Written by Kristen Franks   

“It is well that the people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning.” Henry Ford

When are people going to wake up and understand that through a false consciousness – which means – people of America are culturally conditioned thorough environmental constructs that they should be ashamed of their circumstances, and then they fall into the belief that if they fail, it is because it is their fault; it is not their fault, not by any means of the imagination. There are mechanisms that have been put into place that will not allow most individuals to become upward mobile. Those mechanisms will be discussed in a future article. Anyways, majority of us listen to the political pundits daily and their rants and berating tones, which descend on those who have fallen on hard times, and I say enough is enough! And I think it is time to say, this decade will not be the decade, that we as a nation allow its citizens to become a class of indentured servants. How can we change things, you may asking yourself?

According to Supercapitalism by Robert B. Reich (2007), he understands the nature and psyche of the American people and like many others, they are lamenting, “…we’re tired of being hit up and shaken down.” When did various lobbyist agenda’s win politicians ear, more so than the wishes of the American people, because money speaks louder - than the many voices of a nation? According to Reich, “genuine reform will occur only if and when most citizens demand it.”

Will the various occupy movements endorse real political change or will the real approach to change, come from the purchasing power from all the citizens of the United States. They must find it necessary to freeze spending habits? What if we bought only what was absolutely needed; I feel those minimal purchasing habits would create an avenue for enormous change. We as a nation have a great untapped source of unilateral power; it is called purchasing power (Reich, 2007, pg. 212).

So how do we raise our voices? Stop spending, just stop doing what we usually do, stop going to restaurants, commit to staycations, and stop purchasing cheap useless plastic crap that is devastating our planet. Stop, just stop, become minimalists for a time – until we have gotten our point across, a point that the Super Elite which happens to be .001% globally needs to understand, they will not be the ones making the important financial decisions for the American people in aggregate.

Now, if you don’t think banks are ruling the world, think again. The politicians of our country are now the ‘new middle class,’ they are the plutocrat’s gatekeepers. Our democratic process, politicians, and their media pundits have become the new managers of the American people. And if you don’t think so – where is the middle class today – they have been downgraded to the lower classes – financially speaking.

And you are saying to yourself, no way – you’re crazy. Really, weare near a 16 Trillion dollar deficit, “…the federal deficit went over 10 percent of GDP in the aftermath of the financial crisis of 2008.” [1] Our health care and medical system is low on the totem pole; we rank 37 according to the World Health Organization (WHO) as compared to the rest of the world.[2] Our K-12 education system is at an all time low.[3] Our prison population of 2.2 million people, which surpasses many countries combined, “a 500% increase over the past thirty years.” 4] And the college experience is the most expensive in the world;[5] as is our educational debt, which has exceeded the 1 Trillion dollar mark.[6] Our elderly are seeing their benefits diminished greatly and cost of living adjustments for those benefits are close to nil to the tune of losing out on 20 Billion dollars in benefits. [7] We have more people on food assistance than at any other time in history besides the Great depression – which back then it was soup lines, “…According to the CBO, Nearly 45 million recipients, one out of every seven U.S. residents, received SNAP benefits in an average month in fiscal year 2011. Total federal spending for the program was $78 billion.” [8] All those previously mentioned inequities are due to the overwhelming wage disproportion between the average American worker and the plutonomy’s or more commonly known as the bourgeoisie class: Bankers, CEO’s, and their stock - dividend holders. [9]

Now, I don’t have many answers to the overwhelming amount of crisis debacles, other than to just stop spending. But from the information I have provided above, you can see where America is being scammed by those in powerful positions, and that the 1% have a great deal of control over our financial lives, and that needs to stop, this is a country of ‘we the people,’ not ‘we the few.’ I will say again, we need discourse in our society, we need an educated, informed and engaged society before any change will happen. But, first it is important to know, what you as an American, are up against; and I hope I have explained to some degree, in the simplest terms of our woes, and in turn I hope this will rally your support to become involved in the crisis debate; and hopefully into action to support change in our governmental processes and changing the future narrative of this country.

Now I don’t claim to be an expert, but I have created a blog on one of the crisis, that I mentioned above in regards to the student loan debt @ http://studentloandebacle.blogspot.com/ in hopes I may be able to help others to understand the processes that comes with student loan debt. I also have created a Support Network on Facebook for those in any debt crisis, a place where those who need an ear may find a commonality amongst others; in hopes they may not feel so alone in their debt crisis circumstances. For more on the Student Debt Debacle Support Network: https://www.facebook.com/StudentLoanDebacleSupportNetwork.

Sources
1 US Government Spending. (Website) Retrieved May 24, 2012. .

2 World Health Organization. (Website) Retrieved May 24, 2012. .

3 Huffington Post - Education, US Falls In World Education Ranking, Rated Average. (12/07/10) The three-yearly OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) report, which compares the knowledge and skills of 15-year-olds in 70 countries around the world, ranked the United States 14th out of 34 OECD countries for reading skills, 17th for science and a below-average 25th for mathematics. Retrieved May 22, 2012. .

4 The Sentencing Project. (Website). Retrieved May 24, 2012 .

5 US News Education. Ten Most Expensive Colleges. (01/24/12). Written by Laura McMullen. Retrieved May 24, 2012. < http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/the-short-list-college/articles/2012/01/24/10-most-expensive-private-colleges-2>.

6 Forbes. Student Loan Debt Hits $1 Trillion -- Pre-Paid College Tuition Plans May Make a Comeback. (3/29/12). Written by Nancy Anderson. Retrieved May 24, 2012. .

7 National Council of Aging. New Report Finds Millions of Low-Income Older Adults are Missing Out on Help with their Health Care, Prescription, Food, and Utility Costs (02/14/12). Retrieved May 24, 2012. < http://www.ncoa.org/press-room/press-release/new-report-finds-millions-of.html>.

8 CBO. The Snap Program. Retrieved May 24, 2012. .

9 ALF-CIO Corporate Watch. (Website) Retrieved May 24, 2012. .