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ARE WE BECOMING A NATION OF WHIMPS??
By fred | July 1, 2008
Wonder what it is about old buddies being afraid of a BLOG, guess I was too until I realized that I could have fun saying exactly what I want – having somewhat of a pulpit to do it on, kind of like a old time preacher getting to ‘Spread the word.’
A number of those buddies gave me a ‘heads’ up for the nation of whims – said I was right on, I wish they would post on the BLOG instead of sending to my private e-mail, of well what can you do. We have a growing number of new members to ‘Chipping from the rough’ but they all seem to be passive- not say anything. One old buddy – said he respected my “passion” BUT “my” getting so excited relating it– my spelling went all to hell. Hey, you can’t have it all– passion and great spelling. Anyway, I am doing this on word and will transfer it to my Chipping BLOG, no matter how passionate I get.
Since I will likely not be around when we take back our nation, I would like to think that someday we could get back to the friendship, the courtesy the caring of business in days gone by. I will bet the kids today can’t remember when shopping was fun. There was a bagger at the grocery store, ready and willing to help take your groceries out to your car. When you filled your car with gas the attendant washed the windows of your car, checked your oil, checked the air in your tires, all for the price of buying gas at under a dollar per gallon.
When you needed to call a business, you got a live operator, did not have to play 20 questions with your touch tone phone. AND – when you got that operator the voice was strictly American, may have a Texas twang, a Southern drawl, but you could be damn sure it was American. Now if you ever get to a REAL LIVE PERSON, sometimes you cannot hardly understand that person as they are from India or some other country the other side of the earth, certainly not American. Guess they have to pay an American a proper wage and can get a person in India for a buck an hour or some such.
Those are all minor bitches, and may not ever be overcome. Generally those bitches were not about taking back out country so much as the seemingly LOST courtesy of doing business.
Recently I had some problems with eBay, seems some busy body with nothing else to do found a minor infraction of one of their rules and had ten items of jewelry in my store tossed out. Instead of phoning me and explaining to me the reason I got e-mail after e-mail telling me the awful things they were going to do to me. My God if I ever wrote a letter, just one letter like that to my customers when I ran my import/distribution businesses I would have had to file bankruptcy immediately if not sooner. My customers would have told me to go to hell. Trouble with some of the media sized companies today is that they have no real competition, they can give you the finger and you have to take it. I will lay bets that if any auction house type like eBay starts and gets a proven bunch of viewers that eBay will lose 50 percent or more of their major sellers. There are competitive houses now but they do not even have a fraction of the percentage of the market e-Bay has so e-Bay can be a tough to sellers as they wish. E-Bay now charges small dealers 12 1/2 percent of the final sale, plus listing fees, then folks want to pay via credit card by PayPal, that is 4.9 percent plus .30 cent per item. Add all this up and it is from 18 to 20 percent of the sale. You would think eBay would be hugging their sellers, treating them like kings, yet they stomp on them, amazing how modern business works. Like I said, making no friends, sometime in the future, eBay will pay a price for their actions, likely I will never see that time but I will bet it will come.
I have been rambling on about little stuff. What future Americans, our kids are going to have to take back is our medical system, the treatment of the health of our nation’s people. The drug companies are raping us silly. You can go to any other nation on the face of this earth and buy the same prescription drug you have to take from 10 to 80 percent cheaper. Yes, you got that right. We live right next to the Canadian boarder and go there quite often.
When confronted with this the American Drug companies say that they have to get the costs of developing, of researching drugs from someplace so they get it from the American consumer. Amazing, screw your own people, rape your fellow American to hell with them.
Listen up– do you know the reason why we are the ones getting screwed for all this and not the other industrialized nations of the earth??? It has to do with the fact that every industrialized nation on the face of this earth has NATIONAL HEALTH PLANS for their people. They also have their national government controlling the buying of prescription drugs. They will not stand for being raped by the drug companies. So– to sell to these nations, nations like, Canada or Denmark or United Kingdom, Ireland, etc. they have to keep their profits reasonable or they will lose sales to that entire nation.
Here in the good old United States we have no such protection so the drug companies stick it to us big time. I remember one of my wife’s anti cancer drugs she had to take for five years after her Chemo therapy treatments, we could get those pills across the border in Canada for $80 a month, here in the United States the cheapest price was over $300.00 for a months supply.
Old folks face going with out food to take medicine that was to keep them alive, that must be stopped.
The other day I read a article by a Saudi guy related to their production of oil, he stated that there is NO OIL SHORTAGE, no reason for the extremely high prices. He said from 30 to 50% of the price of gas at the pump was due to speculation on Wall Street, for that reason they refused to raise the production of oil. Knowing the good old gangster, screw em if you can attitude of the Wall Street boys, I believe it.
Something has to be done, this nation of “FREE ENTERPRISE” is fine, only the free enterprise going on — is the screwing of their own people, the rape of Americans by American business. Yes, I would like less controls — but with the size and the ability of so many big businesses today absolutely controlling basic commodities — the average American citizen has no means in protecting him or herself. There must be government to stand up to big business and tell them a fair profit is fine — but rape of your brother or sister American is not nice and we will control it.
All just one old man’s opinion. Uncle Fred
Topics: ARE WE BECOMING A NATION OF WHIMPS??? | 4 Comments »
July 1st, 2008 at 7:56 pm
I meant to comment on this great essay yesterday but had no time.As usual,you are right.The steady erosion of all that is well with America started in 1968 and has now begun to accelerate.I read about the fall of the Roman Empire and the paralells between that time and now are striking.Rome was the world cop,and that got really costly.So Rome began a slow debasing of it’s silver money by putting less silver in every year,like printing more dollars now.The endless deployments got too hard on the proud roman families with long traditions of military srevice,so the roman army began to lose their best bedrock soldiers.I read about many other disturbing similarities,but what is more important,what is to be done?A New president with good new ideas who can assemble brilliant people and make them work well together is a start.I think Sen.Obama has shown us he deserves a chance.
July 1st, 2008 at 8:10 pm
Some priorities for Sen Obama should be:National health care to fix a broken system.A serious Manhattan project for energy that simaltaneously builds wind,solar,etc.but also invests heavily in Fusion power.Return us to a nation of small car drivers with permanent cafe standards set very high.Would’nt it be nice to have our kids someday be able to tell the arabs to keep their oil?How would the arabs fund their hate preaching schools then?Change the stupid trade and tax policies so that it is expensive to outsource and cheap to locate here and pay good wages.Change the legal system to end frivolous lawsuits that encourages us to be a nation of sue happy crybabies.Change the tax code so the wealthy pay more than the middle class.Use that money to do right by our veterans returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan.If we turn our backs on them like we did to the guys who came home from Vietnam,it will be our gravest mistake in our great nation’s entire history.We can do all this.
July 1st, 2008 at 8:17 pm
our grandparents-the greatest generation accomplished far more 1932-1968.If we do half as much as they did,we can restore my beloved country to the greatness they built for us.It will take a new president and for most of us to agree that things CANNOT continue this way.I love my country and want my kids to live in an Americathat they will always be as proud of as I am.Thanks for listening.Mark.
July 1st, 2008 at 11:14 pm
Dear Mark, I wish, no– I pray for one thing. That every father in our great nation would have the same heart, the same concern for health, the future, the life facing their children as you have shown me. If each father and mother showed just half your concern, had the willingness to speak out– then good things just have to happen.
I am not concerned about the rich, they will aways get by. It is the little things that are stressing folks out. I see the face of a mother filling up her family car’s tank at Costco. The gas pump reads $80, I see her sadly shaking her head. Why? Likely because she is wondering what she must take away from the daily life of her family, what the family will have to do without.
I go to our store, where we buy all our groceries, Fred Meyer’s. I see the same expression on the faces of mothers there. The srained look, those that before just tossed stuff in their baskets, now carefully looking at the shelf of groceries, likely trying to find a cheaper meal to feed those teenagers that are hungry all the time. The steak section of the butcher department is full, but the pork and bean section in the canned goods section is empty. I notice that the store brands, cheaper shelfs now empty fast where as the higher priced brands are full.
Yes, folks are watching their pennies, Dad needs the gas to get to work, so Mom cuts back on trips with the kids, getting her hair done.
The oil companies are making profits that are so high it makes we want to puke, and we do nothing. God willing a new president, hopefully Democratic will find some answers–BUT a new man will have a heck of a job on his hands. I’m afraid it will take ten to twenty years to right the ship the financal damage is so great.
Wish I could feel more hopeful – be able to put a happier face on things – maybe I am wrong, maybe, maybe, maybe – Mark, I truly thank you for your comments. If more like you would speak out, maybe we can take our nation back again from the greed of our own nations businesses. I often wonder which is the greater threat to the lives, the lifestyle, the health and wellfare of our people – the terrorist? – or the big businesses that seem to think of their fellow Americans as sheep to be fleeced.
Love ya, Uncle Fred