America...sigh

I'm an American, born and bred. As time marches by however, I'm less and less inclined to feel proud of that fact. All over the media outlets of the country, the political rhetoric is heating up and people are being pulled in different directions. America has become one giant Jerry Springer show - we're just waiting for the chair-throwing to start and we all have ringside seats.

I think it's totally preposterous that multi-billion dollar corporations such as General Electric, Verizon, and Federal Express should not pay taxes, because, as their CEO's claim, "it's perfectly legal" not to. Meanwhile, our wonderful Republican base has decreed that tax breaks to these big corporations will help to keep them hiring people.

Except they're not hiring. They just give bonuses to all their already high-paid executives for getting the job done and making a profit with the staff they already have. Why take on new employees when they can make a metric crap-ton of money without them? I've worked for big companies before. That's what they do. They continually, year after year, brainstorm ways to make more money than the previous year. When there are no fresh ideas forthcoming, they start eliminating positions and paying one person to do two other people's jobs, thereby still showing a profit.

Then the oil companies, which is a whole issue all by itself...

But I digress. Right now, my husband and I are thinking about making use of his dual citizenship with Canada and heading north when the Army spits him out for good. Some people might say the grass is no greener on the other side of the border. Sure, every country has it's issues, but Canada seems to have no problem with making sure their poor don't starve to death, or live in a cardboard box under a bridge, or die of some hideous disease because they're poor. Canada's rich are still rich, and the poor are still poor. But everyone has a place to live, food, and some semblance of health care. Not sure why that's so hard to do on this side of the fence, but hey....at least the rich over here don't have to look at us poor folk and have their consciences nudged.