I like to think that I was green before green was cool. I have always asked myself why we work so hard to hand our hard earned money over to others? Americans on average work more hours than any other industrialized nation. We get less vacation, sick, and maternal/paternal time than any of the other nations. If you are like myself and are not independently wealthy, you may have become a slave to employment.
In the past decade the price of all goods has risen at an average of 3.8% annually. Do you remember filling up your car for a twenty? How about those trash bags, diapers, and all of the other petroleum based products? My rate of pay and 401-k have taken a beating. Based on inflation I am earning less than I was prior to our economic downfall. Our government denied the fact that our country was sliding into the worse financial crisis we have ever faced. The very people who perpetuated the attacks on our soil are the ones that pushed us to the edge of the cliff and they are the very ones controlling the spigot to the oil we have been conditioned to think we need! We are enslaved by big oil and despite all of the rhetoric in Washington, I do not trust those who take money from the big oil/big industry lobbyist to look after my best interests. How long did it take our elected leader to admit that the tragedy in the Gulf of Mexico was the worse ecological disaster to ever afflict us? Take a look back a few years when ethanol was the big rage. When I first moved to Kansas all you would see for miles around was wheat. Well the corn producers lobbied successfully for subsidies for ethanol plants and now what do we have? Miles and miles of corn. Not to eat mind you but to turn into fuel. Never mind the fact that it is more energy intensive to turn corn, a food crop, into fuel. How about the bio-diesel plans? More lobbying and subsidies for bio-diesel plants and we turn another food crop, soy beans, into fuel. Guess what happened to a local co-operative bio-diesel production facility when the subsidies were not continued? They were unable to pay the farmers for their product.
How much do you pay to heat your house in the winter? My wife and I purchased a house built around the turn of the century. Our first few years here were miserable. In the winter we could not keep it warm and in the summer we could not keep it cool. We had natural gas bills over $700 per month! Don't even ask how much the electric bill was to cool it.
Despite our best efforts at installing energy efficient windows, house wrap, new siding, and insulation we still do not have a home that works for us to keep our hard earned money in our pockets. It is time for our personal Declaration of War against outdated home design, co-dependence on foreign oil, waste and wanton destruction of our country, and use a common sense approach to using nature to our advantage to heat, cool, and light our home. We do not have a choice, our children's futures are at stake.
When will you Declare Your Personal War and Start Investing in Your Families Future?
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