Where there is a will there is always a way

The government bailout of Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, AIG and the impending bailouts of several other greedily run banks has everyone I know talking of nothing but money. Nearly all of us oldsters, myself included, have taken a huge hit in our mutual fund retirement programs. Unless Bill Gates, Rupert Murdoch and a few other multibillionaires decide to donate their huge fortunes to be divided up between each of us there will be no retirement for this old man, not that I expected one anyway.

The murder rate among young men in major metropolitan areas is at an all time high. As I pointed out in an earlier post, a direct statistical correlation exists between a rising unemployment rate in 18-25 year old males and a rising crime rate. Let’s face the truth—a high school diploma will not get a person decent work so a high school dropout will get a kid NO work, ever, in an economy whose movers and shakers have seen fit to deny the legal means of economic self-sufficiency to any citizen of low to average intelligence or from a poor, working class background. In such hopeless circumstances tempers of young, physically robust males become hair trigger short and since most money making opportunities in poor neighborhoods and bad economic times are firmly grounded in illegal activities, the seeds of desperation and cynicism fall on fertile mental ground and lead to an eventual harvest of violence.

Even those young men who have the native intelligence and financial resources to secure a BA degree have little opportunity for gainful, long-term employment after graduation, especially if they come from families whose annual income is less than $60K. The largest, single NATIONAL market (the US, dummy) that drove the international economy has been raped and left beside the road to die by the multinational corporations it spawned. Until we, as members of a failing society/economy/political structure, decide to swallow the bitter medicine and work for the benefit of all our neighbors and friends that injured roadside corpus will become a roadside corpse.

In my estimation, the will to build a successful economy and political system on the ruins of the present one is strong. More than one casual observer has made the comment that all that is necessary is a visionary government and the stepping/pushing aside of the corporate megaliths who have engineered this present international disaster. Frankly, as jingoist as what I am about to say sounds, I’m all for the economic success of my foreign brethren but not at the expense of the physical, mental and spiritual well-being of family, friends and future generations of my immediate acquaintance. I believe equanimity in all areas of human endeavor is possible if all work to achieve it.