Capitalism, American style proved to be a highly faulted system that has severely damaged this nation's economic stability. Its corporations, based on new congressional legislation and regulations, can no longer slash millions of jobs of American workers, sending them to overseas nations, and then expect these same unemployed workers to purchase their products and services.
Capitalism, still a cornerstone of this nation, will have to play by a different set of rules. The enlightened members of the Congress have created new laws that use special tax concessions, tax penalties and various other forms of incentives and penalties to make absolutely certain that the corporations of America have an absolute, unavoidable responsibility to provide meaningful employment for this nation's workers.
This modernization of America's system of capitalism will be a major and critically important step in dealing with the dire situation in this country by which a very small minority of Americans, about 5%, control the lion's share of the wealth and income of the country while the a very large portion of the people in this country are forced to deal with unemployment, lower pay, longer hours, a lower standard of living, live on food stamps and struggle to just survive. More jobs for American workers and a much more reasonable and fair ratio of pay between CEO's and workers will, over a period of time, greatly balance the wealth and income among the people of America.
America is seeing a new generation of legislators and leaders enter the U.S. Congress and other key government agencies. This is a Congress that has many fewer millionaires and more and more lawmakers who truly represent the American people; problem solvers rather than problem creators are beginning to fill the halls of Congress.
The leaders of this nation have finally found ways to work together to arrive at solutions to the massive issue of societal violence caused by the illegal possession and unrestrained use of firearms by troubled individuals. They have realized that gun control measures that violate the rights of law abiding citizens in possessing legal firearms will never work and concentrated, instead, on strengthening laws for background checks already on the books and loopholes in the laws were fixed so that they now fully cover gun show and other random purchases.
And of most importance, new, coordinated efforts by federal and state agencies have been initiated to identify and address one of the primary causes of this problem; the need to raise awareness of the issue of mental problems that so greatly contribute to this violence; to develop effective ways to identify those individuals who show signs of being very troubled and to provide them with various forms of assistance and treatment. It's time to be proactive instead of reactive in carrying out the very difficult task of brining this situation under control.
Wall Street and the banking industry have undergone extensive reforms by which they can never again be bailed out by using taxpayer dollars. These banks and financial institutions can no longer engage in both commercial and investment banking functions, the latter that puts depositors' money at great risk . Many of the robber barons of Wall Street are now sitting in prison cells. The American people can, once again, feel much safer in investing their money in the growth and profitability of companies rather than seeing this money being used as gambling chips in giant Wall Street casinos.
Could America actually enter into such an Age of Enlightenment and Reason? Not a doubt, not even a question that it could. Every one of the predictions described above is entirely achievable; every single one of them is well within our reach and capabilities. All it will take is the collective will and the energizing of this society, its people and its government. The only impediment that could prevent America from making such a monumental step into the future is --- America itself.
And, to be entirely realistic about this situation, there are a great many Americans who firmly believe that this could only happen as a result of a massive societal eruption. So, what's it going to be America?
Michael Payne
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
1
1
1
