It's no secret that America dramatically underpays its front line soldiers. With government contractors taking home salaries between $500 and $1000 a day and defense suppliers making even more, many active-duty military families live under the poverty line and need the help of food banks and community assistance to stay afloat. To be clear, the private security that are hired by US defense contractors are making more in a day and a half than many soldiers make in a month.
Because so much money is being given away to corporations stealing war profits (more, more), there's not enough money left over to pay the people willing to die for their country even with the ridiculously low salaries. So, instead of cutting back on corporate subsidies, the Army has decided on a new path (bolstered I guess by the “success” of torture), and that is slavery. They're hiring Indian workers and paying them about $0.45 an hour (more) so that they don't have to pay Western workers a real wage…
All thanks to corporate subsidies being far too large. Think about it. We have a sociopolitical environment where it is extremely profitable for corporations when wars are raging. The current US leadership are direct reprentatives (as in currently salaried) of these corporations, and these corporations are the primary factor in getting one “side” or the other elected.
Seem like a good idea to you? Hell, how many Americans have even met their reprentatives? We're coming up on a Canadian federal election on Monday, and I've met four of the people running for government in my riding in person. Anyone who wants to can do the same. I met the previous Prime Minister twice as well. Rachel was pretty weirded out by this, but I guess in the US that Representatives are so monstrously wealthy that they don't have time for things like this?
Anyway… Let's assume for a moment that you agree with the idea of Manifest Destiny and that American ideals are the “best” and should be adopted by the rest of the world. Is what's been going on lately going to achieve that? To answer the question, let's rewind to elementary school.
There are two kids who hold positions of power that can be emulated. First, there's the school bully. He's bigger than everyone else, he takes what he wants from everyone and gives back selectively to only a few. In theory he's not a bad kid, but he breaks the rules whenever he feels like it and gets angry whenever he's called on it. He lies to his friends, has tantrums every time he gets a bad grade, and lashes out at anyone he thinks might be saying something bad about him.
On the other hand, we have the cool but aloof popular kid. He's friendly to everyone, but only hangs out with other cool kids. He tries hard at school and gets good grades. He's also quarterback on the football team and student council president. He's polite and teachers like him, and he always helps out others try and learn as well, although he won't do their work for them. He comes from a self-made wealthy family that has taught him the value of hard work and he tries to encourage his friends to do the same. Oh, and he plays in a garage band that everyone thinks is going to make it big.
Ask yourself which one of these is valedictorian, and which one's life eventually falls apart, and ends up in prison, penniless, friendless, and without options for the future…
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