These Things I Believe

This is a repost from an essay (rant) I wrote in response to a Facebook thread regarding principally the suspension of collective bargaining rights in the state of Wisconsin for municipal and state employees:
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And the inexorable compulsion to fight this argument against my better judgement takes hold:

It is not fair that now in our history we are paying for the sins of those who came before. Those sins are sins of poor legislation and financial malfeasance. They are sins of denial and sins of selfishness.
It is not right that because of laws that were passed by people in power a long time ago, back room deals that took root out of the light of legislative checks and balances, and other poorly judged and entirely misguided attempts at governance that we, the people are now forced to bear this terrible burden.
And yet, here we are. This is not the fault of any one group. This is not, as Fox News would have it the result of failed liberal policies, nor is it is the fault of MSNBC branded conservative overreaching. The fault lies with this electorate and all the electorates that have come before. Finally, it is ultimately we the people who put them in office who are at fault.
This is a representative democracy. It is an imperfect system in that it requires its citizens to have a vested interest in the operation of all levels of government. Because it is we the people who are being represented. Yet, few legislators are recalled for not representing their constituents, because too often their constituents are ignorant to the machinations of government. Few people even know who their representatives are. Many say they don't care. Many act as if they don't care until things get like they are today.
I submit that the people who are so mad about losing collective bargaining rights in Wisconsin and Michigan should have been mad long, long ago when so much of their money was being taken for the operation of a failed government. After all, we don't need to make as much if we keep more of it.
This situation in Wisconsin is not because the state is cold, heartless, unfeeling and evil. There is just no money to pay. There hasn't been money in a long time. And the reason why it is only now coming to a head is principally because government serves itself at a high level of dysfunction. One needs to get re-elected to stay in power. One cannot get re-elected if one supports unpopular policies. Policies based on financial austerity are never popular.
But now, the elected officials are doing what they said they would do. they are being unpopular. They were put in office by the agreed upon system and are now representing what they feel is the voice of the populous which is saying, "enough!"
I believe if the factions were to stop and think, they would realize that no one is trying to be unfair, or unjust. One point of view, (my point of view), is that we must now fix these gross financial missteps at the Federal, State and Local levels in order to move forward again one day as a country. We must now invest in our present so we have a future! We will accomplish nothing by passing more and more debt, more and more responsibility to the next generations. We will only make it worse down the road. If our finances are unsustainable now, how will they look after many more years of the same policies?
I liken our financial crisis to global warming. The time for talk is over. The time for action is nigh. It is indeed an inconvenient truth that we all must share in the sacrifice that is needed to save the planet; and to save ourselves.
Shared sacrifice is a central tenet of liberty. The Declaration of Independence beseeched our colonial overlords that we should be given the freedoms of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Nowhere are we guaranteed (in fact, no one even asked for) collective bargaining rights, we are not guaranteed unlimited wealth, we are not guaranteed the blessing of an easy life or life long care by a the entity of government!
Regardless of what side of the aisle on which you sit, you must come to the agreement that government has failed us. All of us.
And it is the great "us" who shall now have to fix it. For it is simply fact that you cannot pay what you do not make at the individual level or any other. It is very simple. Government has been out of money for a long time, in spite of the fact that you have been giving a good fair bit of your money to them. It has to stop. We have to stop!
I will make less money. You will make less money. You will pay more for pills from Aspirin to Zoloft. You will pay more for milk, and more for gas and more for all the rest of the things you use because there are more consumers in this world now than ever before and nothing more to consume.
If we want to continue to have the best lifestyle on the face of the planet, (I here take the time to remind the reader that even the poorest American is incomprehensibly better-off than his poor brethren in any other country), we must be ready to jump off the cliff. The special interests need to become our special interests and the lobbyists need to stop shouting down the voice of the people.
There should be but one union. The union of American citizens and our rights therein. If you want to assert yourself, by all means! But please ask yourself; is this good for me, or good for us?
We the people should demand the dissolution of the IRS and its subsidies. In its place, we should fight for a flat tax at a sustainable rate that will provide for the defense of our freedom and liberty, will provide aid to emerging economies in the name of human rights and equality, will create and maintain infrastructure and law enforcement and support a world-beating public education option.
We the people should demand the dissolution of failed social programs that cost too much money and do too little good. In their place, we the people should want to see faith and community based outreach plans that target funding and people where they will be most affective in a way they will be most affective for that community.
Corporations should be put in a position to help fund these programs by being given preferential consideration for government contracts and business tax credits. Individuals should be compelled to devote some of their time to the operation and success of these programs because their lives will only be made better with low crime, homelessness and poverty.
We should demand an end to the catastrophically expensive an ineffective drug war, placing focus and funds instead on education and prevention.
We should absolutely dissolve Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. Instead, pay out each person retiring after 2015 50% of the money they have put in to the system (adjusted for inflation) and adjust the personal and corporate flat tax rate to pay for existing retirees in the system, lowering that rate through participant attrition. Medicare and Medicaid should be administered through private insurance companies using market strictures to guide the programs. It is not my destiny and it should not be my expectation to be cared for by my government- unless I was a soldier. If I was a soldier at any time, all my care for all my life, should be covered 100% with no limit. My family should receive that care, too. The best care. they pay for that care by mortgaging their lives.
If you want to call me cold, call me heartless or call me ignorant, please do. If you want to say that I am insane or idiotic for wanting to be be allowed the chance to grow or to whither on the vine based upon my own merits or failures rather than to be cultivated to a specific specification by an omnipresent force from birth to death, than say it.
We cannot be paid what there is no money to pay. We cannot expect our collective will to change anything unless we ourselves are willing to change. It is no longer about fair or taking it personally. It is only about surviving fixing what is broken.
It will hurt.
Are you ready?