Justice John Paul Stevens recently told Congress “Money is not Speech”

I don’t know about you, but I want my vote to count. I surely don’t want to worry that a big corporation’s lobbyist is taking my Congressman’s attention away from the general public.

In the USA all citizens need a level playing field and have the opportunity to rise up from their current economical situation. The level playing field is what gives each person the same opportunities. So when the Supreme Court defined Corporations as “equal to an individual with the same rights”, you lost a lot of the equality. The courts allow corporations to lobby politicians and donate funds to campaigns in public or private. The companies or politicians then need to keep raising more dollars, mostly from the wealthy and the corporations diluting your share and your representation. The politicians, as always, look to raise campaign funds and then need to provide a preferred level of representation to those groups. Otherwise they might not receive the funds they need in the ever increasing costs of campaigns. If you want to keep your job and all the perks that come with it then this is the system that is in place today. Money buys representation.

Agriculture uses 75-80% of all the water in California. Industrial, business, and entertainment uses are all another 7% each of the total uses. That leaves around 10% for all multi and single family residential units. Read the article

Because of the current drought, California’s Business and Home Owners are being asked to reduce their water usage by 20%. This is on top of the 20% reductions asked by the state a few years ago. With all the restrictions and reductions going on, it’s hard for me to believe that changes in the agricultural system can’t be made. Large farms get subsidized to plant high water usage crops while drilling 2000 feet down draining our precious underground aquifers to maintain them. The smaller farms could not afford to drill that deep and don’t get the government bailout like the large farms do. If this is wrong, let me know. Large farms could change those crops to a more water efficient product. Irrigation could change to a drip type system or use underground watering. This would save the state millions of gallons of water and potentially lift the water restrictions business and home owners are now facing.

When Small Business Owners need to upgrade their company’s software, hard decisions need to be made. How will the upgrade affect the company? Will employees be able to work while this upgrade takes place? Last but not least, how much will the upgrade cost?

Segregation of the rich and poor

We need to re-look at the way the American Dream is changing due to the Middle class eroding, and the separation of the 1% and 99%.

Whether you agree or not there is a new outlook in life that is becoming starker. Economic realities and strife have always been around. The Greeks and Romans were doing it to their citizen’s ages ago. Remember when the French got tired of it? They started cutting off people’s heads. The upper class did not come out of that as well as they would have hoped, did they? All economic classes need to have a sense of interdependence and appreciation for the entire community they live in. The separation weakens the long term viability of a given society. In America, our government center’s on Capitalism. Capitalism is the center of our economic and social structure. The lucky can get to the top. It takes hard work, great timing, connections, intelligence, patientence, a good location, and many more attributes that may or may not help you get there.

The problem is once you get there. Are you now different from the others? Are you now outside of the general public welfare issues? What is your responsibility to your community?

These are not easy questions. I believe in the longevity of a society. This keeps life’s choices more stable and you can make better long term plans. Most people like stability as long as they have respect and representation in our democracy.

So when you take a look at one specific rule of Inclusionary Housing you have to ask yourself “How does this affect the greater good?” “What is it telling all the different groups who live in our society?” ”Are we respecting each other?” The group that got to the top, the 1%, are still a part of the general public, but now they feel above the other groups and think they need to protect their way of life. Or they may have social anxieties and feel embarrassed by the aesthetics of hair, clothing, skin color, or language. This 1% can afford to put fences between them and the rest of their societal counterparts. Making their lives feel exclusive and safe from the real world around them.