We the people of the United Casinoes of America

There was a point in American history when there was only one type of capitalism. Based on free trade and small businesses standing by their product or services.

People not only took responsibility for what they made or sold, they took pride in it. More often than not, their name was on it and there was a sense of accountability.

Laws changed and allowed corporations to form, taking responsibility from the people doing business. It was the company now who took the hits, People could make or sell a poor product with cheap parts and they were no longer responsible as individuals. They could take the money they made and run, leaving the company to sink or swim. nothing stopping them from starting another corporation under a new name doing the same shady business.

Lawsuits went from being reasonable, cause and effect related cases to being frivolous, "how much can I get for being ignorant" cases, also seeking to shirk personal responsibility and see how much they can take a company for.

They go hand in hand, companies claim they need the protection of incorporating to shield themselves from costly and frivolous lawsuits and customers say they need more responsibility and personal investment in the businesses they buy from.

There was a time when businesses experienced success or failure based on the quality of the product or service they provided instead of how much the value of the companies stock was worth from one minute to the next.

I like to refer to the two as 'corporate capitalism' and 'classic capitalism'.

Classic capitalism is how business in this country grew and became the foundation of what "Made in America' stood for.

Corporate capitalism is not about making a solid product or service, it's about making money. nothing else. It's like being in a casino. There are many 'players', people who put themselves in the games and the people who bet on the side, not even having the guts to play the game themselves, just throw money in and hope to cash in on what someone else is doing.

Under corporate capitalism, companies only want to know how much they can sell out for. They exist to make the investors more money. Once investors have decided they can't make 'enough' money from a company anymore, regardless of if that company makes a decent product or not. Regardless of how making some changes might improve it, they don't care. If the money isn't there right now, then it's no good to them.

Immediate gratification and money are the only things corporate capitalists are interested in. They don't care about 'antiquated' notions of pride and loyalty or being a responsible part of the community. It's just about the money.

They only see "the bottom line" and nothing else is important. If it's not about getting rich, it's not important.

When people remember the better years of their lives, they infallibly recall the earlier years when the stores and companies in the towns and communities were owned and or run by people and families that lived in the same community.

When business practices were determined based on peoples wants and needs. Not what the company wanted to pay for.

That kind of capitalism is what made this country great and looked up to. It is what made people proud to be who they were and where they worked.

It is about people, just like the government is supposed to be and the Constitution is. People shaping their own lives and investing in their communities. When they succeed as individuals, the whole community succeeds by having better products available and better jobs to work at.

I believe in capitalism as it was, classic capitalism. When individuals took the risks of starting a business and accepted those risks as well as reaping the rewards.

In corporate capitalism, the only risk those people are taking is how much money they threw at the situation. While in many cases, that may be a considerable amount of money, they make no personal investment in the business. They toss money in as one would as they watch a game of dice, not even being a player, just betting on the sideline.

I believe it is in the U.S governments best interest, the best interests of the country as a whole, to curb the effects of corporate capitalism. While they need to fix the many problems they have in-house, they need to take a stand for the American people as a whole.

America is not a crap shoot. It is peoples lives. It is the ability of one man or family or group of friends to make something of themselves. To go out and do something they believe in, something they are proud of and something that will eventually benefit the community as well.