Today, we Grant You Your Wings

I know it's been a while, but if you're reading this, congratulations! You've made it to level two.

Recently, a lot of things have been in the news. General Petraeus giving his Iraq report to Congress, the sixth anniversary of the September 11th attacks, just how bad this government truly is. But the thing that we haven't really touched on is the declining middle class. As the world strives to unite under a global economy, some countries benefit, and some don't. America belongs in the latter rather than the former. Sure, prices for clothes and video games are low, and we can buy just about anything we want. But that's not the point. The point is that there is a price for these "luxuries," a price paid in American lives.

I'm not talking about the war in Iraq; I'm talking about the rising number of people in poverty and how it is now harder than ever to escape it. Poverty is a pit that a lot of people are at the bottom of. During the 1950's and '60's, hell, even the '70's, the government was helping people to escape it. Use whatever metaphor you like, but the government was providing many, many jobs to people and as such the economy was bustling. Especially during the 1950's, where unemployment was insanely low. This economy relied on one thing: the middle class.

You know, the people who make a decent living but they don't make so much that they're Donald Trump. They were working-class Americans. These people could save money, buy a house, buy their kids some good Christmas presents, and afford to live comfortably. Now, however, the middle class is virtually gone. The middle class is disappearing faster than angel food cake at a weight-watcher's convention. Now, that's not to say it's not there anymore; no, there is still a middle class...buried underneath the millions of people who have slipped off the deep end into financial trouble, all at the hands of the free market.

This is where we grant you your wings. You see, the economy is turning more and more into a global entity, and slipping away from protecting the people who rely on it to survive. As the economy becomes less and less focused on American people, and more and more on American businesses, the whole country suffers. Those businesses are exploiting the loopholes and the low-to-non-existent tariffs surrounding this country by moving overseas to countries with relatively weak economies. This, in turn, lays off thousands of Americans at a time, while saving the American company a ton of money by exploiting workers overseas.

This is why labor unions were originally created: to stop the exploitation of American workers. Well, thanks to a free market economy, all those companies have done is moved away from America and into a country that they can exploit, whether it be in human lives, resources, or whatever else. Labor, money, greed...it all goes round and round. The free market ideals that this government is pushing on the American people and the rest of the world is appalling. It weakens America by strengthening the dichotomy between the rich and the poor, while at the same time taking away American jobs and sidestepping the laws that govern this society.

Take a moment to try and understand this whole situation. Is the cost in American lives and livelihoods high enough for you to take action? Or is it just low enough to not care and keep buying your cheap clothes at Wal-Mart?

-Anteaus