The demonization of immigrants

America as a country, and as a nation, would not exist, if it wasn't for immigration; yet, certain peoples, typically those from Mexico and Central America, are presently treated as if they are the refuse of the world, by the policing/justice arm of America.  The current policy of this government seems to be, that anybody, but specifically Mexican and Central Americans, that cross the border without authorization into the United States, are dangerous criminals.  While, those that enter the United States of America without authority or authorization to do so are, in fact, in violation of the law, today's policy is not nearly as cut and dried, as certain types of governmental officials like to portray it.

For instance, as reported by fairus.org, there are an estimated 12.5 million illegal aliens in America.  This fact, clearly demonstrates that America selectively enforces its illegal immigration laws; in addition to the salient fact, that the sheer size of illegal immigrants in this country signifies that businesses and other enterprises have a strong and vibrant need for illegal immigrant labor, of which, even a cursory glance at the hospitality industry, construction industry, restaurant employment, agricultural workers, janitors, and meat cutting industries, demonstrate that these immigrants are not only gainfully employed, but are employed in abundance, if not, almost exclusively.

So then, the illegal immigrants are not only amongst us, they are actively working within America, and have been doing so for decades upon decades.  Further to the point, the most recent demonization of illegal immigrants is done for a dual purpose, of which the first is to allow those that employ such, to exploit them even further than they already do, for the avenues of justice for these illegal immigrants to get their fair due, are problematic, at best.  Secondly, the demonization of these illegal immigrants, allows certain Americans to believe that the systemic problems that America has, is not because America itself is fat, lazy, and corrupt; but rather it is because of the wanton criminality of these illegal immigrants.

In point of fact, as reported by americanimmigrationcouncil.org, "…immigrants are less likely to commit serious crimes or be behind bars than the native-born, and high rates of immigration are associated with lower rates of violent crime and property crime."  The most obvious reason of why this is so, is because illegal immigrants typically keep very low profiles, specifically, because they do not want to attract attention to themselves and do not wish to interact with the strong arm of the law.  In addition, despite their exploitation by so many employers in America, there is still a basic rule of law in America, there is still opportunity in America, and there is still a general freedom in America; all of which illegal immigrants typically do not have from their birth country.

If this government truly wants to do something about the prevalence of illegal immigration, then they need to begin such with honesty and forthrightness.  That is to say, far too many of those that employ or accommodate illegal immigrants, do so, in order to exploit them and to cheat them, of which, they would prefer things just the way that they presently are.   So too, the propaganda arm of this government wants the general public to believe that the lawlessness from a minority of illegal immigrants, is somehow endemic within America.  A more honest and a more candid America, would recognize, that immigration, illegal or not, is good for America, and has been good since the very beginning, and America should therefore adjust their immigration policies to reflect this very fact.

How is it possible that Walmart is not unionized?

A lot of people don't fully comprehend exactly how big Walmart really is.  For instance, in the entire world, no private sector company does more business, that is, has more revenue than Walmart's $500 billion per year.  Additionally, there is no private sector company that has more employees than Walmart, which counts a total of 2.3 million employees worldwide, and an estimated 1.4 million of those employees are located in the United States, alone.  Those numbers, in a world in which big numbers are almost always what any business or enterprise or union is after, are far too enticing to be ignored.  Which raises the question, how is Walmart, not unionized?

Obviously, the quick answer to the fact that Walmart is not unionized, is because Walmart makes it a cardinal point and principle that they will not unionize, and therefore they do everything within their power, in conjunction with all those auxiliary powers that clearly favor Walmart, that they be not unionized.  This obviously means that Walmart not being unionized is definitely not happenstance; for it is deliberate, it is premeditated, and it is an edict from their Board of Directors and corporate office, in which their objective is to never give any quarter, whatsoever, to those that even contemplate, let alone attempt to unionize.

The fight for and the attempt to unionize Walmart is an incredibly unfair one; not only because the resources that Walmart can call upon are effectively unlimited, and not only because Walmart has the infrastructure, material, personnel and response team in place for virtually any contingency that they may face; but also because if this government will not even attempt, or even take on the semblance of fairness, in regards to union activism and activities, of which, there are appropriate federal labor law regulations clearly relevant and in place, than those that are attempting to unionize, will continued to be forestalled by tactics that often involve but are not limited to: surveillance of possible union activity, infiltration of possible union activity, direct retaliatory actions against possible union activity, and any and all actions that reduce work hours, jobs, and opportunities for those so possibly organizing for an union.

The fact is that the employees of Walmart need the union, because they need consistent hours and fair pay, and in absence of a union they are in an exceedingly vulnerable position, because so many of them, are barely keeping their heads above water, if even that, and thereby really can't afford to lose their job, or to have their hours or their benefits cut back.  That in a nutshell, is the very definition of exploitation, for Walmart is able to effectively "bully' their employees into doing things for the benefit of corporate Walmart, without treating their employees fairly, which is why unions are necessary, in order for those that are in very weak positions and very weak bargaining power, to unite into one strong union, that can thereby get for those employees a fair deal and a seat at the table of weal.

The fact is the fight for union representation at Walmart is probably the best and brightest hope for labor and therefore for unions in the private sector so as to still be relevant in the 21st century; especially as opposed to what is currently happening, which is the slow but consistent erosion of private sector unions into non-relevance.

Law and order, and the rich

The cry for law and order has probably been around in one form or another in America, forever.  Still, the epitome of the law and order in the modern day is probably best represented by Richard Nixon, who stated, "Law and order is in the interest of all Americans. Let's just make sure that our laws deserve respect; " yet, to demonstrate his dishonesty, Nixon, when under intense pressure from the Watergate break-in, stated, "Well, I'm not a crook;" but the truth of the matter is, that when faced with the consequences of his illegal actions, he resigned the Presidency, rather than suffer the indignity of impeachment, knowing that a deal to later be fully pardoned was in place, which is the very definition of law and order hypocrisy.

The reason that so many of the rich, the elite, and the connected, are typically so strongly in favor of law and order, is that the most prevalent crimes committed are property crimes, such as theft, robbery, and larceny, of which those that have monetary assets, have no need to participate in those crimes.  So too, violent crimes against the person, such as assault, rape, and murder are also not often going to be crimes that rich people are going to engage in, for those are the very things that they fear will happen to them; so then, in short, they want tough law and order laws, consisting of stop and frisk laws, racial profiling, and harassment of all stripes to occur, so as to successfully keep the barbarians outside of their gates.

In point of fact, it doesn't get much simpler than this, which is that when you already have all the money and wealth that you could possibly need, of which that wealth is pretty much iron clad protected, except for some trivial walking around money; then the only thing of immense worth to protect, is the physical form of the individual, for all the wealth in the world cannot successfully put Humpty Dumpty back together again, if he is assaulted.  So then, since so many of the privileged rich and successful, are in the scheme of things, involved with some sort of risk management, than in their own narrow-minded world, they don't wish to risk having themselves getting physically hurt or strong armed in any way, for as they say, better to be safe than sorry, which essentially means to lock all those others up unless they behave as docile, controllable, and obedient human beings.

So too, the robber barons of this world, understand well this very thing, that because they are the ones that exploit the people to such a heavy extent, that therefore a significant portion of those people will subsequently have no fair opportunity in society, as well as no semblance of a decent and wholesome family life, in addition to  being purposely deprived of a good education; all because, the infrastructure of seeing that all this is successfully accomplished, necessitates a much higher degree of taxation of  the rich man's wealth, and that they will not give up.  This therefore indicates that they are obviously completely cognizant, that in order to maintain their status that they require the policing/justice arm of the state, to obey their dictates, and thereby to demand strict law and order, but never for the betterment of society, for there is no reformation intended, but rather so that the rich can remain rich, at the expense and exploitation of the poor and disadvantaged.

The big shall swallow the small

In the animal kingdom, size, stealth, power and strength are the biggest determinates over who does and who doesn't rule the jungle.  For mankind, especially in the business world, people like to believe that it isn't really a jungle, that the businesses that are most successful are the ones that are the most innovative, customer centric, or value or quality based, and basically the best businesses are the ones that get there based on merit; as opposed to underhanded means, or favoritism, or sheer size, but alas, that isn't really the case.

In point of fact, the industrial age, modernity, robotics, computers, hi-technology, and knowhow, have definitely made it policy that the only companies that are truly going to be successful are the ones that are successfully able to scale up in order to take full advantage of those efficiencies. That is to say, size most definitely matters, and while it can be said, that at some point, there are inefficiencies from becoming too big, such as having too much middle management, and complacency; those almost always are not enough to hold back the inherent advantages of access to massive credit, tax set asides, lobbyists, lawyers, accountants, and the scaling up of production that correspondingly equates to a lowering of the cost of building product.

There was a time, when those that were especially adept artisans, or hunters, or harvesters, were heads and tails above all others working with the same sort of basic tools and handicaps.  However, today, for instance, those that create goods that are hand crafted are really doing so not because they can be competitive against mass produced goods, but rather only as a niche business, and their success or lack thereof, is dependent upon their ability to do well within that niche.  For all others, that is, for mom and pop stores and businesses, the competition that they face is so often overwhelming, and the playing field is so tilted, that they are usually hopelessly outclassed in being able to compete.

This means, in the United States as demonstrated over the previous decades that businesses, in absence of enforced government regulations, or appropriate laws, that more often than not, they will continue to grow and to consolidate their industries at the expense of all those other businesses that lack the same sort of access to capital, size, influence, distribution, and production capabilities.  So then, while on the one hand, consumers can benefit from lower prices because of better corporate efficiencies; so too, the tables can easily turn, so that those that control the businesses, are able to extract a bigger gross margin and hence a bigger gross profit, because they need not fear any competition that can successfully erode their customer base; especially if their price increases are relatively small, and hence, sustainable, rather than dramatic.

Those that control the reins of capital, are the masters or co-owners of those that are the biggest capitalist players, leaving those that have no size and no scaling, to perpetually have to do business as the underdog, and therefore, as in the jungle, only through their stealth, their reads, and their angles, are they able to be profitable from it. If, this government makes it their business to throw in their lot only with the biggest players, than small businesses, family own businesses, mom and pop businesses, have no fair future; which is exactly the situation, today.

Is the greatest gift of mankind: reason?

Western nations, especially, want mankind to believe that the greatest gift of them all is the usage of our knowledge and brain power, so as to reason out things; and from that reasoning, great material advancement in mankind has occurred.  To the extent that mankind uses its brain power in order to create knowledge, for the greater benefit of mankind than such most definitely has its place; and to the extent that knowledge is utilized in order to reason out things, properties, theories, and logic, for the improvement of mankind, so much the better.

The problem comes though, from those that believe that the only true god worth worshiping is the humanist god of mankind, which apparently is their faculty of being able to reason out things from the knowledge that they have acquired.  That belief, wrongly indicates that there is no higher form of knowledge than mankind's ability to reason, but even a cursory glance around this modern day world, puts the sword to the effective worth of nothing but reason, or acquired knowledge, as being the greatest gift of mankind, for not one single societal ill that has bedeviled mankind for centuries has been thoroughly resolved in the present day.

For instance, the first World War, was also known as the "war to end all worlds", but, in fact, this obviously was not the case, as never have so many been killed in warfare than in the 20th century.  So too, while there are riches that abound throughout this planet, more than three billion people, as reported by dosomething.org live on less than $2.50 a day.    Again and again, for every good thing that reason, progress, and knowledge has brought forth to mankind, the overall effect, has not resolved the continuing problems of injustice, warfare, poverty, and ill health, though, of course, for some people, such has worked out rather well in their favor.  Further to the point, as reported by thebulletin.org, the Doomsday Clock, which measures the likelihood of a global catastrophe as of 2018, registers at just two minutes to midnight.

So while credit must be given to mankind for developing well its mind, increasing its knowledge, and improving its reasoning powers, clearly that, in of itself, when we look at the trouble that this world is in, is not nearly enough.  Rather, because the basic theory of mankind's reasoning is built upon the foundation that the universe and the construct that we live in is order; then it would stand to reason, that the highest duty then of mankind is to know that Activator of that order, for that is quite obviously, the very First Cause, and to know this, is the only knowledge that actually truly matters, for all else, are at best, substitutes for such.

This means that actually the greatest gift ever provided to mankind, is the connection that each of us has been gifted with, which is our unalienable and unbreakable connection to God.  This so dictates, and behooves therefore each one of us, to recognize that all knowledge is contained within God, for all knowledge is God, and therefore those that are able to focus within and to align their mind correctly into the portal of the unassailable wisdom of God, will know via their intuition the Truth, the whole Truth, and nothing but the Truth, of which this Truth is forever united with Justice and Love.

Competition, Monopolies, and dominance

America claims that it is a country of meritocracy and vibrant competition, of which, companies in all sorts of industries and businesses freely compete against one another, thereby not only providing a more competitive price but also more "bang for the buck" for their clients and because of such competition, these companies are obligated to continually improve themselves and to adjust their gamesmanship and strategies in order to stay competitive. 

In point of fact, while there are many industries in America that are quite competitive, in which, no single player has more than 5% of a given market share, there are also industry upon industry in which a very small contingent of companies or even just one company has at least 50% market share, thereby essentially making a monopoly for some of these companies.  Of even more disappointment, in this era of ubiquitous hi-technology, of which, one would think, that these young and innovative companies would quite obviously be competing against many other young and innovative companies one probably sees more domination by monopolies than in any other industry.  For instance, Google from a search engine perspective, as reported by gs.statcounter.com has as of August of 2018, a staggering 90.88% market share.  The Microsoft desktop operating system worldwide as of August of 2018, as reported by gs.statcounter.com has an astonishing 82.45% market share.  Finally, Facebook's social media worldwide market share as of August of 2018, as reported by gs.statcounter.com is an incredible 65.29%, and Facebook has only been a publically owned company since May of 2012.

The bottom line is that when corporations that are already significant in size, are permitted to buy out their competition, or to buy out technology that could present competition to them, or purposely buy out innovative technology that could negatively impact their market share, or to vertically integrate themselves without hindrance, or to basically have carte blanche to spend their money or the stock equivalency of money on anything that they so desire without limitations, than all of this combined will not just maintain their status but clearly significantly solidify it and to grow it, thereby essentially dominating a market so much, that the pendulum of pricing and the structure of that pricing will be firmly in their control; with the end result being that these companies will undoubtedly have gross margins and thereby gross profits that are significantly higher than companies of similar size that are actually competing in the marketplace.

This government and its regulators, have an absolute responsibility to its citizens to not only breakup companies that effectively are monopolies, but also to breakup duopolies, as well as breaking up oligopolies.  In absence of effective legislation that does exactly this, what transpires is what we see happening in America, today, which is that the very rich are getting richer, the middle class is getting hollowed out, and the poor are getting poorer.  All of this comes down to the fact, that in situations in which industries are dominated by one or a few players, of which there are no truly good viable alternatives, than the pricing and availability of those goods, are going to be structured in a manner that those purveyors benefit from, at the expense of the users and buyers of those goods and services. 

In 1911, the Supreme Court ruled that Standard Oil was an illegal monopoly that had grown to its gargantuan size through horizontal as well as vertical integration, with the upshot being that Standard Oil was dissolved by that court into 34 smaller companies.  Unfortunately, that landmark decision was made over one hundred years ago and clearly this Supreme Court along with this current government has no intention of breaking up any of the monopolies or their equivalencies that currently exist, which makes for the very best of times for those untouchable and super powerful corporations.

Tobacco usage and health insurance

A majority of States, though not all of them, charge a premium for those that utilize tobacco products when they apply for health insurance, in which the Affordable Care Act (ACA), permits insurance companies to charge a premium of up to 50% more for those that admit to using tobacco.  If this question was asked, amongst other relevant health questions, such as diet, weight, alcohol usage, illicit drug usage, prescription drug usage, and exercise, then it would represent a reasonable question, necessitating a reasonable answer; but in fact, the tobacco usage question, is often, the only health question asked, besides a qualification that you cannot exceed a certain weight limit.

The fact that tobacco usage is singled out as apparently the one valid reason why health insurance premiums should be adjusted appreciably higher, demonstrates conclusively the vilification of tobacco, as if tobacco, alone, out of everything that people do and ingest on a given day and in a given life, is the bogey man that kills all that takes part in tobacco usage of any amount and any potency.

In point of fact, as in virtually every circumstance, the amount that a product is used, how often it is used, and when it is used, amongst various other additional choices that a given individual makes in regards to their body, are a far more complete determinate of how debilitating or not, things such as tobacco usage really is for that particular individual.  For whatever reason, tobacco usage is vilified as some sort of scourge that kills all that take part in its usage; but that isn't factually true, as cbsnews.com reported on June 19, 2018, that "Smoking in the U.S. has hit another all-time low. About 14 percent of U.S adults were smokers last year."  Yet, as reported by cnn.com, on December 21, 2017, "Life expectancy in the United States has dropped again following last year's decline… On average, Americans can now expect to live 78.6 years."   Then again, Japan, which has a smoking rate of just barely under 20%, also has a significantly higher life expectancy rate than America of 83.7 years, thereby indicating, that the health insurance providers in America, are either not asking the right questions, or not asking enough questions, or don't seem to understand exactly how debilitating tobacco usage is, and clearly demonstrates that tobacco usage itself does not affect every individual in exactly the same way; as demonstrated by healthhubs.com, stating that: "Overall age adjusted cancer rates in the USA are more than 50% higher than in Japan."

One would assume that health insurance companies believe that by asking if a given individual is a tobacco user, and this being their only salient question asked in regards to an individual's health, that this therefore clearly represents their belief that tobacco usage, more than anything else, is the difference between good health and bad health.  That belief is misguided and misplaced, for there are far more salient questions that ought to be asked and that should be asked, that would be far better at determining whether the person applying for health insurance is more or less susceptible to adverse health issues.

Perhaps, America is proud that they nailed big tobacco to the cross, and this is why the tobacco question is asked; but the sad fact of the matter is, that life expectancy in America is as reported by the economist.com, "… are already two years shorter than the average in the OECD group of 35 rich and soon-to-be-rich countries."   This so indicates, that the ill smoke of bad health, which purports to be conclusively the fire of tobacco usage, is foundationally wrong, and this misdiagnosis is a significant reason as to why in aggregate more Americans are needlessly dying before their due time.

You need not fear your government if you have nothing to hide

This government, in conjunction with its many obedient media outlets has been able to convince a significant amount of Americans that if you aren't actively engaged in criminal or suspect type activity, that you need not worry about the government unduly interfering with you.  In fact, the willingness of the public to accept any and everything that the government needs from that public in regards to pat downs, email surveillance, GPS surveillance, the recording of private conversations, and so on, would seem to indicate that a lot of Americans are only too willing to sacrifice their freedom, for safety; and even more to point, feel that all good Americans should be willing to do the exact same thing.

The problem with this type of blind faith thinking, is that, certain people believe that because they are pretty much never engaged in any unlawful activity, that they want all others that may be engaged in unlawful, suspicious, or unorthodox behavior, as determined by this government, to suffer for their choices, and willingly support the government's efforts in seeing that this is actually accomplished.  While within a certain narrow minded perspective, it makes some common sense, that governments should protect their citizens by going after those that are perceived enemies of the state; the elephant in the room, is who exactly is watching our governmental overseers while they perform these actions on behalf of the people?  In addition, when you cannot protest and dissent against your own government, then obviously, the people of that state, are not free, though they may be safe within the construct that the government has so erected.

So too, when the government has a detailed dossier about every single citizen, of which, they have absolute knowledge of everything that each citizen does on a given day, the depth of which, reaches down to the actual minutiae of each twenty four hour period of everyone; and further that they have the ability to correlate, analyze, and study all of this information, at their leisure and at their command, than that government has truly become a very fearful master of its people.  Additionally, Hollywood alone, has taught us thoroughly that not everything that we see in this world is real, though it may perform the illusion of being real, so that, audio and video tapes can easily be edited and reconstructed; documents can be manipulated to change facts into non-facts and non-facts into facts, in which, the bottom line is that when all the information that the government has on a given citizen is accurate, than manipulating just a small part of that accuracy to show crime where there is no crime, or treacherous comments when there are no treacherous comments, or infidelity when there is fidelity, is a remarkably easy task.

This essentially means that all those that have nothing to hide and have obediently therefore given carte blanche to the government, don't seem to recognize, that when the bell so tolls for them or their loved ones, that they will have no one to defend them, nobody that will raise a hand, and no ability to protect themselves, because they have already sold themselves to the government at a very cheap price; never seeming to recognize that those that voluntarily trade their freedom for safety, have in reality, willingly put on the chains of their own imprisonment.

America has nearly 1,500,000 drug arrests yearly

According to drugwarfacts.org, in 2015, 1,488,707 arrests were classified as drug arrests, of which,"83.9% (1,249,025) were for mere possession of a controlled substance."  Additionally, 643,121 of those drug arrests were just for marijuana in 2015, which is an improvement, but not a substantial improvement upon the 734,497 arrests made in 2000, for just marijuana offenses.  The fact that so many people are still being arrested each year for marijuana possession clearly indicates that despite the reality that thirty States of this union have either legalized recreational marijuana or allow such to be legally prescribed, that the enforcing arm of this country, has not apparently changed much of their modus operandi.

The evidence that such a high percentage of drug arrests are for the mere possession of a controlled substance, indicates that this government believes that individuals in this country do not, and should not, be able to make their own personal choice as to what substances that they do or don't want to personally take.  Yet, as reported by statista.com, 4.453 billion drug prescriptions were written in the United States in 2016, of which the population of the entire United States is only 323.4 million.  This clearly signifies that the usage of drugs has a dividing line, arbitrarily dictated by this government, which stipulates that it is just fine to take as many drugs as an individual so desires to take, as long as the prescription is legal and the medical-prescription-insurance industries can profit from it; whereas on the other hand, it isn't okay to have in a person's possession certain controlled substances, that the government has labeled as illegal, and will depending upon the substance and quantity, could lead to a life term in prison, for its mere possession.

In point of fact, mere possession of a controlled substance is one of those crimes, that shouldn't actually be a crime, mainly because, possession is not the same thing as distribution, nor is it the same thing as usage, but rather it is just an easy way to harass and to arrest the very people that the government has decided that they want to concentrate their considerable resources upon.  Further to the point, resolving illicit drug usage, or illegal drug usage, or abusive prescription drug usage, really comes down to this government making it their policy not to criminalize the users of such, but rather to see these people as fellow citizens that should be afforded the opportunity to get proper counseling and help, to address these issues in a format that does not incriminate them, but serves to be of assistance to them.

The fact that this justice system apparently has zero tolerance or a low tolerance towards those that merely possess certain controlled substances, indicates that this justice system doesn't have its priorities right; for quite obviously, in any society in which tolerance levels for behavior that is not orthodox is extremely low, will by virtue of that intolerance, manufacture criminals, of which, sad to say, a significant portion of those so harassed, arrested, processed, fined, criminalized, and imprisoned, aren't bad people at all, but are treated as if they are the refuse of this country, rather than seeing them as people that are entitled to their own particular pursuit of happiness and satisfaction.

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.