Well, if you haven't by now noticed, there's a lot of creativity in most things. Even con artists have to be creative. However, I have seen far too often, the originators of content and success, are never compensated. Just as most large companies will claim to be responsible for raising X amount of dollars for a charity of their choice. But, they seem to forget who is actually making the donations with money that in a lot of cases, people don't really have to spare. Especially considering the state that our economy is in today. But, you know who's getting all the credit and perks right? The big guys on campus will receive their annual rewards and bonuses, while everyone else goes on suffering and coming up with campaigns to raise money for their needs. What do the individual citizens making the donation get? They get a tax break, which really helps no one but the people who can already afford the donations. Those are the people making donations of up to or more than 10%. That 10% of income all started with Religious Governments and Churches. It was recommended that you spend up to 10% of your income on church donations. After all, what better way can a person show respect to the one we need to thank for making the other 90%. So, then we pay 30% towards taxes, if not more, and another 20% on food we NEED to survive, and 40-50% on a place to live, which is also necessity. So whatever is left, anywhere between 0 and 10%, depending on how much someone is already giving "charity" to, that's all the money that's left to pay for other necessities, like a car, insurance, clothing, purses, wallets, bank fees, classes at your local college, and well…anything else that puts your in debt. No one wants to be in debt, yet again, no one wants to pay 40-50% in taxes. So, we either give it to the credit card companies and banks, or we pay for all the extra services our government would like to provide, but because of state related squandering and inappropriate allocations, there would never be enough to maintain the most important. That to me is our entertainment. Entertainment is how we get by. If anyone would like to differ on that statement, please email me and let me know. I'd like to punch you. I'm just kidding. But really, most of us want to enjoy our time off through some sort of entertainment. Whether, it's music, television, movies or well, music. Music and movies, in my eyes, are the only two necessities that I believe should get just as much attention as living expenses and food. It's our form of universal communication and sometimes even our language of love depending on what we're portraying and messages that are being conveyed. Not a single person can deny this. The emotion evoked, regardless of your native language, is so detrimental to our well-being. If we're lucky, we're able to afford basic cable and listen to the radios in our cars. Those forms of entertainment are highly regulated by our government, so it makes sense why we're made to feel bad for others and hand out our last dime. The altruism behind that is great, but feeling bad is not. It's the sales pitch that turns me off. Sometimes, I'd rather give a couple bucks to a panhandler. Let him or her decide what they want to do with it. Who am I to decide what someone else should do with the money they make. Sure, I'd love to be God, for a minute or two, but honestly, that's just rude. The type of entertainment we allow and/or can afford ourselves to be exposed to, is exactly what shapes our minds and therefore our attitudes and there goes our health. To health, I say, "goodbye," Just thinking about our health, in the US alone, is enough to make a healthy person sick. The amount of heart attacks, child-onset diabetes, and the chemical dependencies of alcohol and drugs, which are all equally responsible for feeding the pharmaceutical companies and then about 25% of our prisons according to Advocacy for Prisoner Rights, then back to our taxes. No on has to tell me about alcohol abuse, but try and tell someone they have a problem with eating too much or too little, then the real defensive wall come up. It's in what we choose to do with our time away from work that determines our thoughts and views on idealism. Music and movies are a universal form of communication, that no one can deny. The creativity of expression evokes a certain emotion that is usually similar, regardless of a person's native language. It's the same way we view love. The universal language of love never had to stop at a significant other or our children. But it does for a lot of people. I've been unemployed close to 2 years now, but have owned my own company, which has failed, but still consider myself lucky. My choice in life, is to spend a majority of my hard earned cash on the kind of entertainment I need to feel enriched. But, not everyone understands this importance. So, they go on feeling bad about treating themselves to something other than government regulated television and commercial music. It's no wonder we're made to feel bad for people other than ourselves. If we're not stuffing our mouths with food we see on commercials, or sick from the news that we see on TV, we're buying into our country's largest broken promise. This is no place for dreams. I cannot speak for third world countries or any other country other than my own. But, people who still believe that America is the land of the free, is being fed an inhumane amount of lies. Our altruistic attitudes are beautiful, but the reasoning behind what we choose to be altruistic about is mostly government regulated. If feeling awful yourself is not part of the equation, it's usually not accepted as a means of charitable donation. Instead, it's considered a food and entertainment expense. I cannot really deduct too many donations given to panhandlers. There's no 501c3 setup for them. But, personally, I would rather let the exact individual that I'm trying to give money to, decide what they want to do with it. Who am I to decide what someone else should do with the money they make. Panhandling is just as much of a job as me writing this blog for free is. Our hope is to gain something we actually want at the moment. Usually, that's the comfort of freedom. My freedom of expression is the only thing that keeps me away from alcoholism and depression medication. I have never been more free in my life, and still so broke. Sure, I'd love to play God and determine what value is placed on this and that, but not for much longer than a minute or two. Anything beyond that is just rude. So I'll end it there so you can decide for yourself. My opinion only matters to me. It's your opinion that will ultimately matter to you.