Treating Symptoms:   

For at least the last one-hundred years, those who claim to be our leaders have used a brilliant illusion to give the impression that they are working to solve problems when in fact they are not.   They declare war on the symptom and ignore the root cause of the problem.  

Here's the real skinny:  

1)  The Universal Laws tell us that to fight something is to feed it the Universal Creative Energy.   Fighting something actually empowers the thing being fought and makes it stronger.   So rather then solving the problem, our so-called leaders are actually doing just the opposite.   Treating a symptom empower the problem and make it stronger.

2)   Treating symptoms does absolutely nothing to solve problems.   For example, billions of dollars are spent each year fighting crime that is caused by keeping certain drugs illegal.   Legalizing these mind-altering substances and treating their misuse as a medical problem would take the profit out of drug peddling,   This would eliminate at least seventy percent of all crime.  

3)  In the process of treating the symptoms, our so-called leaders extract huge amounts of money from the public treasury.   Each year, billions of tax dollars go to fighting everything form terrorists to fisting and everything in between.

4)   They tell us how essential they are.   They tell us that without them, we'd be hopelessly lost  --  without them, we'd be overwhelmed by the enemy -- an enemy which, by the way, they created, bought, and paid for with your tax dollars.

5)   Then they tell us how wonderful they are and thereby justify the fact that they live in luxury while the average person struggles just to survive. 

The Raptue:

The Rapture is a multi-million-dollar cash cow for the Christian Fundamentalists leaders.   It was introduced into Fundamentalist Christianity by an 19th century con artist who found the attendance of his church to be lagging, and so he decided to create a new story to attract more money.   It's such a profitable con that its use is widespread today.  

Reference:   The Rapture   

Keeping Certain Drugs Illegal:

Outlawing certain drugs  raises their price,   pushes the activity "underground,"   makes criminals wealthy,    finances terrorism,   corrupts government officials,   and  does absolutely nothing to stop drug use.   It actually encourages more drug use because the only way many people can pay for their habit is to get their friends hooked on drugs.  

Overwhelming evidence shows that the prohibition of alcohol during the 1920's was  a complete failure and that it spawned the birth of what is now a global-level, semi-secret, organized-crime network.   

In the face of overwhelming evidence that the prohibition of alcohol was a social disaster and in the face of even more compelling evidence that the present prohibition of certain drugs is a disaster of far greater proportions, politicians are still waging war against the of use of certain declared-to be-illegal drugs.

Charging Interest for the Use of Make-Believe Money:

The banking industry is unique among businesses.   It's unique in that it's the only industry that can lend/sell you a non-existent product and charge you rent (interest) on the use of its product.   Rental business owners can't get customers to pay rent for the use on non-existent cars, or for the use of  non-existent tuxedos or non-existent bicycles?   How many people are going to go to a restaurant and pay for a non-existent dinner or pay rent for the use of a non-existent house or a non-existent apartment?   

And at the same time, right now, you and I and everybody else who owes money to a bank or to credit card company is paying his/her hard-earned money (transferring some of his/her goods and services) to the super-wealthy money lenders  for the use of their make-believe (fiat)  money.  

Here's how the scam works:   The super-wealthy have set up a banking and financial system that replaces real money with fairytale, make-believe money.  It's money not because it has intrinsic value.   It has value by declaration only.   It's called fiat money.  They have simply declared that they ( and they alone) have the right to print counterfeit money (create receipts for goods and services) and pretend that their receipts have real value.   (The money in your wallet and in your bank account is "fiat" (make-believe) money.  

Every time they add more fiat money to the financial system, (such as giving billions of these make-believe dollars to the bankers) that new money steals its value from the money already in the monetary system.   That's why you pay higher prices for gasoline, food, rent, medicine, and everything else people buy.   The dollars become less-valuable, therefore it takes more of them to pay for your goods and services.    Here's a simple example:   In 1913, the year that the Federal Reserve took control of the American monetary system, a postage stamp cost one cent (one penny).   Today, the cost is forty-five cents (45¢).   

You Are Being Milked for Money   You and I, small business owners, and the general public borrow the banker's money.   We work diligently to produce goods and services and then we give/pay some of our real goods and services to the lenders (fees and interest charges) as payment for the use of their non-existent, make-believe, fairytale, fiat money.   Then while we struggle to survive, the  super-wealthy spend their make-believe money on real goods and service and live extravagant lifestyles using this stolen wealth.   

This technique for milking the public for money has been going on for so many years (since 1913) that it's considered normal and almost nobody questions the validity of the system.    

http://www.MoneyGodMoney.com#55

Additional References:

Con Artists and Illusions:   

Confessions of a Con Artists:         

Lies of Omission:         

Deceiving someone by telling a lie can get the liar into a lot of trouble, but deceiving someone by withholding the truth is an  acceptable, normal, and widely used practice in politics, in religious, in corporate business, and in the financial industry. 
http://www.TheReasonables.com/lies-of-omission.html#98