I want to talk a little bit about freedom here in America.

[PatrickforB]

Why, here in 'Murika we be free!

Free to...what?

Be slaves to debt? You bet. Consumer debt here in 'Murika has topped $17.05 TRILLION.

Total student debt - $1.6 TRILLION
Total healthcare debt - $88 BILLION in 2022
Total credit card debt - $986 BILLION in 2022

But hey, our grandkids are FREE to get gunned down in their schools, or in malls, or in theaters, or while shopping, or while watching a parade! And right-wing nut-jobs are FREE to buy up all kinds of assault weapons. Heck yeah!

And we're FREE to pay out the nose at the grocery store for stuff in smaller packages being sold at higher prices. They are calling that GREED-flation, and that is darned right.

We're FREE to not get medical or dental care we NEED because it costs so much. And we're FREE to have crummy, rationed healthcare with financially crippling copays!

We're FREE to pay out the nose for inadequate health insurance and dental insurance is a SICK JOKE. And we're free to go bankrupt with an average of $43K in healthcare debt! Sure, Democrats are trying to remove healthcare debt from credit reports - the equivalent of putting a Band-Aid on a severed artery.

Sigh...so may ways to be FREE here in 'Murika...

But Wall Street is doing GREAT, and there are more billionaires here than ever before! I know that makes me feel all warm and fuzzy all over. That bronze bull-idol on Wall Street that has replaced God be hungry for more shareholder PROFITS. And we are free to hold those same shareholder PROFITS above human life, worker interests, consumer welfare and the earth itself.

And we individual taxpayers are FREE to pay in 84% of the federal government's total tax revenue while corporations pay only 9% but get all those tax breaks. And dirt-bags like Trump pay a few hundred in tax on millions in profits.

So, no we don't celebrate the 4th in my house because FREEDOM HAS BECOME A JOKE thanks to the Wall Street greed lizards, the billionaire parasites, the corporate takeover of the republic, the disgusting and immoral imbalance in wealth, the lucrative fear industry that has awakened racism, anti-Semitism, homophobia, transphobia, xenophobia, gun violence, white nationalism and religious intolerance...

But hey, isn't all this FREEDOM great?

[50 Shades Of Blue]

1. K & R!

[republianmushroom]

2. The author does seem to understand the "American Way".

Buy now and pay later.

[PatrickforB]

4. Be careful, though, not to blame the millions who are saddled with debt.

For example, if you have dental 'insurance,' it is gonna have a $1500 max 'coverage' per YEAR. And your periodontal surgery will cost $12 large. This means you have to go toothless for YEARS unless while your grossly inadequate dental 'insurance' pays for $1500 per year.

Or let's say you have to go to the hospital and your grossly inadequate medical 'insurance' has a 20% 'coinsurance.' This means that 20% of the stay in ON YOU. So if you are in the hospital for five days with an average cost of $3300 per day, and you owe 20% of that amount, you have to pay one full day of that cost, and that is just the hospital stay, not all the other stuff they bill you for.

Or let's say you need groceries. What was $50 is now $150 because we are in the GREED-flation stage of inflation, according to the Fed. This means we are getting gouged on price for everyday stuff we need for the sake of shareholder profits.

Or maybe you were counting on being able to pay down your healthcare DEBT with your tax refund from Tax Year 2022, but due to the Republican tax cut of 2017, which was for corporations and billionaires, dontcha know, not you - your refund is HALF of what it was for tax year 2021. Wow, Wall Street saw you coming, didn't they! The GOP is in their pocket, and their propaganda organs specialize in dividing us against one another so we won't notice we're being ripped off every single day.

If we pay in 84% of the government's revenue, why aren't we getting 84% of the benefits? Where is our healthcare? Where is our dental care? Where is our affordable college? Where are the childcare subsidies? Why are our tax dollars going to charter schools and Christian schools when our K-12 should be our pride and joy? Why is that?

The moral, republianmushroom, is that we are victims of the Wall Street greed machine, and our whole society is predicated around getting a few people richer and richer while 34 million - ONE TENTH - of our population goes hungry every month.

Wall Street is not Main Street. Our system is rigged to feed Wall Street profits, and use tax dollars to bail them out when they get too greedy and cause a crash. Main Street has gotten nickel and dimed to death.

So, no, it isn't most people's choice to BUY NOW AND PAY LATER. People are buying less stuff now. And the right wing loves to talk about 'illegals' flooding over the border, but the truth is not all that many people even want to come here. The average American can't even handle an unplanned expense of $400. Why? Because we are debt slaves. This is by design, mushroom. It is.

The idea that you can live debt-free here is nothing but a sick myth, because if your car breaks down and it's gonna cost a couple thousand to fix it, you HAVE to borrow because you HAVE to get to work. Otherwise you'll REALLY have problems, beginning with losing your job. Even now, around 60% of our labor force has to be at the workplace 100% of the time in person. And if you don't show because of a sick kid, a flat tire, or some other life event, then you get fired. You know this, right?

[Diamond_Dog]

3. It just makes me want to scream

When Rethuglicans couch such things as total abortion bans, book bans when one hysterical wing nut complains, or bans on trans athletes as “freedom”

[onethatcares]

5. teevee commercial for a Ford pick-up

says it's only $59,000.00 with a $1000.00 phony cash incentive given back to the buyer.

FFS, How many lawns do you have to cut to afford that baby?

[Kaleva]

6. Catastrophic climate change might wipe out a lot of that debt

As the institutions that control that debt collapse

[Johnny2X2X]

7. Give Biden 4 more years

In the 2-1/2 years he's been in office, he's done more to dismantle Trickle Down Economics than anyone thought possible. Working people are finally seeing some things turn their way.

[malaise]

8. and you forgot the biggest freedom

Freedom to bully the rest of the planet