Girding for 2013
Saturday night found us driving along the Massachusetts Turnpike in a snowstorm — an experience that put me in mind of the current political climate, as traffic slowed to a crawl, snow covering the road markers, the horizon shrinking to a haze made up of a maddening bombardment of endless particles, which cumulatively were turning a pleasant trip into a humdinger of suspense and anxiety. We kept passing cars that had spun off the road, if not over a fiscal cliff then at least into ditches and guardrails — these accidents surrounded by flashing lights of authorities who had arrived to help, but were themselves creating fresh hazards, as the drivers who were sliding by turned to gawk. If there were snowplows in the vicinity, they were scarce where actually needed.
Writ large and often violent, so it’s gone with the 2012 leg of the grand political odyssey upon which, willy-nilly, we are all embarked. This was the year in which the Arab uprisings spawned a Muslim Brotherhood government in Egypt, and led in Libya to the burning of a U.S.diplomatic post and the murder — the first in 30 years — of an American ambassador. In Syria, where the U.S. has largely stood aside, leaving the conflict to be shaped by contingents of Sunni Islamists on one side, and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on the other, the carnage is now heading toward the two-year mark, with tens of thousands dead. The year ends with such portents as Russian potentate Vladimir Putin avenging himself on human rights crusaders by banning Americans from adopting Russian orphans. Iran, swaddled in sanctions, continues to pursue nuclear weapons. Iran’s partner in proliferation, North Korea, having just conducted its most successful ballistic missile test yet, is now reported as ready to conduct its third nuclear test. Meanwhile, in Washington, the erstwhile colossal crisis of the hour is the so-called fiscal cliff — a scene that is dwarfed by the real perils of an American government expanding and spending at rates that invite not a fiscal cliff (if such it is), but an economic tsunami, with knock-on effects in foreign policy, because an America that cannot afford a strong defense is an America inviting attack.
So, where is this all going? Sometimes there are ways to make it safely through the storm, whether by being prepared to deal with bad roads, or in some cases changing course entirely. Usually, it helps to have a plan. Some possibilities for the year ahead:
1) Could 2013 be the year that Americans finally begin to recall the virtues of capitalism? This was a theme too much missing from a 2012 presidential race, in which there was plenty of wrangling over who might “create” how many jobs, and too little focus on how free markets give people the opportunity to create their own jobs, and in the process build a society of wealth and freedom. Will there come a point at which the growing burdens of regulations and taxes inspire enough Americans to rethink where this country is going, and decide they would rather be Free to Choose?
2) The collapse of the regimes in Syria, Iran, North Korea… possibly even China? Yes, I know, year after year such possibilities are raised. And then it doesn’t happen — though Syria’s Assad does seem to be increasingly pushed to the edge. But, as with the Soviet Union’s collapse 21 years ago, there can come a season when these things happen, and when they do, they tend to go fast. The big question here is: Is America ready to respond? What is the end game? Should these governments fall, implode, be driven aside by their own people, will Washington just stand aside and bear “witness”? Will America again defer to the feckless United Nations? Or will there be a serious re-awakening of American leadership, and a determination that the 21st century will be a time not of growing shadows and weakness, but of freedom and enlightenment?
On both these fronts, domestic and foreign (inseparable these days, really), it too often seems right now that by the little guy, nothing much can be done. Perhaps the most important bottom line in girding for 2013 is, if you care about capitalism and freedom, about a strong America and a safer, freer world, do not give up. There is a struggle of ideas going on here; and even when much seems lost — spun off the road, over the cliff — plenty may yet depend on even a few who keep the faith, and at the right moment, are ready with a plan.
What’s worth having — and American freedom is exactly that — is worth fighting to keep.
As it turns out, it’s not the English, Nazis, Japanese, or Soviets who threaten the existence of America qua America.
Rather, and predictably, the mortal threat comes from within, from fellow citizens certain that a government-steered utopia is preferable to hard-won individual liberty.
Reminds me of this scene from the 1941 movie “The Mortal Storm”; but even when it became obvious to rational Germans that Nazi ideology would not allow freedom of thought or dissent, they had to suffer a war of their own making before recognizing the demon from within. I think we’re at a similar point and will need to suffer much more severely before we recognize the core values of individual liberty.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3sC7BvKJtGc
“North Vietnam cannot defeat or humiliate the United States. Only Americans can do that.” –Nixon
Well, only Democrats could do it. And they did. And are doing.
After Katrina hit NOLA and the flood waters breached the levees,
the US Army Corps of Engineers’ plans to plug them failed.
A knowledgeable private citizen supplied the solution and arranged
for the shipment of the giant air-lifted sandbags used to implement it.
It is difficult to imagine the current administration accepting solutions
that are ‘Not Invented Here’ or allowing a private effort to succeed
where it has failed, and _impossible_ to imagine admission of mistakes
or acceptance of blame.
Plans to solve our problems are the easy part; Plans to implement the plans
in the face of administration opposition are the hard part.
La dee da and fiddle dee dee. Claudia, exactly how much of your own money and time have your put into changing things? You’re obviously making money complaining about the status quo. I suspect you haven’t committed a dime or an hour to change things like so many others on this site. Much like a state university professor who makes his living off of other people’s taxes and the staggering debt of children, I’ll believe there’s a crisis when the people who say there’s a a crisis act like there’s a crisis and actually do commit their own time and resources to correcting things. You’re profiting off of other people’s misery.
No, you have a valid point but are too harsh.
a theme too much missing from a 2012 presidential race [was] too little focus on how free markets give people the opportunity to create their own jobs, and in the process build a society of wealth and freedom.
Well, there’s a crisis right there: Mittens simply didn’t have the words — as the mediocre Republigoons who picked him should have known but didn’t, and will go to their graves denying.
Two more things: C Rosett is a couple of light-years ahead of most people; and the rest are too slow to know. So the outcome will be…beats me, but unlikely to be good. We can be confident the Stupid Party is not the solution. That ain’t Rosetts’ fault.
What’s your problem bud? It takes all kinds of actors to mount this fight and someone who can take the pulpit and help others to see things more clearly is very valuable. My guess is that you are just another troll, and not having a good response to the points made here, you try to belittle the author by suggesting she is doing this only for personal profit. I can see how you might think that way as personal gain along with a desire to control others is usually the driving force behind the typical big government Liberal.
“…the 21st century will be a time not of growing shadows and weakness, but of freedom and enlightenment?”
Why, yes. Yes, it will. We’ll have to put up with a lot of running, screaming and dying, first, though.
Power and control freaks don’t go quietly into the night, after all. They never have and never will. They’ll hang on to the last gasp, to their last drop of blood. They always have. They always will.
In the end, freedom-lovin’ fools will -eventually- win. The world won’t be the same, afterwards. It won’t be utopia on earth, but it will be better.
I’ve been researching and studying this ‘problem’ – and the entire history of mankind – for over ten years, specifically looking for the trends and cycles. Humanity is at the end of a cycle, both globally and nationally. The end of an ‘age,’ if you will.
In the end, even the ‘Arab spring’ will finish what it began. It’ll be ‘Muslim flavored’ sort of freedom, but it will be freedom as we know and understand it. First, they’ve got a lot of running, screaming and dying to endure.
(The government shoulda listened to Dr. Bruce Buena De Mesquita, just for one example of many. Things might’ve been easier. Much easier.)
What “virtues” in corrupted capitalism do you imagine?
The people, Christianity, capitalism and the government are corrupted to a point that a new word is needed to define it. Thats why the nation finds itself in the mess it finds itself today. But in fine hypocritical fashion, the people find it consoling to point fingers of blame to some particular political party. It is the people who cannot handle their given freedoms responsibly, that we find the nation in despair from bottom up.
Oy vey; You despair too much.
Really. You are just too miserable for words.
try reading thomas sowell
Zeke, same old same old, eh? You are tiresome.
I love your enthusiasm Claudia. Unfortunately it isn’t as they say – infectious. I say unfortunate because there isn’t much to encourage us on the right. And by the time the 51% get the message that we are in real trouble its likely to be too late. Most of the news of late is about capitulation by a bewildered GOP – not that I’ve ever put much stock in them – but as they say “their all we got” in this war against progressivism. And it is a war – make no mistake. The media blitz against the GOP is as nasty as the elections we just went through. Nothing in the world so reminds me of the Nazi propaganda machine as do the MSM.
As for your question “The big question here is: Is America ready to respond?” I don’t see that as the question. Much of the world looks at the US as you might an aging prize fighter – dangerous in his day – and still a danger if he lands that vicious left hook – but older – slower and less likely to be able to respond. If all thats required is a few planes to bomb the crap out of someone – yes that can be done – but a ground force is out of the question with sequestration increasingly becoming a looming reality.
I’ve always been optimistic that this country could and would weather 4 years of the inmates running this asylum – but not 8 years. We are just not that resilient.
As if everything was just wonderful in 2008, but Obama became President in 2009 and screwed up everything?
The financial crash–which led to high unemployment within months–happened before Obama took office. NOTE: I am NOT blaming Bush for that financial crash either. I just wish we could put the partisan politics aside for just a moment or two, and deal honestly with what did happen.
We’ve now learned the hard way–two speculative bubbles (dot.coms and subprime-based securities) in less than two decades–that markets are not always self-correcting. There can be wild speculation–and speculative manias can end badly for the entire nation.
Before we can expect anyone to rediscover the virtues of markets, we have to deal with that uncomfortable truth.
Free markets are always self correcting. What you have seen in the financial markets and the housing market were bubbles created by government intervention in those markets. The dot com bubble happened and self corrected. We never had a problem with medical costs until the government took over half of the health care industry with Medicare. Next will be the higher education bubble and it most definitely will not self correct. Government run housing, education, health care, and countless job training programs sure haven’t worked for the North American Indian populations. I can’t imagine how this will work for 50 times their numbers. I say that government control of markets amounts to trickle up poverty. But at least we will all share the misery, no?
Those weren’t the first bubbles, and they won’t be the last. Next will be the student loan bubble.
“I just wish we could put the partisan politics aside for just a moment or two, and deal honestly with what did happen.”
The Democrats would have to admit fault with respect to the CRA, and Fannie and Freddie for that to happen, so it never will.
“Before we can expect anyone to rediscover the virtues of markets, we have to deal with that uncomfortable truth.”
The uncomfortable truth is only for the Democrats. What you have said is a bug is an inevitability, and what sucks for the Democrats is government has no role in attempting to alter human nature.
But free markets ARE self correcting.
Those crashes you refer to? Real Estate, Dot Coms… heck, Tulips in 1637?
That’s the correction.
Things spin away from sustainability, reach a tipping point, and blam. Correction.
Same effect with living species, by the way. And for analogous reasons.
http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/campaigns/overpopulation/extinction/images/PopulationGraph_300.jpg
“Could 2013 be the year that Americans finally begin to recall the virtues of capitalism?”
Doubtful.
Agreed.
We have on our hands three generations fully indoctrinated into statism and Marxism. We have on our hands an incredibly self-centered, entertainment-obsessed, lazy culture which can’t even conceive what hard work looks like. Our last election for the executive saw a contest between a godless Marxist and a crony capitalist, and the Marxist won.
It would take an act of God to turn us back towards the Puritan work ethic with the people that currently inhabit this land. We might return to something closer to pure capitalism, but we will see the collapse of our society first, perhaps even followed by despotism. More than likely we will see the country fragment first, which might sound fine to some but would likely see violence accompany it.
I believe it was on American Thinker, a commenter posted (re: a liberal Georgetown professor who wants to abolish the Constitution) that with the rise of Republican governors, perhaps they could/should check/limit funding for those state universities where such far left propaganda infiltrates curriculum. I think this may just have legs. We all need to help them walk by contacting those Rep. governors.
“Do not give up” and do not drive in a snow storm.small Government,small problems.Though i am in favor of being strong,seems what the world is in need of now is a large and engaged Peace Corp.Where we work along side of the world’s unfortunate, not stand guard.As China lays claim to all west of Hawaii (as did the Japanese)(where my Father fought),why was Hillery not visiting North Korea? A friendly chat there would certainly be a clever move for Obama.But they are not clever,just vain.
There you have it in a nutshell, as it were. Sheesh.
Puh-leaze. Bill just negotiated with NK. Big waste of time. Of course Condi did it too. Repeat after me: negotiating with insane dictators is insane. Maybe even Hillary has figured this out. Sheesh, indeed.
I think the people of Chile are seeing “the virtues of capitalism”. Here in America, people see it, but many of them vote Democrat because, even though the party is owned by multibillionaires, it has some cool mottos: “Republicans are for the rich and Democrats are for the poor working man.” “Republicans want to take womens’ birth control away.”
We now have “indentured capitalism”. Otherwise known as communism in prior regimes.
Not fascism?
Neo-communism and/or neo-fascism would be more accurate, I guess.
You forgot ” Republicans are MEAN.” A corollary is that Dems are NICE, and they give you stuff. Who you gonna vote for?
“That’s it, man! Game over, man! Game over!” –Hudson, in the movie Aliens.
Do you recall Sigorney Weaver’s Ripley character’s response? It’s a reflection of what the American electorage needs to set out to do: Do what we can to expunge the gov’t corruption & get to the hard work of getting the country back on track; as Ripley said, “We don’t have much time.”
Didn’t she suggest they nuke the planet from orbit?
Things that make ya go ‘hmmmm’.
We may possibly get quite the opposite. As more and more people are jobless, they will look to government as their “savior”. More unemployment benefits, more welfare, more disbility benefits, and more food stamps. And the elderly will not give up social security nor medicare. After all, a lot of them bought into the myth that the government would take care of them, and they will cling to these benefits no matter that we can’t afford them. But they’re likely to get a rude awakening when Obamacare tells them they can’t have their hip operation.
Welcome to the brave new world commrad. we’ve transitioned to a government-centered ecomony. Do you think the sugar kings will give up their sugar subsidies, nor the milk producers? No everyone wants theirs. The students want their pell grants and their low cost student loans.
We’ve likely to descend into the bottomless abyss. Drowned in debt, despair, and desperation. And Obama has those billion hollowpoint bullets he ordered. Oh, what, oh what is he going to do with them. And then he has FEMA camps all set up and his parallel army. Quite a future we have here. I’ll predict that we’ll descend to a Mad Max society of depravity. And then Obama will come in to rescue “his” people.
Obama will be your messiah whether you like it or not.
” And the elderly will not give up social security nor medicare. After all, a lot of them bought into the myth that the government would take care of them, and they will cling to these benefits no matter that we can’t afford them.”
What rubbish! Why would we give up something for which we PAID FOR? You seem to forget that those of us collecting SS and Medicare PAID for it. I worked for 47 years and paid into this slush fund with a percentage of every dollar I earned – and I earned better than average wages most of my life. Why not educate yourself before posting such garbage? The fact is I’ll have to live for a long time to collect all that I paid into the ‘system’ when you calculate a modest interest rate if that money were allowed to be invested by me for my entire working life. By some calculations it would be over $1M dollars. I can accept a lump sum payment – or the government can dole it out in a pittance each month like they are doing now. But never forget – I PAID FOR IT and I’m not bloody likely to simply give it up.
Sorry Paleo, social security is a ponzi scheme and we current seniors are latecomers to it. They originally took the money out of your paycheck yet also taxed that amount as income when you earned it. Then they did not put it aside to grow for you,. They just listed it on your paper record, used it to pay then current recipients, and spent any remainder as part of the general fund. Next Pres Clinton started taxing a portion of recipients social security payments if they have any other income above a minimal amount, to get more money for the general fund. Today, we now borrow 46% of the money in your payment every month, at very low interest rates now but that can’t last. You can demand your portion as loud as you can, but when the whole present system crashes, who is going to pay you anything?
“Today, we now borrow 46% of the money in your payment every month, at very low interest rates now but that can’t last.”
bill – where do you get your information? The SSA is self sufficient going out towards 2034 and can even then be shored up with very minor adjustments. For 2011 the total budget for all government departments, agencies and corporations excluding defense, HHS, SSN and Treasury was $802B. Defense was $710B – HHS was $890B – SSN was $780B and Treasury was $540B. Now, please tell us agiain how the SSA borrowed 46% of the SSN liabilities. Even medicare of the HHS had reserves in which was sold in the forms of bonds.
Again, just curious where you get your information.
Zeke,
He is essentially correct with the 46%.
Remember, since 1969 all Social Security income and expense has been through the general fund, not an independent fund. The “trust fund” exists only as a gimmick- it contains no actual cash reserves. Just “securities”- promises to pay, on the part of government.
And those securities are paid by the general fund, which borrows.
That means whatever % of overall government spending is funded by borrowing, that % of social security is funded by borrowing. Currently, 46%.
Not any more Ezekial. Your generation just pocketed about 400 billion of the money through Obama’s really smart two year “payroll tax holiday” to buy votes. Now that your votes have been cast the SS payroll tax has been restored and you will once again begin to pay at the rate that was supposed to make the 2034 date come true. As things stand now, SS won’t make it until 2025. Now we will have to put your retirement off for a couple of more years just to get back to the 2034 failure of the plan. Of course, all of the SS money gets spent every year anyway and all we really have is a big stack of IOUs. Too bad money is not wealth, or we could just print enough to make us prosperous again, just like Zimbabwe has done.
Get what you can now, my friend. I’m 51 and do not expect to see a penny of what I paid in.
“What rubbish! Why would we give up something for which we PAID FOR? You seem to forget that those of us collecting SS and Medicare PAID for it.”
You liar!
Tell you what, how about once you get back what you paid in, say at inflation plus 1%, then we quit sending checks?
Don’t like it?
Then in decades past you should have already dismantled the Ponzi scheme.
You loved it then, suck it now.
Nothing so obnoxious as a rude and angry man who doesn’t know what he is talking about. It is true that some would see their checks stop before they died under your offer. But according to my math, you can expect to stop sending my checks when I reach the age of 124. SS was supposed to be sort of an insurance plan where those who earned more or died younger would support those who earned less and lived longer. But in total when considering inflation and a reasonable ROI, each generation has more than earned what they will get out. If only our evil government didn’t confiscate the money, use it wastefully and then plan to pay it back using the earnings of younger generations. Perhaps you want to start yet another divisive war within our society. Go ahead and propose this to Obama’s handlers – they have just about used up all other possibilities for pitting one group against another.
Most people get paid more then 3.5 times what they put in.
That’s the fact you and Paleo need to face.
BTW, since we are providing all of the R in your ROI out of our pockets, what R do you imagine we owe you?
Tom,
Calm down.
Most people in the PAST got back more than they put in, plus interest.
Most people retiring NOW or in the next 2 decades will be lucky to break even.
“Looking at numbers from an Urban Institute study, the AP found that a married couple retiring in 2011 after both spouses earned average income during their lives paid total Social Security taxes of $598,000. They can expect to collect $556,000 in benefits, if the man lives to 82 and the woman lives to 85.”
Past that, it’s a losing proposition for just about everyone.
This is typical for a Ponzi scheme, or any pyramid scheme, by the way. The first few “generations” of investors do very well, because payments by the later generations subsidize them. But math always catches up, sooner or later.
It really is just math. In 1940, 42 workers per retiree. In 1960, 4.9. Now, 2.8, and in 2035, 1.9.
Think about that. What was your SS tax last year? What was the national average? ($5,536). What was the average annual payout? At a rate of 2.8 payouts per taxpayer, any number higher than $15,500.80 puts the social security system in the red, spending more than it takes in. Last year it was about a little less than that, so right now the system is *barely* solvent, and trending badly.
But despite the fact that the social security system has close to even incomes and expenditures, the fact that all of its expenditures come from the general fund, which borrows, means that Zeke is technically correct.
See: http://business.time.com/2012/08/07/social-security-now-takes-more-than-it-gives/
PattyMor.
You said that the “Elderly will not give up Social Security and Medicare.
Fact is, we may have no say in that.
The rest of your post is probably more right than wrong.
Heaven help us all!
“Recall” is the correct word. We will remember capitalism fondly as Obamacare,more regulations, and higher taxes are enacted.
1. No
2. Most voters could give a flip
Welcome to the reformulated America; Where economic terrorism is standard operating procedure, and if anything is ignored by the Obama Regime, it’s not considered newsworthy.
“Move along; Move along, there. Someone with more eminence wants that space”.
And in this convention, here’s evidence they create a crisis to deflect attention from other crises:
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/336632/mega-scandal-everyone-has-forgotten-john-fund
Amen to that! A good hard look in the rear-view mirror will tell you where you are – and how you got here. Nobody seems to be very curious though. Strange.
NOTICE TO COMMENTERS;
When posting comments, notice you get a specific comment number. Better to identify you with.
A good metaphor, your trip in the snowstorm.
Could 2013 be the year that Americans finally begin to recall the virtues of capitalism?…Will there come a point at which the growing burdens of regulations and taxes inspire enough Americans to rethink where this country is going, and decide they would rather be Free to Choose?
Personal (financial) pain is the only way progressive idiotlogues will approach anything resembling a comeuppance.
Or will there be a serious re-awakening of American leadership, and a determination that the 21st century will be a time not of growing shadows and weakness, but of freedom and enlightenment?
I don’t see it. Washington DC is too far gone.
It isn’t just DC that is far gone. The whole oncoming generation, beginning with Gen-X and going through the post millennials, is indoctrinated and gone. Capitalism is to them an evil buzzword, and the founding fathers were only greedy elitist slave owners. They are already communist though they don’t know it, they only know that they are right and we are dying off. What is government for if not to provide for our needs and make the world a better place? Better means “sustainable”. You can be self sufficient if you can get a grant to sustain your lifestyle as a model for the rest of humanity. They are doing it, and since the grant money is there they think it is viable. And having babies is bad because it increases the white, Anglo Saxon population of the world, and it robs women of their full potential as coequal partners in the socialist utopia, which they don’t call a socialist utopia because they don’t know much about that old terminology. What they know is what they have been taught by our comrads from our own college days, the new, smart, rebranded Marxists, who went into education while the rest of us went into business or engineering. So my point is, the problem is not just who is in Washington DC, it is who are the rising generation of Americans. This country is theirs, and it isn’t the same country that we thought was ours.
“they have been taught by our comrades from our own college days, the new, smart, re-branded Marxists, who went into education while the rest of us went into business or engineering”
Amen brother. The great irony is that by creating a world of plenty, we enabled these narcissistic parasites to live comfortably and take control while we were not paying attention. They feel that allowing society to proceed with production of goods and services under free market competition is just too icky a concept for the world they want to live in. They are willfully ignorant of the inability of collectivism to deliver anything even close to the standard of living that we enjoy now. Next stop Cuba or USSR circa 1985.
I can no longer post without promoting insurrection.
I’m with you. If Romney had won, there would have been riots in the streets, a cacophony of charges of racism, and probably bloodshed. The divisions in the country are too great. One side has made it crystal clear that they want the destruction of America and all its institutions, values, traditions and, most of all, its Constitution. The other side wants the restoration and renewal of the principles the country was founded upon. The chasm is too great.
The left is never going to change and neither are we. The only logical solution is a split, but I have no idea how this would be accomplished. Obama won only 50.9% of the vote. There are 49.1% of us who are opposed to his policies. What will we do? Will we just lay back and accept the status quo while more and more people (by 2016, more than 50%) become dependent on government and there is no chance that a conservative will ever again be elected president?
It could be a long 4 years for the Dems. Once they run out of money their “friends” could turn on them. When you have no more meat to throw to the wolves, YOU are the meat……
All those Americans who have started their own little businesses to produce apps for smartphones or websites for customers are all aware of the virtues of capitalism. All those Silicon Valley high tech companies that started with little capital and became giant businesses producing zillions of electronic and software products are too. But you’ll notice that the key word in this paragraph is “produce.”
The image of capitalism has been tarnished. Not by the producers of consumer products, but by the world of international finance. What they “produced” was a speculative financial bubble that burst in 2008, resulting in a severe recession which destroyed the jobs and livelihoods of millions of Americans.
The image of capitalism has been tarnished by Lehman Brothers and AiG and their ilk who created so-called “innovative financial products”–a euphemism for “shady deals.” They deliberately misrepresented packages of subprime mortgages to investors as safe, and encouraged speculation in those securities. And when those companies crashed, they were deemed “too big to fail” and got bailed out by the taxpayers.
That was only 4 years ago. Everybody still remembers it. And high-flying rhetoric about “the virtues of capitalism” doesn’t obscure the financial corruption and shady dealing that led us to the mess we’re in.
Capitalism isn’t going to regain the favor it had in the 1980s and 1990s until we deal honestly with that situation.
Never again should the taxpayers be put in the position of having to bail out Wall Street because it’s deemed “too big to fail.”
And policies need to be adopted which will deflate speculative bubbles toward a soft landing. Never again should politicians point to a speculative bubble as a (false) sign of prosperity, as Dems did with the dot.com bubble in the 1990s and as Republicans did with the housing bubble in the 2000s.
Except that the “banksters” you describe are the cherry on top of the crap sundae now before us.
The bigger problem is that we now have a LOT of people, across three or four generations, who believe that they CAN’T get ahead through the exercise of their own personal initiative … that they must always defer their judgment and initiative to those considered smarter than more virtuous than the ordinary citizen, even if the ordinary citizen is actually closer to the problem at hand.
Such as these do not do the work of those entrepreneurs you describe … the work needed to maintain their own value in the marketplace, much less solve problems and enable both themselves and their employers to prosper. And they are clearly willing to support, without serious question, the calls by “virtuous experts” to impose burdens upon the exercise of personal initiative in the name of “fairness”, the “greater good”, “the children”, “the planet” and any other emotionally-appealing but factually-lacking cause.
Ironically, those who have held the belief in the “virtuous experts” the longest and most deeply are among the ones who have been worse off today … because they previously believed they would solve their problems FOR them, they made no significant provisions to weather the economic storms of the recent years. Those who exercised their personal initiative and stayed prepared, were/are in a better position today.
Personal initiative like you describe is THE golden goose of American prosperity – and peace. We now have many among us who see no value in it, and will support whatever flavor of crap the “virtuous experts” dish out for the sundae …
… and do so because, in many cases, it is presented as though it is “free”.
Everyone loves free ice cream and a pony. The problem is, the time is coming when millions will have a shovel forced into their hands, and pointed to the reality on the barn floor behind the pony.
As some has said, this can happen very suddenly … and when it does, the followers of the “virtuous experts” will be left with even fewer alternatives and work-arounds to avoid the resultant stink and suffering, than they would have if they had not bought what the “experts” have been dishing out all their lives.
I’m afraid our hand is still wabbling back to the fire. Or the dog is still returning to his vomit – I’m not sure which. Anyway, we haven’t learned jack. The Democrats are still pursuing their little dream world and the Republicans can’t offer anything more appealing than harsh reality that most voters find to icky to deal with. Of course Americans are lost.
It’s not matter of giving up or not.
We need a correct and realistic diagnosis of the problems, instead of vague hopes.
It’s a war we are in, and we must become able to denounce who started it, what are their goals, what are the damages that they are inflicting to America’s might.
1) Could 2013 be the year that Americans finally begin to recall the virtues of capitalism?
Your post is typical flame fanning rubbish demonising the mythical 47%.
First, small business creation dropoff started just as Obama took office –
http://www.sba.gov/sites/default/files/Startup%20Rates.pdf
And yet… from a 2011 article, small business creation was at a 15 year high in 2011 –
http://money.cnn.com/2011/03/07/smallbusiness/new_business_starts/index.htm
So… the actual numbers show the very opposite of your contention: Americans are not only aware of the virtues of capitalism, more are embracing this than ever.
I’ll give you props, however; your screed will certainly play well with this crowd of ossified idealogues, the ones too stupid and lazy to look anything up and simply nod their heads at another example of received conventional “republican” wisdom.
Apparently, you missed the point of the article you linked. These new businesses are not being started to get rich, but merely as a survival technique. They are merely starting their own jobs as a stopgap measure. Think “local handyman”. Such will be run from one’s house or garage, and it will likely just be odd jobs, with incorporation to limit liability. Lots of the work will be done “under the table”, with a nice discount for cash.
This is the path in desperate countries the world over. It is not a sign of prosperity. Indeed, it is the opposite. It is merest survival.
You saw the stat, and you embraced it, rather than digging into the story and analyzing it. You did not consider the quality of the activity. It is like the unemployment stats. Too many of the “new jobs”, and too many of the existing jobs, are part-time gigs. Yeah, they are working, but they are under-employed, in both hours and wages and qualifications. People are just trying to survive, not trying to thrive and prosper.
Figures don’t lie, but liars figure, and you believe the liars. We here on the Right kinda know what we are talking about. We are not the fools you presume us to be. You should maybe oughta step back and consider that you might be wrong, hmm?
… there are Statistics …
And there are the strange, sick and twisted thoughts of Random Engineers.
Get this Jackass a Lobotomy! Make it a Double, Stat!
Not-So-Random-Troll. Don’t feed the Troll.
No.
#17
And this is a problem because…….?
Will we go back suddenly. Will we suddenly self-correct? don’t be absurd. This election has already demonstrated that we won’t.
The moderate Repubs gave us Romney, and that Democrat-Lite lost to the real Democrat. The game continues as if there is no crisis.
Meanwhile, things get worse, and there can only be two responses. either the people will cling more tightly to the herd, the Collective, or they will cling God and the individual. Those who cling to the Collective clearly outnumber the individualists… and that is NOT going to change. You are dreaming if you think people are going to see the light. People are going to cling ever more tightly to their conceived ideas. The cultural divide grows ever more pronounced, as things become more desperate.
Only a civil war will change this. One side will have to jam their views down the other side’s throats, because the two cultures are antithetical to one another.
It’s gonna take a war.
The “Stupendous Sum” of 1924: Calvin Coolidge on Taxes and Government Spending By: Jake (Diary) | March 21st, 2012
http://www.redstate.com/ironchapman/2012/03/21/the-stupendous-sum-of-1924-calvin-coolidge-on-taxes-and-government-spending/
He was pretty much the last small government president.
We are developing a whole new skill set. Instead of reacting to opportunity we are reacting to our fear, unAmerican, but the new reality. And it was planned.
We are in the process of being broken. It doesn’t have to happen, but people with political power and economic power, MORAL power, refuse to exercise it.
How alone do you want to be when you die for what you believe in, really? Is freedom in your blood? If it is, is it in your neighbor’s as well? We are being divided daily, and the Boehners and the Romney’s and the Limbaughs and the Ryans and Becks and Savages and Rands and on and on, can talk and fake it, or talk and mean it, and it still doesn’t make any difference. We’re in a slow moving car wreck and we’d like to take the wheel but we just can’t reach it.
It’s long past time to stop bashing Russia on PJM.
First of all, those much-vaunted “human rights organizations” that Vladimir Putin has rightfully banned from Russia are nothing more than George Soros-funded front groups. They are subversive, and our US Constitution has been abused to allow “freedom” only for those individuals and groups who seek to undermine those freedoms.
Second, Russia protects Christianity, whereas the US backs the Islamic expansionist agenda at every turn. I was born in the US and still hold US citizenship (though I expect that Obama will find a way to pull my passport before too long). Let me tell you, if Russia offered me citizenship, I’d accept it in a heartbeat and would lay down my life to defend it without a second thought. Would I lay down my life on behalf of the Muslim Brotherhood or a president who backs it? NEVER!
Putin should be made to swallow a slowly lethal dose of Po219, and Russia dismembered until it is no larger than the old Grand Duchy of Moscow.
It has learned nothing of worth in 800 years, time to put it out of our misery.
If Soros helps with that, that’s less money he has to screw with us here.
“Russia protects Christianity”
You got that backwards. The corrupt Russian Orthodox Church protects Putin by providing him political cover, and he buys off the church with money.
Claudia, thank you for sounding a note of hope. May it be so! Knight1
Ah, I should add: Gird your loins and screw your courage to the sticking point.
Capitalism has been chipped away in the USA for the last hundred years.
Where were the great pontificators when Nixon created the Petro Dollar system in 1971 and gave Saudi Arabia a Blank Check to fund terrorism..? The U.S. Dollar has lost 92% of its value since that fateful day in 1971, yet nobody questions the intelligence of this ridiculous system still in place.
Nobody stood up to question the trillion dollar invasion of Iraq, or 16 Trillion sent to European banks without European Collateral in 2008, nobody asks why Derivatives are not regulated by ANY government agency..
The next great bubble are derivatives, $800 Trillion worth. The US economy generates $15 Trillion per year, so that is 54 years worth of U.S. GDP sitting as Debt on books of global banks. During the last great banking crisis in 2007-2008, the groups holding derivatives shifted them to the general ledgers of Commercial banks, thus placing the U.S. Taxpayer responsible to cover the coming losses.
Capitalism ceased to exist in the USA decades ago, before president Obama was born.
I don’t think anyone has actually forgotten the virtues of capitalism. More interesting is the question of how regulated capitalism should be. The 2008 bond crisis (from which we are still recovering!) was entirely created by
Insufficient oversight…. Has anything changed? Nope. Who pays for the mess? The taxpayer.
@jim above. The idea that the bond crash was due to govt regulation is laughable.
If anything it was caused by the fact that banks do not take risk seriously… And why should they if they are going to be bailed out once they are declared too big to fail.
Who pays for their irresponsible investments? I do.