April 7, 2011

Corruption, Bureaucracy, and all those other lovely things

It's funny to think about where I am now in my view of the world and where I used to be.

I remember traveling in India and learning about the corruption and bureaucracy that exist there and thinking, I'm so glad we don't deal with that in the US. I had a rosy vision of the US government and thought that things worked the way we learned about in school. Politicians listened to the citizens who elected them and enacted the bills their constituents wanted enacted. If a politician didn't follow what the people wanted they would lose their seat and all would be fixed.

This rosy vision no longer exists. I see the corruption that exists in our government. The more money you have, the quicker politicians are willing to listen to your ideas. Politicians no longer listen to and think about the people who elected them, but instead listen to who has the most money, the lobbyists who have been paid to talk to them, and their political parties.

I find it all really frustrating. Government is supposed to be the people organized to meet their needs. But more and more the US government is becoming corporations and the rich organized to meet THEIR needs. We need to take back our government so that it serves the people.