Opinions Worth Roping -

WHAT HAPPENED TO THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS? OR WHY DON’T WE HAVE TIME?
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What has corporate America done to us over the last 30 years? They’ve taken away our time. Americans are working two and three jobs just to get by and Montanans are number one in number of jobs held and most of those are held by women. Most of this dysfunction is the worry about paying for health care and the worry that their children won’t be able to afford college. They worry that this downward spiral of wages and high costs could be even worse for their children what with aimless, arrogant, and fiscally irresponsible government. This is wrong, people, and it doesn’t have to be that way. Europeans who were mocked by Donald Rumsfeld and others have four to six weeks of vacation every year, long lunches, in some cases universal and better healthcare, lower infant mortality rates, and in many countries like Sweden, Norway and Switzerland, they live longer lives.

Corporate America, using an increasingly radical conservative party and members of both parties who are beholden to big business, has taken away our free time by making the citizenry hold bake sales to raise money for chairs and tables for our school library, selling banana bread and having spaghetti dinners to try and build a swimming pool, having auctions and fundraisers in order to help local people who have serious injuries and no health, disability insurance and/or no pensions. These people in power are pretty crafty. They keep us so busy doing things that should be taken care of by our tax investments i.e. our dues in the greatest club in the world, that we haven’t noticed all the money is going out of state and now even out of the country to offshore tax havens. What happened to our free time, our inalienable right to the “pursuit of happiness”? If we are not careful, “Life and Liberty” could be next.

Diane Kamp Clayton (Summer, 2004)

What Happened to the Pursuit of Happiness? Or Why Don't We Have Time?