AMERICANS NEED NOT APPLY

If there is one place in the digital world where I can sink my head into and get lost is on TED.com. If you want, an interesting perspective of what is happening in different parts of the world or new technologies; TED is a cool place to discover. It is never short of intelligent information.

 

One individual I discovered on TED is Mikko Hypponen who is a computer security expert and a columnist. He gave an amazing talk about the NSA and their intrusive spying not just on Americans but on Europeans too. He was kind of funny saying if he has to have a BIG BROTHER it should be a European BIG BROTHER not an American one, good point!

 

Mikko hit on an important issue that I believe could become a problem for Americans in the future. I am paraphrasing here but Mikko had a point as to why European Corporations are still doing business with American corporations if they know BIG BROTHER is spying them on. Would you continue doing business with a foreign company if you knew their government extracted emails and phone communication? How safe would your corporate secrets be?

 

If you are in a business that deals with proprietary information, such issues should force you to make change. How do you know that some bent government worker does not capitalize on the information mined? What would happen if international companies began boycotting US companies because of US spying, not a stretch of the imagination my friend.

 

Now we move on to some real American rejection. For those of you who have attempted to open a bank account online in a foreign country I am sure you have come across the dreaded question. Are you an American Citizen? Answering yes is usually a one-way ticket to need-not-apply-ville. That is not to say some foreign banks will not open an account if you are an American citizen just most will not.

 

BIG BROTHER is making it seriously difficult for Americans to bank outside the borders of the US. This is to allegedly combat tax evasion, money laundering, terrorism and drug money. I understand this to a degree but BIG BROTHER is cracking down on international banking as well as stealing our private information and communications. Where does it stop? How much do we need to give up for a safer country?

 

I feel like BIG BROTHER swings with the ideology of with us or against us. A true democratic government should understand and respect that its citizens are individuals not herds of sheep. In my opinion, BIG BROTHER has come to ignore the American citizen and has placed government agenda first. It does not take a genius to recognize that many American are truly disgusted with BIG BROTHER’S place in the world. Be it war, foreign aid and dictating its idea of democracy to foreign countries but forgetting about democracy at home.

 

BIG BROTHER is an extortionist who wants every penny possible and for a country that stood its ground against excessive taxation. We sure laid down like lambs to slaughter.

 

Perhaps all those Senatorial and Congressional health plans should go up on the chopping block or at the very least reduced to compensate for tax issues. It is obvious the idea of government service is an act of the past.

 

We are entering a time in society where the government has gone off the rails accessing our so-called private information. Worst part is there does not seem to be a stop sign in view. Even if there was a stop sign, can we believe they would stop?

 

Law enforcement has taken an outlandish liberty with our liberties. I guess the slogan life liberty and the pursuit of happiness should change to life and pursuit of citizen information. I think we have crossed the Rubicon.

 

There are many reasons one should not solely depend on the security and solvency of their country. Look into Greece and Cyprus. Their economy crashed and the Cyprus government planned to seize it citizen’s bank accounts to bail out the country.

 

Could you imagine not being able to take your money from your bank account because the dumb ass politicians screwed up so bad? I say have all the

 

Senators, Congress and Bankers sell their homes and liquidate their assets. We could also feed them to the lions and sell pay-per-view tickets that would be bigger than the Super Bowl intermission.