Hear me out on this...

I’ve been thinking about this for the sadder part of the past four years. It’s a time in which I’ve seen the dehumanizing of many of our people. A time when corporate profits took the top priority over everything else. A time when our national debt has soared rather than the promised decline. A time when minimum wage jobs have been created that no one could live on, even though they were snapped up in the name of reducing unemployment. A time when disease has crippled the economy, created the highest unemployment in ages, and saw the sharpest decline in the stock market since the great depression.

But none of that is what I’ve been thinking about as I swelter in place in Texas. I’ve been thinking about the campaign to put a non-politician—a businessman—in the top leadership spot in the country. And that is the flaw that has been eating at me ever since.

I understand debt seemed to be out of control. It still is. I understand how scary the word ‘socialism’ is to capitalists who drive on paved highways created through socialism; depend on police and fire first responders paid through socialism; depend on businesses being propped up by socialist government funding; and collect socialist security checks each month.

But fundamentally, the United States of America is not a business. The government was not created to make a profit for the largest shareholders.

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

No. There is nothing in there that says ‘make a profit.’ In fact, quite the opposite. Justice, Tranquility, Defense, Welfare, Liberty. A very specific charter for our government, and one that has been eroded steadily for over two hundred years. Justice has gone to the highest bidder, tainted by racism, sexism, and wealthism. Never has there been a time when the people were less at peace in their lives, jobs, entertainment, and education. Our defense forces are routinely sent out to defend fiscal investments, not the people or their freedom; and after serving faithfully are cut loose without fundamental services and even deported. The general welfare of the populace stands a distant last place in the eyes of law and commerce. And our liberty has been supplanted by irresponsibility.

If we were to use the metaphor of the government as a business, we would have to say there has been a hostile takeover. It is being stripped to the bone and the dismantled parts sold to the highest bidder. The government has turned from its charter to see to the general welfare by tossing the name ‘socialism’ at it. Instead, it operates on the basis of getting the best return for its largest investors. This has artificially inflated market prices to the point where only the richest investors can afford the common necessities of food, shelter, and clothing.

The mean (average) household income in the United States has moved steadily upward with the GNP. However, the median household income (half of households below and half above) has fallen further and further behind the mean. This is the result of favorable treatment of the wealthy with lower tax rates, government subsidies, and deregulation. At the same time, households at or near the median are typically dual income households who still can’t earn an ‘average’ wage.

It has taken us 232 years to get to this point; we won’t reverse it all at once. If we have been taught anything by the Covid-19 experience, it is that the essential workers in this country do not sit behind large oak desks investing in stocks. Corporate executives do not earn their income; the lowest level worker in the company earns the executive’s income. The executive just collects it.

The Supreme Court ruled that corporations were protected under the First Amendment and could participate in (fund) election campaigns. This places corporations ahead of humans in the final degree. It has established the corporation as the principal stockholder in our government.

There are three things concerning our government that I have come firmly to believe in my 70 years. 1. The United States is not a business. 2. Corporations are not people/citizens. 3. Land doesn’t vote. People do.

These three items should be at the seat of reform in the next year or we will continue to flounder and oppression will become even more rampant.

The preceding was an unpaid rant by a citizen whose income falls well below the median but above poverty. I am not a corporation.