Poverty and the lack of progress

A country is made up of its entire people, from rich to poor, from smart to stupid, and from good health to bad infirmity.  While the United States is populated with some of the very best and brightest throughout the entire world, as well as having the highest amount of billionaires, in addition to the impressive abundance of its great athletes; so too, as reported by  huffingtonpost.com, "14.5 percent of all Americans, lived below the poverty line", as well as reported by huffingtonpost.com, a disappointing "32 million adults in the U.S. can’t read,"   and finally healthfitnessrevolution.com reports that: "Because of these alarming obesity rates, this generation of children will be the first to live shorter lives than their parents."

For the most part, the fact that such a wide swath of Americans are in poor health, often in conjunction with having made bad health choices, along with so many being so ill educated that they are functionally illiterate, in addition to so many Americans not being able to sustain themselves without receiving some sort of charitable or governmental aid actually represents a true reflection of a country that despite its great resources and riches, has not been able to lift all boats. In fact, quite clearly, it seems like a significant percentage of Americans have simply been left behind, and are thereby treated as an afterthought or an inconvenient annoyance within our capitalistic system.

A clear headed view of our current state of affairs, leads reasonable people to conclude, that more than anything, it is systemic poverty that is the abettor of our current sad state of affairs.  That is to say, those that are the poorest amongst us, are stuck within a desperate situation in which there really isn't an escape from living in communities of high crime, high dysfunction, high single-family households, which produces  people of low income, low opportunity, and low social status.

It isn’t surprising that those that live in bleak circumstances, have bleak lives, for there typically aren't any good paying jobs within their given community, as well as they are often inundated with convenience stores that cater to cheap calories of questionable food nutritional value, have little good medical care within their sphere, and the public schools that they are assigned to, aren't even worthy of being considered education, in respect to the full meaning of that word. 

This means, in effect, that the 14.5 percent of Americans that live below the poverty line, are essentially hopeless and without hope that there ever will be change, for there aren't any bootstraps to lift themselves up by, for their boots, if they even have them, are of the cheapest quality possible and those particular boots have no straps to lift with.  So that, such poverty and such ill education leads to millions upon millions of Americans, being both ignorant of proper language skills as well as inept at accomplishing even the most simplest of mathematical exercises.  All of this leading to the inevitable general attitude of apathy, for their dreams of being a person of substance, are totally annihilated before they even reach middle school.

So what we have is that all those that are successful people of some means, must carry upon their backs all those that are impoverished, for governmental programs are ultimately funded by taxpaying citizens, for the government gets its money from the people, meaning that, everyone that is not self-sustaining becomes a burden to the nation as a whole.   So these millions of people, poor, disadvantaged, ignorant, of ill health, and apathetic have wasted lives of basic hopelessness, of which, to the disgrace of America, nothing of substance is being done to correct it, for despite our great wealth, the huddled masses of the poor and destitute are a true reflection of the American dream gone horribly awry.

Public companies and the quest for monopolies of power

In January, 2017, the market capitalization of all public companies headquartered in the United States of America, exceeded $25 trillion dollars, in which, market capitalization of these companies, represented the total dollar value of each one of these company's outstanding shares.  While there are myriad reasons why companies file to go public in the first place, fundamentally the primary reason is to more easily and more readily raise money for future growth as well as for present-day operations through the sale of and the purchase by outside monetary investors of their stock, which will be traded publicly on the stock exchange that will allow for liquidity, price appreciation, and dividends for those investing in such.  Another very important reason for becoming a publically traded company is so that insiders, other highly placed executives, and important personnel, can now more easily monetize their compensation packages which typically would include stock options and stock bonuses, making it far easier to both retain valuable personnel as well as to entice new highly valued personnel to work for the company, because stock publically held, is both liquid and easily valued because it is publically traded, as opposed to companies that are privately held, which while also being able to offer stock options and stock shares, ultimately control that value internally which may not reflect the true value of those options or stock shares.

Another very valued reason for companies going public, is that capital is truly the engine that makes a company grow, that is to say, great ideas, even great managers, and great businesses, may not be successful, and often aren't nearly as successful as they could be, if they lack capital or are starved of capital, for without working capital, and plenty of it, the necessary funds for research and development, for the compensation packages needed to entice the best and brightest, as well as retaining executive teams and highly valued members is problematic.  This means, that companies that have a viable business model and have been either able to prove that in actuality, or are able to lure investors in by their potential, often are quite motivated to put themselves into the position of going public, in order to juice that growth, take market share, and to become a true force in the marketplace.

Going public though, is definitely a two-edge sword for any company, for not only are there rules and regulations for publically held companies on a given stock exchange, but the investors in the stock of any public company, are by nature, interested essentially in their investment, making them money over time, which comes through continued profitability, growth, as well as dividends, and those companies that fall short of quarterly goals and objectives are punished for their failures.  So that, public companies, most definitely feel the pressure of trying to achieve what is expected of them, so that quarterly projections, yearly goals, and so on and so forth, are disseminated to the public, so that revenue and profit goals are set and thereby are expected to be met or exceeded by such companies.

This then, follows, if we are to take it to the extreme, that virtually all public companies, fundamentally have the exact same desire, which is to take as much market share as possible, as well as to make a reasonable return on their investment capital, so that, the winners in the stock market world, often get bigger, not necessarily by internal organic growth though that does happen, but instead by buying out or merging with competitors or through vertical integration, all in the effort to become the only true player in their field, because once you are the only one that matters, or a consortium of a few that do, you now have monopoly or oligopoly power which is great for those that work for those publically held companies as well as their investors, but means typically that the public in aggregate has lost out via higher prices, lack of options, and even the stagnation of innovation, because the few and the chosen own that market.

This means, in effect, that publically held stock corporations because of their sheer size and the pressure by their investors to get even larger as well as to make more money, become, in principle, a real danger to the people, for when a few public companies dominate their respective domains, then the consumer will be seen more often as someone to be fleeced as compared to someone to be properly served.

The Oligopoly power of the Top four Commercial banks

The fred.stlouisfed.org states that the total assets of all commercial banks in America as of 6/28/17 was $16,267 trillion dollars, of which, of that amount, as listed by federalreserve.gov the consolidated assets of the top four largest banks, which are JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, and Citibank comes to a total of $6,991 trillion dollars or nearly 43% of those total assets in aggregate, effectively signifying that when it comes to the banking industry in America, these four banks, rather than being seen as competitors to one another, or in effect, an oligopoly, and such a concentration of monetary assets into too few hands allows these banks to virtually dominate all others and to thereby it is these banks that determine the prevailing interest rates that consumers will pay for loans such as for credit cards and mortgages, and to whom these loans will be originated for.

 It takes absolutely no stretch of the imagination to recognize that when banks reach a certain size, and these banks have reached that size, that thereupon they have effectively positioned themselves that they are now, for all intents and purposes "too big to fail" for the consequences of the government putting any of these behemoths into receivership could very well topple the financial edifice as we know it, with potential catastrophic consequences for all those that bank with these institutions.

While it can be said, that size and consolidation has its place in regards to efficiency and scaling of businesses, when that size is so large as to basically dominate all other competitors, so that these chosen four, are privileged to be the favored few when working with governmental agencies and financial regulations in all of its many capacities, than these banks are able to thereby leverage up their consolidated power in which the laws created by lobbyists' influence favor these banks' preferences to such an extent, that this gives them an unfair advantage over all others that could conceivably threaten their position of power.

So too, because of this great concentration of assets in such a small number of banks, in which commercial banks in fit, form, and function, via our fractional reserve system, are able to create money by virtue of the assets that they hold, means that this monetary credit now created, allows these banks to multiple the money so deposited that this expands our money supply, not really for the greater good of the country and its consumers as a whole, but instead to leverage up their monetary assets in a manner that these banks are now able to make even more money for themselves in order to increase their stock price, their bonuses, and to thereby earn money when their leveraged bets work out, and when these leveraged bets do not, to thereby lean on the federal government and their regulators to bail them out or subsidize them in times of trouble.

The fact that these banks are consolidated into too few hands, means, in effect, that these big four banks have the power to set consumer interest rates, mortgage rates, fees, and services offered in a manner that would be considered to be collusion, and the smaller banks that so desire to compete against these large banks aren't able to effectively do so, because the cost of the money as well as logistics for these banks because they are so much smaller, costs them more, thereby as seen over the last twenty-five years, the top four banks continue to take a larger and larger piece of the banking pie, in which the consumers of such, both large and small, are nickel and dimed,  day after day, all in the service of the big four to the detriment of consumers at large.

Standing armies and the rise of the military industrial complex

Brutus, the anti-federalist wrote in 1788 that: " The liberties of a people are in danger from a large standing army… …. that an army will subvert the forms of the government…"   Brutus words are absolutely prescient and yet in today's world his warning in fit, form, and actuality, has been eviscerated and ignored, for this isn't a country, that has mere standing armies, it is a country that hasn't declared a congressional war as per its Constitution since World War II, yet has the largest "peacetime" military-industrial complex the world has ever seen, with its footprints, influence, and armaments literally extending throughout the entire world.

While it certainly made sense that conscription was enacted during our civil war, such conscription was also enforced in World War I, when, at that time, the war was seen by many in America as just another European war, of which, Europe has seemingly had legions of such wars.  Then, conscription was re-instituted for World War II, and such conscription continued unabated until 1973, so that some men were indeed forcefully drafted into the undeclared wars in Korea as well as Vietnam, resulting in the military-industrial complex becoming permanently ingrained within America, so that, today, the Defense Department of the United States of America, as reported by forbes.com: " .. .boasts a workforce of 3.2 million people, making it the largest global employer."  Further, the proposed budget for the Department of Defense for 2018 is an absolutely staggering $ $639.1 billion.  This, for a nation that has not had a congressional declared war since World War II, and for all practical purposes is not under attack by any other nation, or any other entity, whatsoever.

The fact that we have massive standing armies in peacetime in America, has meant that the government in conjunction with specific corporations have had to coordinate and assimilate each within the other to such a massive extent so that industry would be consolidated and coordinated in order to efficiently and effectively be able to produce and provide all of the munitions, infrastructure, and armaments that a modern nation must have in order to build their military might.  This means, of a necessity, that facilities must be secure from enemies, foreign and domestic; that roadways, materials, and foundries, must be under the aegis of the federal government so that the priority of such things is first and foremost in conformance to the military-industrial complex, superseding and thereby not being interfered by individual State priorities or ordinances, nor to be bother by the citizens of America, that might so object to such.

So too, schools, but not just military schools, specifically universities and the greatest minds of each generation, must be found and utilized for the industries that are part and parcel of such military might, so that the Defense Department can not only stay ahead of the curve, but far ahead of it, utilizing the most advanced and the most state-of-the-art equipment, aided by human ingenuity, for their purposes of military might. 

So then, because the military-industrial complex is now so large and so powerful, such a complex must be fed on a continual basis, in order to maintain its status as the preeminent priority of America, so that the American dream of doing what is right and proper for the citizens of this great land, has been subverted to actually mean, doing what is right as defined by the military-industrial complex, for the benefit of such, in which, the point is to ever keep the American populace in a state of heightened anxiety that America is being menaced by some nebulous foreign entity of evil intent that necessitates the permanent state of this military-industrial complex to "defend" us, while all along, it siphons massive amounts of money that would be of a far better usage to Americans for social programs, education, healthcare, generations yet unborn, and the uplift of those that have been downtrodden for so long.

The democratic vote and power

The playing field in America has never been fair, for if you own land, especially lots of land, or land in the right area, you have by virtue of that ownership, a vital source of wealth, of which that land distribution has historically been skewed to favor some other others.  In addition, those that have money and/or access to capital, have the ability to make more money and to invest such in a manner that will create additional wealth.  So, definitely, the ownership of land and having money separates those that have such, from those that do not, and the passing of such lands and wealth from one generation to another, favors parties that historically have benefited from that historical legacy, such as the legacy families of white Protestants.

This then means in effect, that those that come from money and/or have the equivalency of it through the lands that they own, are in the driver's seat of using such for not only their personal benefit but also are able to make the necessary connections on a political, social, and business levels that will thereby extend their power and thereby solidified it. 

However, those that don't have money or ownership of real property, can and do prosper in this country, for myriad reasons, of which the most prevalent of them all, is through their educational achievements, for right and valued knowledge will open up economic opportunities that will allow those that begin with little or nothing, to create something of value, and to thereby earn their way into having a piece of the American prosperity.

That said, sadly, the quality and even the safety of public schooling in America, is highly dependent upon the physical address of a family's residency, and those that are in the wrong school zones, for whatever reason, of which poverty is the most prevalent one, are afforded schools that often are a disgrace to the American promise of equality for all, of which, clearly this is not even close to being the case in actuality, effectively shutting the door on certain classes of students of having a fair opportunity of being successful.

Yet, democracy offers a way for those that have little or nothing, to have a real voice in this country, for our voting laws have fundamentally changed over time, so that in America's new inclusiveness age, all those that are eighteen and above, male or female, of any color or creed, are enfranchised to vote, as long as they have established residency and are a citizen.  This individual vote is very vital, for the power of the vote, of which each person gets exactly one vote, determines who is or is not President, or members of our Congress, as well as State, county, or local legislatures, the Attorney General, the governor, specific ballot measures, mayors, city council members, school board members, judicial placements, and even the sheriff. 

One might think, then, since the superrich are so small in number that the sheer numbers of eligible voters that have so little, would mean that real progressivism and significant social change would be on the rise in America by virtue of those without much, outvoting those that have so much.  Yet, look around, and it would appear that the masses have not translated their numbers into anything of real significance, for the poor seem to be losing ground, and the elite status quo appears to be unassailable.  This would indicate, that either our representatives both national and local have failed in their commitment to the people, or that the people haven't been able to successful transition their numbers into meaningful power, so that, in one way or another, the minority of the rich and powerful, still fully rule over the majority of the people, despite the fact that we have equal enfranchisement of the vote for all.

Seek Knowledge

Each of us is gifted with our mind, a mind that is so powerful that if we just learn to develop it and to focus our mind, we will discover the great wealth of knowledge that is available for all to benefit from.   That knowledge really should start at the first basis of all life, which is the pursuit of who and what we really are, for if we do not readily comprehend that, than all else that we deal with, is going to reflect that lack of clarity, as well as our lack of full wisdom.

Each day, whether we consciously recognize this or not, we have the opportunity to literally put our mind on autopilot and thereby not overly think through many situations, so that almost like an animal, we rely on our instinct to do what we will, but this type of low-level thinking does us no credit, and advances us not at all, for those that do not develop their mind on a continuous basis, deciding instead to prioritize their body and sense feelings over that mind,  have in principle sacrificed knowledge for temporal pleasure or the seeking of such.

Not only does knowledge benefit us individually, it also, in our interactions with others, benefits them, for when we are able to shine light into the darkness, or bring forth incisiveness from confusion, we have better our world.  This country wisely knows that education and literacy are absolutely vital for the engine of economic growth in America, especially as we have superseded the previous age of brawn and replaced it with the age of intelligence, so that knowing things, as well as successfully developing ideas, are of vital importance for the improvement of the lives, all around us. 

So too, the lack of knowledge as well as the lack of intelligence, and indeed the lack of applying oneself to thinking, allows those that know more to, if they so desire, exploit our ignorance of such, by profiting upon us, and thereby siphoning unearned money off of our labor, by virtue that they know more and are able to work the angles to take advantage of this.  For, unlike the animal kingdom, where it is the big and strong that rule over the weak and vulnerable, physical size plays far less importance from a human perspective, so that those that are knowledgeable and clever are able to take advantage over those that are dense and clueless, no matter the size of those individuals.

So that, it can be said, knowledge is the key to not only getting ahead in life, but also the key that brings clarity to life, and this discovery of knowledge, is the mine that keeps on giving, as long as we keep digging for its treasures, for even when we complete our formal schooling, those that have a desire and curiosity to know more, will learn more, especially those that are able to focus their mind in a manner that concentrates on the task, above all else, as well as interacting with others that are wise, so as to gain even more knowledge through life experience and the interplay of respected peers and friends.

Those that truly seek and thereby develop knowledge are indeed the wisest, for it is that knowledge, correctly applied, that does more for the betterment of society, by applying in practice, in word and deed, the right actions that help to enlighten us and to collectively enrich us.

The Supermajority and the Supreme Court

The Supreme Court is the highest Federal court of this land, and the decisions that they reach, have national repercussions, yet, the way that this court is currently structured, the justices through as little as a bare majority of one vote, make new law with national implications which may indeed overturn or overrule legislative law, for this court's power reaches far beyond their mere interpretation of legislative laws through its take of our Constitution, they do indeed by their decisions and their opinions: set new nationwide law. The fact that a simple majority of justices can overturn, even long standing law, or essentially nullify the legislative actions of our congressional representatives, gives these justices an enormous amount of power, of which, decisions reached by such a court, can and do come down to factions within the Supreme Court, so that the majority of the court, can be in actual fit and form, merely representing their own personal and political viewpoints, rather than adhering to the Constitution, itself.

There are numerous examples of the Supreme Court making simple majority decisions that have had and still have profound implications for citizens of this country, such as Miranda v. Arizona, which set forth certain procedures for the police in their interaction with suspects and their rights, including specifically having to informed such that they had the right to counsel as well as to silence.  So too, in the District of Columbia v. Heller, the majority of five Supreme Court justices decided that the Second Amendment did indeed apply to individuals, which enables such to keep and bear firearms.    In the Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission a simple majority of the Supreme Court ruled that corporations are now permitted to spend unrestricted amounts of money to influence politics. Finally, In Bush v Gore, the Supreme Court declared that the recount ordered by the Florida Supreme Court was invalid; thereby certifying that Bush would become the next President of the United States.

If, on the other hand, a supermajority had been required on each of these foregoing Supreme Court decisions, than either there would have had to have been another justice that would have had to have been persuaded to vote with the majority, or because of this being a mere simple majority, the lack of such a supermajority would have essentially upheld the ruling of the lower court. 

In point of fact, the legislative branch requires a 2/3 supermajority in order to override a Presidential veto.  In addition, in order for the legislative branch to successfully amend the Constitution this requires a 2/3 supermajority vote, and to ratify an Amendment to the Constitution requires the approval of 3/4 of the State legislatures.  This clearly indicates, that there are specific situations that call for a supermajority, and decisions made by the Supreme Court, should require such a Court, to overcome the same sort of supermajority hurdle, rather than to have a court, vote strictly along partisan lines or similar, which arguably is what they exactly did on Bush v Gore.

The justices that make up the Supreme Court are in theory, the wisest and most esteemed justices in this nation, but the selection of these justices, in which they are first nominated by the President of the United States, then subjected to a Senate hearing, and then confirmed or not by the Senate, indicates, that partisan politics most definitely plays a significant part as to who actually becomes a Supreme Court Justice, so that, it is absolutely no stretch of the imagination to recognize, that judicial decisions are, in fact, rendered by the partisan leanings of such justices, and therefore indicates that decisions reached by a simple majority of justices that are the final interpreter of federal law should not now, or ever, be so certified by a simple majority of such justices.

You make your own hell

While mainstream western religious doctrines deal with hell in all sorts of different ways, they often make it seem rather straightforward that there will be those that will go to hell because of their unbelief, or because of their wrong actions which they have not been absolved of, or because of their ignorance, and so on and so forth.  However, looking at life, and you will see, that life is seldom so clearly demarcated, in fact, it is much more nuanced, more akin to shades of gray, and that it is thereby too simplistic that there are certain people designated as being so good or so pure or so forgiven that they will get eternal benefits, whereas there are other people that are so fundamentally bad and so unrepentant that they therefore go to the eternal damnation of hell, all of which indicates that sort of doctrine or belief must be fundamentally flawed and misguided.

In point of fact, like the selling of indulgences, back in the day, which in theory, would provide even the worse of sinners, a place in Heaven, that isn't the way our eternal afterlife works.  God is love, justice, and fairness, so being clever in this life, or following religious rules as interpreted by those on this earth, as if this will for a certainty provide you with either Heaven or hell is not correct, and those that point to this or that scripture or saying as if they know, for a fact what will happen, do not know what they are talking about, for to face God, is to face Truth, and Truth does not and will not bend to manmade rules or doctrines.

God has provided each one of us, no matter the circumstances, good or bad, fair or not, the freedom to do whatever that we so desire to do, within our given circumstances, whatever they may be, on this planet.  It is in those actions, in our words and in our interactions that define who and what we really are.  These then serve as the building blocks that either bring us closer to God, or take us further away, and things such as hate, angry, selfishness, and envy, are not the attributes of God, so that, in consideration of these things, we create our own hell by our actions that we have to overcome, meaning that in order to get right with God, we accomplish this by being kind, considerate, loving, and patient.

Those that have the true knowledge of God, with their contemplative insight, recognize intuitively how far they are from the perfection that represents our God, and therefore they are the most humble of servants.  It is these people we should listen to, for their voice of calmness, wisdom, and gentleness speaks to the truth of what God represents and who God really is.  God is love, and our Creator has granted us freedom, of which, this freedom is our opportunity to say yes to God and His beatitudes, or to say no to God, and suffer through the consequences of wrong actions and wrong thinking.

When your mind is not right, when your actions are not right, when you have been selfish, unfair, and wrong, these things, may indeed be forgiven by our gracious Lord, but in recognition that we have failed in our demeanor, we have created our very own hell, for hell is not eternal fire and brimstone, but instead is our inability to fully re-unite with the Godhead, because of our impurity, and until such time as we successfully burn off the dross that dirties us, separating us thereby from our Creator, we must, if we are wise, through our faithful diligence and efforts, step by step, by doing right, find our way, back to  God, or in our separation, suffer through our own personal hell.

Self-driving cars are not thinking far enough outside the box

While it is impressive that cars have been developed that are self-driving and therefore autonomous, they are, in fit and function, ultimately in their look and purpose, still cars, with four wheels,  an engine to drive that car, brakes, and so on and so forth.  That is to say, while cars whether still driven by humans or not, have advanced considerably so that they are now able to aid the driver of the vehicle by informing the driver of hazards or making adjustments on the fly, or becoming self-driving, they are still basically just more intelligent cars, so that if these truly are to be the new cars of the future in our brave new world, they sure do look similar to what has already come before, and aren't really a quantum leap forward, but at best, an integral improvement, not wholly unexpected, and not really all that.

This would seem to signify, when it comes to transportation, the best way to attack the real issue of people moving, is to throw out all the old playbooks, completely, and to thereby utilize our minds to come up with alternative ways to transport people from one place to another, recognizing that most people when they travel, do so alone, and don't need much more than a backpack worth of stuff to carry with them, and thereby to carefully look at all of the various forms of transportation that are being utilized or imagined today and see if there is truly something that would be transferrable to people that would not have to rely on the friction of a tire on a road in order to do so, but instead, be frictionless.

In fact, there are frictionless trains, and these trains are able to travel at speeds well in excess of 200 mph, through the process of magnetic levitation technology.  This magnetic levitation technology most definitely works and while today it is utilized for trains that are built to run on specific magnetic tracks, it does not take a real stretch of the imagination to picture that in one form or another, in one way or another, this could be transferrable as a replacement for passenger cars, if an integrated effort on a coordinated massive scale was put forth by governmental and private enterprise, for this truly would change the transportation game in a dramatic way, making for a world in which the reliance on fossil fuels for our transportation needs would be reduced considerably, and replaced by magnetism and electricity.

The important point to get out of all this is that the automation of cars doesn't really resolve any of our issues in regards to traffic congestion, or our carbon footprint, while they may indeed make us safer, the upshot is that the advance of automated cars or semi-automated cars will ultimately lead to more cars being on the road.  This would seem to signify, that our future transportation needs should take into account that the days of utilizing transportation that involves road friction, should be set aside, and replaced by transportation that is frictionless, which would mean that those vehicles would be quieter, lighter, smaller, and significantly more energy efficient.

The detection and removal of landmines

Landmines were originally developed in the era of World War I as a means to stop or to disable battle tanks and/or other military vehicles during that war.  While there are landmines specifically manufactured to do that same sort of thing today, landmines have also been developed that unfortunately, in fit and function, are specifically dropped or placed into areas of battles, trails, roads, or enemy territories, not of a purpose to disable military vehicles or tanks, but to disable, indiscriminately, human beings.  These landmines are incapable of knowing whether the person stepping on them are friend or foe, child or adult, soldier or civilian, and will when detonated bring great harm upon people in that vicinity, leading to the lost of limbs, crippling, and/or death.

Whether landmines should be banned from all areas of warfare, is a topic that should be engaged, but at a minimum, with today's technology and sophistication, landmines themselves, built by manufacturers throughout the world, should be mandated to have a policy that all landmines so produced must have GPS tracking information within them, that specifies, the exact coordinates of where such a landmine is to within a great deal of accuracy so that when battles and warfare reach their conclusion, that these same said landmines can systematically be located, neutralized, and removed from the field of action. 

So too, the responsibility of the removal of these landmines should be the countries and/or organizations that dropped and placed the landmines onto the fields in the first place, all of which should be monitored by a global human rights organization in conjunction with the United Nations, in which specific monetary penalties and/or sanctions should be imposed against recalcitrant countries and organizations who do not make it a point to clean up and verify that the lands are now, once again, safe.

It is indeed fortunate that technology has advanced in which landmines currently placed in areas of conflict throughout the world, that these can now be detected fairly readily by sophisticated drones that can locate such with a precise degree of accuracy.  These explosive landmines that have been lying in wait on the ground, for years or even decades, must be disabled and displaced from their current positions, as an act of humanity, and a special tax should be assessed against the manufacturers of such landmines in order to help pay for the efforts to make these lands safe, once again, for human beings.

It isn't right that in times of war and conflict, killing devices are permitted to be left behind that are easily activated by simply stepping on or near them, and will thereby indiscriminately harm or kill those that do so.  Those that live in western nations, especially, have a moral obligation to do their absolute best to see that such devices are not left behind, but are systematically removed from the field of action so as to protect the innocent.  The fact that millions upon millions of dollars are made in profits from the manufacture of such devices, without taking into account, that there is an even higher obligation to see that they are removed safely from the affected areas, is a clear and present crime against humanity, affecting typically the poor of other nations, while enriching the most technologically advanced nations with blood money.

The superrich, us, and the fear of poverty

The elites of this world do not congregate with those that have little or nothing, they instead, in their social life and social circles, in their business life and with their business associates, and all the places that they do so congregate, are in virtually all matters, separated almost wholly from the masses.  That is to say, the superrich do not live amongst us, they live instead in gated communities with human security forces, or if not gated, so effectively secluded from the masses, that they won't ever bump into them.  The superrich don't shop at the same stores as the rabble, for the stores will come to them.   So too, the rich when attending sporting events, don't sit outside in the elements or go to the same bathrooms as everyone else, but have their own luxury boxes in which they can be catered to, and mingle with those that are of their class, or with associates that help to augment their status.  In everything, large and small, the superrich live virtually wholly separated from all others, well protected, well respected and always catered to, and seldom fear crime in any of its various forms, yet they do fear this one thing, and that is their own individual catastrophic failure of the sort that leads to not only loss of status but real poverty.

You see, the superrich do not ever really think, based on their position and status in life, that they will ever suffer the poverty that so many deal with on a day-to-day basis, especially because the system has been constructed for them, by them, and for the perpetual benefit of them, so such odds strongly favor this not ever happening, which is why they don't concern themselves with all those beneath them, and also why if they do so fall,  they are wholly unprepared for it, which would be like the equivalency of a big, fat, spoiled cat that has been declawed and now is on its own.

On the other hand, those that are fairly successful are often the same people that are looking over their shoulder because they are close enough to real society, to recognize the danger of seeing so many that have little or nothing.  They do fear losing their status, for they recognize the importance of having a nice home in a nice neighborhood and the wealth of being able to take advantage of all the wonderful things that society provides for those that have money in their pockets.  This means, more often than not that they are quite satisfied holding their own, for if they do that, they are just fine, and life therefore is good.

Finally, there is the large underclass of Americans that are in positions of hopelessness, of which, such poverty and the lack of opportunities, inevitably leads to the type of actions that main society considers to be crimes, but so many of these so-called crimes are really done within their own social milieu and have little to do with those that are successful.  Yet, society deals with these people rather harshly in order to keep them perpetually in their place, which does nothing but exacerbates simmering unrest, for such poverty always breeds discontent, and that discontent could strike out against those agents that exert that injustice, and that blowback when it strikes, will go after those just above them, for their neighborhoods and their businesses are in relative close proximity to the oppressed, which is why, so many, fear so much.

None liveth to himself

America loves to profess its freedom, of which, having such freedom of will, freedom of thought, and freedom of action, truly are the best that any government of the people could ever ask for.  Yet, freedom does entail responsibilities, for if all were to simply do whatever that they would so please, without taking into the consideration others, while failing to recognize responsibilities to family, fellow workers, and neighbors, than we have failed for having been granted such freedom, for those that live just for themselves, first and foremost, and the devil to all else, aren't good citizens, and they reflect poorly on Christian values.

Now, there is something to be said, for taking time for one's self, so as to concentrate on work, or hobbies, or to meditate upon God's word, and in order to accomplish this well, the mind and the body must be united in its purpose, and of necessity, sometimes be removed from others.  However, the great men and women of our age, have never been those that stand apart from their fellow human brethren as if these other people are too much of a nuisance, or unclean, or beneath them, but rather they engage with their fellow people, for many reasons, of which one of the most significant, is that each person brings their own talents with their lives, and those talents are best meant to be developed and well utilized with others, rather than being kept apart or secreted from all.

So too, all of the infrastructure of modern living, all of the modern conveniences that we take for granted, have come typically from the minds of people that have applied themselves to their missions in such a way, that while benefiting themselves personally, they have also benefited many, many others, so that all boats may indeed rise, and not just one, for we are all on the very same ocean, and are not here to set aside small islands of prosperity and vision, but instead, to build great continental lands of prosperity, wealth, and knowledge.

When mankind advances, and alas mankind does not always move in a forward direction, it is mainly because the collective minds of those that have come before, that is, their knowledge and wisdom, has been passed on to others through mentoring and schooling, so that we are not generation by generation merely relearning the things that have already been discovered and known, but blazing new pathways from the grand boulevards that been initiated by previous generations for the continual benefit of our fellow travelers.  That is what makes for great civilizations, which is why civilizations are created in the first place, so that more can be done for the cumulative benefit of all mankind.

While competition has its place, and solitary contemplation does too, we are meant to communicate the best ideas and to work our strongest muscles in conjunction with others, all as a part of a united team that desires to bring to each succeeding generation more wealth and improved knowledge, ideally making for better lives for as many as possible, for  we all are in this together, for this is indeed the United States of America, which means in principle, that its people are united in their rightful pursuit of liberty and justice for all.

The confidence game and fiat currency

Despite what you might think, despite what the pundits might say, the coin of the realm in this country isn't back by anything.  That is to say, dollar bills whether in your wallet or in your bank account or in your paycheck are fiat currency, in which, the word "fiat" is the Latin word, standing for "let it be done", which basically signifies that the country that issues such currency has done so through the declaration that this currency is the legal tender of that country, but its value primarily comes from the belief of those that utilize it, that this currency medium has lasting value, which relies upon the faith that the people and institutions have in the credit worthiness and sustainability of such a currency, however, remember the caveat that fiat money, by definition, isn't backed by anything other than the faith and confidence that it will continue to be a valid store of value, now and into the foreseeable future.

The fact that fiat currency is widely accepted, almost without controversy, in America as well as throughout the world, in which the dollar is considered functionally to be the world's reserve currency establishes incredible monetary power for the United States, because all other major currencies are either implicitly or explicitly pegged against the dollar, and most international trades are conducted utilizing the anchor of our American denominated currency.  In effect, since the world revolves around America's fiat currency, this essentially means that the backers of such a currency, the Federal Reserve, which, despite its name is a non-governmental banking consortium, are able to benefit from their power position of being in the driver's seat of currency markets, exchanges, and trades.

The United States is well aware of its global monetary power, and in recent decades, has allowed its own fiscal house, to deteriorate to such an extent, that America has the largest cumulative debt of any country in the world, more than twice as high as Japan, in which America's debt is over $20 trillion dollars and counting.  While experts will state that America is also the world's largest economy, its GDP to debt ratio as reported by tradingeconomics.com is as of 2016 106.1% and inexorably climbing, whereas, its GDP to debt ratio was once as low as 31.7% back in 1981.

The reason why our country's debt load matters is that when the time comes, where there is that reckoning of our fiat currency, which is not only the coin of the realm in America, but represents the world reserve currency, the downfall or devaluation or re-pegging of this currency to something of intrinsic worth or value or stable reliability, will have worldwide implications, that will be catastrophic for the stability of society, but not just American society, but catastrophic throughout the entire world, because when things that are valued by the US dollar or essentially fixed to it in function,  end up disintegrating, especially at an uncontrollable pace, the ruin to country's fortunes and people's fortunes will be calamitous.

Those that believe, ignorant or not, blithely unaware or not, that fiat currency is somehow typically a true and lasting store of value, will find sadly that it is not, so that monetary assets that appear to have a great storage value, of reasonable stability, such as our dollar has represented throughout its life as a currency, will for a certainty discover that it when it really does not, by virtue of the collapse of this great monetary edifice, which is inevitable, that only those in the know, will benefit, and they will benefit enormously, whereas all others will find that their worth has become decimated, and the civil unrest that will ensue, will bring forth martial law, which will last until such time as the people capitulate wholly to those that hold the purse strings and the guns.

The rich and giving to the poor

We read in Holy Scripture that when inquiring of Jesus, what good thing that must be done in order to receive eternal life, our Christ responded in Matthew 19: 21, "…. If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me."  But the man that asked this question was deeply saddened by this response, for his wealth was great, and he did not desire to give that wealth up.  So too, for those today that profess to be Christians or are sympathetic to the Christian faith, though having monetary assets, how many of these give up all their material wealth to the poor, and then truly follow our Messiah?

In passages such as these, people of wealth and means, like to scramble through various interpretations of such, for when those that receive wisdom, find it not to their liking, in which they are truly put to the test, a test that surely separates the sheep from the goats, prefer instead to put the test off, through any legitimate or illegitimate excuse that comes to mind, for the giving up of one's wealth, or of one's status, doesn't seem responsible, or prudent, or sound, and so put it off they will do.

Yet, the passage can be taken literally, for what material assets did Jesus or His disciples really have, and further to the point, which of his disciples, besides Judas Iscariot, that once having made the commitment to be on the straight and narrow path with Jesus, removed themselves from it, but rather each of the Messiah's disciples paid the final price for their faithfulness and integrity, by becoming martyred, with the sole exception, being John who was exiled to Patmos.

That is to say, had Christ's disciples and apostles not taken to heart, Jesus admonition to forsake material wealth, and to thereby truly come and follow His mission, than there never would have been the Christian religion. The very message of our Messiah and those closest to Him, that is, His disciples and apostles, are those that made it possible for Christianity to be the worldwide religion that it is so today, and without them practicing and preaching such to those they met with day-by-day, Christianity would not  have survived, let alone, thrived.

Still, many that have money do not like the above passage, because they see it not as practical in the real world, of which, they never seem to question their own vision or wisdom, and feel if they lend a helping hand or advice to others less fortunate than them and/or tithe that is surely good enough.  What, though, if everything that you believed about the meaning and purpose of life was actually wrong?  For instance, is it really fair and prudent to believe that you and your philosophy, does actually supersede the Christ?  Perhaps, the things that we chase in this Western World aren't really the things that really matter.  In fact, perhaps we have it all wrong.  For this material life, will end in material death; and material treasure such as money and its equivalency, will not now nor ever, follow us into the afterlife, so that, understanding that our physical life is finite, perhaps there is immense wisdom in recognizing that our true essence is not of this world, is not of our body, but it is our soul that animates the body, and this soul does not need anything material, it never has and it never will, it just needs re-union with God.

Necessities and Social Unrest

This planet has a population of about 7.5 billion peoples, and these people need to be at an absolute minimum fed, clothed, and sheltered.  Yet, there are many countries and/or areas within those countries that clean water within the sphere of where people live does not readily exist, compelling denizens of those areas to trek whatever distance it takes to where the clean water is; consider also the fact that there are many populations that are not self sustaining for the food that they  need in order to survive, and are thereby dependent upon the delivery of such food from their government or relief agencies;  in addition to many people lacking adequate housing to live in, reducing those to ramshackle living, susceptible to the elements on any given day.

The amount of people living in some sort of poverty or some sort of daily privation that makes them vulnerable to not having enough to eat, or drink, or the simple ability to live humanely, represents a substantial portion of the population as a whole, of which nearly half of the world lives on the equivalency of $2.50 or less each day.  This means that there is an incredibly high amount of people that are vulnerable to the real fear of being starved and when the subsidies that feed and shelter the poor, as well as subsidies that allow fuel to be provided to the people at significantly below market rates, in addition to pensions and other governmental programs that are the backbone of the most basic economic well being of masses of people, are reduced or eradicated, than the people, with literally nothing to lose, because they have nothing, will revolt.

The problem that is created when the government behaves as the great benefactor to the people, or Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) perform this same sort of duty, is when that aid or help is disrupted by, for example, governmental corruption or logistical problems, than those people expecting such beneficial charity will suffer greatly; made ever more dire, by the fact that often the wherewithal to feed, to clothe, and for good health, simply doesn't exist within that community for they have not the necessary means to accomplish such.  This then, creates incredible human vulnerabilities, made immensely worse by virtue that communities without self-sustaining viability are already on the precipice of human misery.

A civilization that has significant portions of its population that are simply surviving, at best, signifies that fundamentally that civilization has failed their people, of which, most times, the solution by those empowered by such civilization to address such an immense and pressing problem isn't to correct if foundationally, but rather to paper it over by providing just the bare necessities to those people for them to live on day-by-day, by providing them with food, water, and shelter, but no program or plan to do much better than that.  This means, for a certainty, that when times of trouble come, and they do come, than social unrest, rioting, revolt, and uprising are all strongly possible, and those that answer such, with the barrel of a gun, may indeed stymied such unrest, but have resolved nothing, for the fundamental issue, that it is for the living to really live, still poignantly exists.

Modern Day Pharisees

The Pharisees back in the day of Christ, were a sect of the Jewish religion, that were especially devoted to strict observance of religious law, believing that their interpretation was the only true rightful way to show correct and pious devotion to their God.  Many of us think of Jesus the Christ, as being loving, considerate, and kind, which indeed He was, but Christ directed some of his most potent criticisms at the Pharisees, not really in the hope that such wisdom from Him, would help to correct them, but rather as a counterpoint to what true religious faith was supposed to represent and be about.

The Pharisees, took religious law, and made it into a formula, in which, they utilized their respected community religious standing of superior "knowledge" to manipulate the population in such a respect, that the word of the Pharisees of what is proper and improper, what is right and what is wrong, what foods could be eaten and to whom one could eat with, the amount of money that needed to be gifted to the church temple, and the associations of people with each other, of which some were approved of, and some were considered to be inappropriate, was essentially the religious law of the land, and those that followed such dictates to the letter as given by the Pharisees were accorded respect and those that did not were considered to be in violation of their faith.

In point of fact, it is always a great danger, when anyone, takes it upon themselves to speak in the voice of God, and especially unfortunate when disciples or adherents to a particular religious faith or sect, takes such an interpretation as gospel, without giving such careful, contemplated thought.  No doubt, in an era in which the population as a whole, was illiterate, and their version of mass media being often controlled by governmental or religious authorities, common people did not have ready access to debate or carefully consider all doctrine, so that, often they accepted such, from men that dressed the part, as respectful and pious representatives, that they were therefore seen as legitimate authorities in all religious matters.

This then meant that Pharisees were in positions of great power, for one's soul, for one's eternal destiny, and of doing right, is something that people of that age, took seriously.  Yet, rather than Pharisees being of service to the communicants, too often, they used their position in order to empower themselves more and thereby to dominant their constituents.  This meant in effect, than rather than being of real aid and hope for their people, Pharisees took advantage of their influence to manipulate those in their throes who saw them as almost God-appointed representatives on earth.

Jesus saw the Pharisees for what they really were, with their outside appearance being one of cleanliness, but their character full of greed, wickedness, deception, and hypocrisy, and thereby Jesus did not mince his words when confronting the Pharisees, which, when attacked by the penetrating depth of the truth of our Savior, rather than repenting of their wicked and deceitful ways, saw to do what they could to undercut and to undermine Christ's message.

Today, in this world, Pharisees are still amongst us, they are all those that take positions of authority, not to serve their fellow man, but to be served by those men; not to enact positive influence for the benefit of the people as well as their communities, but instead to convince those people to give up their hard earn money and to freely labor for those in authority, with the conditioned promised that by doing so, this will bring them some merited reward, eternal or not, which in fact, serves to enrich that authority in the here and now, while providing nothing of substance for those making such a sacrifice.  All those that abuse their positions of power in service to themselves, while taking from and deceiving others, are the hypocrites of our age, for their true character is actually dirty, corrupt, diseased, wicked and fraudulent.

Personal Consumption and wealth

America is the world's biggest economy, so then it isn't a surprise, that no country in the world expends more money in aggregate on personal consumption, of which this includes things such as food, clothing, housing, energy, healthcare and schooling.  What perhaps does represent a surprise is that the percentage of personal consumption expended at 70% in America is significantly higher than as reported by the-american-interest.com of which British personal consumption is at 65%, Germany is at 55%, and Japan rests at 52%.  This difference in the percentage rate of personal consumption clearly indicates that America is an outlier.

The basic narrative when it comes to personal consumption is that the higher the consumption, the wealthier that people must be from having spent that money, but that isn't necessarily the case.  Actually, the goods that are purchased by consumers must first be produced by businesses, so that, it can be successfully argued that the higher amount of spending made by consumers for goods is actually the transfer of the people's money in aggregate to the producers and distributors of those goods itself. 

So that countries with a higher personal consumption rate percentage, does not signify how much money that the average citizen actually has in savings or wealth, but it is actually a reflection of how much money is being extracted from those consumers in order for them to maintain the living standards that they so desire.  Further to the point, in countries in which monetary credit is relatively easy to secure, than personal consumption percentages will have a tendency to rise, because consumers will often borrow funds today in order to have goods that they desire today, thereby putting off the paying of such bills, until tomorrow.

This means that the real wealth of a nation, is poorly reflected by how much money is being spent on personal consumption, instead it is much more meaningful  to know how much money is being spent on business investment so as to increase productivity and to provide more product for the buck while also creating necessary innovation in order to stay ahead of the curve, because when products get better, or last longer, or do more things, than the dollars being spent for such goods, go further than they did before.  So that, higher personal expenditures can also be a reflection that the innovations of the goods being purchased or utilized, have fallen short of efficiencies, signifying that more income from consumers is being spent just to keep their collective heads above water.

This means that when healthcare costs go up, or when school tuition and its associated costs continue to rise, or basically when spending money in which the consumer purchases more product than they actually really need or that it is worth, than personal consumption will as a matter of fact, rise, but the collective wealth of those individuals will drop. 

While it is true that personal consumption is a reflection of having money or the access to money, the more that one spends does not truly indicate though that one's wealth has increased, for rather it typically reflects the necessity of personal consumption just to maintain one's status or place in society, so that the richest people spend the smallest percentage of their value on personal consumption, and put aside the balance of their money in savings or investment, whereas the poorest and struggling middle class spend as much as they take in, which signifies that America's higher personal consumption percentage vis-a-vis other countries, is based actually on the fact that many Americans have no savings at all, and therefore spend everything that they have in order to survive.

Personal Consumption Expenditures and the Middle Class

According to fred.stlouisfed.org, in the 3rd Quarter of 2017, personal consumption expenditures as a percentage of our Gross Domestic Product (GDP) stood at 68.866%, which signifies that more than two-thirds of our economic growth comes from the consumers of products here in the United States.  This percentage of personal consumption expenditure has inexorably grown over the decades, as demonstrated by the fact that in the 3rd quarter of 1963, it was at 59.818%.  However, there is a fundamental difference between such expenditures back in 1963 and expenditures today, which is that the sheer amount of indebtedness of Americans has skyrocketed since then, and there most definitely comes the point when such debt reaches its limits and has a material effect upon further expenditures, and/or becomes so large as to become unstable for consumers in being able to stay current on such debt and therefore to continue successfully servicing such debt into the foreseeable future.

While one can certainly say that Americans like to shop and to spend, the problem is that the wealth of this nation is so extreme, signifying that the most basic issue when it comes to our Gross Domestic Product is that while the poor would love to spend much more money on goods and services, they don't have much money or borrowing power to spend, and whereas the rich have plenty of money to spend, there are only so many houses, cars, and other assorted goods that they desire to purchase, before setting aside the bulk of their wealth into investments and thereby making more money from having money; this, then, leaves the middle class, which Pew Research Center indicated in a recent study from 2000 through 2014, that the middle-income households declined by 4% during this period, yet, their overall indebtedness for such middle-income households increased.  Never have so many had so much debt through mortgages, credit card loans, automobile loans, and student loans, so that as reported by the fool.com, "As of 2013, the debt burden of the average middle-class household stood at 122% of annual household income."  This sort of indebtedness in an era of historically low interest rates for debt, signifies that should interest rates normalize or increase over the coming months and years, in which governmental officials have indicated that they will, that those suffering from such debt, will have even more of a debt load burden to contend with, which, logically would mean, that a drop in personal consumption expenditures would occur, creating or exacerbating a recessionary environment, made even worse if those issuing such loans were to withdraw or withhold the punch bowl of even further debt.

The middle class of this nation is the fulcrum upon which continuous growth and prosperity lie, and this middle class is suffering from a reduction in numbers, an economic stagnation or regression in wages, and a personal debt level at historic or near-historic highs, signifying that if the middle class is "tapped out" that national personal consumption expenditures must fall.  This so does indicate that the distribution of wealth, and the collective income of nations, most definitely makes a difference to the overall prosperity of a nation, and when such distribution puts more and more money into the hands of the superrich, eviscerates the middle class, and leaves the poor as a permanent underclass to be a lifelong burden upon the government, than the end result can only be ruinous, for the middle class truly is the engine that keeps growth going in this country on a positive basis, and when they no longer have the wherewithal to do more, it will collapse.

Equal Protection of the Laws

The United States has a written Constitution, of which, each of the respective departments of the Constitution, that is the Executive, the Legislative, and the Judicial, must in order to be a member in good standing, take an oath that specifically stipulates without equivocation that they will support this Constitution.  After the civil war, in order to protect those that were never enfranchised and those that had been previously enslaved and treated as chattel property, Constitutional amendments were ratified and passed, making these people, citizens of these United States, entitled to all privileges and immunities as a citizen, so as to not to be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of the law, as well as being entitled to equal protection of the law.

Those words, made It absolutely clear, that no longer would the United States countenance those that were of a different color, or of a different racial classification, or of a different religious persuasion, or of a former condition of servitude, to be treated as something other than the only class of citizenship legally permitted within the United States, which is the exact same class of citizenship that all are members of, from the highest of the high, to the lowest of the low.  Not only that, but sham juries and targeted enforcement of the laws would no longer be permitted for all are entitled to the due process of the law, equally and fairly applied.

This then was the theory, but for a certainty, in effect, the 13th through the 15th Amendments, were ignored judicially after the Civil War, or if paid attention to, were most definitely selectively applied only to certain persons, under specific conditions, and not to others, and as for equal protection of the law, this was completely nullified for certain undesirable races or people.  This meant in effect, that for certain, specific people, they were still responsible for their obedience and conformance to all of this country's laws, and therefore would be subject to penalty for failure of adherence to them, while on the other hand, they would deliberately be denied access and the full protection of the law. 

Unfortunately, this type of selective enforcement of the law as well as this lack of protection of the law for certain people and specific situations still exists in America, today.  This is a country that has a Constitutional duty to provide all citizens with due process of the law in addition to the equal protection of the law, but instead specifically favors chosen people over others.  In the nearly, one hundred and fifty years, since the passage of these Constitutional amendments, the only really basic change in their application to people of today, is rather than the lack of due process of the law and the inequality of the law, being deliberately and selectively enforced specifically against blacks and other minorities in order to keep them down,  we find that instead in today's more progressive world, that the dividing line is much more enlightened, recognizing that it isn't any longer politically correct to indiscriminately just attack minorities of color, but rather by adapting its ways of being more inclusive, the dividing line is now between the elite rich and powerful, against the masses of socioeconomic poor.

So that, the privileged people, recognizing that they are severely outnumbered, in which, for instance, just three individuals in America have as much wealth as the bottom 50% of Americans, signifies that it doesn't matter what the Constitution says; it only matters that those that are not quiescent, those that are not subservient, and those that are not obedient, be controlled in such a manner that any incipient uprising is dealt with in a manner that makes the statement: "not here, not now, not ever."

Banks and Profits

The business of banking doesn't seem very complicated at all, in fact, it seems quite straightforward and easy to understand, for banks make money in three basic ways: one is by charging the difference between the interest rate for money deposited within their institution and a higher interest rate for loans to consumers, businesses, and the issuance of mortgages; another way banks make money is the various fees that banks charged for accounts that fall below mandated minimums, bounced checks, ATM machines,  and assorted other violations; and finally banks make money on their branded credit and debit cards by charging vendors that utilize credit and debit cards a fee for the privilege of using this alternative form of money instruments as well as interest charges to consumers for unpaid balances on those accounts.

Based on the above, one might think, that banks might make some money, but because of competition, fixed costs for opening up branches, bad loans, and so on and so forth, that the margin of money made and the money to be made would be fairly modest, akin perhaps to a grocery store, that has a profit margin of about 1%.  That certainly makes sense, since true competition necessitates charging fees and interest rates that are not onerous to one's consumers of such, in addition to the fact that there are viable alternatives that consumers can utilize instead, as in other banks or credit unions.

However, in point of fact, banks make tremendous amounts of money, not all of the time, but often enough, in which,  four banks have total assets of over $1 trillion dollars each, which are JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and Citigroup.  In addition, in 2015, JP Morgan Chase had profits of $24.4 billion dollars, Bank of America had profits of $15.9 billion dollars, Wells Fargo had profits of $22.9 billion dollars, and Citigroup had profits of $17.2 billion dollars.  None of these banking institutions, could possibly be as large as they are, nor could they have these gargantuan profits it wasn't for the change of banking laws begun in the 1980s, that allowed interstate banking, so that whereas before banks were specific within a given State, now they were permitted to have branches in virtually every State of the union.  This has meant that banks have grown considerably bigger than they were previously and that money has become more and more concentrated into fewer and fewer banking hands.

A reasonable conclusion in regards to the merger of banks and their consolidation would be that these massive institutions would be more efficient than local banks and credit unions, and therefore the consumers of banking would be the beneficiaries of more competitive interest rates and lower fees, but that hasn't been the case whatsoever for most people.  Instead, the power and strength of these banking behemoths have placed them in the driver's seat of being in the situation so that when times are good they mint money hand over fist, and when times are bad, the Federal government bails them out, because they are "too big to fail," which instead of sending a signal that these humongous banking institutions need to be broken apart or nationalized, they are instead effectively subsidized.

Further to the point, banks are in the business of making money on the loaning of money, in which this type of business should be strictly regulated, perhaps akin to insurance companies or to utility companies, or, even better, in accordance with the nature of credit unions, which are non-profits, created to serve as conduits of loans to their members on a local basis, not on a national basis, so as to thereby keep the money circulating within that given community. 

Banks today,  make far too much money and have far too much power, so that, they cheat the consumers of such, by charging more interest and fees than they need to, because their sheer size and ubiquity, permits these massive banks to behave as a collective cartel, and therefore to effectively exploit the masses, over and over again.