Not Our Money, Not Our Country

In our American culture, personal worth is judged by your ability to work. That belief drives heartless policies, like Congress’s effort to require able-bodied people to prove they’re employed just to qualify for Medicaid. But here’s the catch: most people receiving assistance are already working. They need Medicaid because they’re not paid a livable wage. That’s not just an economic crisis; it’s a threat to democracy.

How so?

Because democracy only survives when people believe it works for them, providing justice, opportunity, and dignity. When those promises are broken, faith in democracy collapses.

The darker truth is that the working class is being deliberately underpaid, stripped of dignity, and now forced to scrape by on minimal government support. This isn’t about fighting laziness. This isn’t about getting rid of freeloaders or the mythical undocumented immigrant milking the system. It’s about power. It’s about money. It’s about a system that punishes the poor and the vanishing middle class while protecting the rich.

A functioning democracy cannot survive without everyone having skin in the game. When ordinary Americans struggle to survive while billionaires hoard obscene wealth, the system feels rigged. We lose skin in the game. The old adage “hard work pays off” doesn’t make sense in a world of corporate exploitation and political corruption. Everyone’s cashing in except the hardworking American.

And it’s not just about wealth. It’s about justice. A two-tiered legal system has emerged — one for the rich and connected, and another for the rest of us. The wealthy skate free, while the rest of us are thrown behind bars. As George Carlin said, this country doesn’t belong to its citizens. It belongs to the rich and powerful. They own it. Not us.

History tells us what happens when people don’t own their country. When corruption spreads unchecked, when checks and balances are gutted, when propaganda replaces truth, and democratic institutions serve only the elite. When this happens, governments collapse. Every time. Every. Single. Time.

We’re closer to that dreadful reality than we think.

If our democracy is to survive, it must serve the people, not the privileged few. That means paying people a livable wage. That means securing universal healthcare. And that means restoring faith in a government that works for us, not against us. It means cleaning house by rooting out politicians on corporate payrolls and ending the legalized bribery that poisons our political system.

The time for passive outrage is over. If we want a future where democracy thrives, we must fight for it. We must fight at the ballot box. We must fight in the halls of power. And yes, we must fight in the streets. We must demand better, vote smarter, and speak louder.

If we don’t fight, corruption wins. And then we all lose. We lose everything.