It's All About Money.

Americans' fascination with money is, in my opinion, their key characteristic. Everything is seen or expressed in terms of money. Take the Census, for example. The reason that the Census Bureau gives for this effort is that this is the way in which funds will be allocated to the location in which you live. Forget about knowing what the population is and its characteristics for all kinds of other important purposes. The appeal for citizen cooperation is strictly a financial proposition: funds will be assigned on the basis of population.

I've said it before: Oliver Stone was right on the money when he said through the Gordon Gecko character in his film Wall Street: "Greed is good." In fact, it's the only thing that keeps the United States of America together.

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