Sunday, November 8, 2009

A Little Perspective




After seeing "Capitalism: A Love Story" I needed a little space, a little breathing room. I spent the day on top of Overlook Mountain in the Catskills.
I thought I'd share it with you.

6 comments:

nocomme1 said...

You would have been better served by going to Venzuela for a few days to get some perspective.

Susan said...

How unpleasant.

This constant either/or that you insist upon, with the current evil preferable to the evil somewhere else, leaves no opportunity for the third possibility:
Government designed as the founders of this country imagined it.

Citizen-legislators. No career politicians. No lobbyists. Government FOR, of and by the people.

That doesn't exist here and don't bother telling me how great this country is. It can be great. It has been. It is not.

Poverty is rampant. You and I know from experience that we cannot make ends meet while working "professional' jobs. The next generation enters the workforce (maybe) carrying a hundred thousand dollar student loan debt. Our parents struggle to make ends meet and people who saved carefully for retirement have nothing.

But there is a one percent segment of the population enjoying a lovely lifestyle made even lovelier courtesy of the Reagan-era
tax cuts.

The middle class, a creation of post World War II and something we thought we could at least be sure of achieving, is disappearing.
And neither you nor I, nor just about anyone else, are making that top one percent.

So how you can defend this system escapes me.

But just the same, I'd rather have you run for office than the current crop of crooks. You, at least, have convictions.

nocomme1 said...

If you think the founders would approve of the massive government that we now have (which is growing even as I type this) then you really need to go back and reread the history you have obviously forgotten.

As far a career politicians as opposed to citizen politicians: I used to be opposed to term limits. If the founders had wanted them they probably would have written them into the Consititution. They didn't. Also, my initial impulse is that if people want to keep voting for nightmares like Barney Frank and Chris Dodd, they should have that right. But lately the damage these careerists have been doing has been swaying my feelings. The founders didn't anticipate this aristocracy of the political class and if they saw what was going on now I'm thinking term limits would be high on their to-do list. I'm for them.

As far as the poverty rate, it is still too high and even with all the problems in this country it has been going down for decades.

As far as tax cuts: poor people pay virtually no federal taxes. The rich pay a wildly disprortionate percentage of the tax bill. I don't see how confiscating more of their money is going to help the poor; especially since many of "the rich" are really small businesses. It will help dirtbag politicians get back in office by saying they are sticking it to "rich guys."

And yes, going to Venezuela would be unpleasant...especially if you disagree with the govt.

Pauline said...

Sometimes distance helps give you a different perspective... but then you have to go back to the valley.

Some of what happens in politics makes you wonder what, exactly, the founding fathers did have in mind. TJ apparently warned his compatriots, "If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their money, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them (the banks) will deprive the people of their property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered."

Susan said...

Pauline,
That's pretty interesting. They saw the possibility even then. And still we continued on with exactly that strategy.

Nocomme1, read again. I didn't say anything about the founding fathers approving of massive government. You said that.
I said government for, of and by the people.

nocomme1 said...

Sue:

"Nocomme1, read again. I didn't say anything about the founding fathers approving of massive government. You said that.
I said government for, of and by the people."

...which they didn't think could be accomplished with a ginormous centralized government. If they had they wouldn't have institutionalized states and federalism.

And I'm not a big fan of the Federal Reserve. By the way, it was created in 1913 by Progressive Democrat President Woodrow Wilson.