Friday 10 June 2016

What are you Worth? Daniel Skillman making vital points that affect us all in the West

Daniel Skillman - Stone Mountain Georgia
A U.S. Supreme Court decision in 2010 declared corporations to be persons, entitled to the same First Amendment rights as individual citizens. In particular, they can now participate in elections through campaign contributions. -Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (2010)
Then the Court decided that persons could contribute up to $1.2 million to a Presidential campaign in any two year cycle, and an *unlimited amount to “independent” expenditure committees (Super PACs). MuCutcheon v. Federal Election Comission (2014)
As the wealthy and powerful are able to manipulate government mechanisms and even write laws in their favor, they grow even more wealthy and powerful further enabling them to affect the law, and so on and so on. These fairly recent decisions with their massive effect on who is *really making the laws now, to who’s benefit, and to who’s detriment, have tremendously accelerated this cycle. The spiral of money flowing upward is growing more and more narrow.
This, in turn, affects those in the middle and at the bottom. As the law (and the mechinisms of law) increasingly reflect the interests of the rich and powerful few, they decreasingly reflect the interests of everyone else. Things that were once taken for granted like certain wage levels, job security, health care coverage, pensions, etc., begin to go away.
Getting those things back has very little to do with how smart a person is or how hard they work. You can’t just move to a better job with those things. Those things are, increasingly, simply gone from available jobs, swallowed up by the interests of the elite.
Telling people that they should better educate themselves or work harder, while the right moral advice, is no longer very relevant to the desired outcome of significantly increasing one’s hope for the future (Satistically speaking, that is. Examples to the contrary are many, of course. But from a bird’s eye view, the people who are actually looking at the data can see that upward mobility is on a severe decline.) Sure, people should strive to become better educated. Yes, people should apply their best efforts to the tasks they undertake. Those are *good things to do. But they are no longer the answers to the problems people are having. This is because these things are no longer enough in an economy that, more and more, reserves its rewards for a wealthy and powerful few.
Yes, educate yourselves. Yes, work hard. But my guess is, you’re already doing that.
One thing you might not be doing is getting involved in the political process. Speak out. Engage in conversations over this. Constructive conversations. Get *facts out there. Impress upon people the ethical importance of these things. Organize. Make your voice heard with the people in power. And yes, vote.
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33Daniel Skillman, Mark Paulson and 31 others
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Michael Edwards
Michael Edwards Corporations may be legal persons, but they are not voting citizens! It seems outrageous to me that they should influence our politicians with huge bribes, erm, campaign contributions.
Like · Reply · 3 · Yesterday at 17:25
Wayne E Daniels Jr.
Wayne E Daniels Jr. YUP most people don't research this stuff... they think everything has been the truth at face value... It's a sad and unfortunate. People have no Idea in the difference in Defacto and Dejure government...
Like · Reply · 2 · Yesterday at 17:30
Mark L. Hammond
Mark L. Hammond Amen.
The other frightening spectre is the development of technology that is advancing to replace all low-skill jobs. Not only low-skill jobs; but increasingly, military and police as well. What is going to happen when the rich & powerful no longer need the poor to do their grunt work for them?
We need to change how we place value on life. Our "free market" *cough* system places value through production. When production no longer requires people (except the extremely intelligent & skilled), what is the life of a normal person worth??
Like · Reply · 2 · 23 hrs
John Kemp
John Kemp My sentiments exactly.
Like · Reply · 1 · 18 hrs

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