Greed Has Damaged The Country

Let's face some facts folks. We all have a certain amount of greed. The problem is, when the "haves" get almost total control of a political and economic system, they leave little but the crumbs for the remainder of society. Capitalism in its pure form is not about helping others, it's not about saving the sick or injured, it's not about helping to educate children, or to retrain workers, it's not about clean water, clean air or any other environmental concern. No, capitalism is about three things: MONEY, MONEY, and MONEY. This philosophy has now taken over America. It's been in the works since the days of the New Deal, when legislation put regulations on businesses, and later expanded even more, all with tremendous whining and foot stomping by many of the business interests and wealthy investors, even though these wealthy American remained, well, wealthy Americans. The way some of them whined, you'd have thought they wouldn't be able to buy their next meal. In the last three decades we've seen a roll back in protections for Americans, some made in the name of "competitiveness," but do any of you REALLY believe America can compete against countries where workers make a few bucks a day (if they're lucky), without cutting down American workers to that same level? Do you believe the country has benefited from these policies over the last few decades? If so, where? The gap in income disparity has grown to pre-Depression levels, as the wealthy have done VERY well, thank you, while most other Americans have seen declines or stagnation in income. All the while so called "commodity" prices have soared, even on basic food products, only damaging "unrich" Americans, and preventing any major economic recovery from taking hold. Remember folks, with these people, money trumps patriotism EVERY time.

I've heard it said several times on news programs lately, and no one has yet contradicted it; thus giving it credence, that the largest American companies have put more money into foreign countries than into their own country for the last thirty years. You want a job? Hey, go to some country where American business people have set up shop and agree to work for a pittance; you might have a chance. you might virtually starve to death, but to these people, hey so what?

We now have a major American political party, guess which one, orchestrating cuts to all sorts of government programs and to wages and benefits for America's dwindling middle class. Don't be fooled by the television and radio ads, folks. That's what this is about, cuts to middle class Americans, and the destruction of ANYONE daring to mention taxes on the wealthiest Americans. Folks, they don't call it "conservatism" because they want to empower middle and working class Americans again. They want to take the country back alright....way back! Pick any previous century. Now, a counter-balance has emerged, THANKFULLY! The recent demonstrations dubbed "Occupy Wall Street" has grown from the streets of New York City to many other places across the country, and it is expanding every day. President Obama came to the presidency with the slogan "change you can believe in." Ah, 'scuse me, where is it? The president missed the boat, and no matter how many times the Republicans virtually spit in his face, he went back for more! My mother used to say, "Don't be a glutton for punishment." The President needs to heed that advice, and he may well be heading in that direction, as he wants our votes again. The country needs leadership; leadership against the tremendous greed that is overwhelming us. The question is, is Obama up to the task?

WORD HISTORY:
Wall-This noun has an uncertain origin, although there are some theories connecting it to some Indo European roots, but I'll stick to what is essentially agreed upon. It goes back to Latin^ "vallus," which meant "stake, post." This then gave Latin "vallum;" that is, "a line of stakes forming a barrier, a wall, rampart." It seems to have been borrowed into West Germanic, an offspring of Old Germanic,^^ as "wallaz," with the same basic meaning, which then expanded to include "earthwork of stakes with dirt mounded against it as reinforcement;" thus a form of dam or dike. Old English had "weall," with the same meanings, but then expanded further to "inside and outside walls of a building." The noun later gave off a verb form, "weallian," meaning "to wall off something, to put a wall around." Both the noun and verb forms then became "wall," and have remained so ever since. Common in the other Germanic languages, but more so with the original "rampart, fortification, dike" meaning: German has "Wall" (for those learning German, it is "der" Wall), Low German Saxon has "Wäll/Wall," North Frisian, now almost extinct, has "wal," and Dutch too has "wal." The other Frisian dialects do not seem to use a form of the word any longer. Some West Germanic dialects passed along forms of the word to some North Germanic languages, and Swedish has "vall" and Norwegian has "voll." Danish has "val," which means "battlefield." Whether this comes from the same word, I don't know, but it could be tied to the "fortifications' meaning of the word.

^ Latin is an Indo European language related to English, but further down the family tree, although many English words trace back to Latin directly, or indirectly, mainly via French. Latin has also had major influences on many other European languages not direct offshoots of Latin itself. While Latin still lives on in religious circles, its usage is much diminished. It hasn't so much died out as evolved into Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and others.

^^ Old Germanic gave birth to three offspring: North Germanic, the ancestor of modern Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Faroese, and Icelandic; East Germanic, which once included Gothic, Burgundian, and Vandalic (the language of the Vandals), but all East Germanic languages have died out; and West Germanic, the ancestor of English, German, Low German, Dutch (including Flemish), Frisian, Afrikaans, and Yiddish.