Big business is constantly vilified by this administration, as you know, and the media. They’re, you know, fat cats. They’re greedy, mean. They are made to be the villain, and the knight in shining white armor is of course more public sector institutions.
Here’s the dirty little secret Progressives always fail to point out: These evil big businesses got big because they are good at what they do. Let’s contrast and compare for a moment. The U.S. Postal Service lost $15.9 billion in 2012; however, FedEx profited $2 billion. Graduation rates, how about public schools, yeah, 73% and private schools 96%.
Public housing, that is beautiful. Wow, maybe just a little patio furniture out front would really spruce that up versus the average home in America, ah, 2,000 square feet of absolutely fine living. Even areas where government has a monopoly, such as the DMV and Amtrak, they still provide a miserable experience.
So what about health insurance? Well, pre ObamaCare 85% of Americans had health insurance, and 87% were happy with their coverage. Post ObamaCare, millions are losing their plans that they liked and are forced to go through a website that doesn’t even work two months after its launch. Oh, and I know they say it’s fixed, but honestly, who believes anything they say anymore?
Notice their careful use of language this week. It works for the “vast majority” of users. Look at the “broader benefits” of ObamaCare. The “error message” is now just a queue. Don’t worry about that. So getting put in some sort of weird digital waiting line is now fixing the problem, at least according to the government.
One reporter went through the system and got the queue message at 10:00 AM. They weren’t e-mailed to say they could go back on the site until 5:00 PM, a full seven hours later. Americans don’t have the patience for this. You don’t believe me? Next time you’re at a red light, and then it turns green, just sit there and see how long it takes for someone to start road raging on you. I bet it’s less than ten seconds. Government wants you to wait seven hours.
Oh, and a special bonus, it’s great, no security was really built into the Healthcare.gov at all. It’s basically just a hacker’s paradise, especially considering you had to put in account information just to look at prices. But what is going on? This government, this is what they do. They mess things up.
Look what’s happening to small banks. They’re vanishing. New regulations, a stagnant economy, and artificially low interest rates have reduced the number of banks in America to the lowest levels since the Great Depression. You can’t even spread a little holiday cheer anymore without the government getting in the way.
One man took the last thousand bucks to his name, tossed it to a crowd of people at the Mall of America, but he was arrested for disorderly conduct, and mall officials warned others not to do the same thing and said the message that people should take away from this incident is “somebody could have gotten seriously hurt.”
An 11-year-old girl in Oregon tried to sell mistletoe from her uncle’s farm that she cut and wrapped herself but was shut down by the city because she didn’t have proper documentation. Schools that instituted zero-tolerance policies to help curb bad behavior are backing off because too many people are getting arrested. Yeah, this is a real great lesson to teach the kids, don’t worry about your actions, because our consequences aren’t really consequences. They’re just harsh sounding words.
It’s kind of like the UN. We all know how well that system has been working out. While the students committing actual crimes are getting a slap on the wrist, the students that are making paper guns and playing cowboys and Indians at recess continue to receive harsh treatment. Common sense appears not to be so common anymore.
Fortunately, there is good news to keep your head from exploding. The Pizza Hut manager who was fired after closing the store on Thanksgiving eve to give employees time with their families at Thanksgiving, he got his job back. A homeless man who found a wallet in the trashcan and tracked down the rightful owner and returned it was repaid two weeks later when a hotel owner offered him $500 and a room for a few weeks.
An Instagram account called “Tips for Jesus” has gone viral. It’s an anonymous account created by someone claiming to do the Lord’s work one tip at a time. Tips range anywhere from a few hundred bucks all the way to $10,000. These stories are food for our soul. When we see people do amazing things or be kind to one another or follow their passion, it inspires us to be better people today than we were yesterday, and it reminds us that it’s our job, not the government or anyone else’s, to pursue happiness.
Just ask the people of Venezuela. Right now they are happy, happy, happy. They handed over their individual liberties for promises of hope and happiness and equality under a socialist utopia, and now the government is punishing them with rationing energy through massive power outages. It’s been happening on and off since 2009 when Chavez scolded the citizens for using too much energy.
Don’t sit around and hope for change. Get up off the couch and go make change happen.