people lose jobs, businesses won’t make any more money if people can’t buy their goods.

I don’t know about others, but I’m sick and tired of being taken advantage of by greedy people. It’s time for change. We the people need to take back our nation from greed.