What Happened To America's Economy?

America no longer manufactures much. A great many of our production and manufacturing facilities have been shut down and moved overseas. Much of this has been encouraged by American tax regulations. It has been more profitable to fire American workers and move production to low wage countries like China, thus evading workplace safety regulations, environmental regulations, and allowing children to work long hours which would never be allowed in America.

Selling collateralized debt obligations from one entity to another was turned into a highly profitable occupation. It was dishonest and in reality amounted to nothing more than fraud and theft, but the greed encouraged by the deregulation crowd made them arrogant and blind.

Our elected representatives in Washington, D.C. both allowed and even encouraged this. The Republican mantra of deregulation has now almost fully played out. We are beginning to see what the results are. The American economy is becoming a mere shell. We continue to flush vast amounts of money down the toilet of military adventurism. All while firemen, policemen, and teachers are being laid off.

Concepts like social fairness have become passe. The idea that the wealthy should contribute more to the country's welfare in shared areas like our nation's defense or building roads (progressive taxation) were declared by the Republicans, and even many of the blue dog Democrats as negative or even socialist.

We have stood by and allowed a large and growing part of our people to lose their jobs, their homes, and access to health care. And the so-called Christian Republicans are not concerned in the least. It just doesn't seem to bother them. No compassion at all. These people disgust me.

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