From Bad to Worse

In order to control the media, no reporters were allowed to enter the California earthquake zone that killed 110,000 people with 70,000 still missing. The government did not want any reporters or foreign relief workers to question or speak with our citizens even though their aid would help the suffering citizens. The problem would be the world outside who would learn too much about what was happening inside the American borders.

Fear of the secret police is in the forefront of everyone’s mind. Certain words and thoughts cannot be spoken without fear of reprisal. America’s freedom of speech has been choked off with insidious political correctness. When people want to talk honestly about the government they non-verbally signal each other to go into a separate room. Each speaks in hushed voices not to be heard by any listening device.

The average family can hardly afford a tiny prefab apartment while the elite live a privileged life of luxury. Assets of individuals are constantly confiscated for the “greater good.” Taxes continue to rise on the employed to pay for the unemployed. Water, oxygen intake and artificial temperature change are taxed according to sophisticated state meters penetrating the sanctity of our homes.

In the universal medical service system patients must pay money under the table to get an appointment before the usual six-month waiting period. Hospital beds are only available for the politically connected.

This may seem far-fetched to many Americans who take our freedom for granted. In our short history as a nation, many have made great personal sacrifice to put us on the right track when we veer too far to the left or right. Now there are few real patriots in power positions.

Historically the average person pays and a small elite group prospers whenever a people follow a leader who promises something for nothing, An idealistic plan based on hope rather than the reality of personal responsibility and sacrifice leads ultimately to a loss of economic freedom ending in a totalitarian existence.

Europeans are experimenting with this through accepting the European Union. Each of these joining nation’s elites have been willing to sacrifice their working middle class to join this scheme. The silence of the citizens of these countries has been bought by the hope of collective power giving each person more for doing less.

Right now in the EU gas is $9 a gallon and diesel fuel is over $10 per gallon, unemployment is in the mid to high teens. The federal income tax is about 48% with a 19-23% sales tax on everything sold. The price of food has doubled in the change of currency to the euro while incomes have increased only slightly. These results should wake up every American.

Things in Europe have gone from bad to worse. Are we are going to choose a similar socialistic model that is not working? Is the global economy going to maintain or improve our standing as the number one nation in the world or is it going to rob us of our freedoms? We have become soft and greedy. We complain, hold our noses and elect lying, corrupt candidates who spout schemes that will never work.

It is true no matter the level of functioning of the nation there are always things that can be improved. In economic downturns there are always legitimate gripes. We only know how good things were when we look back over time. We blame our country for our almost $4 a gallon of gas, a 6% mortgage rate, for beef at $5 a pound and sharp increases in airplane tickets. We are righteously indignant about the state of affairs and want immediate change without the necessary suffering, which is part of the hustle to stay on the top.

American’s greatness has been built on the backs of free, average people. When these people feel their efforts no longer matter we are a decaying society. We must keep our individual freedom not replace it with “the collective good.” There is no “free lunch.”

Change does not insure better conditions. It can go either in a positive or negative direction. Things can rapidly crash going from bad to worse. We can go from “the frying pan into the fire.”

Positive change takes work. Only by united citizens pressuring our leaders to do what is best for America, rather than continuing in their disgusting corrupt ways, can we regain America’s exceptionalism.

Dr. Maglio is the author of Invasion Within and Essential Parenting. He is a psychotherapist and the owner/director of Wider Horizons School.