Is It Time to Cut Our Losses?

In watching our so-called representatives, I think it's abundantly clear, they are not representing the majority of Americans.  What I don't understand, is how this obvious fact continues to divide the presumably united 98%.  If Americans are in agreement that the Big Corporate lobby controls Congress, then why does most of America remain politically divided?  Doesn't this just give the Big Corporate lobby more say in Congress, while Congress feathers their own nest further?

Since money talks in America why don't the non-1 Percenters speak with money, as well?  The absence thereof!  Why continue to wait for Congress to change things for the majority of Americans?  Over half of Congress is part of The 1 Percent, and they are lavished in benefits from representatives of fellow 1 Percenters!   What would motivate them to change a system that works so well for them?  Don't even suggest the electorate speaks for the people.  That is impossible to say with 98% supposedly unified on the issue of the economy.

The polls just keep reporting that the economy is the number 1 concern of Americans.  Obviously, there is a disconnect somewhere and I think "we the people" can change that if we choose.  If we continue to give money to Big Corporations to save a few pennies, the Big Corporations will keep taking our business and throw us just enough crumbs to maintain the status quo.

I notice a major difference between The 1 Percent and the 98%.  The 1 Percent doesn't throw good money after bad.  The 1 Percent invests in what they believe in and what brings them increase.  The 98% complains, while standing in the Big Box lines and while waiting on the Big Pharma generic, but complaining is all that happens.  Complaints do not cause change.

The only thing that is going to change this economic division of political theatre is for the true majority to put away our red / blue division and realize it is Capitol Hill that has established and will continue to maintain the Plutocracy that exists, and those who choose dependency upon the Big Corporations are actually funding the the aristocratic establishment.  Time to cut off their allowance!

Why Is Everyone Surprised?

The Middle Class has been on life support for years, and back when President Obama was Candidate Obama, the term was heard frequently "working class."  Throughout both of the last elections, not only have the candidates used the term, but so has the media covering them.

The Middle Class, ideally, would be comprised of those who did not have to depend upon the capital or labor of others.  The working class exchanges labor for earnings.  The American unions created a negotiation balance between workers and employers, but as employers became large corporations, and the unions sought more benefits outside of the work place, negotiations began to fail.  When unions were at their strongest, there was a symbiotic balance between employers and employees, and both realized they needed the other to maintain the lifestyle to which they had become accustomed.

I could blame Washington, beginning with Reagan for destroying the air traffic controllers union, which was the official beginning of the demise of the union.  But then, I can blame Clinton for NAFTA and wonder why the union still backed him in the 1996 election . . .  We can choose sides and blame Bush or Obama, which we have, but so far that isn't changing the lifestyle of the underemployed lacking benefits.

I could blame unions for convincing their members they should tell the owners how to run their business and ask for more time off and bigger health and death benefits.  The reality is, that just proved to the business owners how many jobs were not needed if the employees had time to tell him how to run his business.  If the employees would just put in a days work instead of all the wasted arbitration time and demands of the shop stewards, the same work could be done with much less manpower, which led to the contract labor through job service companies.  Then we can blame the business men who threw up their hands to the unions and to the government regulations and sold to the corporations.

Now, I hear the best ones to blame are Congress.  The truth of the matter is, we could all look in the mirror and ask that person looking back if there is anything they can do to change things.  Granted, the average "working class" America doesn't have the lobby capital to change minds in Washington, but we can offer a lack of capital to those who are benefiting from the decisions being stalled in Washington.  Here's a few questions to ask that person in the mirror.

Am I for more industry in America?  Then do I buy foreign made products because I can save a few pennies?  Am I anti-abortion and against Planned Parenthood?  Do I buy made in China, where abortions are government mandated?   Am I pro-union?  Do I shop at the Big Box Store . . . only when I have to . . .  Am I for job creation?  Do I buy locally?  Do I know of someone who is self-employed?  Do I buy their products or use their service?  These are just a few of the questions that might enter this mirror dialogue.

The One Percent may have most of the money, but a lot of that is because the 98% keeps giving it to them! With over half of our representatives in Washington being in the One Percent, they have no motivation to change things.  I'm thinking if the 98% refused to put their money in what they didn't believe in, things would change!  Washington could be in for the big surprise!

Go With Your Gifts

I am so excited about this ministry opportunity, and leave it to YHWH, it's a business opportunity as well.  I joined the chamber of commerce as an avenue to participate in some community youth programs, and lo and behold along with that invitation, came an awareness and appreciation for my natural product line.

I've spoken with several people who still believe money should be the motivation factor for working.  Scripture doesn't indicate that and from what I see in the headlines, it's not working out for a larger and larger portion of our society, formerly known as the work force.  I've actually discovered the real difference between being successful and struggling.  Our society may draw a dollar and cents line, because that's the current standard, but the reality is, contentedness is not based upon finances, but rather perspective.

What is referred to as the One Percent or the wealthiest Americans are doing what they love to do.  Bill Gates is a prime example of my point.  When he was being told to not drop out of school, do you really think money was his motivating factor?  Of course not!  If money had been, he'd have stayed in college.

Let's take Rush Limbaugh for another example, another man with whom I disagree, but both of these men are perfect examples of what I'm talking about.  Rush came from a well to do family of lawyers.  Now, that wasn't his choice of making a living.  Obviously, that niche would have been already carved and established for him, but he liked the sound of his own voice and enjoyed expressing his own ideas, and voila, he turned that into a multi-million dollar empire of one man with one voice!  But the money wasn't the primary goal when he blazed that unfamiliar trail.  As a matter of fact, radio in the 70's was nothing more than a job as a DJ.  Certainly nothing to make your family of attorneys proud!

The reason the 98% are not happy is two fold.  One, they got in dead end jobs to make money . . . and now they realize their goal isn't worth so much to anybody else, or even to them.  The One Percent and the Other 1 Percent uses money as a means to an end, not the goal.  I don't have a multi-million dollar empire, but the business that began as a hobby with the call G-d placed on my life has truly enabled me to have a greater purpose than simply trying to make money.  I already know, I have no desire to be in The One Percent, and I don't fit in well with the 98%, either!

The fact of the matter is this.  The men who are in The 1% who did not inherit their fortune, set out, not to make a fortune but to accomplish something, and they used their passions and talents to that end.  I don't share the goals of the two men I mentioned, but as their lives have unfolded successfully, we can see that power is more important to Mr. Gates than money, and an audience was more important to Mr. Limbaugh.  The money was a side benefit.  They may feel differently now, but money was not their motivating force when they launched their incredible journeys to the upper strata of wealth now known as The One Percent.

How Much Money Do You Make?

First, it's a personal question that I don't ask anyone, but many people feel comfortable to ask me that question, or worse; ask someone they think I trust.  That's taught me two things . . . Many people don't realize boundaries, and two, don't tell anyone anything you don't want repeated.  I've gotten a bit ornery about that through these past couple of years, knowing it will be repeated, twisted, and out of context.  I derive a secret pleasure from not discussing personal information while telling them, "Sounds like you've already got your mind made up."  I'm working on that . . .

I do a number of things not based upon financial terms, but simply an opportunity to minister.  Sometimes, these opportunities are not money making at all, but rather I'm actually called to "spend my tithe" to do them.  YHWH has led me to many things that don't appear to have a dollar value at all.  I have learned through nearly twenty years of ministry, He is not limited to American currency.  So why should I limit my endeavors to a currency He doesn't use?  I can't place a dollar value on what YHWH has done for me.  I can't place a dollar value on the price Messiah paid for me.  It would, therefore follow; that what He calls me to do is not going to be based upon a dollar value, either.

I know that I know, I could not live the way I have and the way I do on the income I have were it not for the blessing of YHWH.  When I hear the cost of things and the regular expenses many incur, I understand why there is such disparity and animosity amongst people who want more.  By not basing my existence on dollars and cents, it seems I have more than I need.  I can share all sorts of things I truly wouldn't be able to afford to buy and pass around . . .

So, when asked, "How much money do I make?"  I smile and think to myself, I couldn't live like this pinning down, the things I do, to a dollar amount!