Fellow Citizens, you may not have been told this, but we own much of this great nation. Yup, take a look at the map- those states on the left, we own most of them. Granted, agencies like the BLM claim to own them, but we own the BLM and the rest of the governments. All those green spots? Yup, we own the parks too. Same with the military bases and the roads and the lakes and rivers. We own the Capitols, City Halls, Post Offices, Police and Fire Stations, and most of the Schools, the Libraries, and auditoriums too. And public power production and distribution and water and sewer systems- yes, we own them too. And that just the real estate. Except for the red splotches called reservations- we don't own them, but they're nice folks.
We own three of four of the nations largest employers, and the two largest truck fleets in creation- the military's and the Postal Service's. And lots of satellites and planes too, along wth tanks and ships that don't haul much cargo. We own the airwaves too, despite what your cell phone carrier and broadcasters tell you- A "certificate" of "public interest, convenience, and neccessity" does not confer ownership. We own the patent rights and trademarks to thousands of inventions and services, and much of the world's knowledge, and share it freely.
We own Social Security- we and our employers paid for it, and damn right it's ours. Same with pensions- We agreed with our employers to defer part of our pay until we retire or we're unable to work. We own Unemployment Insurance- we and our employers paid in to UI so we could draw on it when we can't find work. It is not a welfare program. Neither is Food Stamps, an agricultural subsidy program designed to keep farmers on the land by buying surplus foods.
Now there are hundreds of corporations and their stooges out there that will tell you that all of the above are theirs, or a welfare benefit that must be eliminated, or they'll take credit for safe food our inspectors inspected or delivering stuff on our highways. Bull! We own and provided the assets that allowed them to ungratefully make massive profits.
And that's just what we all jointly own. You a member of a co-op? Take a look at REI's assets and figure where they'd be on the fortune 500 if publicly traded. Same with several big power and ag co-ops. Pension funds- remember the talk of "pension fund socialism"? Well, seems like we got pension fund jungle capitalism instead. Yup, theoreticly we control hundreds of billions in our pension funds. Have an IRA, 401K, TSP, or plain old savings account? Yep, depleted as they are, we have assets. And even if we're broke, we've got cash flow as our wages are quickly spent on the necessities of life. In fact, the average person will spend over a million dollars in their life... That kind of $$$ could have an impact just by choosing where we spend it.
Whew, I'm worn out just thinking about what all assets we own. In my next post I'll discuss how we take control of our assets and make a difference.