America's Advances & Problems

We live in a great country? When gas prices continue to skyrocket and prices of crude oil drop, The gas companies claim the price of gasoline is rising due to slow manufacturing of refineries. The cost goes up because they have to switch the refineries over to fuel oil. Every little incident causes the prices to rise. Oil companies claim that the majority of our oil comes from other countries and that it is the stress from the economy forcing companies to produce more gasoline. If They could see this coming, why didn't they do anything about it then? Where were all these problems when gas prices were at 79 cents to 1.20 a gallon? They were there, but they didn't effect the cost of gasoline at that time. Blame on the rise of gas prices was put on hurricane Katrina, why didn't those same prices go up when a hurricane hit the gulf in 1981? Gas prices were not terribly effected during the gulf war, at least not that anyone noticed. When the price of crude oil was 30 dollars a barrel the average price of gas was 70 to 80 cents a gallon, the average price of a barrel of crude is 60 dollars today.

So explain to me why the price at the pump is nearly triple what it should be. Because then, there was no extreme lust for more money. It is all new profit for gas companies shrinking the nations' pockets to nothing. You have to ask yourself what they are doing with 40 billion dollars in additional profit every quarter, in the last three years and still don't have any money to build a new refinery. They use some of that money to quiet the politicians that give Americans every excuse for the rising costs. It doesn't matter how much anyone knows or complains, the government and politicians won't do anything because they are all being paid with some of that profit to keep it quiet. 160 billion dollars in profit on top of their normal profit, yet they say it would be futile to build a new refinery in fear of the extreme length of time to build it. All the while, Americans have to struggle to make ends meet just so they can get to and from work. and the CEO of one of those oil companies receives a 400 million dollar bonus. But it's not just the price of gasoline. It is a chain reaction. The prices of everything from food and normal necessities to entertainment, also go up, and there seems to be no end in sight. We fight and struggle everyday deciding what we need to buy just so we can survive, and we continue to wonder Why minimum wage stayed where it was, specifically for the last ten years. Are companies afraid to pay people to work? you wonder why people don't want to work minimum wage jobs, because you cant live on 5.15 an hour, much less fill your tank with 4 hours worth of work.

Our constitution seems to be of no importance to this country anymore either. The supreme court and our government violate it everyday, ignoring laws passed that govern our way of life, yet violate it to allow certain groups of people certain freedoms they should not be entitled to, creating laws that cannot and should not be governed under laws already in existence. But they violate them everyday and no one does anything about it. Politicians will never understand. There has never been anyone in power that didn't come from a wealthy background, so they don't know the meaning of poverty or what it means to live paycheck to paycheck. We continue to elect a group of People, hoping that somewhere inside them is a sense of good conscience. Politicians need to Stop making blank promises and stop talking about fixing something and fix it, especially with the top three, health care, immigration and fuel. Stop fighting everyone else's wars and start doing something helpful for this country instead of useless promises and statements. We would get better results if we elected people that had worked a real job, who had to pay bills and feed their families and didn't fabricate their military history to make themselves look good to voters.

we continue to pass laws that govern and contradict laws already in existence, everything from taxes to race and religion, freedom of this and freedom of that, but when we speak our minds we are branded as traitors or racists. But those with a certain cause to prove are listened to and then, things that have been around for years are changed just because one small group of people are "all of a sudden" offended. These things are instantly changed only because we are so worried about the potential problems that these groups of people can cause. And it's only been going on for a few years, maybe a flag or a symbol. It wasn't until recently that commercials became offensive and required an apology for advertisement. Grow up people, those who lobby for such apologies have already to proven that you are beneath those of us who have lived with these things for years and payed no attention. There are those of us who see things as they are and those who see them as they want them to be and those who feel the need to change everything that they don't agree with or find offensive no matter if it's been around before any of us were born. if you have nothing better to do with your time, claim you are a homosexual and get attention for being different.

Immigration, health care, education, our overall economy, the fact remains that we all continue to walk around blind as a bat with no regards to our future and what the rising cost of everything does to us.

We work with people and we see people everyday that we know are here illegally yet we do nothing. Our own police officers trying to protect our borders from illegal immigration are incarcerated for protecting themselves against armed illegal immigrants. They are granted money for damages for doing something illegal, and they are set free, justice? Are we now at a point where we punish and imprison our own countrymen fighting for our rights and freedoms, unacceptable America. wake up! There are people who look the other way at illegal immigration, the fact is that it destroys our economy with each and every step across the lines, we eventually have to pay more taxes to take care of them, and the cost of everything we pay for, rises. If you did call to report illegal immigrants, (you may have to press 1 for English), you would be branded as a racist, and maybe no one would do anything about it in fear of disturbing the natural course of destroying America, yet those illegals would still get everything that, you, the American, born here, can't or won't get.

We can't go to the hospital for treatment or exams, they make us call our doctor, or practitioner, who we may not even have, who in most cases can't or won't tell you anything and does not have the means to check you at that clinic, but charges you three hundred dollars to tell you he doesn't know what is wrong, and helps the hospitals rack up bills to examine you. Health care needs to be subsidized, as it is in other countries instead of the average family paying 400 dollars a month for health insurance. When one of those family members gets seriously ill, they may find out later that treatment or cures are not covered by their insurance company from a premium that the family can barley afford to pay and it has to come out of their own pocket. How do we justify this treatment of people in our own country, treatment of people who pay their taxes and obey the laws and then get sued by someone who broke into their home and injured themselves trying to rob, rape or kill you. Evaluation is the process of completion yet health care finds a way around all of it just to get more money from taxpayers. All in the land of the free. "When millions of inhabitants of a planet can't get sufficient health care then you know it's too expensive." (Deforest Kelly)

Where did restless leg syndrome come from, and overactive bladders and a growing population of people with high blood pressure. You see it every time you sit down to watch television, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, restless leg syndrome, overactive bladder, insomnia. Then they offer a product that will get rid of that problem, but may give you five others, then tell you the side affects are so bad they could possibly kill you. you receive just enough information about the product being advertised to scare the hell out of you, so you may continually live in fear of having that disorder. so what do they say? "ask your doctor", and in such a dignifying way that assumes we all have a doctor stuffed in our pocket. Not to mention that most products are set up to help someone with a problem they could clearly take care of without medication. Medicine these days, they say, are advanced, but personally I wouldn't want a medicine that helps one thing but gives me five other problems. Maybe these medical problems existed years ago but society learned how to deal with them and lived normal lives. There are all these fantastic ways to help you quit smoking, sleep, lower cholesterol, because we believe we can't do it on our own, so we become dependent on someone or something to get rid of the problem. We rely on drugs and medicines in this country to treat our problems.

We have thrown self treatment right out the window and wonder why health insurance is so expensive. It's expensive because the health care industry wants it to be, mostly because people have abused the right to have health insurance and health care in the past and have made it worse on those who really need it, and sometimes makes it impossible for someone to get help when really needed. there are no real cures, only treatment, and that is what the medical industry wants us to believe and that everything we do and eat is bad for us and later, tell us that things that were once bad are now good and things once good are now bad. They lead us to think there is no real cure except in medicine and turn the entire population of American culture into mindless zombies addicted to the survival package of pointless pharmaceuticals In the field of American advertising by selling us drugs to fix our every little ailment. Medicines and treatment have become such commonplace for advertising as macaroni and Mr. Clean.

Any and all advertisements are out there to make us believe we need everything we see. Some advertising will go so far as to make the public believe they have a problem showing dozens of different symptoms that some people have and convince the public that they need to have treatment, making the public more dependent on drugs.

Your job, is it safe? No matter how secure you think your job is, someone is always looking for a reason to cut back or get someone better, and in some cases you may have been the better one, but don't worry they are already looking to replace you. A good percentage of Americans are not getting the pay they deserve, not so much the pay they want, but it's how they are paid and how they react to their own job description. "that's not my job". If companies pay the minimum amount they will get the minimum work. They want more for less. but yet how does society handle that? They can't because companies control the economy and the wages and we all know you can't live without a paycheck ,so we have no choice. We continue to try, and when we deserve a raise, it's the minimum amount possible just keep the employee quiet for a little longer. Then comes the turnover rate which in this country is extraordinarily high. Why? Because no one wants to pay anyone, and if they do, they have to have an outlandish amount of experience that the applicant does not have and can not get unless they have had that job.

Don't hire someone for two years and teach them the things they need to know and then have the nerve to get rid of them by explaining that they need more experience. This does not bother the employer, they don't care about you, no matter how important you think you are. We are all expendable. The only way to stop this is to show an employee how valuable they are to the company no matter the experience. If someone is willing to do the job pay them in accordance to what they are worth and not what is acceptable by law and perhaps people would show up to work more often and not have such an attitude towards an employer.

When you have tax laws that outweigh the amount of words in the bible you have serious problems with government. A straight tax would do the job. No filing, no deductions, no more waiting for the check in the mail, but I think the IRS enjoys going after people who can't defend themselves. It's the way of our country these days. Destroy those around you, make someone suffer. The IRS will go after someone who made a mistake on their taxes or can't pay on time due to legitimate circumstances, other than going after those who evade taxes for years and never get caught. when the cost of living goes up, They claim the value of your home rises so they can raise the property tax and no one has any choice but to pay it, but when you turn around and try to sell your home, you don't receive the amount of money the taxes say your home is worth. State tax, luxury tax, vehicle tax, sales tax. Step back and see how much of your money goes to taxes and why, they take your paycheck and the money you earn from that is taxed and when you go to the store you are taxed on things you buy, how much more money do they need and why. Since we all pay these taxes I think every one of us is entitled to see exactly where that money goes dollar for dollar, if we are paying for it we need to know who and where it is going to and why.

If social security is for your retirement why is it being handed out to people who don't deserve it even before they have retired? I have seen children as young as 5 years of age reportedly receiving social security. That money is for people who have worked for a living their whole life and just to see someone else get it because of someone else's negligence is appalling. To top it off it is illegal to tax social security a second time, you paid tax on it when it was deducted from your pay, they can't tax it again when you retire, but they do anyway, they never get enough. And why does no one say or do anything about it. We are all too afraid to stand up as a whole and question why. One straight tax, everyone pays 10 percent no more no less, no sales tax, no deductions and no special privileges, and eliminate the IRS, it would save billions of dollars in paperwork and postal alone, not to mention the useless salaries of tax writers and auditors, people who go to school to learn how to take people's money for a living, need to be unemployed for a little while and then see what it means to earn an honest days pay. Don't you just love the USA.

Seventy percent of our population walks around with two dollars in their pockets, and act like they are carrying two hundred. Not to mention that a lot of us are living our life like that of a favorite motion picture character, and have no life of our own. But what it really comes down to is our society's continuing embellishment to be better than our neighbor, of course I assume that's how it's always been. We go and buy the biggest SUV with all the options and frills we can get, then complain about the cost of gas. we buy fancy cars we can't afford and then buy accessories for that car that may make it more dangerous and expensive to drive, huge houses we can only afford to pay the interest on and then can't afford to buy even the most mediocre of furniture to put in that house. We buy cellular phones with so much use, we have no use for them. Good invention or a burden on those to society who want them but cant stand being called, flip that over and you have those who want to be called so they can be seen. And when did it become so important to call someone when you are driving your car, now those are some dangerous people, But you see people talking on them all the time like they have been doing it since they were born and then have to pay a hefty bill each month for useless conversation.

Why do we continually put ourselves in the wake of these insufferable dilemmas of debt, so someone cant take a quick glance and say "look what you have?". We all want the bigger better deal no matter how much it costs or how much debt it puts us in, just so others can see we have it, who cares if we need it or not.

Worried about your children's education? you can be assured they are not learning what they need to learn, and at this rate, probably never will, unless it is done for them. "no child shall be left behind." That's nice to hear in a specified context, but not for our nation's purpose . if the child fails, they don't have to repeat the grade, "it's alright, they'll eventually learn so pass them." Wrong answer. They implement the standards of learning and expect that children will catch on and it'll be fine, but most children can't or won't pass these tests because they can't pass them or won't pass them due to a growing epidemic called laziness, yet we do nothing to change this. children are not learning or retaining the education they need to succeed, when they don't, the blame is placed on the teacher, and the school board does nothing to protect or defend the teachers for the students own failure. So now we have the scapegoat and the continuing problem by placing blame on someone else.

It wasn't until recently that a very good number of children developed problems such as Attention deficit disorder, learning disabilities, hyperactivity disorders, slow learning disorders or aggressive behavior. Most likely these are all the biggest excuses as to why the average parent has no time to spend with their children, so they call it a disorder and pawn it off on the education system and turn them into babysitters. When I was growing up no one I knew of had these problems and I wasn't that young to not know the difference. They are all excuses for the idiocy this country has fallen into and follows a continuous list of excuses that is everyone else's fault. Yet we allow our children to play video and computer games, get fat sitting in front of the television, burning brain cells from doing drugs because there is no parental guidance.

College education is no different. We live in a society that is so bent on college education that it makes it nearly impossible for the average student to attend college much less pay for it. Employers rely on hiring college graduates that in some cases are still not fully trained to do the job. A degree doesn't really mean anything anymore, but, where you go to college is what counts, and not so much as what you learned. College tuition is overly expensive and no where near as cost effective as it should be, so you don't get the education you should be getting for the money you spend, unless your only goal in college was to drink and party, and then you graduate not having learned anything useful.

I've seen many people go to college for years, and graduate no smarter than when they started, but now they have a big debt, and no job. But they will get the job before someone that has been in the working world struggling to make a living because they couldn't afford college. And no matter how you say it, its still discrimination when advertisements say that a college graduate earns more than a non graduate. now we have the pedestal.

Some people did not go to college, but over the years they have read many books and gained a lot of knowledge in many areas of study, economy, history, math and English. It is all how you apply yourself to what it is you are interested in and not what is required of you to graduate from college and get a job that you are not really interested in but makes a lot of money so you can have a big house and nice cars, a wife and children. You can now come home and yell at your wife and children because your day was horrible at a job you didn't really want, but hey the money is good. What if you get laid off? Should I go on?

Computers, wonderful invention, you can do so much with them, the internet is great, but does it help our children learn? You can download music you can look up the answers to questions you wanted to know the answers to, you can buy things that you can't buy in the stores, and you can even write papers, book reports and other things without knowing how to write, spell or even indent. Dictionary's and thesaurus' are obsolete as well as the average book, because all you need to do now is look it up online and you have everything you need. That's not learning, thats someone else doing it for you at the click of a button.

We have tried to make everything simpler to do yet it's more difficult to keep track of. We don't write letters anymore, we e-mail, not a bad idea, but when you sit down and put your own hand on paper and someone reads it later, it is much more appreciated. But when is enough enough, it never is, because we are a society of "i want more" .

credit card usage is at an all time high and society continues to put themselves in jeopardy by using them irresponsibly. Yet with no thought of consequence, it's continued in a chain of products and businesses designed to help you get out of debt from credit cards, yet we continue to use credit cards day by day, putting ourselves in more debt. Your credit score? Where did that come from, if not from just the last couple of years, yes there was a credit score years ago, but not a lot of people payed attention to it because they didn't have to worry about it. Many years ago there was no need to understand it. yet they talk of it as if it's been used for years. It has nothing to do with anything, your credit is either good or bad, there is no in between. You have to use a credit card online to get access to use the online credit score feature, convenient, but for who, It's just another long line of subliminal B.S. To make us all feel warm and cozy By knowing how bad our credit is.

Face it, Americans hate Americans, we are always trying take away from people, even if it's someone close to us, we don't care, and no matter how much we love someone we are always trying to show them how better we are than they. so... "it's all about me and me only i am the only one on the planet anyone should care about, so let me go first in line, get out of my way when i am driving 65 miles per hour in a 35 mile an hour zone, so i can get to church and worship god and Jesus, afterwards I will get together with my friends and criticize and insult other people behind their backs then go to Wal Mart and complain because the price was 2 cents cheaper yesterday. While my son or daughter is causing trouble in school, i can blame it on the teacher and school board, I will run the red light and nearly cause an accident that could have hurt someone just so i can get there 14.6 seconds before you. And don't yell at me while i am speeding in my SUV with road rage, and not paying attention to the road, I am trying to talk to my sister on my cell phone because i can and that's my right, and I'll take you to court and sue you for looking at me cross eyed, and all five of my credit cards can't be over the limit i used them yesterday, and yes for your information i am educated i do know my A,B,D's, and don't tell me i don't know where Mount Vernon is, it's the mountain with the president's faces on it in California ,i know my history."

WAKE UP AMERICA. That is you! deny it all you want but if I could spend one day with just half of you, I would show you that 90 percent of you do 90 percent of those things day in and day out. You never accept responsibility for your actions, you act like your the only ones on the planet that are important and everyone else is wrong but you.Go ahead blame the government, they have a big piece of pie for many reasons Americans act the way they do and do the things they do. We are all angry and sometimes we are not even sure why, but we know it's not because of the guy who cut us off in traffic but you blame him anyway. We all need to grow up.

For now, I would like for society to just take a few steps back and look at our world years ago, when all these problems and inventions did not exist, when it didn't take weeks to build a house, when it took only 8 months to build an aircraft carrier, not 12 years( sure you feed me all the petty reasons about the differences between then and now but it won't change the fact that everyone still thinks this country is moving forward.) lets go back a few years, when we didn't feel high and mighty, and we didn't have all the answers, when things were new and interesting, and we didn't have all these extra useless things to run our lives, when we didn't go into a blind rage because we couldn't get on the internet, or get so angry when your cell phone has no signal when you just wanted to call your friend to tell them your day sucked.... those who now rely on these things will tell you its all an improvement and progress, but take all these things from society all at one time and you could guarantee a number of mass suicides. We call this progress and moving forward? I call it personal burden , there was a time when we all couldn't believe we had to put security devices in our homes and cars because of the selfishness and greed of others. we all got along just fine before we had all these things, but when people started using cell phones and computers to enhance communication and friendship because the rest of their life sucked, and when people started murdering others for a pair of shoes, car jacking people and committing identity theft and relying on their race, religion or financial situations to get them out of trouble, and more Americans caused auto accidents by talking on the cell phones, progress shot itself in the foot. Tell me why it is that we need all these things to make for a better world and that nothing is wrong in this country and things shouldn't be changed, I promise, someone can prove you wrong. So welcome to the human race.