These are only my personal feelings and
I do not claim to have any inside track to knowing anything for
certain more than anyone else.

We now seem to be in a time when many
things are going through major changes all at once. This is bringing
much uncertainty and fear to the masses across the globe which only
helps to make it seemingly worse.

First some background as I see it:

1. banks- the original purpose of
   banks was to be a safe place for people to put money in and then
   people could also borrow against that money to do things they would
   not normally be able to do as quickly. You could also earn interest
   on that money if it was put in some type of savings account because
   that was a type of reward for not using the money so the bank could.
   This in turn allowed them to help other people in need of money
   with the intent of it being payed back. Now they also required the
   payee to pay a form of fees called interest for the privilege of
   using that money.

2. Wall Street – The original
   purpose of wall street was to allow people to invest in companies
   which in turn allowed those companies to expand and make more and
   better products and to create more jobs so that people in turn could
   earn money in two ways. One is to earn interest from your
   investment as that company improved its earnings. The other was to
   gain employment from the company's expansion.

Now forward ahead several years and as
more and more people began to use the banks they began to have more
and more wealth and looked for more ways to grow and invest and earn
more and more profits. So lots of money began pouring into wall
street looking for more and more opportunities to realize incredible
profits.

At that point is where everyone began
to get greedy. Banks looked for more and more ways to get our money
to invest, companies grew and grew and became major corporations on a
world scale, and people saw more and more opportunities to invest
their money. And all of this with the hopes of realizing more and
more profits.

Then everything began to explode out of
control. Businesses began paying ceo's more and more money as the
value of the companies became more about their stock value than their
products. The products by the way got cheaper and cheaper and their
lifespan grew shorter and shorter and their quality dropped off
considerabley as everything began being mass produced. Also the
banks began to take greater and greater risks with their money as
they saw bigger and bigger profits to be had . At the same time we
individuals began to invest more and more of our money in the hopes
of greater rewards.

It is at this time that our system
became more like a gambling casino and less like an honest system of
people with elected officials looking out for their best interest and
these corporation began using their considerable money's and stature
to influence if not outright dictate policies of governments across
the globe. The banks also wanted in on this action as well and wall
street at the same time became more like a casino and then even
rumors and gossip or well placed comments began to cause market
reactions one way or another.

It is like when you go to a gambling
house and the rule is the house is only going to let you win so much
and then the house is going to get its money back. Hence the saying
“the house always wins”.

Anyway we are now where we are because
everyone became greedy and needy. We must have two of everything,
everyone must have a six passenger vehicle to ride in alone, we need
homes and vacation homes and tv's in every room, and we can't go
anywhere without a phone and a computer and a pda, and on and on.

Now granted consuming goods helps the
economy and we do gain from consuming but we need to sit back and
take a look at what our consuming at such a pace does to put a strain
on people, societies, and the earth. We are chewing up resources at
a ridiculous and perilous pace. And by doing this we risk our health
and even our lives. This is because these thngs cause countries to
set boundries and vie for these resources and risk wars to get them
(wouldn't sharing be safer and more beneficial). So now here we are,
many claiming the end is near and armageddon and peril at every turn
and blah blah blah.

But what I see is that people still
need each other to get through things. There is still food growing
from the land that people need to eat. There is still companies
large and small creating jobs and products that people need to
survive and people are still buying them. We still have to wake up
every day and get by and it is always better to get by together than
to fight each other for those things we need to get by. Yes people
the world still goes around and we are still here and the things we
can control are making corporate leaders and politicians and bankers
follow the rules they are required to follow and not allow them to
take advantage of us. And if they try we can stop buying their
products, or using their services, or voting for them. And we can
set rules to keep them from allowing such behavior.

So basically what I am saying is that
we still have things and make things and people still need things and
in cooperation we all stand to gain and the sky is not falling unless
we believe it is. It is just changing. Yes we are all being brought
to equal footing so that we can remember we are all here in the world
together and that no one is better than another no matter color,
religion, or whatever and we can only continue as one entity helping
each other for the common good, not ruled by some king or dicatator
or whatever but as one equal entity caring and sharing with
compassion, patience, trust, honesty.

Remember this: whosoever wishes to
live as a conqueror will eventually be conquered. And living by the
sword or one upmanship or whatever you want to call it will not stand
as we will all lose.

There is a song called “we are the
world” few things are closer to real truth in our physical world.

The very serious question is what kind
of world are we creating and what kind of world do we really want
because it really is coming to a time when we must make that choice.
And yes there are two paths. We will continue on but let us take
this opportunity to correct our mistakes and move towards a more
peacefull, equal, desireable world where everyone is important and we
take right actions instead of wrong ones.

This has nothing to do with religion.  It is about surving and thriving in a changing world using common sense rather than fear.

To fix this crap the government would have to legistrate moralities, greed.  One of the seven deadly sins.  Think they will have any luck?  The churches haven't.  The french did pretty good with their revolution, they excised an immoral ruling class.  Maybe we should take a cue from them.  The french don't care how messed up your sex life is while in office, just don't mess with the peoples money.  In the USA it is,  we don't care what you do with our money(or use questionable accounting practices to hide the money), just don't have sex. 

One of the roots of the problem is we over value everything under the sun so we can borrow against it in some way.  Local governemts over value our property to collect higher taxes so they can borrow for public works and fancy buildings and street repairs and nice salaries. 

Corporation over value their goods and their STOCKS so they can borrow against it to expand there business or buy new equipment or pay ceo's rediculous salaries and pay dividends to stockholders.  Banks and credit unions over value whatever people have so they can loan them more money than the people can sometimes afford to pay back. 

This is the system that we live in and we have all bought into it in order to do business.  We have quietly become a nation of people and companies and governemts living beyond our means. 

We choose to do this because we want the shiny stuff with the cool technology and the flashing lights and the loud cool noises they make so we can tell each other that we got all this cool stuff and that makes us cool.  So we work our butts off trying to by the cool shiny stuff we usually don't need cause it makes us think we are cool and gives our lives false meaning. 

I am not saying there is anything wrong with having nice things but we have all become borrowers to get it rather then wait until we can afford it.  This is one of the roots of the problems.

Oh yeah and W and his wild bunch say "it's Patriotic"...........