Bad American! 5 Things Every freedom loving American should STOP doing right now.

This may anger some people but it needs to be said.  If tomorrow every American governed themselves by this list, we would see positive change almost immediately.  When I say positive change, I'm not saying we'll all be dancing in the streets, richer and more enlightened.  I'm saying that corporations will have to make their offerings more price competitive and of better quality.  Lawmakers will be forced to represent the will of ALL of the people.  The news media outlets will have incentive to report on news across the political and social spectrum.  The list goes on.  There would be a stronger sense of community.  Art and culture would flourish.  People would be happier.  Imagine such a place.  What I'm describing is commonly referred to as a Golden Age.  It is only possible if we make it happen.  I'm not saying this list is a cure to all that ails us but it's a great start.  All I ask is that you consider these five things as you go about your day tomorrow.   

1.  Stop being Star Suckers!  Stop obsessing over your false idols.  While you are gorging your senses on cookie cutter dramas, (False) Reality shows, Major media news and  Pro Sports, the elites continue to maneuver you into a position of financial servitude.  Major media is designed to keep you fat and happy and when you are fat and happy it makes you less productive and more complacent.  They've now got you right where they want you.  Just like magicians, they use slight of hand.  As they've got you focused on one thing they're reaching their greedy little hands in your pocket and you don't even know it!  It's common practice for Major News outlets to use this device in cooperation with  government to distract from shady dealings while still maintaining the illusion that they have nothing to hide.  Stop filling your head with crap and you will start noticing that things don't look quite right!

2.  Stop trying to be like everybody else!  The herd mentality, I suspect, is the biggest cause of misinformed voting.  An example of this would be:  " Well, my parents are Democrats so...I'm gonna vote Democrat. " or " It's Obama's fault the economy is the way it is ".  I hear the latter all the time and it really irks me.  While Obama has clearly made it worse, this economic crisis was in the making years prior to him even being in office!  People will believe almost anything they hear without fact checking if they believe the source to be reliable.  We cannot continue to allow rumor and conjecture to sway elections.  Unfortunately, major media uses this tactic on both sides and countless numbers of votes are cast ignorantly.
     This same problem drives profits for unscrupulous corporations.  These big corporations have mastered the art of selling crappy products for way more than they are worth.  Think about it for a second, how much could it possibly cost to build that smartphone you just paid $600 for?  I'll tell you, an Apple IPhone 4 retails for $599 and costs in the neighborhood of $194.05 to produce.  That is a profit of $404.95!  That is to say nothing about the obscene profits they make selling apps, carrier rights and every doodad you might need to accompany this new toy.  Now, multiply that equation by the number of products they sell.  It must be nice to make so much money that they can afford to brainwash huge portions of the population into thinking they need this overpriced hunk of crap.
     My point is, with the profits they make on this one product, they could easily afford to sell the phone for much less and manufacture it more responsibly.  The "I need to fit in" mentality drives price inflation in the same way for virtually every product you buy.  The Oil Companies, The Medical industry, Auto Makers, Retailers, Cell Phone Carriers, The Banks, Technology Manufacturers, The Restaurant Industry, Hollywood, The Media Industry, and countless other sectors of commerce are relying on the Herd to fatten their profit margins.  Think about that next time you're at the mall eating that $6 pretzel.

3.  Stop thinking that the politicians are in Washington to serve you!  They're not!  We tend to have blind faith in the politicians in "our" respective parties.  Both the Democratic and the Republican parties are rife with corruption.  Most of the politicians on Capitol Hill are bought and paid for.  The lobbying in Washington is so widespread that Jack Abramoff in his interview with 60 minutes stated that he couldn't think of one politician that wasn't influenced by lobbying money.  This is one of the biggest problems we face as a nation!  If our Senators and Congressmen are writing laws that favor the will of the wealthiest Americans who's looking out for us?  I'll tell you who, nobody!  Let's put it this way, if our lawmakers we're as useless to their corporate bosses as they are to the American people, they'd be out of a job!
     To make matters worse, and this alludes to #1 on my list, the major media outlets are owned by the two parties.  They have made it nearly impossible for any other leadership option to come to light.  It is truly up to us to vote out what I call the two party dictatorship.
     The bottom line is, every vote for a Democrat or a Republican is to do nothing but to continue the cycle of corruption.  (That said, I think Ron Paul is one exception.)

4.  Stop using credit!  Credit is a device used by the banks for a multitude of reasons, none of them good.  Most people don't stop to think about the fact that they don't actually own much.  They might have a loan on a nice car that they drive every day but they don't own it.  They might live in a nice house but chances are, they don't own it.  Until the loan is concluded, you don't own it!  How about that nice HD tv you watch every night or the computer you're reading this blog on right now?  At the end of the day most people pay a lot of money every month but don't own anything.  I know, you're gonna say "But I'll own it when I pay it off!".  Yeah, sure you will, but what kind of shape is that car gonna be in by the time you pay it off?  Probably doesn't matter cause you're just gonna trade it in for a newer car you don't own!  After all, we live in a society where we HAVE to have the newest, best things.  "Well, what about the house?"  That all depends.  Generally, buying a house is a good investment.  That's to say, depending on when you bought it, what kind of loan you got, how much your city, town or county has jacked the taxes up and a million other variables.  I know many people who are hopelessly underwater in their home loans.  The bottom line is that almost nobody can afford to buy a house with cash so a loan is a necessary evil.  This brings me to my next point.
     Credit allows us to buy stuff we can't afford!  This makes way for gross price inflation.  Almost all of the products we buy these days are sold at prices that bring unjustifiable profits.  Even though the corporations have maximized their profit potential by producing over seas with materials that are barely adequate, they still charge too much!  That combined with practices like planned obsolescence keeps us swiping those cards!
     Once you get into the cycle they've got ya!  You get used to the false sense of financial security as they dangle that all mighty credit score above your head to remind you who the boss is.  You better not miss a payment or EVERYTHING you buy from now on will be more expensive.  But don't fret, you've got the rewards card so they'll return one percent of the 28% they stole from you!
     The best thing you can do is cut your cards up and throw them in the trash can where they belong.  Whether you owe the bank or not, I'll justify this for you.  The banks have stolen enough money from you in the past that I'm sure it will cover your balance.  I think most of us are familiar with that creepy feeling when we look at our statement and realize they jacked the interest rate up (for the second or third time) due to rising costs.  I don't generally condone thievery but what comes around, goes around.  The bankers are the biggest thieves on the planet, they've put a lot of effort into blurring the lines between right and wrong.  I know this sounds a bit extreme and it will surely trash your credit score but let's face it, they deserve it!  Anyway, the worst they can do is sue you at which point you go into court and settle for a fraction of what they claim you owe.  I did it and it was tough in the beginning but it gets easier knowing at the end of the day you don't owe anybody anything!

5.   Stop the Waste!  The waste in America is astounding.  Somehow we've been convinced that it's ok to dispose of things that work fine just because they've lost their luster or have been replaced by the next best thing.  The corporations have spent millions of dollars steering us in that direction.  I hate to use "smartphones" as an example again but these corporations are some of the worst offenders.  Have you ever noticed in these phone commercials the language they use?  Every three weeks it seems like the "best thingamadinger EVER" is out only to be surpassed by the "Best Superthingamadinger Ever" three weeks later.  "Oh shit, my Thingamadinger is out of date!" I'll be a loser if I don't get the new one!  How about this one by Verizon?  "Rule the Air"  What?  Just because I have a verizon phone I "Rule the Air"?  That's fucking awesome!  Is there any documentation of this?  What happens if I catch someone else in my Sky Kingdom?  Perhaps I could afford to   We perpetuate this absurd cycle.  While these phones are cool with all the things they do I think we've lost sight of the fact that they're just phones.  People got along without any phones for a million years.  While I'm not implying we go back to the days of the carrier pigeon, we do need to think about this nonsense for a while.  They're a luxury for almost all of us and certainly NOT worth the price they command.  Countless other corporations use the same tactics to "advertise" their over hyped, under performing crap.
     The ramifications of such wasteful logic are felt socially, environmentally, politically and financially on a Global scale.  Yes, I said it, GLOBAL.  Just because you don't see the giant, unnecessary trash heap you've created doesn't mean it doesn't exist.  I don't have proof but I suspect that the powers that be don't want you to see it.  It doesn't help their bottom line to laden your conscience with such shame.

 In conclusion:

     Our nation was forged out of an unwavering belief that equality and freedom is the path by which we would lead all of mankind.  America is undoubtedly still the best country in the world but we have been led astray.  Our standing in the world is diminishing and our priorities have become clouded.  We wage war without cause.  We manipulate domestic and foreign policy in the name of profit.  We are divided by an illusion of difference in ideals fabricated by the two parties  We justify corruption, greed, vanity, hate, dishonesty and murder by doing nothing to stop it.
     How, exactly, did we get here?  We are here because we were led here by men who serve nothing but their own relentless ambition.  We lost our right to choose our path the minute we decided to put faith in someone else to do what we should be doing ourselves.  The Elite and their puppet lawmakers have got us right where they want us.  They are making sums of money that are unimaginable to the average man and will continue to do so until they are forced to stop.  I fear that we may never defeat them.  I fear that my little girl will grow up and be forced into debt slavery.  Most of all I fear that good men will sit idly by as our nation gets sold to the highest bidder.
     For my part, I cannot stay quiet any longer.  I owe it to my family, my friends, my countrymen and future generations to get involved.  I will be here on this blog and on my Youtube channel every day at (http://www.youtube.com/user/Takingbackamerica78)  Please subscribe and join me.  I ask that everyone who reads this get involved in some way.  This problem will not fix itself!  Our complacency created this beast, it is up to us to slay it!  Thanks for reading.


Bad American! by Keller J. Eaton is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.