Enslaved By a Free Society...

As an American, I am entitled to freedom, liberty, and opportunity. These are the privileges of being an American…am I not right? At first thought this statement seems almost silly to make. In the United States of America, all citizens have these privileges and rights. If one wants a concise listing of our American rights, they can go read the Constitution of the United States of America and find them all…a pretty good list.

“So what,” you might ask, and this is what I will answer.

I have been studying American history lately and when being refreshed of the condition of the slaves and poor in the south, both pre and post civil war, I have come to ponder some conditions, which existed then and still continue to exist today.

After the civil war ended the slaves were given their freedom and with the 14th & 15th amendments came their right to vote (male that is). Troops were moved in from the Republican North to enact reconstruction of the Democratic South. Not much happened other than occupation and a change in titles and conditions. The Democrat elite still ran the south and not much came of reconstruction. In an effort to protect their empires, the elitist in the south devised ways to keep the republican freedmen (former slaves) from voting. They would require literacy exams, grandfather clauses based on land ownership by their grandfather (at the time no freedman had a grandfather who owned land as they were either slaves or were still in Africa), and any other bogus reason to keep the freedman (freed by the Republican North), from voting as it was inevitable for them to vote the party ticket of those who freed them.

The Freedmen and poor white’s still had their leash though. Instead of being property they were now free, but became indebted to the elite. With sharecropping, they were allowed to farm a piece of land, but had to give the largest part of the profits to the landowner. They were free, but had never been shown how to get out of their cage.

Today, things are so very different. We all have our rights and opportunities. Color is of no issue, unless you happen to be a white male and encounter affirmative action. We all have the same opportunities and freedoms, and the elitist has been brought down to a common level.

While it is true that we have to pay taxes for who knows what, we are a free society living in a state of liberty and justice. We are all taxed on our incomes at a fair rate, unless we happen to be rich, then we are taxed at a “fairer” rate. We all have the same opportunities, if we can afford them, and we all can be what we want to be, if we can once again afford it.

In reality, not much has changed. While it is true that if the situation is right, we can all get a good education, have nice houses and cars, but do we truly have freedom and liberty. Just as the Freedmen were free, they were allowed to possess homes (barely livable though), and work property at their choice, they also had to pay more than their fair share to the landowner. The feed and seed was sold to them at unfair rates, and if they had a bad year they still had to pay it back. Debt would inevitably stack from year from year and they once again found themselves in bondage of financial debt to the elite; sound very familiar in my life right now.
I got what education I could afford, went into debt to finance my house and cars. The house needs repair so out comes a second mortgage. Cars wear out and need replacing which means more debt will be added on. Accidents happen and ability to work soon follows and the state allows money back (that I have paid in) at a rate that doesn’t come close to covering my losses.

In order for our nation to function, we need to pay taxes, which I agree with. But, are they of any real benefit to my family and me. Yes I want to drive on paved roads and have military and police protection, but I also do not believe the administrators of such agencies should become rich from the proceeds of our taxes. The upper middle class along with the rich will fight for government support of such issues as the arts and such, but what about the majority of us who are simply trying to get by.

If a select group wants to support such an agency, then it is they who should fund it, not the ones who are losing what they have. We don’t need to support anything until we can support ourselves. Taxes such as this should be optional for the taxpayer, not mandated.

We are represented by those who are not in our class or struggles and truly have no idea what we want or need. They cry culture why we cry shelter. Many of us live in a rent situation at rates that would easily buy a home, but with credit like it is, many cannot acquire the right credit to purchase. Also due to out of sight rent, we cannot save enough to buy a home outright.

Can we boycott, yes, but where will we live? Maybe we could stay with our relatives who have no room for us in their rented housing till we save enough for what we need. For those of us who have been allowed the credit to rent housing on the premise of purchasing, Shall we walk out and find a cheaper way to exist? Not likely as we are probably paying less than rent, but tack that insurance back in and we too are trapped.

So, in all this, I find that we are very much like the Freedmen in better living conditions. Our elite master has become the banking and finance institutions. A few people controlling the masses who are at liberty to continually toil themselves into ever increasing debt. We can do whatever we want as long as we can afford it. We can also continue to live in conditions less than what we strive for, as long as we continue to support the elitist company store.

We as those in debt and bondage need to find a way to separate ourselves from this downward spiral of ever-increasing debt through the banking and finance corporations. We need to bring value back to currency and away from the credit card system. We need to find a system, which allows our hard work to count for more than what the elite allows. We need to get smart and find a way to take what should rightly be ours back. We are trading our liberty for debt and bondage.

Anyway, these are some of my thoughts for today. Hopefully will post more ideas about ways to regain our liberty.

Until next time!