Can Superman Make a Super World?

Superman Renounces U.S. Citizenship in 'Action Comics' #900

Wow! I, admittedly, have never even read any comics that haven’t appeared in my daily newspaper, but I still knew enough about Superman and this one kinda blind sided me.

A lot of different thoughts started spinning around in my head when I read the explanation in the linked article above from Comics Alliance.com. Basically, as Superman realizes that by being known, worldwide, as an advocate for “truth, justice and the American way” has also saddled himself with the responsibility that comes with such popularity. Interestingly, for the longest time, the United States has been advocating for truth, justice and the American way and has used it’s label as a world superhero (ahem, power) as well. I see symbolism here! Is the United States at the same crossroads? It seems that when the United States does interact with other nations around the world, even the utmost diplomacy often puts us in a situation where someone misconstrues something we say or do and gets pissed and then, we end up in, yet another, conflict. Maybe we just can’t please everybody?  If we do too much to help someone else, we are meddling, if we don’t do enough, we are negligent. And all along the way, of trying to provide the porridge that is “just right” we, our own citizens, are the ones that are going hungry.

When I first read the headline, I thought that Superman was giving up on the United States. For the longest time, I looked at the history books, saw a glorious time of economic prosperity when the United States went through its Isolationist Period. There are a number of Americans who think that this might be the best direction to take. The last time we did, we did well for ourselves and fixed up our own “home” pretty nicely. Lord only knows we have plenty of housekeeping of our own, the economic turmoil, political infighting, environmental catastrophes, crime, ad infinitum. It would make perfect sense that the United States takes a step back from fixing everyone else’s problems and work on our own. It’s really no surprise that people outside the United States are often so resistant to the concept of us trying to help them be more like us. It’s almost laughable, except that, as far as many are concerned, we are so busy busying ourselves with the affairs of others so that we can avoid cleaning our own messes. Fair enough.  I don’t think that Superman IS giving up on the United States though. It’s not that our mess isn’t worth cleaning, I think it might be that Superman noticed that we could make our whole global “neighborhood” nicer  by working alongside other nations to make the whole neighborhood pretty,  instead of hunkering ourselves down in our own little messy home.

There’s the argument for Globalism.It’s kind of funny, because, using the first definition, putting the world’s needs above the needs of a specific nation, takes the whole concept of the “United States melting pot” global. Thinking of the people as a whole, while retaining certain individual liberties. There’s the argument that we are all part of a global community that lives in a global home, which is the Earth. The internet has provided to us limitless opportunity to make personal connections with anyone and everyone across the globe. People, in previous generations, never knew the horrors of war, for instance, until the morning paper and the evening news was able to bring actual pictures and footage to us while we ate our family meals. It was then that we began to understand the implications of our actions and the actions of others far beyond any explanation that the government had provided to us previously. Information in it’s truest form is never biased, but that footage, grotesque and scary, certainly created bias . Yes, everyone should be free, but at what cost? And if we tell them they should be free, and if we push for their freedom, are they really free? Now, the internet takes it to another level, allowing the oppressed in Egypt to organize protests, on their own, freely and achieve their own agendas, without the need or want of help from the superpower that is (?) the United States. The colonists that formed the United States were certainly not world superpowers and they achieved the success that was, is and hopefully always will be the United Sates. So then, if other people in other nations don’t need us to fight their battles for them, maybe we can embrace Globalism from a new perspective that could allow the United States and the rest of the world to attain peace and prosperity.

A little hokey? Perhaps. Naïve? Possibly? I personally have about a hundred other silly clichés that I could use here, but the thing is, the reason clichés are clichés is because they are perennially applicable. We ALWAYS have the opportunity to make choices that point us in the direction of peace and prosperity. Maybe this is the time where we actually could take the road less traveled.  We could take a step back, realize that while the way we have been doing things for this long isn’t the worst way to get things done, there’s always room for improvement.

So, to you Superman, I say good luck. Maybe this time, you can save the world for us. Or maybe, we can save it for ourselves!

Growing Pains

So, I started this page on Facebook for my blog a couple of weeks ago, basically because while my thoughts on politics and on society are far from extreme, it seemed, to my dismay, that most in my circle of friends, for whatever reasons, just didn’t want their minds to go where my thoughts might take them. We all have our lives to lead, we all have responsibilities that often exhaust us to the point where we just don’t have the time or the energy to be the Fool on the Hill that gets to sit and watch the world spinning round (The Beatles, paraphrased quote from the actual song, Fool on the Hill.) The gist of the song, is that there is a guy, that sits on the hill, watching everyone below him living their lives. The question raised by the song, in my estimation, is whether HE is a fool for watching and learning about the happenings of the people below, or are we the fools for not taking the time during the hustle and bustle of our lives, to pay attention? Neither, the fool on the hill, or the people below are actually experiencing life completely. Is there a happy medium?

So, I started the blog, suggested it to a couple of friends and started commenting on my favorite Facebook pages, probing, I suppose, to see if there was anyone else out there who might want to share in a discussion, who might see even a bit of what I see, the way I see it. And people DID like it! So, now, I feel compelled to write for them, instead of for me, which was the whole antithesis of the reason behind the blog. So, Friday, when I usually try to post on my blog, was filled with the necessity to write something, and since it was Earth Day, I thought I should write about that. I tried, I had an idea, which I am sure I will later revisit, but my research was coming up VERY dry. Then I realized, that, being that we LIVE on Earth, every day should be Earth day and since it first started in the 1970s, maybe it’s about time we DO make taking care of our home an occurrence that happens everyday. Seriously? Do we only vacuum one day a year? Do we only take garbage out one day a year?  I am sure some of us do, but I will digress.

Earth Day, to me, is as much about the Earth as it is those who inhabit it. Generally, people who are HAPPY in their homes are more likely to take care of their homes. So, why aren’t we so happy?

There are powerful nations on this Earth that have been around for hundreds of years. The United States’ birthday is logged in the history books as July 4, 1776. In comparison to other countries, the US is still in its adolescence. In our youth, we emerged energetic and ready for action. We wanted our independence and we fought hard for it. We declared to our Mamma England, that we can do it (to quote my 3 year old) BY OURSELVES! And we did. We did do it by ourselves. We took our small corner markets and we prospered. Everyone had a craft or a purpose and we all made enough to get by. We opened our doors, borders, to people that could be our friends. And they came in and they worked hard and they prospered as well. Then the Industrial Revolution came about, and we still all knew what it meant to spill blood for a cause, whether it be independence from another country, or whether it meant the independence that comes along with pay day. We had the energy of happy, spirited children that had a goal and just went after it.

We were a savvy bunch. In America, you could go from rags to riches and no one could get in your way. Of course, as Darwin’s “Survival of the Fittest” may suggest, the savvier ones rose farther and higher. It was okay, though, because after the Industrial Revolution, working conditions evened out, thanks to the unification of the workers, and we transitioned into a glorious time just like the Donna Reed Show said it was. All innocence was lost after that, like when we find out the truth about Santa and the Easter Bunny and sex (for the first time!) We were divided over the necessity of American soldiers dying in a crazy place called Vietnam and we didn’t like the ones that came home, because TV footage had, for the first time, brought the inexplicable violence into our living rooms during dinner.

It’s then that we entered our adolescence, as a country. Questioning our leaders for the first time in a long time. Realizing the truth that, just like parents, the representatives that we hire to make decisions for us, really might not know best, because they are human and make mistakes and are susceptible to urges and inclinations that the rest of us are. So, we rebelled in the 1960s and even the 1970s, protesting, experiencing life in other “realms” and such. By the time the 1980s hit, we were freakin tired of all that- like a teenager that forms a little garage band and then can’t do our chores, like monitoring our government of the people.

Technology made it easy to get lazy. Why walk when you can drive? Why buy American when it’s cheaper to buy good made in China? Televisions and VCRs transitioned into where we are now. Who remembers what it felt like in 1776 when the Colonists decided that the freedom they wanted WAS worth fighting for? Who remembers being willing to lay down one’s life for a cause? It’s easy to say that we are a bunch of spoiled teenagers, the Democrats and the Republicans, fighting so much amongst ourselves that we have totally lost sight of the real goal and purpose, fairness, justice and freedom, and then we have the new kid on the block, the Tea Party that comes in and does nothing, but add to the turmoil.

It’s time to grow America up. It’s time that we decide if we want Corporate America to dictate how we live, like my parents that instituted a 2am curfew until a week before I got married. Ya don’t like the way things are going? You don’t like what America has decided you get to do? Then change it. We don’t have to do what Egyptians did, we don’t have to protest in the streets. Besides, what do most protests achieve? Recognition? Yes. Results? Sorry to say, not so much. Nowadays, everyone is screaming at each other and placing blame, but no one is coming up with actual solutions.

Mine? Well, I am not a big political theorist and I don’t have a doctorate in Sociology or anything. I do vote though, and I am a citizen. I am more than happy to admit when someone else has a better idea, but until then, I am gonna keep suggesting mine. It can’t hurt. What’s the easiest way to stop the One Percenters from dictating our lives as Mother England once did? Cut them out of the picture! Do I mean a revolution with guns and forts? No. This nation prospered when small business was king. When we had corner stores and corner bars and corner churches, we walked everywhere, which meant no pollution and very little obesity. We got our food from local farmers, which meant no preservatives and no weird effects. Everyone knew everyone and trusted everyone, which meant no abductions or molestations. We had small, corner schools, there were no Columbine incidents back then.

United We Stand, Divided We Fall. We used to be a melting pot, now, we are like a meal on one of those sectioned plates from the junior high cafeteria. Diversity is fine, but right now, we need to remember that the enemy is not the person next to you that may have a different job or a different color skin or even, dare I say, a different country of origin. We are fighting FOR the middle/ working class. That is what MADE America, through working hard and, actually, it’s what DEFINES us and sets us aside from so many other countries that don’t acknowledge the rights and the plights of the common folk. And we still have the fight and the work ethic in us- it’s in our heritage! This country can settle into adulthood just fine. We just have to step it up a notch, take responsibility and make it work. Stop the bickering, figure out a Plan B and make it happen. We have been up against so much worse and done so much better.

I am kind of silly to think that a blog with a whopping 32 likes is a responsibility or that anyone really cares if I update it regularly, but who knows, with enough dedication and steady work, I could make it into something more. On Friday, I spent most of the day doing a thousand and one other things, mostly legit, I have little kids, and also avoiding having to write, stepping up, and standing behind my ideas, but, at the “witching hour,” I sucked it up, like a grown up, and forced myself to write. Thirty two likes might not seem like a lot to pretty much anyone, but to me it does. It’s hope. It’s 32 people that just might see possibilities. That’s 32 people that know the difference between fighting for a cause and yelling at someone. It’s 32 people that take a little bit of time everyday to be The Fool.

Hope everyone had a great Earth Day! For you Christian folk…I hope your Good Friday was solemn and that your Easter is joyous!

Pocket Change

Yosemite National Park Battling Ticket Scalpers

Is THIS what people are doing since there are no jobs? Golly gee! I know we all need extra cash, especially with energy costs and food costs skyrocketing. It seems like everything is increasing except for our bank accounts, but there ARE plenty of other ways to get a couple extra bucks that actually have a bit more couth than scalping tickets to experience our natural resources.

Hobbies- with the internet available, there are countless ways to make a buck, often doing what you do just to relax. Consumers are reacting to the disposable society we seem to have fallen into and they are looking for value when they dig deep in their pockets for pretty much anything. They want to know their purchase is worth the hours of toiling that the price tag equates. Whether you like to sew, or crochet, or even play with beads, quality craftsmanship is appreciated. You can crochet a beautiful afghan in the time it takes to watch a tv miniseries. Put it online, with sites like Etsy or even eBay and, as long as you make more than the cost of the yarn and the shipping costs, you’ve come out ahead!

Freelancing- with legitimate sites like vWorker and E-lance, there are legitimate, protected ways to be your own boss, pick and choose projects for which you are legitimately skilled, and keep your skills fresh. There are people that make quite a substantial living by freelancing online. The best part? No commute, no business casual and no take out!

Temping- at least until you find yourself a full time job, temping is a great way to supplement your household income and simultaneously,  take much of the aggravation out of the job hunt. Many companies specifically prefer dealing with temp agencies for the purposes of screening and hiring applicants and now you aren’t out pounding the pavement. Added bonus? You have NO office politics in which to get involved, no need to chip in for birthdays and the like, and, very little competence is generally expected of you, so just performing what is asked of you for your full shift turns you into a ROCK STAR! Plus, you can schedule work around your life and not get fired for it!

Consignment- it’s Spring cleaning time! You spend probably 30 minutes, minimum, per wardrobe, packing away winter clothing, evaluating what no longer fits or looks bad and then dropping the items off at goodwill. Well, make that project more worthwhile! Take the unwanted items to a consignment shop and get a couple of bucks towards new purchases. By doing so, you are supporting a local business, and if you end up BUYING something vintage while there, that would be a purchase that’s not going into the pockets of big business, but instead into the local economy. Win-win!

Home businesses- you already pay for lighting, heating and internet access  in your home. Why not write it off on your taxes for business purposes? When corporate America decides it no longer needs your skills, what better time than now to take those skills and make them work for you?  There are a number of fabulous, legitimate small business opportunities available to people with little or no previous self employment skills. Avon, Mary Kay, and Barefoot Books are three fabulous examples of companies that provide limitless support to build a profitable business simply by following their business models. There are no insurmountable hurdles if you put as much effort into these businesses as you do meandering through Facebook in the course of a day.

Writing- Unemployed and broke? Political and pissed? Super at potty training? The internet has created an environment that allows everyone to have a possible audience for their thoughts.  Start a blog, document your thoughts, allow for advertising on your blog and see where it takes you. At the very least, venting your thoughts is therapeutic!

Nothing I have mentioned will necessarily bring you millions, but innovative thinking to save, or make, a couple of bucks still provides you with a couple of bucks in your pocket. Who can argue with that?

The Beginning of the End?

More Americans leaving workforce

Okay folks, brace yourself here, I am feeling an extreme rush of optimism after reading the above article, but shall deliver it with the necessary sarcasm and cynicism to which you have undoubtedly become accustomed.

More Americans Leaving Workforce was the title of the article. I am not illustrating that because I am writing a third grade book report, but because of the slant, whether or not it was intentional , that title jumped right off my laptop screen and smacked me upside the head! Americans are LEAVING the workforce?!?! Are you kidding me? If the word leaving is synonymous with getting one’s ass drop kicked to the curb, then yes, I suppose leaving is an appropriate choice of words.

After having been laid off and spending days, weeks and arduous months looking for a job, I was at first rather offended by the tone of the title. It was as if the Americans were choosing to just not work and who did USA Today think they were? And then, the quintessential light bulb popped itself over my head.

The article itself is mostly regurgitating the employment statistics, aside from the insanely tonal title and maybe a line or two about whose fault it is, but that title kept at me. What if Americans are actually leaving the workforce? What if, they have had all they can take of schlepping themselves off to 60 hour work weeks? What if they are tired of making their employers a necessity when to said employers, those Americans are barely considered even an option? 

This country was made great by the hard work, tenacity, dedication and good ol’ fashioned blood, sweat and tears of the American worker. Workers worked hard for an honest day’s pay, produce a top notch service/ product  about which they could surely be proud. The United States was also made prosperous by the ingenuity, business sense and vision to build the great companies that produced the superior product or service. (Are you hearing “God Bless America,” yet?) What’s my point?

Why SHOULD Americans go back to the work force that doesn't appreciate them? Why would workers toil for a boss that no longer has vision other than that of the board room and the stock tickers?

For the longest time, I have held onto the belief that we, in the United States, are inches away from the revolution that occurred in Eqypt. I am not standing with a sandwich board that says, “The World Is Ending,” I am not saying we should be screaming in the streets, and quite honestly, I am not even sure the protests that have been staged about the Unions and about taxes or illegal immigration are going to help. We need ingenuity. We need to think outside of the box. We need to get back to the thinking, and attitude, and the spirit that once made America great.

So, let’s hit ‘em where it really hurts. Let’s stage a different kind of revolution that removes Corporate America from OUR equation. What have they done for us? Let’s remind them that they need us way more than they think they do. Why wait for someone else to sign your paycheck when you can simply sign it yourself? In the early days of the United States, pretty much everyone made a living working for themselves. They didn’t always make a fortune, but the necessities were achieved. Guess what? Even working for a big corporation now, most people are simply achieving the basics anyway.

The middle class is filled with the workers that know how to do the job, produce the product and provide the service. Small businesses, singular consultants, got swallowed up by corporations in years gone by because they didn’t have the means to go global- now, EVERYONE who has internet access and a shipping company nearby can do it. How many times have you sat in your stuffy cubicle or toiled over an assembly line only to have your boss come over to you,  give you an order  which you realized was the most idiotic thing ever? How many times have you thought to yourself, “My way would be much better?” The truth is, you were probably right. So take that idea, the one that would make the products/ services from which your big corporation bosses are making obscene amounts of money think is wrong and do it right. What’s that old saying? See a need, fill a need?

Maybe this is Atlas Shrugged and maybe the middle class is tired of carrying the burden of the corporations and those one percenters on their shoulders. Maybe it’s time for the ones that really do all the work to drop out of the standard workforce. There was a time when a job with a multi-national conglomerate came with security- sustainable incomes, job security, retirement funds and quality health care access. Those perks are all but gone now, so, honestly….what ARE those jobs doing for us? They don’t need us anymore? Well, maybe, just maybe, we don’t need them either.

Is the world ending? Is the economy plummeting? Maybe, but maybe that means it’s high time for a new beginning- on OUR terms.

The Sky Is Falling! The Sky Is Falling!

I publish a number of blogs, most of which are centered on methods of living life within our means- trying to take a common sense approach  to achieving a life of balance and efficiency, for ourselves and even future generations. There are lots of tried and true tips out there, ideas that worked in the past, ideas that have been tweaked to work for decades henceforth. Knowing that I could chip away at the trials and tribulations of navigating such a dynamic world with such measly means, makes me happy enough and gives me hope.

Then, I sit down to my computer (earlier this week by the time this gets published,) and see:

The Working Class Has Sacrificed Enough! It’s Time The Wealthy Pay Up

Gong Show Government and the End of the World

It's the Inequality, Stupid

All of a sudden, my calm, coupon cutting acceptance of the fact that, while I may never wipe my ass with silk toilet paper, I can be contented with a roof over my head and full bellies around the dinner table, turns into chicken little-esque screaming, in the virtual streets of my Facebook news feed, sensationalist, panicked lyrics from Les Miserables!

At this moment, all I feel is fear! Fear that the economy will indeed recover, but never for me. I get conspiracy theorist seeing articles like:

Plutocracy Reborn

Ex-State Department spokesman: WikiLeaks, New York Times did the same thing

Budget Deal Needed To Avoid Spending Train Wreck, Government Shutdown

But the truth is that while they aren’t conspiracy theorist, I certainly wish they were. I am certain, at this point in my disintegration, that the world ending 2012 is not literal, the Earth will not implode or explode, but that the world as we once knew it will indeed be gone. I am convinced that none of us can probably even remember the last time we voted for someone to represent us based on the fact that we knew in our heart that they had integrity. I decide that maybe it’s really not worth busting my ass to try to break even, cause it’s not going to matter in the end. I want to take my family, drop off the grid, go to some deserted island or some obscure side of a mountain and live off the land. I don’t want my children to live in such inequity. I don’t want them to know want or have needs that aren’t addressed. I am mother lion at this point. I don’t have the heart to tell my happy with today husband about the world falling apart when he’s not looking. I don’t want to break the news to my parents, who have spent decades working hard and saving their modest income, that it was all for nothing. “I will not go quietly in the night and I will not vanish without a fight!” (Haha, that was a tweaked quote from Independence Day, I substituted my “I”s for the “We”s.) I am ready, there is no longer time for patient acquiescence- I will rally my working class friends and we will prepare our barricade!!!

But, then I stop. Is that what “they” want us to do? Do “they,” with their ridiculous mounds of money from a life spent in public office or building giant corporations that don’t pay taxes, want us to rise up, only so that they can stomp us out for good? Then, I resign myself, maybe there is no point? IS there a way out?

I revisit the world of the rational for a moment. The only thing I can logically think of that MIGHT help set things straight would be term limits. We would have to somehow get it as a national referendum- is that even possible? With term limits, WE the People can stomp out career politicians that make choices in the best interests of everyone, but the working class folks. We can vote for a candidate, with both the candidate and ourselves knowing full well, that by the time the term of office is over, the candidate will absolutely be returning to the ranks of the rest of us schmucks- working for a living. With no term limits, there would be no pensions to be paid, no need for focusing on re-election. Serving the public would become a temp job. It would be a way to serve the country by trying to make it better. The offices would be served with the knowledge that the compensation would be equal to the median salary of the constituency. So, if the average Joe in So and So’s district makes $30K a year, without gas mileage comps or healthcare benefits, then so would So and So. How about that for ensuring empathy?  How about we level the playing field, create a real life round table around which Knights and (what? Dames?)  can sit and make choices that will benefit We the People. A round table where no one, save the President, maybe, has seniority that bullies any freshmen representatives, cause they are all fresh (wo)MEN that are eager to make good choices (like I prompt my preschoolers) and know how to hit the ground running.  

And maybe, just maybe, our representatives will actually take their duties seriously , in accordance with the principles set forth by the revolutionaries that helped shape this nation of United States. Maybe the poor and the working class will, once again have a fighting chance at actually pursuing and achieving life, liberty and happiness.

As I write this, I truly feel I have a better chance of winning the coveted big lottery jackpot. My thoughts drift to that time a couple of months ago when all the animals were inexplicably dying at the exact time that Wikileaks was releasing earth shattering documents. Coincidence? I am weary. I can’t remember the last time I have felt confident in any truth that has been offered to me. I can’t remember the last time I wasn’t pissed off when I voted for the lesser of however many evils.

At this point, my five year old little boy comes into the room and gives me a big hug with an even bigger smile. It’s not his fault he was born into this horrific mess, but it is my job to protect him from it. We are in an age of entitlement, and we have been for far too long. Isn’t that how things were right before Rome began its descent? The great thing about the economic disparity is that, because there are so few at the top, the rest of us bottom feeders have the numbers on our side. I don’t advocate violence, by any means, but there are a lot of ways to fight back, and I think it’s time that we Americans remember what it means to fight for something that we hold dear to our hearts.  Egypt did it, and something tells me we can, too.

But until then? Back to clipping coupons.

Trade Ya for a Better Economy?

According to Dictionary.com, the first listed definition of value is, “relative worth, merit, or importance,” in other words the worthiness, merit or importance of an abstract or concrete entity in relation to another abstract or concrete entity.  I would conjecture that the list of our most valuables would indeed be a matter of character and maybe even morality. What do you most value? Generally, that’s a question one might hear in a philosophy class or maybe even resonating throughout a religious assembly from clergy standing at a pulpit. It might seem that what is valuable is, or should be, as far removed from the world of finance as the unemployed are from finding a lifestyle sustaining job in the United States.

What do I value most? What in my life is worth the ultimate sacrifice?

Well, that would be my children and my husband- my family. Abstract entities that are valuable to me? Time, love, security and space. Next on my list of valuables would be the slightly more practical necessities: food, water, shelter, warmth, clothing (especially after two cesareans, this gal doesn’t wanna do the nudist thing!)

It would be at this rung on the Ladder of What Matters where I would probably insert some kind of landing area because anything else I could add is just fluff. What is kinda neat about the top tier of this fool’s values is that all of those valuables CAN indeed be gotten without any money exchanging hands. Am I going all Ted Nugent on your ass here? Maybe, maybe not. It is true that not every one of us is in a position to build our own log cabin or hunt our own meat. Some of us don’t even have room to grow our own vegetable gardens and quite frankly, I can’t remember learning how to sheer sheep and spin it into wool to make clothing in my high school home economics class. Honestly though, doesn’t this mean we can’t? Or does it mean there are other things we would prefer to do with our time and resources.

Early on, maybe even before the emergence of homo sapiens, we realized that some of us have a certain affinity for producing a specific good or service and that maybe it made more sense to let them be brilliant at THEIR craft so that we could hone the necessary skills for brilliance within OUR craft. “You cook, I’ll do the dishes?”  That folks, is called bartering. Exchanging a good or service for another good or service. Both parties involved in the self legislated transaction, where each party walks away with a valuable commodity. There’s no speculation, there’s no regulation, there’s no taxation. There’s no unions or management. There’s no outsourcing or globalization or pensions or social security. There’s no entitlements and no lobbyists. There’s no stock holders and there are no off shore accounts. There’s no inflation or deflation and there are certainly no stimuli or bailouts. It’s pure, unadulterated commerce. What sounds like a fantastic utopia has actually been right here, hiding, under layers and layers of ideas perpetuated by people trying to “fix somethin’ that just ain’t broken.”

In 1933, Franklin Delano Roosevelt nullified the “gold standard” in the United States, which meant that the dollar bill was to be no longer backed by a portion of gold sitting in Fort Knox. Instead, the United States government would decide how much the dollar was worth. My personal assumption would be that, at the time, this decision was integral to FDR’s plan for the US’s recovery from the Great Depression; however, this action always takes my mind to the board game Monopoly. At the moment FDR enacted this policy, he pretty much equated  the dollar bill with its Monopoly counterpart. Is it really okay for the government to decide what something is worth to us (or the US, for that matter?) Because, by removing gold as a physical backing for the currency, we might as well use it buy one of those little plastic hotels for Boardwalk.

Obviously, I am oversimplifying a undoubtedly complex system, one that many have spent a whole time manipulating and mastering. Golly gee, maybe I just ain’t quite sophisticated enough to decide what is valuable to me. Maybe I need the government to determine the worth and the value for my life.

Or maybe, just maybe, we really can determine value for ourselves. According to U.S. Small Business Association’s Web site, , as of 2008 SBA.gov, there were 29.6 million businesses in the United States and , as of 2007, 21.7 million of them had no employees. So, that means that approximately 21.7 million people in the US have figured out that they want to determine their own values as well. They want to be able to determine their own worth, and the worth of the services/ products that they produce and, surprise, surprise, if they were considered businesses, it means they had customers/ clients. What if we were to take that concept one step further, and just eliminate the paper/ electronic currency from the transaction entirely? Hmmm, I wonder if that would be considered tax evasion?

What if, I produced a product and charged $5.00 for purchase of said product, but on that price tag, along with the $5.00, there was a picture of 2 chickens? What if you could have my product for the price of two chickens, that could be placed in my freezer and used to feed my family, or simply pay the five dollars? What if my store was on a country road, and if you decided to erect a windmill to produce electricity on your neighboring property and what if I gave you X amount of doohickeys that I produce, so that I could have some of the electricity that your windmill produces to power the lights in my store?

Something to think about?

Well, you and I aren’t the only ones thinking now. As per a quick google search of “bartering movements,” I found:

Bring Back Old-time Bartering by Roland McShane 2008

The Barter Project #2 By Sharon Knight

The Barter News Web Site

Bartering in Place of Currency in Today’s Economy

Barter, Trade, and Share – Save Money and Strengthen Our Community by By Sono-Ma Holly | Published: June 2, 2010

Apparently, what I thought was an innovative, cutting edge idea, has been re-surging for quite a few years. Strength in numbers, I suppose? Maybe, just maybe, our economy is really so broken that we have to scrap it and start over. I don’t know, but, can the current system really get much worse? <shuddering>