"All of me...why not take all of me?"

A Nation of Fools by Peary Perry

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“All of me…why not take all of me?”

My reading habits range all over the place. I tend to stick with history but I’ll get into some period and stay there until I can take no more. In the past I’ve ranged through Caesar, American Indians, Mexico, the Civil War, World War II, you name it and I’ve probably read about it at one time or another.

Right now, I’m into the French Revolution. Or I should say I’m about out of the French Revolution. There is just so much you can cram into your head at one time about this period in time. I’ve had enough of Louis XVI’s last moments, but then again I’m sure they were painful for him as well.

What is of interest to me about this era is that the following was occurring in France when the revolution got started:

1. high unemployment
2. massive government debt
3. no representation of the people in government affairs
4. disregard of the laws by government officials
5. corruption by government officials
6. poor economy
7. repeated lies concerning the economy spread by the government
8. inept finance ministers

Now, consider that this was in the late 1700’s. Sound familiar?

I thought you might.

I do not advocate the extremes which were displayed in France during the revolution, but you can certainly understand the anger of the French people who basically saw themselves as being shut out of life’s little pleasures by a overbearing and insensitive government. Having one set of laws for the wealthy and the clergy and another set for the common people would tend to make anyone question the true value of any government, whether it was two hundred years ago or today.

Which is my point today.

Here we are in a terrible recession, which by the way, has ended according to the reports put out yesterday. According to the latest information from the White House, we are all much better off than we realize. I suppose they think we’re all just too stupid to know the price of bread…oh wait that was in 1789, not 2010….my bad.

Millions of us are without any jobs or any hope of securing a job. The unemployment figures do not represent the total number of Americans without work since they do not track those who have given up their job searches entirely. Then we suffer the indignity of having (positive) figures reported to us with great fanfare and then changed to true (negative) numbers months later. As if no one would know or remember.

So now we are faced with a dilemma, raise taxes or cut expenses. In the past this wasn’t much of an issue since our congress (both democrats and republican) just raised taxes as if there was no tomorrow.

Tomorrow is arriving and we cannot support the debt with our present economy. We must make clear, decisive decisions and do so now. Budget reduction does not mean a reduction in your annual budget request over your budget request from last year. It means making do with less money than you did last year. It means cutting costs and becoming more efficient. It means it’s time to get serious. The tax man cannot keep coming forever. At some point in time everyone will run out of steam and revert back to self preservation and individual substance. Google up ‘survival food’ if you doubt what I am saying.

Time will out as to whether or not our elected officials pay any attention to us. My gut feeling is that they won’t. They seem to say the correct things in order to get elected, and then go their own way once they are ushered into their offices.

It was happening in ancient Greece, Imperial Rome, pre-revolutionary France and is going on today in our country.

Unless we take more time to choose our elected representation than we do what we watch on television we will never escape this downward spiral of our society.

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