What defines the USA? Is it the people living within the borders of the USA? Is the USA defined as the soil that is under the people within the borders of the USA? Or is capitalism the heart and soul of the real USA? Or is it freedom? If it is freedom, what is it that the US citizens are free to do that separates them so much from all other nations?

A patriot is defined as someone who puts his country first and who wants what is best for his country. If I want to be a patriot I need to know what defines my country in order to know what is best for my country.

The US has the strongest and best military in the history of the world, but what is it defending? The people? The soil? Capitalism? Most Americans would say that the military protects their freedom. Again, what is so special about America’s brand of freedom that it requires the strongest military in history to defend it? What is it that Americans are free to do?

Are people in the USA free to pillage and plunder with the support and protection of the US justice system and or the US military? Most Americans will answer “No” to that question. However, capitalism requires a lot of pillaging to make a profit for the shareholders of a corporation. A person who has a “head for business” has to have the stomach to pillage American jobs and send those jobs overseas to people who are not Americans, like Stephen Schwarzman of Blackstone Group LP does.

And look, we rewarded Schwarzman with praise and banner headlines (source 1) simply because he made the most money of any American in 2008 by breaking up American companies and pillaging American jobs. Schwarzman has put thousands of US citizens out of work in his course of business. This means that these US citizens have lost their income, their retirement income and their health insurance which means they cannot get healthcare either. The customers of the businesses owned by Blackstone now get poorer service due to severe cutbacks. In the US, we are taught to not take business personally. “It’s not personal, it’s just business,” is the American mantra, but what could be more personal than losing your livelihood, your retirement savings and your healthcare?

Judging by the reaction of Wall Street, the business community, the media and the reaction of many Americans, Schwarzman is to be congratulated and revered as a great American for his accomplishments. This means that there is an “American” stamp of approval on capitalism as the number one answer of what defines the USA. Therefore a true patriot is a capitalist. The US justice system and military are structured to help capitalist first and foremost because they are the true patriots. The freedom that is most precious to the USA is capitalism.

So, when Blackstone buys up and hacks apart American businesses, plunging thousands of Americans into unemployment, uncertainty and despair and when Blackstone out-sources these American jobs, “Real Americans” should admire Schwarzman as a true American patriot and admire Blackstone as a true-blue American business. And what Schwarzman has done to American businesses, American workers and American customers (who once relied on good American service) is in no way comparable to Bernie Madoff. Madoff made money at the expense of and to the detriment of Americans.

Although Blackstone and Schwarzman make money at the expense of and to the detriment of Americans, Blackstone and Schwarzman are held up for high praise as examples of success in the USA. Maybe Madoff should be set free. We can start a new Mount Rushmore in South Dakota to honor these truest of American patriots: the capitalists.

Way back in the 1930s Major General Smedley Butler, USMC (the most decorated Marine in US history at the time of his death) after spending his entire life in military service, tried to warn America that he realized that the military’s main job is to protect capitalists, like goons in a Mafia racketeering scheme (source 2). It is therefore nothing new to suggest that the reason the US has the strongest military in history is to protect the freedom of business people to exploit anyone for a buck. Major General Butler thought that his revelation would shock and horrify Americans, but as it was then, so it is now: this revelation neither shocks nor appalls Americans. Therefore, what defines America is the freedom to make money by any means necessary. The Schwarzmans of the US know this and exploit the advantage by pillaging and plundering Americans even further.

Bravo Blackstone and Schwarzman, by plundering Americans you have successfully made a buck. As thousands of once gainfully employed Americans wait for their unemployment checks, brought to them by their fellow Americans who now have to support them, we all salute you on a job well done! 

Sources:  

1. “Blackstone Group LP Chief Executive Officer Stephen Schwarzman’s $702 million compensation made him the highest-paid executive in the U.S. last year, the Corporate Library reported.” http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=ap6saKW9XWVI    

2. Major General Smedley Butler, USMC, War is a Racket http://www.warisaracket.com