JUAN CECILIO MIRANDA

      

                                                                                                             Juan C. Miranda

M00-06-2430

10/20/2010

                                                                                                          

The American Dream was an ideal that all peoples over the world could identify; even the British who lost the colonies knew this.  The fledgling nation was a return to the values once held in Plato’s Parthenon and in the Forum of Rome’s Senate before the rise of monarchic rule.  Its rules followed the principles of good government penned by the hand of Florentine political genius Niccolo Machiavelli in his masterpiece The Prince, a devastating critique on totalitarian despotism, marking it as the downfall of organized rule and the bane of free will.  For the first half of its 234-year-ongoing history, America made leaps and bounds in cultural and economic development by means of its richest asset, the people. The different and endless stream of immigrants that came to its shores provided labor and capital resources for growth and nurtured a new multicultural identity formed in the famous “melting pot” of the New World.   However, this did not stop the unfavorable aspects of different cultures to find their way to American lifestyles.  The most heinous of these is greed, and it took the American Constitution and raped it to contentment when all the riches in one place gave way to the same things George Washington and the Continental Army fought, bled and died trying to prevent.  That horror was, and is, to this day, power in the hands of a few and a new aristocracy of oppression upon the masses.  Because of this heinous evil, we stand on the brink of losing all which countless lives have upheld with their blood and death, a rule of many for the feared Machiavelli principality of one surrounded by an elite few.  And make no mistake, like Prospero, they will all forsake the people and lead the Danse Macabre when the many are no longer useful to them.  Unless we do something to stop the mad ball from going further.

               First, to stem this horrific tide, we must look at its source first.  That source is capitalism.  But before we condemn it, we must first analyze it.  Capitalism is the means of progress in modern times since it sets no limit on how much wealth you accumulate or how much you own.  When I was a teen, I dreamed of owning a collection of every videogame from the Magnavox Odyssey to the Sony PlayStation 2 and every anime movie from Astro Boy to the last season of Those Who Hunt Elves.  If I had had the money, nobody could have told me I wanted too much for my social station or that I couldn’t spend it in such an investment.  That was my right as a citizen.  If I wanted to work to that end and become the biggest collector, I could.  The problem is when the guy above me sees me moving into his turf.  He doesn’t like competition.  He likes to hold all the chips and if I have more than he does, he puts me out of business by manipulating the same system I used to climb.  Only his purpose is to make me crash and die in hellfire, frustration, and futility.  The dream of rising to the stars became the privilege of the few who had rich dads in some industry or another.  The rich became puppeteers of the leaders of America while the middle class became the glorified peasants of a new despotic order of the moneymakers and money keepers.

               Notwithstanding these factors, in 2008 we felt the effects of our submission to the tyrants as they squandered our assets, not theirs. in the Global Economic Collapse, an event which is still happening today with no solution in sight.  We lost our retirement pensions, our life savings, and our homes.  Why?  So, Muff and Uncle Biff could still keep their chalet in Florence and the scenic apartment in the Champs-Élysées while you went to a homeless shelter looking for a soup kitchen.  The banks said they suffered losses, why didn’t the execs sell their Bentleys to create capital to save our interests as well as theirs?  Because, Padawan, power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.  The root of the dark side’s lure is this, wise are you to never let your ego be poisoned by its fang.

               Therefore, what is the answer to this dilemma?  We put the rich to make the middle class better off and they, in turn, make the lower class see a little more sunshine.  It’s time for a social capitalism to take the reins of America’s economy.  Sure, you can be rich, but only if the guy under you can rise up with you. The terms?  Work as hard as the guy above you and you will rise like he does.   You’re on welfare?  No problem because those above you will help you stay stable and lead a better lifestyle.  Besides, you become a more active consumer because you’re pensioned, and you would get a job that wouldn’t limit you.  Or better yet, you get a HIGHER EDUCATION.  Then your chances for rising are higher.  Next on the list,  make the rich pay a real income tax, not the bad joke that led to this debacle.  We also begin banking regulation anew, like before ex-president Reagan made the fatal error of removing the limits on the industry.

               Lastly in this matter of analysis, as the global economy suffered for banking deregulation, all nations must begin implementing these measures so Big Business has nowhere to run and is forced to change its ways.  Tall order, you might tell me.  Well, saving the world is always a tall order.  Too big?  Well, for an individual maybe, but not for a global collective.  When people are faced with calamity they band together.  It happened in 9/11 and it can happen worldwide if they empower themselves to act and take back their lives from the few and begin once again the rule of many.

               “The greatest of all virtues is knowledge, the most foul abomination of vices is ignorance”                       Socrates