1. Insurance – They bank on you not dying, getting in a car accident or getting sick. Because if you do, they have to pay out. This business would prefer that nothing happens to their bottom line. That would mean more money in their pocket, better facilities and high rise buildings with marble floors all paid from your premiums. However, you must keep paying or else you would be at greater risk if something were to happen. The insurance business is a billion dollar industry that will continue to grow. By 2017, we will be paying over $100 billion annually to private insurance companies to secure our interest.
2. Bank Fees – You pay someone else to manage your money and they earn an interest. The banks charge you a fee when you can’t meet your day to day expenses with overdraft fees. You are also charged monthly just to bank with them. They can make as many financial errors as they want and they will be backed by the system that controls the whole scam. All they have to do is ask for a bailout or file chapter 11 and they are back in business ready to start all over again or perhaps where they left off. Whereas the average citizen, you and I, are doomed!! We can’t get a bailout when we make a big financial mistake. Yeah, you can file bankruptcy, however, you will be tarnished for years per the standards of society. A 2007 study by the Center for Responsible Lending said consumers are paying fees of $17.5 billion annually — on automatic overdraft loans of $15.8 billion per year.
3. Mortgages – In essence, you don’t actually own the home until you have the title in your hand and your debt is free and clear. I never understood the term homeowner. It should read, “borrowing to own a home.” The bank is the lien holder and the owner until they are paid in full. The advantage of being a “person borrowing to own a home” is that you get to write off the taxes and the interest you paid throughout the year to live in or rent it out. However, the mortgage lien holders get to do the exact same thing. They also receive bailouts too when your finances are not in order. If you have to foreclose, you get nothing in return except a negative credit rating. The lien holder gets to write it off as a loss (bad debt.) So in the end, the mortgage lien holder still comes out on top, they are still in business and they have secured your home.
4. Renting a place to live – You are just paying someone else to live a good life and build their equity. While you are paying for their lifestyle, you are losing money as if you were throwing it out the window. The “person borrowing to own a home” who you pay your rent to, receives every possible advantage to even make a profit on your hard earned dollar. You probably end up paying the IRS or getting little back at the end of the year because of this.
5. Healthcare – The system is designed to keep you sick. Instead of sharing with you remedies and tools to help you get better, some physicians heavily medicate and keep you comatose from reality. In the meantime, pharmaceutical companies, hospitals and physicians are profiting off of your lack of awareness. Check out other countries and how they operate their healthcare system. Very few, if anyone is in medical debt. Our systems thrives on making a dollar, keeping corporation’s rich and impoverishing the working class. As of 2012, 75 million people reported problems paying their medical bills or were paying off medical debt, up from 73 million in 2010 and 58 million in 2005. An estimated 48 million people were paying off medical debt in 2012, up from 44 million in 2010 and 37 million in 2006 (Source: Press Release, The Commonwealth Fund.)
6. Government – If you look at what it was designed for,” to protect and serve the people”, it has totally strayed away from this principle. Instead, we live in a society that it deprives, uses and abuse power and facilitate in acts that cost the country millions.
• People are geared towards a system that keeps them economically challenged with no desire to get better (food stamps). Now I agree that there is a need, especially when times get hard and there is nowhere to turn. Yet to not offer a recipient a decent salary to feed and take care of a family, it gives them nowhere else to turn. America has one
• People get in political office and instead of making the situation better, they rob the people who voted them in office with greed and mistrust. Who can you trust that really has your best interest at heart?
• Wars, wars and more wars… We have a war right here in our own country. There are so many homeless vets and others who could use that money right here in America. How come we can’t use some of the millions that we spend everywhere else to give people in our own back yard a better way of life?
7. Education – Only in America can one go to school and get a degree, be in debt, never make enough to pay their loans off and die with them not being paid. Look at other countries. They go to school for free and graduate with little to no educational debt. They live free of being hounded to pay back money to not only make themselves better, but the community they live in better as well.
8. Utilities – Even though it’s a privilege and a blessing to have due to the fact that third world countries don’t have them, is it necessary to profit while customers inherit significant rate increases? I mean I understand it’s a business, but it’s a needed commodity that you know one almost has to have. You have people who barely get by and it’s hard for them to maintain, yet the CEO of the company has profited while you scrap to pay your bill.
9. The Prison System – So many people do wrong and they deserve to pay the time. However, this system predicates off people doing unjustly. The owners of this enterprise profit heavily and keep people tied to a system that offers them a return visit. Free housing, healthcare, food and sometimes work. Yes work.. They do that in prison and get paid cents on the dollar. Work is done for corporate enterprises so that they don’t have to hire anyone to do it and pay them a salary. Not all jobs go overseas. Some are in your back yard and you will never know it unless you are the one running the company. Why not offer rehabilitation and career opportunities so that this cycle does not become a career? Well.. that’s cutting into their profits. So why ask why? After all, it’s a business, right?
10. Corporate America – You work for years in some companies and made them enough profits for the shareholders and stockholders to retire and live a comfortable life. You have given them the most significant aspect of your life and yet you retire with a pen, a certificate and possibly a ring. Where did that time go? Thirty years and you have nothing to show for it. In the meantime, the stockholders and CEO’s have made enough money off of your sweat, long hours and tears to retire and possibly never work again, not to mention the luxury you’ve provided their family.
One can go on and on about how everyday American citizens are taken advantage of by the system and think nothing of it. It’s something we are taught to do, understand and just go with the flow. All eyes need to be placed on what we can do to make this country better while being profitable. It shouldn’t be at the expense of the citizens who work hard every day to be screwed in the long run.
I am Nichelle Womack. As a people building, transition coach, I specialize in helping you reach your greatest potential through self-reliance and internal motivation. I provide inspiration through community speaking engagements, one on one consultation and group training. Positive thoughts and language are my fuel for energy and my desire to help you find yours. If you are interested in a free 15 minute session of coaching, contact me @ diversecc@gmail.com. Looking for more great life tips, check out “The Master Tip Manual for Personal Success” @http://amzn.to/1bWA7Vw . Many blessings and much success to you!! Check out my websites @ www.nichellewomack.com and www.diversecc.com. Connect with me on Twitter @DiverseConnect.
Nichelle Womack, MBA 