Do’t get me wrong.  I believe our nation is great. Maybe not wonderful. Definitely not close to perfect. But it is great.  But when were things the best?  Many say back in the 50s.

I think this may be the truth, but not for the reasons people state

Not socially.  There was some good parts to it.  Sure. But why were we so secure.  Why did we do so great.  

I think the 50s were the penultimate time because of the economic environment.  We were growing as a nation. That helped.  We were also helped by the rights and protections that unions and the laws gave us.  

The employees were not taken advantage of, treated fairly.  The owners of companies did well, some were extremely rich, but it was not at the expense of the common man.  

We have slowly doing worse.  It is harder for people to make a living and have financial security. I believe this has a correlation with the rise of corporations. Corporations are, in a way, a union, for people to get together and gain more share of the wealth created by the economy.  We went from a family owned business environment to corporations that act like the Terminator. They have one goal and that is to dominate. Not feed the employees family or create a secure nation. 

So it is not welfare that is dragging us down. Charity and helping hand. It is not the lack of an intact family (Not saying this is not a problem).

I know this because we can provide welfare and it sucks to pay for someone else. I might wish to keep that money.  However, they can have that money and I can survive. In fact I can still do well.

It’s the price of sleeping at night. It’s the price of not knowing a child starves to death by my intentions.

This is what I think of the conservatives I know.  If they caught a next door neighbor who was down on their luck stealing from their garden. Instead of being angry, they would send that neighbor home with an armful of vegetables.

Now though, the people that need help are not in our neighborhoods anymore. We don’t see them and we do not see their faces.