Not to incredibly happy with where its heading, most people here are too busy to see what's going on and/or have their thoughts controlled by religion or the boob tube. Lots of people here are not happy as they see their rights are being stripped away in the name of national security while they send our solders ,(brothers and sisters, still by choice today) to fight the battles of the super rich who are bribing our politicians and controlling the worlds oil and the directions we are heading in our future. The separation of classes has never been so prevalent. The banks here are getting away with pretty much everything but getting a slap on the wrist and we the tax payers already have learned we will end up paying the tab while the CEOs make multi-million dollar salaries. When it come to politics, the rich control and run both sides of the ticket long before two sides are chosen to be the most likely candidate in elections. And the politicians use the media to spread fear and hatred to justify the killing of innocents in other nations with drones creating a whole new crop of future people who will want us dead and continue trying to kill us because we killed their mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters ect... all to manufacture more war because we do war well and there is a but load of money in it. Meanwhile, jobs are being lost to machines and what is supposed to be a democracy is turning into more and more of a socialist nation day by day Currently the biggest businesses here are Defense, Oil, Insurance, Medicine, Social Services, Banking and Electricity. These businesses when large enough are disguised as being there for the people but in reality the people are here for them. Don't get me wrong I love my country but it has been a long time since it has been independent.

Here they actually have think tanks that evaluate how much BS the people are willing to take and they are continuously conducting social experiments. Sometimes they make mistakes but mostly they are accurate to what can be gotten away with. They parade a false choice in front of us so we can feel a sense of control but in fact it all been thought out and planned ahead of time. They push our buttons so we act in predictable ways. As of late, I had to go to a physical and because having guns has so much to do with my physical shape they felt like they should ask as part of my physical if I had any guns at home. Lately the news has been really active about the issue of gun control. There are worthless programs set up to make it looks like they are actually trying to fix our problems. The whole system is designed to pacify the people while slowly getting us used to the direction everything is going. The people running the game don't even want money, they make it and they are not sharing the end goal with us. I suspect the end goal is a fully socialized automated society and no it does not stop at the borders of this country. I think the three biggest businesses of the future here will be Social Services, 3d Printing, and Research and Development. I don't think this is only true here, I think it is happening everywhere, just in some areas faster than others.

I wish the powers that be would just come out and say what the big plan is so that way the people could just get on with getting with the program. The fact that they will not just come out and say it makes me think they think to many people would still be against it. I don't know why, the people here have gotten pretty used to be shafted and have already given up in a lot of cases the ideal of the american dream. The fact is the government is controlled by big monies and the future is what ever the people who have so much money they don't even need it want it to be.

I still love this country, and thanks for wishing us a happy 4th hope you had a great day too! My friends and I got the BBQ going still have not stopped drinking though we have slowed down and have had a great time just celebrating another year regardless of how independent it really is. Celebrations started on the 3rd here today the celebration ended for us, been a good week.

Just like any empire, the USA needs to be careful about the way they handle such power. History shows that all rulers end up falling unless they show genuine interest to help the entire world in their progress. I think there isa lot of potential for the United States if they do things right.

Zaphod, you need to get out of your box. Politicians are crooked cause the system allows for it. But you built the system, not you personally, the society we have created is just that, something we have created. You, or anyone else cannot divorce themselves from this crazy, alcoholic uncle that everyone is embarrassed about. We want change, then change. You don't like being spied on then elect others, educate others or simply go somewhere where you don't have to play the game, I suck at the game, by the way.
CEOs make money, well cause we allow it, in fact we encourage it. In fact the more successful you are the more you are viewed as productive, productive being the opposite of idle. Idle being negative and maybe even evil. So less evil, more productivity, more money. But money only has value cause we say it does. Time to eat the rich. That would be an interesting job, more interesting that manufacturing jobs. Which I really would not want. I worked Ina factory for a while, never cold figure out why there were no windows, until it dawned on me. No windows so you loose track of time, be more productive, less evil and make more money, well for your shareholders anyway. You can't value yourself by your place or type of employment. Use other criteria, like did you make someone laugh today or how did you help a friend or did you take time to converse with a stranger. Ideally of course That would put you in a socialist conutry, socialist being social, that is, caring about others in your society, town, or neighborhood. That's a good thing cause it prevents individual idealism or should I say the creation of Demi-gods, all over, for you to aspire to, or worship, as you work harder to make more money, move out of the factory and start buying shares.

In place of guns I want you to use the word fear. Fear of owning a gun, or seeing a gun, or hearing a gun, or being shot by a gun, or not even knowing where all the guns are. You know, like an omnipresent being, always there but never revealed, but creating fear which creates control and obedience.

The powers that be, are you, but you don't think so, and that indicates the powers 'that want' are winning. Thay have you surrounded and you need to come out with your hands up. They have guns, so they say, which scares you and your being idle, which annoys you, since you are no such thing.