Under Nourished Family

The world is screwed up. I guess that this statement doesn't come as a surprise to anyone, just look around you. What gets me, is the fact that not only is it screwed up, but it is screwed up on so many levels. Sometimes you wonder how we are all able to survive. Many of our problems have increased with time and technology. If we look at the world as a whole, we see that there are areas of great prosperity and areas of great poverty. There are charitable organizations trying to help, but it is just too little and even if it were enough, in some areas, the aid is just being stolen or withheld by other people from the same country. It is hard to believe that some people could be so cruel, but there you have it. The earth is covered with water, but in some areas, usually the same areas that are short on food, there is a great water shortage. What is being done about this? I guess it would be correct to say that almost nothing is being done. If we look at the continent of Africa we see a place that is mostly neglected by the rest of the world, why is this? The reason is very simple, there is no profit in helping others.

In the U.S. there was a meeting between two different corporate industries. The meeting occurred before the oil prices went crazy. It took place between the heads of the medical and the petroleum industries. At the time of the meeting, the medical industry was the most profitable industry in the U.S. Shortly after the meeting oil prices began to rise and never stopped. Was this a coincidence? I personally don't think so, It looks to me like the oil industry learned that they could get away with a lot of things as the medical industry already knew and was doing. Now we have two giant industries that just keep raising prices outrageously.

All companies need to make a decent profit to keep going and no one is saying that they shouldn't, but laws were passed years ago to stop companies from banding together to control pricing. These laws have been totally disregarded today. I am almost willing to bet that if we examined the portfolios of members of congress they would be bulging with oil and medical stocks. That is one of the reasons we are so screwed up, why would people who are making a fantastic profit from oil and medical stocks rule against these companies by passing laws that would cut down on their profits? In the middle east people are trying to live together on the same land and yet these people are the ones that have been fighting for thousands of years. Is it possible that they can settle their differences? Unfortunately for the world, I wouldn't bet on it. It seems that there will always be tension in this region. Even without Israel, these countries have been fighting each other forever.

You constantly hear that the killer flu is coming. Are there those in government that would make a profit from sales in flu treatment drugs? You bet! I am not saying that this is the reason we keep hearing about this, but I am saying that they have at least figured out a way to take financial advantage of this situation. It is getting to the point where people in government office should not be allowed to own any stocks and lobbyists should be abolished. What do lobbyists really do? If the public knew that, they would push for the entire government to be replaced. Think about it, make believe you are a Representative or Senator and you are meeting with a lobbyist for a big industry or foreign country. He, or she, buys you a beautiful lunch and starts talking about a bill that his or her industry would like passed. They ask you to think about it and hand you an envelope. In it are first class tickets to a tropical paradise along with hotel reservations and $50,000 spending money. The lobbyist says that this is just to let you relax while you decide what to do and tells you that if you decide to introduce the bill and it is passed, there will be a much, much larger reward for you. Is this the kind of thing that we want going on in our congress? By the way, this will be denied by everyone associated with lobbying. Ah, if we could only get the TRUE story of Jack Abramoff the lobbyist who pleaded guilty to fraud, tax evasion and conspiracy to bribe public officials.

I don't want you to think that this only happens in the U.S., that is far from true. In most countries of the world you can not conduct large scale business without cash passing under the table. Laws were passed to prevent U.S. companies from doing this, but it happens anyway, if it didn't they couldn't compete. If you wonder who controls some of these foreign companies, let me tell you a story. A few years back one of the largest of the Japanese auto companies was having a board meeting. The chairman of the company said something that a certain individual, who was in attendance, didn't like. He got up, walked up to the chairman and slapped him across the face. The chairman didn't dare respond. I read this article in an online news report and have no way of verifying it, but I wouldn't doubt it's accuracy. It seems that crime lords have a lot to say about some businesses.

Wars

There are wars going on everywhere. I always look to see if things are happening so someone or some company can make a profit. There is no denying that just in munitions alone huge fortunes are being made. Every time a rocket is fired someone is licking their chops because they know that these things are expensive and more will be needed to replace the used ones. New munitions are more expensive than ever and there are several countries that lead the world in munitions sales. The leading sellers of guns in the world are the U.S., Russia and China. Not to be out done, there are those that sell the missiles, bombs, aircraft and such. Every time a Harpoon missile is fired from a ship, millions of dollars is sent flying to it's target. Some planes are now costing us about $100,000,000 each and these are not bombers, which cost considerably more. But war is advantageous in other ways to some companies. Where there is war, there is the military that needs auxiliary services. Companies have struck gold providing these services and even when they have been found cheating the tax payer, they still were allowed to carry on.

Whether we caused global warming or not is still up for debate. One thing is for sure, we certainly didn't help stop it. The oceans are rising and there are several places where land could slip into the ocean causing tsunamis. What are we doing to prevent this? I guess that I would have to say that aside from a warning system, prevention is not on our map. We are a disaster oriented world. What I mean is that we don't do anything until after the disaster strikes and then we are hot to correct things for a short period of time afterward. Everyone knows that a huge world wide population lives in coastal areas that are about at sea level. If a tidal wave hits, goodbye baby. Do you see any country trying to do anything to make these areas more secure or trying to move the most endangered of the population to a safer area? I don't. I could be very jaded and say that there are piles of money to be made in some of these areas if they are hit but I hate to say that.

Global Elite

Standards of living are changing all over the world. According to EPI, the U.S. standards of living are sliding downward for most, but there is a new global elite. Those that rely on paychecks and not investments in the U.S. are doomed to a lower and lower living standard, if things keep going the way they are. While other countries such as China are experiencing higher living standards right now, they too will reach a point where the average person, who is not an investor will start to feel the pinch. This may take quite a long time to reach in that country since it has a long way to go before it reaches the economic levels of the peoples in the U.S. It is beginning to look like there will be a rich class of investors in every country that will be quite well off and extremely happy with the way things are going, and then there will be the rest of the people who are scratching to make a living. It sort of reminds you of the middle ages where you had land owners and serfs. Are we going backwards?

We invented nuclear weapons and deadly poison gases only to see them beginning to come within the reach of terror organizations. We are not very good at taking the long view before we jump into something.

Isn't it about time that we got our act together? We should help the needy, not only for charitable purposes, but because we may ourselves be the needy someday. The earth is our home, the only one we have right now. Would you let your home run down? Isn't it about time that we tried to take care of it and it's people? We can't let greed ruin this planet. We must change some of the ways things are done. There is certainly nothing wrong with making a profit but there is something wrong, when you make it at the expense of others. We seem to be sadly lacking in morality at this stage of our development. It is about time that all these religious battles stop. It just makes no sense to kill people in the name of God. Almost every religion states that God is good. If this is truly believed, than what would make anyone think that killing in His name is right? If we start correcting our ways right now, it might be possible in a hundred years from now to have one united planet and this is what we truly need. At that point we will be able to accomplish what would seem like miracles today.