America deliberately breeds crime

While there are all sorts of crimes and all types of criminals that are convicted and sentenced each and every day, to a very large extent, the overwhelming amount of people that are convicted of crimes, are essentially convicted for being either poor, dumb, hopeless, self-destructive, or all of the above.  In point of fact, when you own nothing, or when you are ill educated, or when there are no real job opportunities that pay a living wage within your community, and when your decision making is typically suspect, the chances that you will commit a crime, and subsequently thereby be convicted of a crime, are pretty high.

Quite frankly, the real reason that there is so much crime in America, has everything to do with the fact that a huge swath of America, has been forsaken; and because so many of these people have no realistic or practical way to get out from under their rather dire circumstances, not too surprisingly, they resort to those criminal activities or frown upon methods to get their daily bread. 

It is only fair to recognize that America is the richest nation in the world, with the assets of such indicating a truly unbelievable prosperity, but that outsized wealth, is primarily in the hands of the very few; so that, in America, the three richest Americans have about the same amount of wealth in aggregate as the bottom 50% of all Americans.  Clearly then, the superrich are not going to commit the type of common crimes that so many criminals are locked up for, because they have no need to do so, as whatever material things that they require is already completely theirs.  On the other hand, those that struggle daily in their existence, more often than not, are going to do things such as thieving, drug dealing, counterfeiting, street extortion, robbery, prostitution, and things of this sort, in order to get money that they need in order to survive; those activities makes them criminals, and therefore they get locked up.

The thing is, though, the circumstances that created the environment for this sort of low level crime to exist in America and to replicate, time and time again is not dealt with by this country in any comprehensive or meaningful way.  Which is why, despite locking up an unprecedented amount of its citizens over the last two generations, there is still no lack of criminal activity that occurs, because of the fact that hopeless people that have no legitimate future, are more often than not, going to commit crimes, mainly because that is their way of legitimately protesting against the system which essentially has convicted them by being birthed into the wrong households, the wrong addresses, the wrong school systems, the wrong color, and the wrong justice system.

If America truly wants to reduce its crime levels so as to clearly reflect that this country actually does represent the faithful belief that all of us are created with unalienable rights, than it needs to create the actual infrastructure that demonstrates that very belief in every community that this country has.  If America does that, street level crime will plummet.

The false gods we live for

There are far too many people that live their lives in a manner in which quite clearly, they are all about getting what they can get, and getting as much as they can get, to the exclusion of most everything else.  This means that there are plenty of people that talk about being neighborly, or being generous, or may even believe that they are those things themselves, but in their day-to-day activities, they by their actions disown such attributes, and in reality are actually fixated on first getting what they can get, and once that they have what they really want, are willing to share some of their good life with others, as long as it doesn't involve actually sacrificing that good life in order to do so.

All those that live for wealth, or pleasure, or power, or other things of this sort, should be aware that truly a given person cannot in actuality serve two masters at once; so that, for example, either you will serve the gods of wealth, while, if successful, reaping in this world the pleasures of having that wealth, or you will serve your fellow mankind by treating those that you congregate with courtesy, generosity, concern, and loving respect. 

Now, it isn't that all those that have wealth are by definition, selfish, or self-serving, though many of them are, but rather, in any drive to have something, you will have to make decisions, that will necessitate the unveiling of your true character; so that, if in order to obtain that wealth, you have to essentially cheat someone out of their just due, that decision, tells the tale of who and what you really are, and all the words after the effect, won't change that essential truth.

All of the above means that talk is always going to be cheap, for it is actually in the actions and their activities that people create their true identity, and a true test as to what you are faithful to, is demonstrated by the choices voluntarily made.  Of course, there are plenty of people that will freely admit that they are all about pleasure or power, and make no excuses for being that, of which, whatever happiness that they receive from being those things is theirs for the taking.  However, the downside of that lust for power or pleasure, isn't so much that you can never get enough of it, but rather, that even when you do get all that you ever wanted or seemingly very close to it, it isn't really all that.

The most important point to understand is that the only true and worthy treasure is that treasure that time or circumstances can never take from you.  For instance, wealth or pleasure, when you depart from this world, you cannot take with you, and further to the point, you may find that even before you depart, that old age or other infirmities or betrayals demonstrates that these things are not as secure or as pleasing as it might have first seemed. 

A false god is a god that will not be there for you, when you are at your most vulnerable and you really do need that god's help, and therefore that is what makes that god, false.  On the other hand, the true God is the eternal source of everything that is just, true, and loving--of which, at best, some of the things we so often lust for, are pale reflections of that God.  The only God that truly matters is the One that is always there for you, of which, if you truly do seek this God with all of your heart and all of your mind, then the false gods will drop off, one by one, leaving just the Only One.

Warning: This Corporation has committed corporate crime

America is truly the land of incarceration; but there is a caveat upon this, which is that the incarceration, almost exclusively focuses on individuals and the incarceration of those individuals for their individual actions, of which those individuals so incarcerated, basically carry a scarlet letter upon their chest for the duration of their lives.  So that, when applying for a job, they are required to answer in the affirmative that they have been arrested and that they have been convicted, which, quite obviously, makes it rather problematic to find themselves a good paying job, fair opportunity, or even just some common courtesy and respect. 

On the other hand, corporations, are convicted of offenses all of the time, of which, some of these offenses are quite serious, such as polluting the waters to such a degree, that innocent people suffer from much higher cancer rates as well as other illnesses and troubles; or these corporations illegally collude with one another, or they violate food and drug regulations by the tainting of such, or they misstate their true financial condition to the SEC, or they obstruct justice by false testimony, and so on.  In regards to these offenses, some are actually tried in a court of law, many, though are plea bargained, whereas others come to an agreement of prosecutorial deferment or even a deferred judgment.  In any event, the amount of money involved in corporate fines, is in the billions upon billions of dollars, with, for example, British Petroleum recently being subjected to a fine of $20.8 billion by the Department of Justice.

As might be expected though, corporations that are fined, convicted, or come to plea bargained agreements of any sort are rather reluctant to disclose such to the public, except as necessitated by the circumstances, which usually involves a rather self-serving apology and a promise to do better.  The thing is, though, while there are all sorts of warnings attached to all sorts of products that consumers buy and utilize all of the time, there typically aren't any such warnings and admissions mandated against corporate criminals that would be akin to what a convicted individual has to endure when applying for a job.  That is to say, the biggest corporations in the world, advertise all of the time, through all sorts of media channels, of which, in fairness, to those that actually obey the law and are law abiding themselves, and believe further that good people and therefore that good corporations should do the same, should therefore see that those bad corporations are compelled by law to divulge to the public via their advertisements, their dirty deeds of corporate malfeasance.

The bottom line is that it is really not that difficult, to place at the bottom of a given advertisement, a list of the crimes that a given corporation has committed, or to end a commercial with a roll call of such; which is something that the general public deserves to know, for advertisements are quite influential in giving the impression to the consumers of ads, that these corporations are upstanding; whereas, full disclosure would indicate, that really isn't the case for a substantial number of them.  Therefore, crimes by corporations must be exposed for what they really are, which is criminal activity, and repeat offenders, should be dismantled, sold off, or taken over by the government, as need be.

Each important step in life should be carefully considered

There are many a person that have lived a long life, only to find that near the end of that life, they are not at all satisfied with the decisions that they have made and the results produced from those very same decisions.  Further to the point, with hindsight, experience, and some accumulated wisdom, they now clearly see the mistakes that they have made, but unfortunately they aren't able to rectify them because they cannot undo the past, and they have also run out of time.

In point of fact, everyone is defined by the decisions that they make, of which, in most people's lives, there are going to be those critical decisions that should be not only carefully considered, but also contemplated, as well as discussed with respected others, so as to be thoroughly examined.  That is to say, important decisions, whether that be in a relationship, or employment, or in education, often required and necessitate in order to arrive at a good decision; the thoughtfulness that a decision of that magnitude actually requires.

Of course, there are plenty of people, that make snap decisions, perhaps based on a hunch, or intuition, or happenstance, that work out quite well for them, which is just fine.  Then there are plenty of other people, for instance, that work hard to save up the money in their life, only to spend that saved money on some harebrain idea of a business that fails, or to spend it recklessly in a period of weakness for reasons really unknown, or loan it out to someone that is irresponsible, and lose it all. 

It isn’t so much that quick decisions are always wrong, because they aren't, but the difference is that a carefully thought upon decision, based upon solid reasoning, and, for example, acknowledged as a good and worthy decision by someone of real merit, is going to, more times than not, be the more appropriate route to take, especially when such a decision, has real life changing ramifications.  This does mean that the more that you correctly value yourself and your life, the more that you should respect yourself and your life, by making decisions that demonstrate in effect that these decisions made are truly responsible and clearly reasoned decisions.

It must be said that there is absolutely nothing wrong with taking a different path in life, but to do so out of spite or immaturity, or obstinacy, or contrariness, are not the right reasons for doing so.  The right way to make a good decision, especially a decision that appears on the surface to not be the correct decision, is to test such a contemplated decision, in the fires and cauldron of the reality of the world as it is.

Any truly life changing decision necessitates the same degree and intensity of pursuit for the correct answer that all things of vital import deserve.  At least, then, if a given decision does not work out, there is the knowledge that it was thoroughly examined and so that the second guessing of such a decision, is minimized, knowing that one did the best that they could do, with the tools, knowledge, and information that they had at their ready disposal. 

Make it your point and your principle that for every important step in your life, without fail, that you will accurately examine that step, and having thoroughly done so, you may rest assure that you truly did do your best with what you had, and no more can any ask than that.

The foremost reason why life expectancy has increased

It has been stated that in the 1800s, there was not a single country that had a life expectancy of even 40 years old, but that statistic, is somewhat deceptive, mainly because the prevailing reason why life expectancy was so abysmally low was because the old, the infirm, and especially the very young, were susceptible to infectious diseases such as tuberculosis, dysentery, and pneumonia, that were often fatal to the very weak and vulnerable.  In addition, this reduced lifespan existed before the widespread use of antibiotics and vaccinations, as well as the clear understanding of the importance of good sanitation as well as good and abundant drinking water.  Once all of these things came into play, then the very young, in particularly, infants, were able to survive their childhood and subsequently as reported by gcanyon.wordpress.com, we read that "Comparing just life expectancy for 20 year-olds, in 1850 a young man could expect to live to 60.1. In 2004, that same man could expect to live to 76.7."

Clearly, this would indicate that life expectancy since 1850, though improving a good amount, has not despite the expenditure of billions upon billions of dollars on healthcare, medicine, pharmaceuticals, doctors, technology, robotics, and hospitals, improved all that much.  This seems to imply that the great lifespan improvement breakthroughs actually came to humanity, one hundred years ago, or even longer than that, and that improvement came down to fundamentally understanding the nature of infectious diseases and thereby creating the immunizations and vaccinations to bolster and defend a given body against such.

The fact that life expectancy has increased further in recent generations is more a reflection of better hygiene, plentiful food, and significantly better natal care for newborns and infants. So that, according to infoplease.com, the average life expectancy in America of those born in 1950 was 68.2 years, and for those born in 2010, it has gone up to 78.7 years, which is an improvement of just over 15%.  While that might even sound pretty darn good to a lot of people; taking into consideration all of the medical breakthroughs and pharmaceutical drugs that have been added and manufactured since then, the reality is, that improvement is rather disappointing.

The bottom line is that the biggest reason why life expectancy has increased really comes down mainly or almost exclusively to the very significant reduction of infant mortality, and there really aren't any other significant reasons why adult lives have added years onto their life expectancy, other than the implementation of a good diet, antibiotics and vaccinations, good sanitation, clean drinking water, general prosperity, and preventative healthcare.

The challenge for modern day medicine is to do better than they have done to date in helping to provide for more people a longer life expectancy, in addition to that longer life expectancy being of good quality health. Currently, no country spends more money per capita on healthcare than the United States, yet, on a life expectancy chart as shown by infoplease.com, the United States ranks 43rd in life expectancy.  This would strongly imply that whereas there was a time when the United States was a true pioneer and meaningful innovator in medicine that eradicated vicious infectious diseases, and drastically improved the life expectancy of infants; that those impactful days are gone, and further life expectancy improvements appear to be rather modest, at best.

The joy of being a corporate criminal

There are some people that just have a propensity and a desire to commit crime, of which, individuals that commit crime in America, especially those without the adequate funds to afford a dedicated attorney, suffer greatly for their crimes, of which, those that commit property crimes, such as ordinary theft and larceny, can lead to them serving incarceration terms of five years, or even more, depending upon the severity and their prior record.  On the other hand, when corporations essentially commit theft by cheating consumers out of what a given product is supposed to do and represent, or by circumventing financial or environmental law, they aren't going to be doing any time, though, they might pay a civil fine if the act is especially egregious and pursued.

In point of fact, while it would be an extremely unusual corporation that actually deliberately and by premeditation targeted and killed a given individual, most of the crimes that people commit, corporations also commit, except on an entirely different level.  For instance, if you unjustifiably shoot someone dead, that is murder, and the only question is whether it is 1st degree murder or 2nd degree murder.  Whereas, if you disgorge noxious chemicals from your factory so that they pollute the drinking waters in a community, that leads to a significant increase in the amount of cancers, and thereby the death rate skyrockets of those suffering from that cancer, that isn't ever going to be charged as any degree of murder, though it might be charged as an environment violation, and a monetary fine might be so imposed.  So too, when a corporation opens up fraudulent accounts for people, or overcharges customers on penalties or overdraft fees, or racially profiles their customer base, or foreclosures on mortgages without proper due notice, all of these activities will not result in any criminal charges, but may be subject to a monetary fine, and a promise to do better, if that.

Again, and again, it can and should be said, if you want to collude and price fix with others, you don't do that as an individual, you do that as a corporation.  If you want to pollute, you don't do that as an individual, you do that as a corporation.  If you want to break up organized labor activity, you don't do that as an individual, you do that as a corporation.  If you want to bribe foreign governments or foreign entities, you don't do that as an individual, you do that as a corporation.  If you want to cheat the IRS with a fraudulent tax return, you don't do that as an individual, you do that as a corporation.  If you want to stock trade on inside information, you don't do that as an individual, you do that as a corporation.

The thing about corporations is that they can be and are huge, of which, corporations such as Walmart has over 2.3 million employees and Walmart on a yearly basis does $500 billion worth of business.  A company of that size, layers, and complexity, will make it nearly impossible to charge Walmart or any other large corporation, with any criminal offense; though they may be liable to civil charges, but even those charges are a tall mountain for the government to pursue because large corporations can procure the best lobbyists, the best lawyers, the best publicists, and the best deals, so that unless the government pursuing the lawsuit is adamant about it, the prosecutorial agreement that both sides will come to agreement to, is going to be the cost of doing business for that corporation, and typically nothing much more than that.

The great thing about being a corporate criminal is that even if you get caught, in virtually every case, with a couple of small notable exceptions, you will never personally do time; so that, worse case, is that the corporation just needs to pay a fine and perhaps amend some of its business practices, but not so much that the corporation can't essentially keep on doing what it has been doing, making money, however it best sees fit.

If you are not ready, you will not learn

To learn is not as easy as it might seem, for two very basic reasons.  The first reason is that the person doing the teaching actually has to know what they are talking about, and preferably know their subject very thoroughly.  The second reason is that those that should be listening, are perhaps actually only half listening, or not listening at all, or are not accepting of what is being taught, or don't actually have the capacity to truly understand what is being taught.

The bottom line is that even when the teacher is a very good teacher that if the student is not ready to actually listen to that teacher and then to do their necessary part to learn and to apply that knowledge, then the learning will not be at the level that it should be at.  This basically means, that those that are not ready to receive knowledge, for the most part, are not going to receive that knowledge, which is why those people that opt out in school and various other worthwhile educational environments, do so; because they are no longer engaged, subsequently they have little interest in putting forth the effort to ever get back to actually learning, and consequently they learn very little, indeed.

That is to say, that readiness to learn is a very important component in order to learn.  Further to the point, those that may have been good students in the past, may turn into rather poor students in the present, when they so decide that they have learned enough, or know enough, and therefore are not willing to consider additional or new information that is relevant to the world that they live in.  On the other hand, someone with a perpetually open mind, that blows where the prevailing wind so has them blow has not developed the appropriate discernment to recognize that not every word spoken nor every word written, is necessarily going to be worth actually assimilating, and thereby need not treat such as reliable knowledge.

While it is never too late to learn, the best time to learn, is almost always when not only the mind is ready, but when the fear of failure or embarrassment, is either non-existent or has been pushed far into the background.  The point is that someone that is unduly scared to venture into a new territory is not going to do nearly as well as someone that eagerly wishes to explore that same territory.  This is why a good teacher, recognizes that each integral step that is basically in the right direction is something that needs to be acknowledged and praised, for the right words fitly spoken, are a boon and a boost for good knowledge to be successfully received.

Each of us needs to do our part, to correctly prepare ourselves to learn.  This means, that part of that process, is doing our homework, getting our rest, researching information, staying engaged as well as current, finding the right study group, and keeping our mind focused on the tasks at hand, so that, in readiness, we learn.

Do your best, today

There are plenty of people that put off the important and vital things that they need to attend to today, and claim that they will get to it, tomorrow.   While it is true that some people are quite good, about waking up the next day and getting done what they need to get done, they are often the exception to the rule of those people that put off things that should be done today, only to find, that tomorrow, brings the same sort of procrastination.

There are so many things that can be done on any given day, that each person, should prioritize what it is that they need and should get done and to work exactly on that; because, without some sort of orderly arrangement and structure, than what gets done, may not be what should get done, but rather instead are often the things that are easier to get done, or sort of get done, or just kind of get done, of which far too many of those things, aren't really what needs to get done.

On any given day, we should want to put forth our best effort in the activities that we address, recognizing that none of us are limited to just a finite time that we can be at our best; signifying that if we strive to be at our best as often as we can, than we will for a certainty, be at our best far more often than people that wait until they feel circumstances are just right to be or attempt to be at their best.

The best way to get tasks completed is to have goals and objectives not only for the day at hand, but also to have goals and objectives that are much further away than that, of which, when we attend to those things that need to get done and do them well presently, while also keeping our eye on the tasks that we are focusing on for the long term, our consciousness and resolve of addressing each of those things  each day is going to get us closer to realizing our goals, as opposed to being haphazard or indifferent about such.

None of this means that there aren't going to be days or times when we really do need to think and contemplate thoroughly about something important, and therefore do put off some things until tomorrow, but that isn't procrastination, but rather it is prudence, for part of accomplishing goals and activities, is preparing ourselves correctly to do so.  This means, that if research is necessary, or certain tools are required, or outside advice is necessitated, that we should see that this is done, because lots of activity without foresight is not going to be as effective as someone that really knows where they are going and thereby finds the means to obtain the proper accouterments that they need to get there.

The deception about tomorrow, is the deception that people get into when they habitually use excuses for their failures and shortfalls, rather than stepping up and admitting that their failures or lack of success, are more often than not, their own responsibility.  Those that do as much as they can today, and do it well, are going to be the same people, that will find their tomorrows much better, than those that hope for a great tomorrow, without laboring for a good today.

Money lenders, usury, and exploitation

Not every country allows monetary loans to be structured in a manner that allows the lender of the money to charge interest over the period of the loan, although this structure is very typical for western nations.  For instance, the typical arrangement of an automobile loan, allows the buyer to purchase a car by coming to a financial agreement over a set period of time, in which the amount of money that will be paid in total by the borrower to actually become the legal owner of the vehicle will be greater than the amount of the loan, of which that difference of added money is the interest so charge by the lender.  While this is a very common procedure, in fact, the norm as well as being the backbone of the banking institutions as we know them in today's western nations, that is not the case in most Islamic countries, that see usury, or even the very loaning of money at what would be considered a reasonable rate of return for the lender as not being permissible.

Further to the point, the Islamic religion is not an outlier, as Judaism through its Torah has historically condemned usury, except for the notable exception of the lending of money to non-Jews; additionally Catholicism also for hundreds of years, until this modern banking age, has condemned usury, and even Hinduism and Buddhism has historically condemned usury.  Of course, modern day money lenders don't consider banking as constructed in today's world to be usurious, but merely, a fair and voluntary exchange of the access of capital or money for a reasonable interest rate, of which, for those with very good to excellent credit, this may actually be considered a fair viewpoint.  However, money lenders, also loan money to those that have poor, fair, and good credit, at interest rates that often are extremely high for auto loans, credit card loans, and subprime mortgage loans, of which quite deliberately the people that have credit ratings that are far from pristine, are subject to interest rates that are double or even triple the amount paid of someone that has excellent credit.

Clearly, the lending of money or even the access to monetary credit is dependent upon the credit worthiness of the recipient, of which, for the most part, such credit worthiness, is really just another way of segregating the class hierarchy of citizens, so that those of the lower class, who clearly are the ones that can least afford to pay the highest interest rates, as well as those obnoxious banking penalties and fees, are the very ones that do that; whereas those of the highest class, are privy to the lowest and most competitive interest rates, and rather than penalties and fees, typically have a significant portion of that augmented instead with rewards and perks for simply being part of the most privileged class.

This essentially means that those that lend money often structure their model specifically to exploit the unknowledgeable and weak for their own profit and benefit, and far too often find that the easiest parties to exploit are those that have the greatest need but often not the resources, alternatives, or credibility for a truly fair exchange to be consummated.   So too, those that make money, simply from the loaning of money, haven't really labored or done anything of substance to earn that additional money; for the true cost of that money so loaned, becomes solely borne by the person or institution that has that money loaned to them, of which far too often, the lender knows for an absolute certainty, that the deal is structured in such a manner, that however the loan turns out, they will profit from it, and the borrower, especially the ones subject to the most usurious rates, will not.

The Top 400 Hundred Households Tax rate

If you want to collect fish you go to where the fish are at, if you want to collect customers you go to where the customers are at, and if you want to collect money for taxes you go to where the money is at.  Basic logic tells us that in a world in which each household makes about the same income and has about the same wealth as every other household, a fair tax assessment, would be about equal for each household; and in a world in which some households have appreciably more money than a significant amount of the population, of which a fair amount of that population pretty much struggles each day to make ends meet, the appropriate party to tax has got to be those that have that wealth.

America has a progressive income tax for the expressed purpose that those that have more to thereby pay more; so that, taxes collected from the wealthy, will be utilized by the government to support and to assist Americans that have little or nothing, along with setting up institutions that will allow all citizens to have not only a seat at the table but a true opportunity to experience the best of the American dream.

It then follows that as reported in book "The Betrayal of The American Dream", the tax code in 1955 appeared to be working in its effectiveness, as "...the four hundred households with the highest incomes--paid 51.2 percent of their income in federal taxes,"  but rather than this type of taxation percentage of the superrich continuing in the decades since, in fact, the tax rates of the four hundred households with the highest incomes, have seen their federal tax rate, plummeted, to ridiculously low levels.  So that, as reported at cbpp.org, the four hundred household with the highest incomes "…paid 16.6 percent of their income in federal individual income taxes in 2007."  Further to the point, as reported by

indexmundi.com each country in the world has been assigned a Gini coefficient for income inequality, of which, most people see a country such as Russia, as the cardinal definition of a plutocracy, but incredibly the Gini coefficient of income inequality in Russia is at 37.70, whereas America is actually higher at 41.00, indicating that America has more income inequality than Russia, which fundamentally indicates that America is a country of the superrich, by the superrich, and for the superrich.

Not too surprisingly, money is a form of power, so that those that have money, especially lots and lots of money, will find that augmented by not being taxed at an appropriate rate for their wealth, which allows the richer to not only get richer and hence more powerful; thereby also means that democracy itself, inevitably becomes undercut by the money that the superrich and their connections are able to utilize to benefit themselves to the exclusion of the vast majority of Americans.

When it comes to the richest households, the biggest benefit to those that have money is the fact that as reported by cbpp.org, "In 2007, the top 400 filers derived 66 percent of their income from capital gains and dividends," and with the qualified capital gains tax rate being lowered to a maximum of  15% from the years 2004-2012, and with 2018 the maximum being now capped at 20%, it can be stated for an absolute certainty, that the four hundred households with the highest incomes are not going to be taxed appreciably more than they paid in 2007 when they paid taxes at the anemic rate of just 16.6 percent, which is worlds below the 1955 tax rate collected from those households of 51.2 percent. 

The bottom line is that the four hundred households with the highest incomes primarily make their money from capital gains and dividends, which essentially means making their money without laboring a whit for it, yet, this government doesn't do a thing to change it, signifying that the truth of the matter is, this government, for all intents and purposes, marches to the beat of the superrich and no one else.

The arrest rate in the United States of America

According to Statista.com, there were 10,662,552 arrests made in America for 2016.  If you believe that this is a staggering high number, recognize that from 1990 through 2016, the lowest amount of arrests in America in a given year was actually in 2016, and the highest amount of arrests in America was in 1997, when it was an astonishing 15.284,300 arrests.  Further to the point, ucr.fbi.gov, states that: "The estimated arrest rate for the United States in 2012 was 3,888.2 arrests per 100,000 inhabitants."  Not too surprisingly, with that amount of arrests, the amount of people incarcerated in America for 2012, was as reported by hamiltonproject.org, the highest of any nation in the world at 710 per 100,000 inhabitants.

In point of fact, there is a very high correlation to the amount of people being arrested as to the amount of people that subsequently are incarcerated via a conviction for a criminal offense.  Especially irksome is that many people believe that only the guilty are arrested in the first place, which turns the whole concept of innocent, until proven guilty, on its head.  Additionally, such a high arrest rate signifies that America is truly an outlier amongst all the other western nations in the world in the sense of its apparent wanton lawlessness by its citizens; while also quite clearly showing that penitentiaries of which, in theory the "bad guys" are taken off of the street, thereby reducing crime, apparently does not perform that service, whatsoever.

In reality, two prevailing reasons why so many people are arrested year after year, has a lot more to do with the laws on the books, that necessitates and thereby allows the arresting of people for illicit drug usage as defined by the federal government, as well as for driving under the influence, of which the very definition of driving under the influence varies upon the State you reside in, whether or not you are operating a commercial vehicle, your age, and the ever decreasing allowable Blood Alcohol Content (BAC).  Basically, in America, many laws are written not so much to protect the innocent but to capture those that are essentially engaging in victimless crimes.

Recognize that anytime a person is arrested, their freedom of movement is also arrested, of which, even if they should later have all the charges dropped, or reduced, or modified, or bargained away; the experience is at a minimum going to be nerve wracking, inconvenient, painful, dangerous, and always involves some sort of expenditure of both time and resources by the person so being arrested.  This signifies, that a country that arrests so many people at exceedingly high rates cannot and should not be considered to be the freest country in the world, but has to be seen for what it really is, a class-based police state, that so often concentrates its considerable resources not on rectifying the very things that breed crime, such as bad education, bad housing, low income, dysfunctional  families, and lack of opportunity, but instead focuses its attention upon those that do not have the ready means to fight back, and takes from them, the little that they have, and gives it to those that make and selectively enforce those laws in the first place.

Freedom and shadows of freedom

There probably exists not a single country in the entire world that is totally free in the sense that its population is allowed to freely express their views, unpopular or not, inconvenient or not, whenever and  wherever that they so desire, without any sort of penalty whatsoever for expressing such; though countries such as the United States appear to ostensibly offer exactly that freedom in its Constitutional statue but in effect, history has demonstrated, again and again, that the freedom to express oneself in the most momentous and trying times of America's existence, that the press and the freedom of speech of organizations and individuals is almost always stymied, compromised, or eliminated.

For instance, the socialist Eugene Debs was arrested and convicted for essentially protesting against America's involvement in World War I, of which the National Government successfully argued that Debs was committing treason by his opposition to the drafting of American citizens into their mandated military service. Again and again, through court decisions, laws, arrests, incarceration, intimidation, and violence, the United States government and its equivalencies on local and State levels, has trampled upon the rights of American citizens to voice their Constitutional right to freedom of speech, of which, there is always given a somewhat convincing prevailing reason, that typically rests upon national or local interests and national or local security, that mandates that such freedom needs to bow to our governmental overseers.

In point of fact, the most important time that the right of freedom of speech rests upon, is those times of war or rumors of war, or civil rights abuses, or religious bigotry, or any of the myriad gross injustices that affects a community and a country, of which, if the people are not permitted to voice their viewpoint at those critical junctures, than that community and therefore that people don't have any real freedom of voice, but have only a pale shadow of what that freedom so represents.

Real freedom is uncomfortable for any government, because most governments though they talk about representing the people, and being of the people and for the people, aren't typically any of those things, whatsoever.  Instead, far too many governments are really about taking care of themselves and their favored industries and peoples that those governments work hand in glove with, to the exclusion of all those that are not part and parcel of that system in action; therefore they have little interest in real protest, or in anything that will unnecessarily upset the status quo, because they are quite satisfied with the way that things already are.

The process of change, necessitates freedom of movement and assembly, the freedom to protest, the freedom of the press and the freedom to voice whatever that it is that means something to those so voicing it.  When those freedoms are suppressed or compromised or neutralized, than what has occurred is that the state apparatus, in conjunction with the policing arm and justice departments, are strong arming the people from freely expressing themselves, when such an expression, is actually their Constitutional right, and should not be subjected to permissions from a government that is built upon their just powers coming from the free consent of those so governed.

To live correctly, necessitates our preparation to die -- having lived right

There are a lot of questions that a given individual should want to ask and that they should want to know the correct answer to. One of those important questions has got to involve the very purpose of life, because if we do not know the purpose of life, than we are to a large extent, living our lives without truly knowing whether what we are doing is the most appropriate thing to do or not, and because we don't know that, our decision making will be worse for that lack of specific knowledge.  

Further to the point, it is a foolish mistake to pretend that we will not die, when by nature's infallible law, all things physical, without exception, will meet their demise; so then, knowing that physical death is absolutely certain, should indicate to us, that the only possible part of us that will be eternal is not ever going to be our physical body, but must be our spirit and/or our mind.  This then makes it quite clear, that whether or not a given person believes in a Higher Power or not, isn't quite as important as their recognition that their energy and their emphasis should be placed upon what is eternal rather than what is temporal.

That is to say, part and parcel of a lot of troubles in this world comes from people that are so trapped within their physicality, that they are not able to recognize that the physical body merely houses the spirit and the mind, signifying that therefore by expending their energy, decisions, and thoughts upon the physical to the exclusion or near exclusion of all else, cannot possibly be the correct way to live a good life.

In point of fact, the only possible way to live a life correctly is to recognize that you are not the physical body that you see in the mirror, but are in fact, something far greater, far more complete, and eternal in substance as compared to just your physical body.  Once you are able to see yourself as you really are, life and its mysteries begin to make much more logical sense, and therefore, there is a comprehensive understanding that the challenges that we face in life are there so as to make us better able to perceive that it is in the living that we create the undiscovered country that we will reside in upon our physical death.

This means, step by step and day by day, how we live and how we behave in our interactions with others, as well as in the deeds and actions that we perform, creates the very structure of the death experience that we will face, and those that have done right while living to the living, will also die right for having done so.  Whereas, all those that have done wrong, will not somehow escape having to face their injustice they have done to themselves as well as to others, but will be obliged to face that injustice until such a time that they have overcome such by doing right to make amends.

To live here in this world, necessitates our recognition that we must not only keep our own house in proper order but that we have an inherent obligation to help our neighbor in accomplishing such also by our interactions with them , including our aid, wisdom, advice, and sweat labor, that we so provide.

Mercy, justice, and sacrifice

It really doesn't seem right that Jesus was crucified upon the cross, but indeed He was.  One way to understand this from a different perspective is to recognize the incredible strength of character that is necessitated by sacrificial love; as well as the true liberty of being released from human ego and embracing instead the correct concept that there is an Eternal Justice that ultimately rules all things with impartiality.  This would therefore indicate that those that demonstrate mercy and compassion in their actions are closer to understanding what true justice represents than those that believe only in the letter of the law and never the spirit of the law that stands behind it.

In one way, the basic reason why so much of the Old Testament involves sacrificial animals in religious rites is for mankind to try to make peace with its Maker for their mistakes and missteps; so that the whole point of physical sacrifice of animals is to be a representation as well as the precursor of the actual physical/spiritual sacrifice, done so dramatically through Jesus the Christ.  This should not though be interpreted so as to believe that it follows that each one of us needs to literally be crucified in service to their fellow mankind, but instead that each us must follow Christ by figuratively crucifying our own ego and selfish desires and thereby becoming reborn into expressing love, joy, kindness, goodness, steadfastness, and self-control in all our interactions with our fellow brethren.

The old law of an eye-for-an-eye may sound like justice to some people; even some people feel this exact way at the present time, but ultimately this is very much a zero sum game that resolves nothing of valued substance.  In point of fact, in order to get beyond tit-for-tat philosophies, necessitates that one of the parties so involved, must relinquish its right for like-for-like, and replace such instead, by the virtue of love and mercy for the other, for nothing else will provide the necessary closure that allows mankind to advance to a higher level, rather than remaining grounded in the mud and mire of a lower life form.

If we truly see Christ as the exemplar of our faith, then we must learn our lessons well, and because Christ did not take revenge or vengeance upon those that wronged Him, obviously, this demonstrates in action, that there is a pathway that we need to follow that is over and above our normal perception, which is that the law of mercy and forgiveness trumps the foibles and errors of human injustice, so often masking itself on some level as justice, when it clearly is not.

Again and again, so many people get so caught up in their physicality that they fail to recognize that more than anything our earthly lives are in actuality, a proving ground.  If more people were to recognize implicitly as well as explicitly that the real tests in life are actually a test of our true character, they would soon learn to see things and situations in a manner, of which that correct perspective would keep them in focus, and therefore would they be just in their actions, merciful in their treatment, and sacrificial for their people.

The California Consumer Privacy Act

Not everything that glitters like gold is gold, of which the very powerful initiative which had received double the amount of signatures needed to be certified for a democratic vote in California in regards to the right of privacy for consumers in today's hi-technology digital world, was circumvented by a hastily put together alternative to such, known as the Consumer Right to Privacy Act which was passed by the legislature of California in 2018, thereby in its effect, signified as part of this quid pro quo, that the sponsors of the initiative, would withdrew their ballot initiative, before the statutory ballot initiative deadline, which they so did.

As might be expected, the sponsors of the initiative, believe that their withdrawal was done upon having received in effect, the very things that they so desired from the legislative action that passed this alternative privacy act, in addition to also receiving some added privacy protections not specifically addressed in their initiative.  On the other hand, the sponsors do admit that in the area of consumer lawsuits, that there was a definite trade-off, of which those consumer lawsuits are legally limited to data breaches only, with the rest of law  “...subject to enforcement by the California Attorney General.”

It doesn't take a genius to recognize, that when the biggest and most important hi-technology companies in the world are located in the State of California, and that these companies do billions upon billions of dollars worth of business, as well as profit to the tune of billions upon billions of dollars from the consumers of their products and their usage, that these companies will not risk in any way, form or substance, the very basis of their profitability and growth.  This thus signifies, that despite what this legislated privacy act so stipulates or purports to stipulate, that these companies are both confident and comfortable that it will essentially be business as usual, especially in consideration that the Attorney General will not under virtually any circumstances do anything that will endanger the very businesses that California's economy depends so heavily upon.

The bottom line is the best lawyers are going to be working hand-in-hand with the hi-technology companies, so that, whatever words are written into legislation, they are written in a manner that may say one thing to the layperson, but clearly says something materially different to those that understand implicitly and explicitly how the law will work in its implementation.  That said, such a privacy act is still a step in the right direction, for it serves notice to those big businesses that as much as it may appear that most Americans are nothing more than mindless sheep, there are still a few Americans that at least have one eye open and are aware of their right to privacy as well as its essential importance to their freedom and their right to just be left alone.  So too, it must be stated as an axiom, that when the people's democratic initiative is circumvented by a suddenly awoken legislature, seldom will the alternative, be anything more than fool's gold.

Drivers that are too close to their airbag

Not every safety feature that we deal with is going to be safe under any and all circumstances.  A case in point, is the driver's seat airbag, which when deployed, is deployed at an estimated speed of 100 to 220 miles per hour.  In addition, the distance from that deployment to the breastbone of the driver should be no less than a minimum of ten inches.  The problem therefore comes from those that are typically either elderly in which they drive while bent over the steering wheel, because of vision problems or posture problems or just general old age fatigue, as well as those that are short in stature, that thereby need to be close to the steering wheel not necessarily because they want to be that close but in order to comfortably reach the brake and acceleration pedals to the car.  In addition, some people sit quite close to the steering wheel for visibility purposes, or for the reaching of certain controls on the dashboard.

In virtually all cases, the people that drive in which they are closer than ten inches to the steering wheel airbag, are not cognizant of the danger of their driving position, but they surely need to be aware of it, for not every accident that necessitates in the deployment of an airbag is the type of accident that needed an airbag deployment; indicating that some car accidents at relatively minor speeds can create catastrophic injuries, such as a broken neck or even death because of the speed, impact, and force of that airbag being deployed, in which the driver, often because of their unsafe close proximity to that airbag as well as the body part being impacted by it, have been hit by that airbag while such was still accelerating in its force.

It's unfortunate, that so many people that should be aware of their driving position and therefore the danger of an airbag deployment seriously hurting them aren't actually aware of it.  This would imply strongly that in the purchasing of a vehicle, that this safety feature of the car, should be something that the manufacturer or the dealer of such, should be mandated to provide to the purchaser with both written as well as video instruction to the buyer, before they are permitted authorization to drive the vehicle as the owner of it.

So too, insurance companies as well as governmental services, should be mandated to provide occasional public service announcements reminding and instructing drivers on their appropriate positioning in regards to the driving of vehicles, especially considering that airbags are mandatory on all vehicles.  This is the least that should be done for the safety of drivers, for airbags are one of those safety devices, that has a significant downside when drivers are not properly positioned within their vehicle, that can result in horrific injuries, of which, the prevention of such, typically comes down to the distance of the steering wheel to the breastbone of the driver; in addition to recognizing that the driver's posture in regards to the steering wheel should never involve the driver's neck being in line with that steering wheel. 

Progressive dividend tax

The United States current tax system, exempts qualified dividends from being taxed as ordinary income, and therefore allows those qualified dividends to be taxed at the tax rate for qualified dividends which maxes out at 20%, whereas the progressive income tax currently maxes out at 39.6%.  Basically, for stock dividends to qualify at this reduced tax rate for the individual, the recipient of such, need only essentially receive dividends of which the underlying stock of that dividend payer has been owned at least 60 days, and further that the dividend is from a U.S. publicly traded stock.

In point of fact, those that currently receive dividends at the reduced tax rate for owning those stocks, are taxed substantially less than those that are earning their money through wage income, which doesn't seem fair.  While it is true, that there are plenty of people that make their money from wage income along with making additional money through qualified dividends, that isn't the same thing as someone that makes exclusively or nearly exclusively all of their income from passive investments.  The fundamental issue with dividends being taxed at a reduced tax rate, is that the person that is physically laboring for their wages pays at a higher tax rate, than the person that is living off of the extra money earned that they have accumulated through their investments, such as in dividends from stock ownership.

It would seem to be the case that people that are actively working for their wages, should not have to pay a higher tax rate than someone that doesn't do anything other than to place their money into certain dividend paying stocks, yet that is the current situation in America.  While it is true, that most people are not eager to pay more than what they owe in taxes, the fact of the matter is that those that labor for their income are paying more than they really should, because essentially those that should pay more at a higher rate, are not.

It also doesn't make sense, that qualified dividends are not taxed at the progressive tax rates as in ordinary income; especially if the whole purpose of the progressive income tax is actually to have those that can afford to pay more, to pay more.  When, as is the situation today, that those that are multi-millionaires or billionaires, are able to pay taxes on their passive income at a very reasonable rate which has a ceiling placed upon it, than quite obviously, those that are superrich are going to increase their net worth, at the expense of all those that have so much less.

What is or isn't taxed, and how much that taxation is, along with how it is structured and who pays what, makes a significant difference as to how families and individuals are able to conduct their lives and to pay their bills.  The larger the income, from whatever source or sources, that a person has, the more that they will be inclined to use every avenue to reduce that taxation, because to a very large degree, it isn't so much what your gross income is, but rather, what your net income becomes.  As it stands, those receiving dividends are living large vis-a-vis those that live upon their wages, of which, this is a very meaningful reason as to why the superrich and therefore the wealth and income disparity, has grown substantially in America over the last fifteen years.

Incarcerate every single one of those people

Until the 1970s, the incarceration rate in United States while higher than other western nations, was within a reasonable band of their rates, but beginning in 1972, as reported by nap.edu 161 American residents were incarcerated per 100,000 population, and by 2007 it had “more than quintupled to a peak of 767 per 100,000.” Wikipedia.com indicates that in 2016 the incarceration rate in America was still at very elevated levels as in “655 per 100,000”, whereas countries such as Germany and Italy were both under 100 per 100,000 in 2016.

As many people are quite aware, the United States leads the world in incarceration rates and its percentage of residents incarcerated is not only a very high percentage but the sheer numbers of those incarcerated are absolutely astonishing in number, with 2.2 million people that are currently incarcerated in America, and with nearly 5 million more that are either on probation or parole.

While there are all sorts of theories, reasons, and studies as to why there are so many that are incarcerated in America for so long, the bottom line is that rather than seeing America and its residents as being some serious outliers in the sense of criminality; the real reason why so many are incarcerated in America, primarily comes from a runaway justice department in a significant amount of our cities and counties, of which, that justice department, along with the infrastructure of those courts, those jails, those prisons, their law enforcement personnel, their prison industry, as well as all others that do service for that justice department, directly or indirectly, essentially manufacture criminals.

In point of fact, when there are so many criminal laws upon the books that cover ever conceivable unlawful contingency, of real merit or not, and when 94% to 97% of State and federal crimes are actually plea bargained and hence do not afford the accused of a trial by their peers, than the justice department as a whole has carte blanche along with an uninterrupted green light to arrest whomever that they choose to arrest, under whatever dubious reasons or laws that are on the books, so as to get those so accused to plea bargain to something that will force their incarceration or cooperation.

Of course, it goes without saying, that the people that are most susceptible to being arrested and doing time are going to be those that are least able to fight the system; which are going to be the poor, the ignorant, the jobless, the weak, and the forsaken. Thus this means that in a country of such a great disparity in income, as well as in education, as well as in opportunity, and has historically oppressed those of the wrong color, as well as those of the wrong religion, and other assorted undesired people, it therefore follows that focusing on all those without a voice will enable the incarceration business to boom through any and all economic cycles.

The real reason why the incarceration business skyrocketed over the last forty-odd years is because those in power, wanted it to skyrocket, and by selecting and concentrating on all those that have little power and little of substance, they have succeeded in profiting upon the least of those amongst us, rather than addressing the systemic problems that create the seeds of criminal activities which are specifically enforced against those that have nothing to begin with.

To protect and serve, and social media

The very problem with the term "social media" is that it doesn't fully disclose just how social these sites are, of which, truth be told, those that believe that they have full control of who sees what of their content on social media, seldom have much real control of it at all; especially if they are a "person of interest" or are part of a protest group that the police or other governmental agencies wish to monitor, or their views are controversial or they associate with people, or seem to associate with people, that do not have a good reputation. Basically, social media, when distilled to its essence, is what appears to be the voluntary posting of all sorts of personal things and viewpoints that are the equivalency of exposing those that post such to a 24/7 surveillance world that will document, analyze, cogitate, and track those members of society that are a priority of those agencies to take an active interest in, so that those that perhaps claim that they value privacy, have actually openly traded their privacy, discretion, and prudence, for Big Brother surveillance, and all this they have done by their own volition, and for free.

Police and justice departments need good and reliable information in order to perform their jobs well, of which, social media sites, have essentially provided them an incredible treasure trove of information about real persons with their real identifies that is not only actionable, but current, relevant, and with seemingly endless ties from one person to another and then to another. Not only that, none of this appears to require a warrant, or a wire tap, or much of anything, other than the assistance of skilled practitioners in the art of collating social media posts so as to pick up trends, patterns, and information, that allow the police to focus more carefully upon the areas that interest those departments. In addition, undercover police agents now know exactly how to work so much better the angles and their sting operations, because so much information has been posted or alluded to, that their ability to infiltrate such becomes a quantum leap easier; not to mention the fact that because of all the social posting and personal information that is so easily and readily retrievable, that the ability to compromise specific individuals in order to take down a group or negate it, has never been better.

While, law and order types are probably delighted that law enforcement is able to mine so successfully those that make public posts in all of the myriad social forums, this should not be looked upon by the general public as wholly an unmitigated good. The reason why, we should shudder at this newfound power is because the law and the justice departments are now through social media very familiar with the intimacies of real individuals; so then, even though there are lots of individuals that are generally considered to be good people, the government as a force of power, could easily create and manufacture evidence that would appear to be quite convincing, against any of them, should they be so inclined, to essentially damage or to manipulate them. That, my friends, is the advantage that the party that has the information, alongside the power already granted to them, can do at any time, on nearly anyone.

Federal government borrowing and its unintended impact

The federal government cannot get its fiscal house in order, and quite frankly doesn't appear to have an interest in getting its fiscal house in order. So that, the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis estimated that the Federal deficit for FY 2016 was $585 billion, which further increased in FY 2017 to $666 billion, and the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget believes the deficit in FY 2018 will be $800 billion, and in FY 2019 they believe it will rise to $1.2 trillion. That is just the deficit per year, which doesn't take into account the aggregate fiscal deficit that the Federal government has which is over a staggering $21 trillion dollars.

Still, somehow, Moody's maintains its AAA credit rating on United States debt, which signifies that foreign and domestic buyers of that debt believe that the United States is good for the money. This also signifies that when it comes time to borrow money, because the United States monetary needs are so massive, in addition to their credit rating being so stellar, that the sheer size of the debt being required by this government basically crowds out other borrowers that are seeking personal and corporate loans. That is to say, the government in its need to borrow money competes against individuals and corporations that also have a need to borrow money. So then, not too surprisingly, loans are typically structured in a manner in which the most credit worthy consumers of those loans get the very best deals and the smoothest access to money, as opposed to all those that have less than stellar credit. In other words, the greater the amount of money that any government has to borrow in order to sustain itself, contributes to the reduction of aggregate economic growth within that country, because there is only so much money to go around, and hence those borrowers of money with less than exceptional credit ratings, are either not going to get the loan that they need to expand their business, or will have to pay a higher rate for that loan, either of which impacts the sustainability and profitability of that business, and consequently lowers economic growth.

On the other hand, if the government had its fiscal house in order, this would free up billions upon billions of dollars to be reinvested into companies and businesses within America, and would contribute to a better economy and higher growth, especially in consideration that big governments are incredibly inefficient in the expenditure of the money and resources that they have so allocated to them. Additionally, governments have a strong tendency to play favorites, of which those that are qualified to be those favorites, must also be industry leaders, for nobody else has the necessary impact, other than the biggest corporations, because only the biggest corporations have the ready resources and qualifications to perform the tasks and work needed by big government; leaving the little guy, as nothing much more than an afterthought and pretty much out of luck.