by Scott Hughes
The new year comes whether we want it to or not. Without fail every year, all of us a year older celebrate the coming of a new year on New Years Day, and we wish ourselves a good year.
What’s so new about it, though?
As we close this year and tally up the millions of children who died of hunger, I have no doubt that millions more will die next year. In the so-called new year, AIDS will continue to spread. In the so-called new year, we will still blow ourselves up with bombs, missiles and other weapons, instead of building schools and educating the children. The new year will still deprive billions of innocent people the opportunity to gain healthcare, education, food, and employment.
I see nothing new about the coming year. I see the same traits in the coming year as the past year, and all the years before that. I see the same pain, hunger, poverty, disease, and unhappiness. I see the same neglectful and apathetic public. I see the same non-meritocratic social inequality. I see the same prevalence of coercion, violence, hate, and loneliness. I see the same deficit of cooperation, love, and solidarity.
The United States government will still put the majority of its funds – stolen through taxation – towards Pentagon spending. Mega-corporations will still use politicians to oppress the masses, and the masses will continue to let it happen. The prison-industrial complex will still ensure that millions of poor and working-class people will still rot in prison – many for “victimless crimes”. Instead of changing the world and bettering their own lives, the working-class and the general public will continue to squander their power and indulge in self-destructive and short-sighted vices.
Consumers will still buy the petty material things from the malls and shops, as directed from TV commercials and billboards. We will still take drugs – both legal and illegal. We will still eat unhealthy and addictive foods, as we grow fat and depressed in front of the same television that brainwashes us into doing it.
We won’t better our lives by bettering the world in 2007. We will continue to make the few rich and powerful people in this corrupt world richer and more powerful, at our expense. We will buy fast-food, cigarettes and beer, and fancy cars, houses, and clothes on credit. We will still neglect our kids.
We don’t need a new year, we need a new era! We need a new era in which no child goes hungry, and no child lives in poverty. We need a new era in which all people have access to education and socioeconomic opportunity. We need a new era in which healthcare is everywhere and homelessness is nowhere. We need a new era in which HIV and AIDS no longer spreads. We need a loving and happy era.
We can celebrate the beginning of the new calendar one day every year, but we also need to change the world and make both the world and our lives permanently better.
A new year will come whether we want it to or not, but a new era will only come if we make it.
Let’s make a new era. Let’s get motivated and use love, patience, and dedication to create non-governmental organizations based on voluntary solidarity and voluntary cooperation to solve the many problems facing us and our world.
Let’s change the number of the year tonight, and change the world tomorrow.
I am so proud that you wrote this Scott. Everything you said here is true. And, as always your vocabulary is better than most people twice your age. You never cease to amaze me. Thank you for caring enough about children and other people to take the time to write this. Like you, I can’t see people really breaking these trends they say they hate. They will continue to eat poorly, settle for less than they deserve, and believe whatever the government or nightly news tells them. For the rest of us who want change, we will have to work for it. We can never settle. -Tiffany
P.S. Can you come to Houston and teach an English class to some people I know? 😉
“The United States government will still put the majority of its funds – stolen through taxation – towards Pentagon spending. Mega-corporations will still use politicians to oppress the masses, and the masses will continue to let it happen.”
They do steal it no doubt, but defense spending is not where the majority of funds go. Let’s look at the 2007 budget:
* $586.1 billion – Social Security
* $466.0 billion – Defense
* $394.5 billion – Medicare
* $367.0 billion – Unemployment and welfare
* $276.4 billion – Medicaid and other health related
* $243.7 billion – Interest on debt
* $89.9 billion – Education and training
* $76.9 billion – Transportation
* $72.6 billion – Veterans’ benefits
* $43.5 billion – Administration of justice
* $33.1 billion – Natural resources and environment
* $32.5 billion – Foreign affairs
* $27.0 billion – Agriculture
* $26.8 billion – Community and regional development
* $25.0 billion – Science and technology
* $20.1 billion – General government
* $1.1 billion – Energy
-Presidential budget report (Whitehouse.gov)
So first let’s add up the socialist programs:
$586.1 billion – Social Security
$394.5 billion – Medicare
$367.0 billion – Unemployment and welfare
$276.4 billion – Medicaid and other health related
$89.9 billion – Education and training
___________________
1,713.9 Billion
Defense spending is only $466 billion, less than Social Security alone. The solution is a return to the free market system, an end to socialst programs, and an stringent isolationist foreign policy. This will bring a new era of liberty and prosperity to the US.
As far as the rest of the world, let them fix their own problems. We tried to feed somalia, remember how well that worked out? If they cannot figure out how to use a condom (or stop sleeping with multiple partners), build a greenhouse, or stop killing eachother, then the US is not going to be able to figure it out for them.
It’s sad to say, 9 years later, what I wrote in the original post still applies.
As to what Matt said, Medicare, unemployment insurance, and Social Security are trust funds, incidentally, so they are not funded through the so-called federal income tax but by separate flat employment taxes which go to the trust funds not the federal budget. Those mandatory employment insurances are different than government handouts in that they are paid for by the people who receive them and would generally have to be paid for even without the government’s mandate.