However, I am now back to the opinin that...government must have a hand in this.
You are welcome to your opinion. I've looked at the source code, and I don't see anything that indicates a government conspiracy, but it certainly isn't outside the realm of possibility.
I feel that on the surface it would appear that bitcoin can provide anonymity
It can. But now without significant effort. Anyone who tells you that bitcoin is intrinsically anonymous is either lying to you or uneducated on the matter.
Am I to believe that the man COULDN'T shut this down asap?
You can believe whatever you want. I don't see a cost effective method for "the man" to shut this down, and I don't see anyone making such an effort. Certainly if extreme resources were put to the task, it would be possible to significantly disrupt the stability of bitcoin and possibly cause users to lose faith.
Even I (yes, a walmart shopper lol) can see that long term (once "requirements" are implemented....ohhhh the lovely requirements!!!) we will have given up even more power/privacy.
How exactly would such "requirements" be implemented?
Those that get in on the ground level (the smart and the wealthy)will simply be appeased and not cause an uprise. And once this is dumbed down for the average sheep....bam...the gov accomplishes its goal.
If people allow governments to act against their best interests, then governments can get away with just about anything. Neither bitcoin, nor any other concept, can avoid that.
Hmmmmmm...all the wonderful stories in the media of people suddenly finding new wealth...that would be a real hook for the common folk, wouldn't it?
Perhaps. Or perhaps the "feel good" story of an "average joe" suddenly discovering unrealized wealth makes for a great story to attract readers. This in turn sells more advertising at a higher price. Difficult to say which is the cause and which is the effect.
I have managed to obtain a portion of a bitcoin (took me a month to figure it out lol, and just a poor ol' girl so didn't buy much). My question is...unless I eat a lot of pizza, where bitcoin tshirts, or become a computer techy, what use does my bitcoin have at present?
The uses increase every day. Bitcon is still in it's infancy. If someone looked at TCP/IP in the 1970's and tried to determine its success based on what they could do with it at that time, they also wouldn't see the potential. However, over time, more features are added, layers of interface are added, and eventually you have online shopping, streaming video, voice over IP, and a multitude of other uses. Bitcoin is likely to be similar. It is a very low level protocol which will have features and layers added on top of it over time. The future potential far exceeds the current uses.