How Government gets Distorted | Eastern North Carolina Now

    This is a Princeton study done recently which shows how we have gotten out of touch between the US public and all our Representatives:

    Reality and Truth are finally brought together . . .

      •  Graphing the relation of public wants to legislation actually passed

      •  0% chance of any law passing = loss of relationship between law and public

      •  Elites get their way because of lobbying

      •  Perfectly legal to buy influence in America (bank example)

      •  200 companies / $5.8 Billion spent on lobbyists $4.4 Trillion of our money gotten

      •  Forty years of corruption

      •  Problem described and there is a solution

      •  Corruption is LEGAL IN AMERICA! It needs to change . . .

    As old as it may sound, Jesus put it on the line: THE LOVE OF MONEY IS THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL! Remember---it is LOVE of MONEY which creates the problem. It is not that anything is wrong with money in and of itself. It is when the GREED part of the human personality kicks in and then it is like a drug addiction.

    You can never make enough money to be satisfied. Here are the steps it takes with most people:

       1. By hard work or luck---usually a combination of both---you make Big Bucks

       2. Suddenly you can afford luxuries others can't buy

       3. You desire to insure the future against failure

       4. You fear any tax that might level the playing field along with any laws

       5. You have children and wish to assure their future

       6. You found a Corporation or Foundation to have perpetual presence

       7. Your name appears on some highway or building for perpetual remembrance

       8. You die

       9. Your heirs fight over the money and lawyers get rich

       10. Your kids are selfish and can't make marriages work / raise spoiled and entitled kids

       11. Another generation of entrepreneurs takes your place to get their name in lights

       12. Royalty in the Old World set up the social ladder of lesser Nobles

       13. A system of Primogeniture (first son inherits all) becomes law

       14. Fathers buy a Land Grant in the New World for other children / clergy / marry wealth (especially if you are a girl) are the other options to keep your wealth and power

    One wise observer has said, "It is 3 generations from rags to riches and back again to normal."

    My father has such an experience---let me share the story in a quick depiction of SCARBOROUGH from Madison County, GA, where Athens and UGA exist:

    My brother and I were assisting our Father to put a concrete slab over the family plot in the Moons Grove Baptist Church cemetery near Danielsville. It was one of the most hot and humid August days on record. If Hell is half as bad, I surely don't want to go there! We took a little break from the agony and sweat and daddy began to talk about our Great Grandfather, Redden Scarborough with: "You won't believe we were once the descendants of the wealthiest man in Madison County . . . ."

    He continued with the strange ending to his life. His first wife had died in childbirth after some 5-6 children. He had married a second wife who produced one son---our Grandfather, Charles Newton Scarborough. There was a house fire and Redden's body was found in the ashes. Suspicion of foul play ensued from the hole in the skull of what was left. Was he murdered and the deed hidden in a massive fire of the large wooden house?

    His wealth was the result of him being the "Official Brewer of Spirits" for Federal Troops stationed there before the Civil War. That is more than interesting since our Baptist Preacher father was a T-toatler who hated any kind of booze! His "hate of spirits" had to do with both the family story and the damage he saw to church families with a drunk---wasting all their money away. Our part of Scarborough was a rags-to-riches-back-to-rags story.

    The Civil War brought total devastation as Sherman marched from Atlanta to Savannah. Granddaddy Charles Newton could remember as a child playing with chests full of Confederate money---now worthless. He then got his life sentence as a Tenant Farmer.

    He suffered the greatest disease of wealth---no ability to do physical work in an organized fashion. Daddy said he always walked fast and was more than busy. He died of exhaustion and now had a wife and children still dependent on that starvation of the field. The Farm store offered credit. They ran up the bill each year. When harvest time and splitting the increase with the owner of the farm---the workers came up short. They ended each year with a bill to start over the next. If it sounds like modern credit cards---you have a full picture of how things stay the same even though time marches on! People who "want it all now" are at risk.

    My father had to drop out of school to take care of the family. Most of the farmers struggling with the Great Depression were a step away from starvation. If you owned your farm, you could barely make it. If you were unable to get ahead, you fell behind each year slowly but surely. It took money to buy seed and feed for the mules. Those having to do it on credit were just hoping for good rain / plenteous crops / a decent price when you sold it. That seldom happened!

    Farming has always been a risky business. The basic formula stays. The market and weather can bankrupt you. At best, one bad year farming needs some 5-7 to get even. If banks and a few rich landowners manipulate things, it is just a form of "working slavery."