The country I know and love is gone. The land of the free and the home of the brave has become a seething cesspool of underpaid, uncaring, Godless, inconsiderate bastard children. Our commander-in-chief has become nothing more than a slumlord, demanding higher and higher taxes in various forms from his subjects, while the infrastructure of the nation crumbles beneath his feet.

How long will it take before the infrastructure of our nation crumbles to the point of total disaster? How long can the government provided, prescription happy pill fed citizens of this once great nation support the burdens which are being placed on them? How long will it be before the demands of the rich can no longer be met? Demands such as ever-increasing safety ratings, ever-increasing profits, ever-increasing greed, ever-increasing cost of living and ever-increasing fees that are continually handed down to the poor, reaches a point that the poor can no longer afford to be poor?

The day IS coming. Our once great nation will crumble under its own weight when the infrastructure gives way. The poor will scatter out of the way, and the rich will have the farthest to fall, and the hardest time adjusting. The poor (not including the government supported) have been trained for so long at surviving with a mere fraction of what is necessary for survival, that they will band together, and live off the land as they must. The rich, on the other hand will suddenly find that their wealth now holds no sway upon anyone, and will become the new poor. The will be poorer than the poor because they will have no idea what it takes to survive in a world where everything is not at their disposal, where everything and anything can be had simply by waving a wad of cash or playing golf with their senator buddy to get a new law passed that turns their millions into billions.

Who will be the first to fall? Will it be the government and all its paid puppets? Those who know nothing of what the common man needs or wants, but claims to act in their best interest? These people used to be unpaid common men, who although they may have had a little education, had common sense gained in the fact that they were still – common men. Today, these people are from the rich and know nothing of being common. They are corrupt beyond the point of being able to recognize their own corruption. They are so lacking in common sense that $100 for a hammer sounds reasonable to them, and let us not forget that we can't discriminate against those lefties out there. They'll even spring an extra $100 a piece for certified LEFT-HANDED HAMMERS. Yes, these people have our best interests in mind when they pass laws that requires a family to throw away perfectly good products because they see fit to put an expiration date on it. Like a car seat will go bad in 4 years or something. The only purpose things like that serve is to grease the pockets of the corporate giants who want to sell more products. Oh, and don't forget that they will get a kickback from it in the form of campaign contributions – well that's illegal. How about we just put some stock into your 100% taxpayer paid IRA? Meanwhile, the poor commoner can't even sell his used carseat in his yard sale because it's illegal.

Maybe it will be the corporate giants rolling in their ever-increasing profits? Those who control all that the common man needs and wants, and even finds ways to FORCE the common man to pay for their riches? Wave enough money in front of a potential senator, etc and guarantee him a seat, and voila! Instant profits coming your way by making the common man fork out more of his hard earned cash.

Maybe it will be the high-paid medical professionals whose corruption has reached so deeply into our pockets that it has reached the level of absurdity. They hold the modern magical power of being the most successful retailers in history, along with the ability to legalize their brand of swindle and scam. Who else can legally sell a penny's worth of cure for $5000, graciously offer to the poor a so-called discount of a few hundred bucks, and then write the difference off on their taxes as a loss? Loss HELL. Look at how bloated this business has become. You used to be able to see a doctor. Now, you have to see 4 people before you see the doctor that refers you to another doctor, and so on. Just look at their monumental shrines to medicine they are erecting and you can see where the money is! What gives them this power? They hold the power of death in their hands! These false prophets can blaspheme you into believing that you will have a longer life if you just hand over your money! HOGWASH. What good is a life spent so deeply in debt that you become homeless? What good is a life prolonged for years of pain – hooked to some machine to keep you alive, and the government money pouring in? Why would I want to give up my house to keep them in their mansions? Oh, I know, because the first time I have a serious illness, they will bill me to death, and if I do manage to recover and get back to work, they will find a way of getting the money out of me, even if they take my paycheck from me before I get it. Where do these people get off billing a person 15 times from 15 different sources for 1 medical procedure? If I tried to do business that way as an auto mechanic, I would be sued out of business within a week.

So what happens when there are so many people with their hands reaching into the pockets of the common man that he not only runs out of money, but runs out of credit, assets, and even the pockets get torn away by the greedy hands? For a while, the greedy hands will write their greed down in the form of “losses” on their taxes, and expect the government to hand it to them! Where is that money coming from? From the common man! Well, that source is tapped dry, and now we are relying on an ever-increasing national debt to pay for this greed. Soon, this well too will dry up! The money WILL run out!

So what do we get in return for what we pay out in taxes, fees, and other money sucking tactics? Not a whole lot, really. Yes, the rich, powerful and the government claim that it is for your best interest. Is it really? Do I really need to pay my share of the $1,000,000.00 they spent crashing perfectly good cars into a brick wall to find out if the bumper will withstand a 5MPH collision? Who the hell drives 5MPH? Weld a damned chunk of steel onto the front of the solid steel frame of a car for about $100 bucks, and call it a damned bumper, already. Make the damned car able to survive a collision! Yeah, give me an air bag so I don't slam my head through the windshield, but I'd sure like it if I could bump into someone at 25MPH, and both of us drive off knowing all we have to do is touch up the paint! Who are they kidding? Did you ever see an old video of a car crash – where the cars were built like they used to build them? The car didn't crumple up into the trunk and poop out the driver encased in a styrofoam cocoon... It bounced the rear end up into the air. Full transferrance of motion. The driver was pushed down into the seat by the lifting of the car. A car by the way that cost about $800, not $80,000. That $800 car was built like a tank, built to last! You were buying something that you could rely on for years – even if you beat it around a bit. Today, you spend enough for a house on a car, and the first time you bump something, you spend more than that $800 just to replace the bumper. What the hell?

You wanna know what I think about this subject? Imagine this... If Fisher-Price, Tonka, and Rubbermaid got together and built a car, you'd have something. It would be plastic, oh well... but it would take one hell of a beating, and bounce right back. Yeah, put in the seatbelts and the air bags, and whatever else people want in cars these days, but build it into a body that can last – not fold up and become unusable.

What else do I get for my hard-earned tax money? Well, here's a good example of what you get. You get the caring support of your government. HAH! I heard a report that if there is ever a chemical attack, a person should have a room prepared in their house that in a moment's notice, you can seal up air-tight! The government is telling you that you should do this, and to make sure that in this room you have enough supplies to last you for at least 3 days. Let me tell you something. If you DO manage to seal your room up air-tight, you will NOT need 3 days worth of supplies. The government has us all so brainwashed that they are looking out for the good of the common man, that the common man is not even questioning this advice! THINK, PEOPLE! I'm not even going to explain it outright to you. I'm just going to give you a common sense example: When you were a kid, did you ever catch lightning bugs? Did you put them in a jar? What did you do to the lid? Did you put holes in the lid? If you didn't put holes in the lid, what happened to the lightning bugs in a few days? Huh, THEY DIED! Hmmm, now lets look at that advice again... Seal yourself into an AIRTIGHT room with enough supplies to last at least 3 days. Keep in mind that we use a lot more oxygen than a lightning bug. Do you still not see what the government is suggesting you do? They are “looking out for the good of the common man” not by telling you how to save yourself, but by preventing mass panic through the use of suicide by stupidity. You heard me right. Seal yourself into an air tight room with your family, and within 24 hours, you will all drift off to sleep forever. Lulled into eternity by carbon dioxide – your own exhaled breath.

Now, consider this as well. Who owns the water supply that comes into your house? The municipal authority – a fancy word for the government. Have you ever heard of a privately owned water plant? I sure haven't! Why? If public water is available to your residence, do you have a choice as to whether or not you hook up to it? No? Why? I have a theory, but there is no proof of this. Lets say that the government wanted to innoculate everyone against a “classified” agent. How could they do this without them knowing? Who cares if the drug causes cancer in some individuals, or that it may have unknown reactions on some people, or that some people may overdose because they drink a lot of water. We're only looking out for the common good. The good of the majority. Who cares about the individual.

I grew up in a different world. A world where dad went to work for 40 hours a week and made enough money for us not only to have a house, food on the table and the utilities paid, but enough for us to own 2 vehicles which the government did not make us insure, (I mean, who needs insurance when you can get a car for $200-$300 bucks?) and enough money left over for my mother to go shopping once a week and just buy “things”. $50 could buy a whole lot of groceries in those days, and $5 would run even the biggest gas hog of a car for a week of normal running! Life was simple. You could talk on the phone with your neighbor without the government classifying you as a terrorist. No, there weren't any computers, but we got by. We got mail everyday from a postman who actually delivered it to our door. Milk came from the milk man, who delivered it directly from the farm. No doubt it was fresh... we didn't need a date stamped on the bottle. In fact, he could tell you which cow it came from and when! When we got sick, we went to the doctor. He would charge us $20, give us a shot, and we were better within 3 days. We did not get a follow up bill from him or any other medical organization for lab work, medical equipment charges, or anything of the sort. Well, he didn't have to keep buying medical supplies because he reused them (GASP!) Yes, even the needles! (YIKES!) Imagine that! He actually CLEANED them, and STERILIZED them in his autoclave. There was no need to charge people $100 for a disposable needle that cost 5 cents.

In the world I grew up in, the roads were a little rough, but they were made of concrete if they were important enough. They didn't wear out as fast as soft blacktop. If you had a road in front of your house that wasn't paved, you filled in your own holes an thought nothing of it. We didn't ask what our country could do for us, we just did it for the love of our country. My mother used to teach me about God and right from wrong. Today, I'm not sure what is right or wrong because the things I was told were wrong are now legal, and the things that I was told were right are illegal. I can't talk about God openly in public because I might offend someone – worse yet, I might get sued for it.

My mother used to tell me about how bad it was in places like China and Russia. Horrible stories about places that seemed so far away. The poor children of China were starving, and the even poorer people from Russia could only own one car – and it was 20 years old and had 100,000 miles on it. The poor people of Russia weren't allowed to think for themselves, and were given jobs according to their class – whether they liked it or not. If they didn't like their life, they could go to the goulag. How lucky we were to be Americans. God Bless America! We wave old glory at the parades, and set off fireworks for the 4th of July. We have the right to be whomever we choose to be, and live our lives the way we want! We can work in a factory 40 hours a week (honestly, actually 40 hours!), and make enough money to live comfortably, or we can go to college for 2 years and really be somebody! It seemed the worst thing I could do with my life was to be a dropout and end up digging ditches for a living!

Fast forward to the future, and after 4 years of college, I got downsized out of work twice – making less money than my grandfather who was a steelworker all his life – I ended up homeless, and my car was reposessed. Short of completely giving up, I ended up in the army – digging foxholes while some rich lieutenants stood around and talked about how well their stocks were doing. How did I end up here? I got out of the army, and came to realize that I could have been making as much as 4 times as much as I was with my college education – digging ditches! What the hell! Where did I go wrong? Oh, I came to realize that I didn't go wrong. The country did. It spoiled the common workers and removed their sense of loyalty to an employer by making them work 47.5 hours per week and get paid for 40. The income did not compensate for the cost of living, and mom was now working. Families were failing, and no one even cared any more. Houses, lacking the full-time mom began to look shabby. Soon, with the lack of income, even the best kept houses eventually ended up looking like something the twilight zone had taken over.

As if in some alternate reality, we had shifted from our little pink houses with picket fences in the front yard, mom with her apron on smiling at her 2 children playing in the well-kept yard while dad grilled steaks on the grill to today's dilapidated trailers parked in an overcrowded trailer park, mom, with her hair in curlers and a cigarette in her hand screaming obscenities at her kids and the neighbor's kids as they tear up what's left of the grass while dad comes crawling, grease covered out from under their 25 year old clunker that he tries to keep running so he can get to work. Meanwhile, the police arrive and arrest dad because his son hasn't showed up for school this month. The major portion of their income cut off, mom resorts to welfare and starts popping out babies one after another for the child support and the extra welfare money.

Since this doesn't even pay all the bills, she uses her government paid medical card to buy prescription drugs which she sells so she can pay the taxes on her 25 year old car, 30 year old trailer, and catch up the $1000 mortgage and the $250 worth of credit card payments, buy a little bit of groceries, and of course $500 worth of gas to last the month, and $1200 for her mandatory car insurance. Then there's the matter of that fine she got for running with no insurance a while back.... Just about the time she thinks she's got it all caught up, the police knock at the door. She's arrested for drug trafficking and the welfare takes her children away. Her picture is plastered all over the internet, and the hypocrites of the community cluck their tongues and act like they have it all together, live a perfectly Christian life and have no problems.

Of course, there are no problems in today's world. You are not allowed to have problems. If you think you have problems, you need medication to make your problems go away. The government will gladly provide this medication if you can't afford it! You are not allowed to have a life or an opinion either. You are to do what you're told, when you are told, and exactly as you are told. You are not allowed to think and come up with an alternate means of achieving a goal that is set before you. You are to do it by the book, every time, and there are no examples of anyone who does not fit the example given in the book. If someone does not fit the example, it is your fault, you need to start over at page one in the book as many times as necessary to get the person to fit the example in the book, and do so without angering the person. You must also do this without any expression on your face, nor do anything that could be construed as an insult or heaven forbid, offensive. You must hold your farts till you explode if you must, but you must explode in such a way as to not offend anyone, then excuse yourself in THEIR native language.

This is today's america if you are one of the common men.

We have gone from a super power to a third world country and don't even know it.