We Need Socialized Medicine And Lots Of Other Stuff (AKA Corporations Have Too Much Power)

I was laid off in January of this year. It was a jarring experience even if it wasn't altogether unexpected. I knew I was a target for such an action. My former company was losing sales every year, my supervisor was not supportive of my work/role and I was highly compensated for my work. So, they finally pulled the trigger and let me go, giving me a paltry couple of weeks severance (which I did not accept because I had to release them from any bad deeds known or unknown and some other stupid stuff) at any rate, my wife, child and I all take medication and use doctors frequently. It became quickly apparent to me that I was going to be as swiftly crushed under the weight of these medical costs. Fortunately I was able to find a decent job in less than a month. At any rate, people in this country are just plain stupid when it comes to things like socialized medicine. They have no problem with socialism for enormous corporations (like the recent bailout of banks on Wall Street, or even GM for that matter), they have no problems with socialistic things like the Fire Department, or the Police Department, Public School (well here they might buck a bit), even the Military but socialize medicine? You must be crazy?!?!? A National Health Care program (a real one) would be a tremendous boon to the people and small businessmen of this country and by God even to the big Corporations who still consider themselves "American" corporations! People say "How will we pay for all of this?". The answer: Taxes my friends, taxes, just like how we pay for everything else (well that and borrowing tons of money from Asian superpower rivals, but let's not get into that right now). I'm not adverse against taxing the wealthy in this country who have never paid enough taxes in the first place. People say things like "But if you tax the wealthy, won't they want to leave?" or "It's not fair, you're picking their pockets because they're successful" and other such spurious arguments. Let's get something straight, from what I've been told this is supposed to be greatest place on earth to live, right? Well we have an enormous defense budget, but what are we 'defending' against and whom are we defending? Well, it turns out that we're defending the wealthy and their money making enterprises all over the place. The other thing is that the wealthy, because they are the wealthy, yes, they create jobs, they also use up more of everything else, especially in the area of the commons. I had someone try to argue with me some years ago that Bill Gates didn't use up any more of anything "creating wealth" etc. Well gang, I call "bullshit" on that one. The wealthy use up more resources, more public services, more everything, so for the privilege of living in this country and using our public commons, our natural resources, our police, our fire departments, our courts, our military, our everything else, they can afford to pay a bit more in taxes. While I'm ranting and raving about corporate socialism, what the hell is wrong with the Supreme Court? It's bad enough that corporations already are treated as immortal persons under the law, but now they can contribute untold sums of money to influence politics, all in the name of free speech? For bogus non-human corporate "persons"????? It's time for the court and the law to understand that corporations are NOT persons, they are not entitled to free speech, they are not citizens and as the President pointed out, our political system (which is already corrupt enough with lobbyists) is now open to even MORE corruption from multinational corporations who will want all the free speech they can afford. Well, if corporations are persons, then they need to attend to some of their responsibilities as persons, oh yes, and penalties for their misdeeds. Like that mining company that just killed a couple of dozen of it's workers in an unsafe mine. Apart from the fact that the CEO of that company should be breaking big rocks into little ones for the rest of his life, the corporation should be, like a person might be for a similar offense, put to death. The Supreme Court is so stupid it is astounding. Well they're not stupid, just a majority (the conservative majority) is in the pocket of big business so they do the bidding of their corporate masters. So much for the founders idea of insulating these guys from that stuff by giving them a lifetime job. Anyhow, suffice it to say I think things are so messed up that while I don't agree with these Tea Party idiots, I understand their frustrations. And while that "movement" smells of a right-wing astroturf group, there ARE some real people and some real grievances to be aired, it's just too bad that most of them are bigots who basically feel "I got mine, screw everyone else". At least that's the sense I get from these people. Anyhow enough ranting for now.