Perusing this thread has reminded me of my contention that very few terbites are aware of THE main issue underlying many issues/problems we have in our society. For those of you who are aware of the many issues, such as immigration, that overlay this underlying issue, far too many are not seeing the big picture. Much of what people believe, and here in the US as well, is what we have been trained to believe. We don't question it since it comes from "authority" and nearly everyone we come in contact with, so far as we can tell, holds these same beliefs. To give you an example, I live in an area that still has much rural character yet is surrounded by less desirable urban areas. Commercial developers are constantly trying to develop the rural landscape and if it continues we will soon wind up with undesirable urban. Town officials claim that commercial development is good for our area since it expands the tax base. Residents have accepted this (have been trained to believe it) as truth, even though they are strongly opposed to the development. But the town officials fail to tell the whole story and do not tell us about the tax breaks and grants that are given to new commercial ventures and which come out of the residents taxes (the bigger picture). The drain of these tax breaks and grants more than offset the gains of an expanding tax base. The net result is that the residents, through their taxes, are subsidizing development they are very much opposed to without realizing it because of what they were taught to believe.
