Do we pay the piper or keep on dancing?

A side-effect of this is that many of our citizens have been stripped of their pride as well.

This wasn't supposed to be the only thing that mattered.

(HARRISVILLE, N.H.) - We are weeks away from entering a Presidential election year and as you might expect, the current administration is grabbing at economic flotsam like a drowning man. Anything that could remotely be considered a positive is escalated to the stature of being a miraculous economy saving result of the wise decisions made by the current administration while all negative news is swept under the rug, rationalized away, or blamed on the previous administration.

A prime example of this is today’s rave reviews of the 120,000 new jobs created with nary a mention of the 316,000 people who left the workforce out of frustration or lack of opportunity. There was also no mention of how many of these 120,000 jobs were seasonal hires that would be let go by the end of February if not sooner. If you doubt this, just capture the total number of people employed as of this writing and compare that figure to the total number of people employed at the end of March 2012.

Do you really believe that things are absolutely great?

Well, let’s take a look: US debt is increasing at over 100 billion a month, we have the worst, most expensive health care system in the world, too many incomes haven't increased in yrs, 50% of Americans are illiterate or nearly so, 40% of national expenditures are spent on killing people, 50% of Americans who are lucky enough to still own a home, owe more on their home than it's worth (not their fault of course), we are printing money like there's no tomorrow and positioning ourselves for run-away inflation the likes of which we have never known, Wall Street is totally out of control, 1 in 4 kids live below poverty level, untold millions haven't any health insurance, the banks and corporations who have been so busy raping our citizenry are owed countless favors by our supposed leaders and politicians and those favors are payable on demand, and 1 in 3 families are at or nearly at poverty level! Had enough? You bet things are great... if you are stoned out of your mind, as numb than a pounded thumb, or unconscious!

I will freely admit that I'm one of those old fools who grew up before shopping was a recreational activity, when debt was considered a negative thing, when we paid for things as we went, when the average home size was 950 square feet, when we had one phone and that was a shared (party) line, when the few computers that existed in the world were the size of small buildings, when a new car was a novelty that everyone gathered to see, when one income supported a family, and when few homes even had a TV so families actually talked to each other. It was a time where most of what the government told you was true. All I can say at this point is, I am thankful for that short opportunity to have lived in a different reality.

Please do not misunderstand me. I am not ignoring the great many discoveries, inventions, cures, and processes that have improved our world. I am simply saying that our focus has gone wildly astray. When so many children have to have their own cell phones while attending grade school and high school, when the social life takes on such huge importance that people are being killed every day because of texting while driving, and when internet social media like Myspace, Twitter, and Facebook become devices that push kids to suicide, it is clear that our ability to set priorities has become 100% FUBAR.

Our country seems to be under the influence of a drug that causes us to ignore that which is going on around us and creates a failure to recognize the cause of these symptoms that are sickening our society. The drug I refer to is greed. Everyone wants the world to live in La-La land, the politicians promise to show you the way to La-La land, but no one is willing to pay the fare to La-La land for themselves... much less their neighbors.

We have watched our politicians and the banks that own them grow fat by stripping U.S. citizens of hard-earned dollars with ever increasing taxes. A side-effect of this is that many of our citizens have been stripped of their pride as well. The politicians speak kindly of the children but spend money on supporting war mongering countries rather than feeding the 1 child in 4 living below the poverty level.

Despite the daily visual bombardment by the media, few lift a finger or even their voices to try to put a stop to the continuing orgy of greed that has become our government’s charter. We have actually become a part of the problem because we keep re-electing the politicians who were suckled on the golden teat from the point of their entry into national politics and refuse to quit sucking regardless of how far down our country goes.

Too many people believe that electing one party vs. the other is the answer. Both of the major political parties are fully owned by the banks who, in turn own the corporations that have fronted the money to pay the piper who played the flute for the dance. Now the piper must be paid lest we lose the barn the dance is being held in, to the banks and corporations that hired the piper to begin with... but, that is just my opinion!

These are some of the things Robert takes into account when writing commentary that is designed reach people, to "get them thinking" in his words, and indeed it does. Salem-News.com's goal is for all people to be on the same page, we appreciate Bob's more conservative approach toward that same goal."

You can write to Bob Collingsworth at this email address: colli2@webryders.net