I’ve been doing a lot of driving in the promotion of this film. I recently stopped to get gas and food and noticed a big sign entitled “Bill of Rights” inside the ‘convenience’ store. I began reading the sign and learned that I have the right to order a burger with or without pickles. I have the right to mix Coke and Sprite in my cup, or the right to have ice or no ice in the cup. It was quite a lengthy sign detailing the various combination that a person could have at Burger King.

It was then that I had the realization that Americans have only the rights to consume what is offered. It’s actually a limited pool of resources. For example, let’s take a look at our wireless phone service. When I was in Indonesia, many Europeans switched a card in their cell phones, and instantly began receiving calls on their cell phones. They did this in the airport upon landing. This way it is easier to keep in touch with other travelers and there weren’t any issues with receiving calls from home. It is how their plans are set up on a national level. I liked this feature and started doing a little research on American cell phone companies. I checked with Verizon, Sprint and AT&T. Instead of making a system that makes it easy to travel, a person needs to call a special number each time one leaves the country and wants to use their cell phone number, and it has to be individually set up and put on a different pricing plan. Interestingly, each American cell phone carrier had very similar rates and very similar plans, almost as if they all collaborate and decide to fix the price and level of service at certain prices.

Americans have the right to consume only what is offered. Here’s another example: Americans pay into a nationwide healthcare service plan – Medicare, yet oddly, are not given the right or choice to be covered by their own taxes. Consider the idea that many countries (safety is also an issue) cover all citizens – and even non citizens, in some sort of governmental healthcare program. Oddly, the working middle class medical consumer in the U.S. must first have private insurance, and when he or she goes to receive care, must sign more paperwork that consists of waivers and privacy notices (corporations get access to this and can deny you various types of coverage, and the lurking marketers also get to learn about your spending habits associated with your health) before care is administered.

We’re constantly told that choice is important, but it’s also tough to get information in the United States. Our media conglomerates are also tied into many other sectors of the economy and are somewhat dependent upon advertising to get as much profit as possible. The L.A. Times reported that they are cutting 250 jobs, while the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel said that it would cut about 130 jobs. At the same time, Rush Limbaugh signed a contract for $400,000,000 for eight more years. I did a little math and found that 400 million is the equivalent of an annual salary of 30,000 for roughly 13,333 people. The overall result is that there is less information and less choice.

Let’s take a deeper look at American rights on this Fourth of July. Let’s begin talking to one another, let’s get past divisive labels this political season and let’s have the courage to define change.

Businesses have been benefiting societies for thousands of years by supplying goods and services to them.  Recently, in the 1970s, U.S. corporations were given a more broad interpretation of rights.  Some people believe that this has impacted the political and societal landscape of the United States.  Do you think that American society has changed since the 1970s?  Is so, how?  (We’re talking about the general nature of American society, not technological advances.)

We in the United States must begin examination of why we have government and for what purpose it serves.  If one takes a look at the news that surrounds us, there are constant reminders that the economy is in bad shape.  It will affect us all.  We are faced with our tax dollars getting allocated to purchase bad financial assets.  Of the 700 billion dollar bailout that was approved to send funds to certain private financial institutions, half is untouched, and even more surprisingly, hasn’t yet allocated toward anything.  (They don’t know what it might be for.  Perhaps some people do know, and they’re simply in a waiting game of watching time and waiting for a certain corporation to declare that it is insolvent.)  This strikes me as rather frustrating because I believe that government should be of and for the People.  It’s my understanding that if a tax is collected from the people, the government should  then reallocate it to some sort of action or service that benefits the People.  After all, revolutionary wars have been fought for “No taxation without representation.”

Let’s take a little look at the bailout funds and also look at what other entities need help.  Citibank has already received 20 billion.  Those in charge seemed to think that it would help.  The three large U.S. based auto manufacturers want 25 billion.  All started as private entities and because of really bad mismanagement, bad choices, bad leadership, bad business decisions, they are asking for American tax dollars to bail them out.

Simultaneously, state budgets and municipalities – the places that directly affect all Americans on a daily basis , including the roads we drive on, the sidewalks that we walk on, the stop signs that keep traffic flowing, often overlooking the water the flows into our houses, they are also facing difficult economic times as the economy slows.  Thirty one states are anticipating a 24.3 billion dollar shortage.   I don’t understand why our government isn’t looking to help states and municipalities over private institutions.  Or does it have something to do with the corporate lobbying process?

Amazingly, a large portion of Americans pay into a Medicare tax.  Most, if not all modern countries collect this type of a tax, then reallocate it to protect the lives and safety of their People.  Did the insurance lobby have something to do with this policy?  Yes.  It did.  And it continues to lobby for legislation, continues to market to Americans that the private insurance industry will do a better job.  I’m not so sure about this.

I tend to think that government should protect and help People and business.  I don’t think that it should exist to aid private corporations to make the unreal profit, then bail out the biggest and badly managed companies because “they are too big to fail”.  We see similar patterns, disturbing in their similarity, disturbing in the lack of government action to stop it.  It is fairly evident that Reagan’s trickle down theory does not work. (It espouses help for the rich and those benefits will trickle down to the regular working people.)  It has been the predominant economic theory, showing itself in the private banking bailout (which was preceded by the bailout of the Mexican peso – remember that 40 Billion dollar bailout under Clinton?) and the automobile bailout, but it consistently doesn’t seem to help Main Street.

Conducting business in very important and no society can function without it.  But many different shifts have occurred.  We have lost a sense of entreprneurial spirit.  If you ask a college graduate where he or she would like to work, most often, they will name a major corporation instead of naming a company they would like to start.  Corporations recently have been sowing funding into higher education, shifting the focus of research and developement, while they are also using it as a sly marketing plan to get certain ideas – ‘clean coal’ and ‘clean nuclear’ technology into younger minds.  This private corporate domination may have disasterous ripples in our society.  Indeed, as many students in our best schools try to make certain energy technologies more efficient, many other countries are pioneering innovation in sustainable energy at a much faster rate than the United States.

I think we as People in the society of the United States need to begin serious discussion on what we think the role of the government should be.  Any time people come together in society, taxes are often collected for social programs like education, roads, healthcare, etc.  A larger portion of our taxes are collected, then reallocated for private institutions.