Do You Wish You Were Rich?

Then, as if someone stabbed me in the heart, I heard a voice in my head.

"Money isn't everything," said someone from the back of the crowd. "We don't need money to be happy. We're happy not being rich."

Oh, my God. What's wrong with these people? Everyone wants to be rich. Everyone wants the good life. Except for these people, these troublemakers, and these obvious cult members, no one wants to work for a living.

"How dare you not wish you were rich? Unless you're a bouncer at a strip club, a thieving politician, a lying lobbyist, a conniving lawyer, or Omarosa Manigault who used to work at a no-show job in the Trump administration, no one likes their job. No one wants to work for a living. Security! Remove these people. Remove the ones that are happy not being rich and allow the others, those who wish they were rich, to stay."

Then, extrapolating my own point, I wondered how do rich people get rich anyway? Some who are born rich inherit their wealth while others work hard to achieve their wealth. Some think out of the box and invent something that we all need and are willing to pay dearly to own. Some steal their wealth or do illegal things to financially enrich themselves. Some just get lucky and win the lottery jackpot.

For those who do not have wealth and who live hand-to-mouth, paycheck-to paycheck, and week-to-week, most of us, and those of us who have a job, actually, two part-time jobs with no benefits, we envy those that have wealth as lucky and undeserving. For those of us who are on Social Security, a fixed income and entitled, as the politicians like to call us, we don't feel very entitled. If we feel anything, we feel poor, disenfranchised, and helpless. For those of us who don't own our own home, and who are alone and on our own, we're one step, one fall, or one major illness away from being homeless and living in a cardboard box under a bridge.

* * * * *

Aside from those thinking out-of-the-box inventers, creative entrepreneurs, self-made, bootstrap millionaires, and dot.com success billionaires, there are the white collar, criminal elements in our society. There are those who become stockbrokers, investment accountants, lawyers, lobbyists, and politicians. They lie, cheat, deceive, steal, and spin everything they do and say. Suffice to say that not all stockbrokers, investment accountants, lawyers, lobbyists, and politicians are thieves but without naming names and pointing fingers, we all know the ones who are.

Even if stockbrokers, investment accountants, lawyers, lobbyists, and politicians aren't thieving sacks of shit, they help legislate personal benefits for themselves that we don't have and wish we had. Instead of politicians serving the public, a public servant my ass, they put their personal agendas ahead of our own. Talk about collusion and a rigged system, with their votes up for bid, they pass legislation for those who donate the most to their campaign chests.

By gambling with home mortgages and your 401K's, suffice to say that it was the stockbrokers, insurance companies, trading houses, and investment banks that crashed the stock market in 2008. Yet, none of those identified as being responsible for the crash went to jail. All those who reaped hundreds of millions of dollars by stealing your homes, your savings, and your 401K's not only got away with it but also got to keep your money. Even more than that, Secretary of the Treasury, Henry Paulson was there to bail out those banks, insurance companies, and trading businesses who lost big so that they didn't lose a dime. They got to keep their ill-gotten monies.

Instead of losing big they won big. Banks, brokers, and mortgage companies got to foreclose on your house and then resell it. If that wasn't enough, they all received millions of dollars from the government to make them all whole again. Where was your bail out? Did you receive a bail out? Did the Secretary of the Treasury, Henry Paulson personally help you in the way that he personally helped his mega-rich friends?

Can this happen again? President Obama passed laws to ensure that this never happened again but Trump and the Republican controlled house and senate passed laws to remove those regulations that protect you and serve them. Will this crash of the stock market happen again? Absolutely? Will you lose your house, your savings, and your 401K's? Probably. Not to worry. The banks, insurance companies, investment houses, and mortgage brokers won't lose a dime and their officers won't serve a day of time while you'll be living in a box under the bridge.

"That was generous of the Koch brothers to give speaker Ryan a $500,000 political donation to his campaign chest for his help in passing the new tax laws. I wonder how many millions of dollars they gave the rest of our public servants for helping and enabling them from paying their fair share of taxes. Now, if you think the new lifetime tax plan for the rich was passed to help the middle class, think again. How stupid do they think we all are? Actually, we all are pretty stupid to allow them to get away with it, and we'd continue to be stupid if we don't vote them all out of office."

Just curious. What happens to the monies given to political campaigns when politicians leave office? Do they get to keep all of that money that's left in their political, campaign chests for their own personal use? What happened to all the more than $100 million donations that were given at Trumps inauguration? Just as no one accounted for the TARP money, troubled asset relief program, that the Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson gave to banks, brokerage houses, and insurance companies, where was your TARP money to bail out your underwater mortgage? Did you get any TARP money? Where was your bail out?

* * * * *

Let's discuss benefits. What benefits do you receive with your minimum wage job? Anything? Our senators and representatives have the best healthcare in the world. If that's not lopsided enough, politicians fight and vote to deny the people they represent to have any healthcare never mind good healthcare. Why is that? Instead of trying to make us all healthy, they're doing their best to hurt us, harm us, and even kill us by not giving us the healthcare benefits that we deserve, should have, must have, need, and that they have always had.

What's wrong with this country? Greed and money. What's wrong with us for voting them back in office and allowing them to continue to use, abuse us, and steal from us by passing laws that enable the rich and hurt the poor? Our ignorance and complacency are what our elected officials use to their advantage.

We need to take a stand in the way that we did in the 18th century with the Boston Tea Party, no taxation without representation. Yet, we'd rather eat, drink beer, and watch football than to call and write our legislators or march on Washington. Those who complain the most don't even get out to vote. Instead of standing to salute our flag when they play our national anthem, in defiance to how so few have ruined the quality of life for so many, we all should be kneeling.

In the way that our political system of injustice is that favors the rich over the poor, most of us, the majority of us, essentially have no representation. The ones who have the ear of our politicians are the big, corporate donors and their lobbyists, and not us. They're the ones who receive all the power, the influence, the money, and the legislation written in their favor while we, the people who stupidly and ignorantly voted them in office again, receive nothing but the contempt of our elected officials.

Answer me this. Why do you think our presidents live so very long, much longer than the average poor person or middleclass person lives? Do you think that presidents were born with superior, genetic genes? Or would you more believe that because our presidents, senators, representatives, and supreme court judges have the best healthcare in the world, the healthcare that we all should have too, is the reason why they live to be healthy and relatively happy, old men and women?

I dare say that the reason our presidents live to be old and relatively healthy and happy men is because of the latter reason than the former reason. It's not the genetically superior genes that they have but it's the superior healthcare and the accumulated illegally gained monies that we don't have. Moreover, a real luxury, our beloved politicians, our so called public servants, don't have to make appointments at their local HMO. The doctors go to them.

"How about that?"

How much does that cost for a doctor to make house calls to our (ahem) public servants and who pays for that? I do, you do, we all do but them. They don't pay a penny. Their primary care physicians make expensive house calls to their offices and/or to their homes. Think about that while you're sitting in a hospital emergency room waiting for hours to be seen by a doctor. Unless you were born in the 50's or 60's, when was the last time that your doctor made a house call? Instead of having to sit and wait in a waiting room full of sick people, how convenient would that be for the doctor to come to you?

* * * * *

I remember the days when I wished I was a movie star who won an Oscar or to became a scientist to help find the cure to cancer. Now that we're on the subject of curing diseases, speaking of cancer, why haven't we found the cure to that dreaded disease, especially with the billions of dollars that we've all already spent on "so-called research"? What about diabetes? How come we can't cure that either? What's the problem? What's the issue? People are still suffering. People are still dying.

Forgive me for insulting your intelligence by writing the obvious but most of our questions, especially medical questions, can be answered with one, five letter, two syllable word, MONEY. I suspect that we can cure cancer, diabetes, and most every other dreaded, deadly disease. I propose that we don't cure these diseases because there's too much money in not curing diseases but in continuing to medicate them with expensive prescription drugs. One just has to turn on their television to see all the drug commercials that have replaced cigarette commercials, hard liquor commercials, food commercials, and car commercials.

Yet, prescription drugs, especially overdoses and those unnecessary drugs that react with other drugs, are quickly being proven to be deadlier than tobacco use and/or alcohol consumption. Because of our health maintenance organizations HMO's, started by the legislation passed and signed by President Nixon, and wanted by pharmaceutical companies, and pill pushing doctors, America has become a country of prescription drug addicts. Why cure diseases when our doctors can sell us magic pills and medicines that we have no idea what's in them and what side effects they have? Leave the cures for the rich but for the rest of us, take a pill.

Instead of helping to cure us, our doctors dope us. Instead of curing us, our doctors push pills. They're pill pushers. They're medically educated, trained, professional, drug dealers. Why aren't they in jail for selling drugs? They should be in jail for selling drugs along with the executives of the pharmaceutical companies and our politicians for not enacting prescription drug laws to protect us from pharmaceutical companies, insurance companies, and doctors. Alas, they won't protect us. There's too much MONEY in medicating us.

In the way that our doctors push so very many pills, I wonder if they receive a commission from the pharmaceutical companies. I wouldn't be surprised if they did. I bet they do. I bet they're given free trips and cash awards, along with tickets to sporting and cultural events. Why else would pharmaceutical companies need good looking men and women employed as their pharmaceutical representatives? Have you ever seen some of theses people? They look like models. It wouldn't surprise me if they even had contests. The doctor who sells the most pills in a month receives four, Super Bowl tickets.

Answer me this. Why haven't "they" stopped the opioid epidemic? MONEY. There's more money in pushing pills for relieving the pain, imagined or real, than there is in curing the pain. I dare say without doubt of being wrong that we don't need all the medication that we're taking. Think about it. Did your parents and/or grandparents ever take a pill other than an aspirin or a laxative? If you ask me, it all started with Lawrence Welk hyping Geritol to the senior citizen crowd.

"Ana one ana two," said Lawrence Welk setting the rhythm.

Jack Lalanne spoke the gospel when he said back in the 50's before good nutrition and health food was prevalent, "Don't eat what man produces. Eat natural. Eat more fruits and vegetables. If it tastes good, throw it out. Don't eat it. It's poison. It will make you fat and will eventually kill you."

Now, too many of us eat shit and dine on fast foods. Too many of us are obese, unhealthy, and don't exercise. Too many of us are dying too young, not from smoking tobacco or drinking hard liquor but from eating fast foods, taking prescription drugs, and not walking. Except for Governor Christie and Donald Trump, when was the last time you saw an overweight politician? Think about it. They eat better than we do. They dine for free in the lunchrooms on Capitol Hill, one for the Senate and another for the House. Furthermore, while we must pay for gym memberships, they have free access to fully equipped gyms.

Are you kidding me? They've got to be kidding. Give me a break. They eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day for free on our dime. Now that should be a crime. And they begrudge our children fat laden, unhealthy, school lunch programs. How dare they?

Even more than that, their lobbyists give them free vacation trips disguised as political junkets. Seriously, who goes to Vegas, Cancun, or takes a Mediterranean cruise as a political junket? How dare they? If it's not enough that these self-serving politicians are robbing our country blind, they get lots of benefits and perks that aren't available to the rest of us.

Every time they chair a committee, not only do they receive more power and influence but also, they receive a bigger budget. Their budgets aren't audited in the way that our taxes are. The expenses of their budgets are loosely accounted for and yet, are more ways for our politicians to steal from us. I'm tired of our public servants having everything while we have nothing.

* * * * *

Speaking of car commercials, while I'm on the subject of things that piss me off, why are car manufacturers advertising cars that the average American and that I can't afford? Seriously, how many people can afford a Mercedes, BMW, or a Range Rover? I can't. Can you? So, why are they advertising those high-end cars instead of Chevy's and Fords? MONEY.

With our colleges having more money in their college endowment funds than some countries have in their treasuries, it's time we made college tuitions free. It's time we provided free universal preschool and daycare. Instead of giving our money to thieving politicians, it's time we repaired our crumbling infrastructure, roads, bridges, tunnels, sewers, electrical, and gas. Instead of ruining our environment, our air, and our water by oil pipelines, drilling offshore, allowing mines to pollute the rivers, and factories to pollute the air, we need to support the EPA. Instead of turning our backs on them while giving aid to overseas countries that are not part of America, we need to rebuild Puerto Rico.

Why do you think when you take your car to an auto mechanic that instead of diagnosing your problem instantly, they must go through a long and expensive process of elimination? MONEY. Even if you drive in with your muffler scraping the ground, instead of just repairing your muffler, they must put it on the lift to check your brakes and everything else too. Mechanics make money on parts and labor charges. The longer they hold your car hostage, the more money they make.

"The smell you noticed was from a dead mouse. The part we replaced, an air freshener, was two dollars but the labor to find the issue came to one-hundred-forty dollars. With forty dollars for the tow and with eighty dollars in storage fees, your total today is two-hundred-sixty-two dollars. We threw in a second air freshener for free."

I give up. I'm resigning myself to being poor, helpless, and disenfranchised. My only salvation is that I know how to write and can at least pen my disapproval as I have done in this essay. Now it's your turn to turn off the TV, push your beer aside, and do something about all that's wrong with this country and with your life.

Pick up the phone and call your legislator. Pick up a pen and write him or her. Turn on your computer and send them all scathing e-mails. In the way that you need to vote these criminals out of office, you need to vote five for this essay.

"Are you with me?" Now go to your window, open it, stick out your head, and voice your approval to your neighbors, friends, and to our elected officials. "I'm mad as Hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!"

THE END

As if your vote is my applause, please vote.