Best Test Elephant: "Just Say No"

Time to bring out the 'ol supply and demand, remind consumers just exactly who runs the show economically. Bamboozled by the lure of quick kill investments, the predatory market of the last eight years has literally knocked out the consumer... you know, the required element in any transaction, someone to buy all that crap.

My 911 conspiracy friends tell tales of government-released medications seeded in the jet streams, raining tranquility on the unwitting. How else to explain the lack of action on the part of the American consumer? There must be something in the water, else we would surely be in the streets, take on the status quo. What planet are we on?

Things that make you go hmmmmm:
The current economic downturn has displaced American workers in a big, big way. Families by the millions have depleted savings, finding less full-time work, lower wages, and a loss of health and pension benefits. Au contraire, the ownership society has seen profits grow annually, in the double digits, golden parachutes, fat cat perks, and much fun expanding, de-regulating, then buying up media like Pac-Man. Purely amusement at first, the "big brother" scenario really is alive and well, right here, right now, living under an assumed name, at Fox News- hi, Roger.

Staggering profits shoved in our faces, staggering profits, all at the expense of the consumer. Take my job away, corporate share values go up that day. Sold down the river by the abandonment of the fourth estate, a free press, where was the journalist when we needed you, throughout the mega merger of media via de-regulation of the rules? At the spa? Taking acting classes? In 2000 when corporations went to court just days before Nov, to overturn the equal time media restrictions that had stood for decency in news and both sides of the story, and they won that crucial battle, not a peep from the press. When equal opportunity gets thrown out the window and thousands of high end jobs reserved for H-1b only is the state of the state, where is the press today? When regulatory agencies designed to enforce the law and protect consumers lose budgets and staff, where are you now? The people think you're history, dudes.

Never forget the American public being sold hook, line, and banner ad... phony mortgages, inferior and opportunistic investment schemes; dishonest appraisals, manipulative brokers and real estate lenders; phony financial advisors, an overall corporate culture selling "shop, shop, shop" and "buy, buy, buy". I suggest that the klang of the spin shops, the fear mongering press, has churned deep, dark recesses in our salivating brains. Klang-eat, Klang-drive that hogcar, Klang-consume. Programmed we are, like rats on a track, we'll do anything for trickle-down crumbs.

Underemployment and the loss of upward mobility are the serious sickness here, bi-products of sodded corporate greed. Never measured, never mind, to assess "underemployment" and wages statistically would be too much to bear. These workers too tired to pay attention, are the "underemployed" scientists, engineers, educators, techs, mathematicians, entrepreneurs, the self-employed hanging by a thread. The hostility of a controlling oligarchy of fossil fuel barons far outclasses any capitalist swine before them. As they ready their napkins and forks to engorge us on the way down, maybe it's time for the working class to stand up and fight. Stop China from buying our country right out from under us, swallowing the debt these dogs have dumped on your kids, profiteering from a mercenary, corporate strategy, soldiers of fortune and death... and China holds the markers for debt they incur. We are screwed unless we as individuals, start working those atrophied muscles, wake up and smell the coffee.

New Rules: How to Take Back the Economy, Environment and Kill the War
OK, kids, want to really affect change in China and free Tibet? Without you buying their stuff, they go broke. Look at every label before you buy and if it's made in China, just say no- buy American and help a neighbor. Want to really affect gas prices, then car pool, take public trans when you can, just say no to the robber oil barons. Want to stop the war, really? Stop driving and ride a bike. Serious about climate change? China is also one of the biggest and fastest growing polluters in the world. Stop the demand for their goods, shut down the factories, stop the pollution, make 'em all go broke, really. We are the power, so start flexing.

Without a firm citizen/consumer stand against the ridiculous, with no free press covering our backs, we must take control as individuals. Turn off the tube and dump cable, support free TV, just say no to corporate ownership. Register to vote, don't throw your vote away this time, and just say no to the party of measurable failure. Time for the rugged individual, that fearless, pioneer, the sleeping giant of an American elephant, to just say no.

Consumers rule!