The Man Without A Plan
President Obama’s been taking a lot of flak lately for not having a plan. First it was about Libya, but now — even more importantly because, as we know, all politics is local (until it’s not) — about the budget.
The latest White House porte-parole Jay Carney has consequently been taking all kinds of in-coming himself about “where’s the President’s budget plan,” “why doesn’t he have a plan,” etc.
Well, the reason for the latter is simple: because he can’t. The minute the president evinces a budget plan, the game is up. No liberal budget will stand up to scrutiny. There is no money left for deficit spending in our aging society. The welfare state is kaput. It’s gone — probably for generations to come.
Of course, there’s always that canard about taxing the rich. That will save things. But the truth is even if you tax the rich at 100%, it barely sets back our entitlement crisis a year or two, while virtually bankrupting the few job creators who remain.
So no wonder Obama doesn’t have a plan. What would it be?
Rich Miniter put a fine point on it in a recent article for Forbes, “Why the Democratic Party is Doomed.”
The Democratic Party, as we have known it for the past 70 years, is now in its last days.
Yes, the House Republicans may raise the debt ceiling for a mix of spending cuts and revenue raisers. Yes, Barack Obama may win the 2012 presidential contest. Yes, bureaucrats and judges will continue to impose new and costly regulations on the economy.
But it doesn’t matter. The long-term trends are almost all bad news for the left wing of the party.
This week’s fight over raising the federal debt limit exposes a key weakness in the warfare-welfare state that has bestowed power onto the Democratic Party: Without an ever-growing share of the economy, it dies.
Miniter’s right. As an ex-lib, it almost makes me feel sorry for liberals. But I’m not because too many of them are still playing ostrich. One lib friend just sent me an email — I’m still somehow on her list — trumpeting a 1954 (!) quote from Eisenhower: “Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history.”
I guess the implication here is that’s what Republicans are trying to do, when, especially in the case of Social Security, they are the only ones making a serious effort to save it (see Paul Ryan). But liberals must preserve their delusions — and actually not read the small print, in Ryan’s proposal or anybody else’s. After all, they are people with no plans. Why should anybody else have them?
That is a refreshing break from the daily helpings of doom we have been getting from most analysts.
I’m going to mention something now that I haven’t seen factored into any of these discussions of America’s more immediate post-Democratic-party future. That is, what happens to our dead-enders? The ghetto societies that have been degraded by liberal policies to the point that some huge contingent of them literally have no concept of the happiness of “making their own way”? I have had sustained and intimate exposure to them and I could say with no exaggeration that they remind me of what I read of North Koreans who make it to the South and can’t cope with the smallest drop of freedom or responsibility. Escapees from the American ghettoes are rare exceptions who seem to have been born with extraordinary determination and perception.
If the entitlement ship sinks swiftly, smart people who built lifeboats will survive, but what will happen to these dead-enders? They know nothing but crime, idleness, violence, and dependence. They are now, in their highest moment of privilege, deeply aggrieved against the hard-working, self-supporting taxpayers who benefit them. When the handouts stop, I simply can’t imagine what they’ll do to survive, what their communities will become.
I look forward to the end of this dead-end subculture, but I don’t relish the actual scene of destruction. The answers aren’t simple. The disruption will be extremely jarring, beyond bumper-sticker solutions.
It has been portrayed in many imaginings written by science fiction authors. The imaginings range from utopian impossibilities to the harshest scenes of hells so horrible that they hurt to think about. I think the worst is closer to the truth than the better. There’s no reason to think that once the support is no longer there they will continue the trend that has already appeared. That is, they will feed on each other till only the most strong and vile of them survive. The best and smartest will continue to escape for awhile but an awful lot of people are going to die and live horribly because they don’t know how to do any better.
Robert Heinlein in “I Will Fear No Evil” postulated those communities becoming “AAs”, abandoned Areas, areas of anarchy walled off from society, enter at your own risk, no police help available, no insurance, no nothing, basically enclaves of urban wilderness, no man’s land kept separated from civilisation.
It could easily come to pass.
Coming soon to a select sections of Washington,DC, Baltimore,Detroit,Cleveland,Rochester, Newark,Philadelphia, and numberous other wonderful Democratic center cities nationwide.
Tim,
Curious if you have any other books similar to “I Will Fear No Evil” to recommend?
I know, this is a political blog, but thought I would ask nonetheless. This story line intrigues me.
And @beanbrain, you raise some excellent points. Thanks.
From Heinlein, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. Invented the acronym TANSTAAFL.
AAs already exist in parts of our country close to the Mexican border. The govts too busy “winning the future” to preserve order there.
Highly recommend “Beggars in Spain” by Nancy Kress. Prescience Fiction at its best.
Why do you have so little faith in your fellow American. Families, churches,and random strangers will support the needy as well, if not better than the federal government. No one is going to be starving in the streets.
I tend to disagree. There is a strange statistic that says some 85-90% of people who have their unemployment benefits terminated find gainful employment within 30 days. It’s not that they can’t work, and not even that they don’t want to work. But given the choice between working or not working, many choose the former. It’s just easier to get up at noon and stay up til 3:00 a.m., and have nothing urgent to deal with. Why go to work when you can sit around and watch movies and the govt provides plenty enough for you to survive – courtesy of the productive citizens among us who work, earn and pay enormous taxes. I think weaning people from the public teat will spur a new generation of entrepreneurs who will figure out ways to take care of themselves and their families out of necessity. I don’t think the American dream or work ethic are gone, only missing in action due to progressive policies and the nanny state mindset we have had foisted upon us since Roosevelt. Every citizen must have some skin in the game. It’s easy to vote for tax increases when you are not the one who has to pay them. IMHO you shouldn’t be allowed to vote if you don’t contribute to the public coffers. The 55% of our citizens who pay no federal income tax should sit home and let the productive citizens decide the issues. If only I could be in charge for a few weeks. (sigh)
@jdog – If it happens gradually, you will most likely be right. If it happens suddenly, most of our inner cities will burn and a lot of people will die. The really sad thing is that it will mostly be those entitlement-dependents doing it to each other, and will be their own homes that they burn. We’ve seen this more than once in riots in LA and NY.
Sadly the handouts will always be there. You have Rev. Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, etc. . A new defender of the handouts will emerge. However, a gradual reduction of handouts, if accomplished will lessen the worst case scenario.
Don’t you understand? We are rapidly approaching the point where there is nothing left to hand out. Once we are totally broke and the government cannot take another thing from us without a physical fight, it’s over.
Unfortunately when they run out of other peoples money they will start confiscating other peoples assets. This will not be over until those slimeballs are out and we have some decent folks in making the rules. There are some decent ones in Congress now but many are buttonholed because of there time of service-not getting the right committees, etc. We are in for a huge fight over the future and we will have to win. There’s the hope and change. (Maybe that’s what he meant).
Their attempt to confiscate other peoples’ assets will result in a lot of dead bodies – theirs and ours. There’s the blunt and brutal truth of it. Fortunately, there are two upsides to that: 1) there are more of us than there are of the looters, and 2) a lot of us are well-armed and possess the skill, the will and the determination to use them.
We wont start it, but we’ll do our best to finish it.
“Nothing left to hand out”? Acually, that is a long way down the road as we have a lot of wealth still in the system.
I suggest studying what Fernando “FerFAL” Aguirre has to say in his blog:
ferfal.blogspot.com
Even though Argentina is in ruins, the power elite are /still/ able to reward the professional protestors enough to keep them loyal.
See also M’Gabe in Zimbabwe, who is also finding enough to keep the “veterans” (criminals) loyal. His loyalists would probably have turned their noses up at what they are happy to get now had it been offered ten years ago.
A country as geographically large as the US, with over 300-million people, will be much harder for the “elites” to control than is Argentina.
gordo, I have accepted Mr. Simon’s main argument here: the New Deal will soon be over, the Jacksons and Sharptons will have had their day, the money will run out, there CAN be no more handouts such as exist now.
But terms like “get our fiscal house in order” and “tighten our belts” and “pay our bills” have no meaning whatsoever to these dead-enders. It’s interesting that Chris tells me science fiction writers have addressed my original question. I have heard no mainstream politician do so.
@beanbrain — East Germany did it – look to them for the solution.
#1 They’re a country of Germans, not Sharptons.
#2 They had West Germany next door to merge with.
(Try again.)
I can tell you the “free loaders” will do when the “Gravy Train” stops. VISIT DETROIT!
“Social Security was enacted in 1935, when life expectancy was 61.7…”
That was part of the plan at the time, making sure that half the people who paid into it never lived long enough to take out any of the dough they were forced to pay in.
Social Security is now, and always has been, a total scam.
Only a complete idiot would ever voluntarily sign up for it.
dave I dont remember being asked if I wanted to sign up for it. I am seventy five years old and worked and paid into it since I was 14. untill three years ago when I quit driving long haul trucks. so I dont feal like they are giving me a damned thing. those slime balls on wellfare never paid a dam dime into it. thats my money the damne democrats are buying votes with. I am all for helping those who truely need help. but an able bodied person should get no help except getting a job,
I almost said the same thing. He’s saying contribution were IN-voluntary, and that only a idiot would VOLUNTARILY contribute.
You, and I and Dave would probably love to have the money in our checks instead.
Dave: “Only a complete idiot would ever voluntarily sign up for it.”
Vagabond: “I dont remember being asked if I wanted to sign up for it.”
That’s the point, Vagabond. When you know nobody will volunteer, you don’t ask for volunteers.
Yep, and what’s worse is that the scheme we’ve all been corralled into has led to a generational cohort most of whom expect to retire with monthly gummint checks paid for by taxes on other people’s kids!
Oh, you’re not depending at all on Social Security? You’ve saved and invested your money, you say? Then you’re depending on there being a growing economy, and that also depends on other people’s kids being there to provide that economic growth.
People who aren’t raising at least five kids per couple are gonna really hurt when Social Security collapses. (Wasn’t someone crooning “love is the answer” back in the 1960′s? Little did he know…)
“dave I dont remember being asked if I wanted to sign up for it.”
- I think that was part of Dave’s point. That’s why we are FORCED into it. NO ONE would ever do it on their own free will.
I’m 32 now. Financially I know I will never get a single dime back of what I have paid into this government sham. I also know that the ‘free’ healthcare will not be available when I’m older either. At this point, I know that I will probably be working until the day I die. That thought used to annoy me, and it still does. However, my grandfather and great grandfather had to do this too.
I just hope I can plan well enough and work enough to have something to pass on to my children.
I’m with you, Mike, but no, they won’t let you pass on to your children any result of your hard work. Inheritance is “unfair” and must be confiscated too.
Vagabond,
The sad part is that it’s not your money. They already transferred the money you involuntarily contributed to other people immediately after they took it from you. Now the only money in the program is what I and other current workers have confiscated from our paychecks to be transferred to current retirees. The Ponzi scheme is about over which is why the brown stuff is hitting the fan.
My current overall contribution to the SS Ponzi scheme is $71,000, an amount my employer was forced to match. I could have done a lot with an extra $142,000 invested over time, yet I would give it all up and opt out of the system if they would agree to leave me alone now and not force me continue to pay in.
I have a client who worked as a supervisor for Social Security since the 1970′s where he met his wife who also continues to work there. They went to alot of training sessions and actually believe in the Trust Fund Lock Box nonsense. They say nothing to worry about. The “Gummint” may have dipped into the trust fund from time to time, but they could not do so without depositing a bond into the lock box to cover what they took. I quoted the legal case from the thirties that basically said the SS tax was a general tax and the proceeds get mixed in with all the treasury’s receipts. The case went onto say the obligations were nothing but welfare. So a tax combined with welfare. And Bill Gates and Warren Buffett are entitled to claim that “gummint welfare.” The point was, I said, you can’t borrow from yourself. You cannot write yourself a bond and hope to collect it from yourself if your only asset is that bond. What are these people thinking? Fortunately for them the trained liberal mind is impervious to logic, and they never seeemed to get it. And they work for the Ponzi Org. itself. Just wierd.
Do you know what a “TRUST FUND” is?
["The Social Security Trust Funds are the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) and the Disability Insurance (DI) Trust Funds. These funds are ACCOUNTS managed by the Department of the Treasury. They serve two purposes: (1) they provide an accounting mechanism for tracking all income to and disbursements from the trust funds, AND (2) they hold the accumulated assets. These accumulated assets provide automatic spending authority to pay benefits. The Social Security Act limits trust fund expenditures to benefits and administrative costs."]
ttThomas
Yes, a trust fund, which is kept in gov’t bonds which are no more secure than the other $14T and counting other bonds we owe. A trust fund that is now paying out more than it takes in. A trust fund that has been jiggered to insure that those at the bottom get a far better return on their contributionss than those who put in, and have put in, the most. And a fund that has been tapped, when Congress-especially the Dems-couldn’t stand seeing all that money just lying around, for college tuition for dependants, and is constantly being drained by disability payments that are often more scam than not. ie, some villages in PR where 35 and 40% are on SS disability. Which is to say it’s original purpose, old age income for it’s contributors, has been slowly turned into another re-distribution scheme. Yeah, there’s a trust fund there- current funds last for fifteen more years, give or take, IF the government pays on those bonds, then it’s a direct transfer from those working to us old farts, so it’ll pay about 70% of current benefits, maybe. The trust fund does not have even a decent fraction of the benefits it is promised to pay. But trust the government, keep the old head in the sand and everything’s gonna be fine.
We need to remember that the excess paid into SS was converted into a type of loan to the gov’t. We also know that the gov’t. cannot and will not pay the markers when due.
If the ponzi scheme SS was handled with the American people in mind, there would have been plenty of $.
In light of all the comments above, yep, paying into SS is forced – we have no choice. However, the people who really should be up in arms (metaphorically) are working blacks – they pay into the system their entire working lives, and b/c as a group they have lower life expectancies, they take out far less than their non-black counterparts, and not uncommonly less than they paid in. To make it worse, they can’t pass on to their heirs what they don’t take out!
I would volunteer to remain in the SS system . . . PROVIDED, just a couple of changes are made: First, put the money I pay in into an account with my name on it and leave it there (HANDS OFF IT, Congress!), let it grow, and when I reach retirement age, I begin drawing it out, much the same way IRAs, 401(k)s, and other private pensions work. Secondly, make it like a regular (or Roth, I don’t care) IRA – after the death of the retiree, any remaining funds that are not paid out in benefits may be passed on to a spouse or heirs. With those two small changes, I’d be willing to stay in it. Without them, I should be able to opt-out, and I’ll take care of my retirement myself.
Thank you, RockThisTown. Your “conditions” are exactly the changes Paul Ryan has suggested. Of course, since those changes take the cash out of the hands of the Progressives, they demonize the plan and the planner.
Dave..with all due respect….SS was devised at and during an event that had near catastrophic consequences on the nations society…especially, the aged without means. On the very front-end age and life expectancey would have been (was) valid. However, the framework going forward in time, age and life expenctancy would not be a valid variable in the pure sense….so long as the labor/recipient ratio was in excess of any eventual 1:1. Also, the original legislative statute was very precise in who was eleigible for benefits and when.
Congressional irreponsibility and LBJ broke the framework of the original system for which the consequences arise today! Even though, SS today, is still self sustaining and would contiue to be, but for, all the IOU’s left in the fund by the congress.
The framework of SS is no more a “scam” than is any insurance or bond market framework.
Theres easy fixes to SS and Medicare and I think I recall, your endorsing such fixes somewhere on here.
But, but, TThomas – you are now blaming the government for the problems! But you never blame the govt; you blame the people! So..how are things with you today?
Yes indeed! The government broke a system the ‘people’ chose to have and utilize.
Yes, it is a scam. Let me count some of the ways…
It was set up so that people never get one cent of return on what they invest into the program, unlike say investing in stocks or real estate. There is no chance at all of earning any kind of profit.
It’s a ponzi scheme for all intents and purposes. The minute there aren’t new suckers paying in, the whole thing collapses.
People are forced to pay into it, at the point of a gun.
A goodly number of the people that paid into it (especially in its early years) never lived long enough to collect “benefits”, and instead of being able to pass the money they paid in onto the heirs of their choice, they had their money confiscated by the federal government, which then takes it and spends it as it pleases.
And, that’s just the old age/retirement part of Social Security. We haven’t even started talking about Food Stamps, SSI or Medicare.
Dave…You and I are on the same train within most issues (don’t tell anybody) so, I won’t belabor this point to much more.
The Statute has alway guaranteed a minumum of 3% ROI in which the funds are invested in. Compare that to any of the insurances most folks buy as a safety net with no return on the investment, or a bank saving account today, or heck even most CD’s today. I don’t know what any whole life’s are paying to the insured’s account as I don’t need such and don’t have such but, I’ll bet its not much better than 3% if even 3%. Durn! Take a look at how many folks have lost their nest eggs in the stock and bonds markets as it vascilates in the environments of more recent times.
The system would work well if the congress would/would have returned the investments and ROI back into the fund….or at least, have used a rolling formula for what percentage of funds gets invested. To late for that now!
SS is not voluntary on this planet. Maybe on yours.
It seems Oscumbo wants to create chaos as the rationale for imposing martial law and assuming dictatorship. He is a sociopathic megalomaniac imagining himself to be the moslem messiah, who is(those nutcakes suppose) to rule the world as the Grand Caliph. We are but dirt under his feet.
If myriads lack the necessities of life and riot, will Oscambo order the military to shoot us down? If your money is worthless and you cannot feed your family, what will you do? Where will you go? How far can you go on one tank of gas?How can you defend against armed and equally hungry fellow-victims?
How do you defend your self by arming your self with at least a 12 gauge shotgun with double ought buckshot and a pistol or rifle and plenty of ammunition and practice with said weapons and buy plenty of ammo have plenty of magazines for pistols or rifles or semiauto shotguns! Join the local gun club and learn from a professional about how to use each weapon to defend yourself in any situation, and know when to retreat and how to survive!
It is possible from a Vietnam Veteran!
At the rate abortions are occurring there soon won’t be enough taxpayers to subsidize these social programs via government “charity”.
We’ll be broke, aged, and few in number.
Mr. Wu’s looking good though, 12 years and can retire with potentially 1M in benefits? Sweet gig that elected official thing. Bring your own tiger suit.
I hate to sound morbid, but, I think a good majority of those abortions are performed on people who suck of the government teat and have offspring who do the same thing. One less teat-sucker vs. one less tax-payer. It’s probably a wash.
You filthy bitch! You advocate the murder of innocent, unborn babies because their parents are indigent! How inhuman! How awful! How disgusting! Too bad you and the BabyKillerInChief did not meet and mate. Y’all could have slaughtered several of your own by now, lest they become public charges.
Delia’s right. Underclass women are over-represented in the abortion statistics
“the rate abortions”
I am not arguing your opinion on abortions, but I disagree on the meaning of this author’s piece. The attention to population is a dodge. The real message is “I believed George Bush’s tax “cuts” would magically pay for themselves, but they did not, and rather than addressing reality, I will blame “entitlements” because politicians always attack “entitlements” because that money repays the least in political contributions, and I will follow there lead. The fact that SS actually has paid for itself and that discretionary programs have been on insolvent for decades and sucked SS money is irrelevant because that is a “fact” that gets in the way of magical fake-conservative thinking.”
IOW, when there are threats to government money transfers to favored programs or people raise issues about taxes and deficits, blame Social Security. It is a Clinton-Gore legacy!
Excellent! But for the new great society of the individualist “me-me society’ across all political and scio-ecnomic lines, this once great nation would still be ever so great. Diversion away from ‘reality’ is the call of the day with everybody blaming each other and entities for which they have ultimate control.
Author Tom Wolfe coined the phrase Me Generation to describe, he said, “Gary Hart voters.”
Check a calendar, do the arithmetic, and you’ll discover that they’ve been getting solicitations from the AARP for quite a few years now.
Those of you who have read Thucydides will remember the figure of Alcibiades who, through a combination of vainglory and waning personal fortune, lead the Athenians into their most disastrous adventure. He was a handsome, yet shallow and arrogant man with a talent for public speaking. Plato paints a good portrait of him in the Symposium.
There is no reason for Barack Obama to fear a “default”, therefore he has no plan to avoid one. If we pass the essentially arbitrary date of August 2nd, without a debt limit increase he will be able to blame the Republican Party for the failing economy, and he will have the power to personally direct the mighty river of Federal money. Obama may or may not believe that the welfare state has run out of time (I wouldn’t bet on it) but I am certain he has noticed his continuing political collapse.
I don’t believe that he, or his real intimates whoever they may be, engineered this moment, this opportunity, but I believe they are venal and shrewd enough to take advantage of it. He has no plan because he does not need one. He only needs to ride these events to some conclusion that benefits him. What may benefit the nation is, sadly, not of primary concern to him, anymore than it was to Alcibiades.
Um, yeah was just, um, reading my, er, Thucydides.
I agree with your comparison. A person could gain insight about the political mind,and human nature in general, by reading Thucydides.
Uplifting optimism. I think we all needed that Roger. Excellent piece. The daily arson committed by Obama and his thug friends gets dispiriting. And the audacity of the size and public nature of the rape they are committing against America makes one think the end is near. But you remind us of our roots, and that we can, if we will, survive this evil charlatan. But to do so we have to not just beat them in one election cycle, we must rid the country of their destructive deeds for generations, so that America can heal, rebuild, and repay it’s debts. You and your colleagues are doing excellent work informing the public so we have the knowledge needed to preserve this great land of freedom and virtue.
I echo the 75-year-old truckdriver. I am 67, still working, holding out until I am 70 to collect Social Security, which I have been paying into all my life. It’s not easy.
There should be an untouchable, dedicated SS fund available only to those who have paid in.
No more funds for public-aid dependant people who refuse to work.
“I dont remember being asked if I wanted to sign up for it”
Sure you were. Every 2 years there was an election. And if you say there were no candidates running on SS reform, there were primaries just before those elections.
Your parents’ generation ripped off your generation a little (16 workers/retiree). Your generation figured you could pass the buck to the next generation and rip them off a lot (2 workers/retiree). You could have had the politicians you elected actually save the money, reducing the debt held by the public. But you didn’t. You had them spend every dime, and then borrowed 140 trillion more dimes and spent that too. And promised yourselves benefits far in excess of what you paid in, even though you already spent every penny of what you ‘paid in’. You figured the next generation would just eat the crap sandwich you handed them…the way your generation ate the sandwich your parents handed you. The difference is that your parents handed you a filet mignon sprinkled with a few flakes of dung. Your generation is asking the next generation to eat a big steaming pile of dung, straight from the bung hole, and without even a sprinkling of salt.
You should have called off the ponzi earlier, when it would have been far less painful, and in good times, rather than waiting until the whole house of cards was teetering on the edge of collapse. But you refused the hard choices and tried to pass it on.
But before you say, “I don’t remember being asked…” again think about the 19 year old voting for the first time or the new born baby. They are the ones who haven’t been asked. You’ve been asked.
If you don’t give us what we want, we are going to BLOW UP the US economy. We are going to DEFAULT in 5 days and plunge the US economy and global economy into a GREAT DEPRESSION, if you don’t give in to our demands.
1)We WILL NOT raise the debt ceiling one red cent!
2)We DEMAND IMMEDIATE CUTS of $1.6 Trillion!
3)We DEMAND a BALANCED BUDGET IMMEDIATELY!
4)We DEMAND $25 Trillion in spending cuts over the next 10 years!
If you don’t accede to our demands, we will DEFAULT on our $14.3 Trillion debt, and BLOW UP the US economy and global economy and bring about a GREAT DEPRESSION. Either do what we tell you, or we will BLOW UP THE WORLD! You have 5 days to give an answer. We are holding the US economy and global economy hostage. Either you will accede to our demands, or…you will suffer the consequences. The clock is ticking…
Boehner’s plan calls for $1T in cuts over 10 years and a whopping $22B cut in 2012 (compared to a $3.7T budget). If this plan passes the House, would you mind issuing a retraction to your comment?
This is both poor parody, because it doesn’t resemble its target, and also proof of Roger’s point: you have no plan. You cannot address the substance of the economic debacle your welfare state has brought us. You have nothing.
Not only is this stupid, you talk about “default” as if it can happen.
Jesus liberals are morons. ANGRY morons.
I see Tea Party Jihadi is one of the clueless socialists who can’t understand that there is no more money for the government to spend. The game is over, boy. This is your life jacket, now start treading that water! Waste no more time dreaming up cute political slurnames.
Actually there is still one large pot of money left that can be spent. That pot is the money in private retirement accounts (401K, IRA, etc.). It wouldn’t surprise me if our government, Pubs and Dems, pulled an Argentina and nationalized those accounts.
Lord have mercy that was lame…
There are no liberals and there is no social security.
The term “liberal” is an outdated, nearly meaningless term in 2011. The left has become so unhinged, bloodthirsty, deranged and extreme…most clear thinking “liberals” have long ago left the rage farm and settled into a more moderate camp.
NONE of the leftist positions even faintly resemble the bedrock principles of classic liberalism.
Oh, the leftists have co-opted the shell classic liberalism to hide in, but, even a cursory inspection will reveal that fraud in an instant. We do ourselves a grave disservice by assisting that fraud and lazily providing the leftist the cover they desire and so desperately need …and give credibility to the sham…by calling them the false name “liberal”.
Secondly, the “security” in social security is long gone. No honest, decent and competent examiner of the program (this automatically leaves out Krugman on multiple counts) would suggest that the program is sustainable.
Equally important is the fact that it is not “social”, it is anti-social. This is not a program based upon need, it is also not an investment program. It is a tax, disguised as something else….mandated to be paid solely by contributors to society on top of all their other burdens.
It was never intended to entice people to live beyond their means, fail to save, for families to avoid taking care of their own sick, disabled and elderly.
It was a net to catch those who might fall through and who have no capacity to have built a life, a family or a community charitable enough to provide for those who can’t (not won’t) provide for themselves.
In the process of Marximizing the deleterious effect of braindead leftism onto our political landscape, the utopians have weakened an entire society and REMOVED the security, not enhanced it. The “social” constructs that once provided the safety net…have been replaced by a bankrupt expectation that “government” will provide. It will not. It cannot.
We have been bamboozled. And lazy. And corrupted by the lies of leftism for 50 years. And, our children will pay a heavy price for having been born to the “Me Generation”.
cfbleachers, and you didn’t even mention that latest sham/scam: Obamacare, guaranteed to sink this ship of the USA.
And…an honest person might also want to address the private sectors arbitrary and circular inflation that has driven the costs of health care goods and servises to an unsustainable level for employers to provided their share of welfare benefits to its welfare seeking/demanding employees.
Likewise, one might want to look at the millions of employed who opt out of employer based health care benefits (primarily the young) choosing instead the governments Medicaid program albeit, sometimes a sliding scale….but rarely collected.
The nation is broken from the bottom up…not the top down!
I don’t subscribe to the Pat Buchanan school of politics, the isolationist, Jew-hating, blame the military, promote class warfare from the right…worldview.
We have a spending problem and that is the disease. This affliction has been caused by Marxist (hiding under a variety of names…almost all innocent sounding and their programs tug on our heart strings while simultaneously ripping at our purse strings)
We are not broken from the bottom up and we do not have a major problem with “nation building” and our free market enterprise system is not a rip off of the masses.
1)The system is fine, it is the Marxist interference with the system that creates problems for it…and the weak, lame and limp responses by the non-Marxists to their guilt-tripping, and sanctimonious faux breast-beating.
2)We are a hyper-power. Fiscally, economically, culturally and politically. We are also a hyper-defender of Judeo-Christian heritage, democracy and freedom from broad tyranny. By our mere existence as such…and without any other fact or action…we become a target. Defending ourselves and our allies from the forces of Judeo-Christian hatred, destruction of free market economics and democratic principles…is not “nation building”, it is nation preservation.
3)Radical Islamic jihad is a real, not an imagined threat. Radical Marxist jihad is a real, not an imagined threat.
Each is conducting an ongoing war against us, each has declared open war on our way of life and each also has sleeper cells and hidden agendas. We must remain vigilant in our efforts to recognize the efforts mounted to overthrow us and sometimes that requires money be spent on such efforts.
3)The people have not only been deprived of the truth, they have been fed a steady diet of lies, distortion, and coverups by the propaganda wing of the Marxists…their sniveling toadies in the media, entertainment and academia.
I give less blame to the people who have been fed these lies, than execrable cretins who intentionally fabricated and peddled them. That is not a “bottom up” problem…as much as an “dirty intermediary” problem…working for the “top down” Democratic Party.
Whhooooaa! Slow down with all the dissertations of philosophical/political talking points!
What and why do you disagree with the two circumstances I cited about health care?
As for the bottom up vs. top down issue, I have no desire to argue that point with you. We have never had a king nor any other form of isolated government over the people. For whatever the cumulative mistakes, our government has always been of the people (your next door neighbor), by the people (your next door neighbor). Your argument on this issue is dead on arrival at this casa.
Not to worry, CFB, you’ve got the right of it.
And to Roger Pollyanna: tra-la-la-la…la……….la…… . . . . oooops!
The pols will collect their pensions long after SS goes broke. Two terms to a full boat retirement, when our troops get 50% pay after 20 years. How we gonna fix that? Wu (D) gets $1 million for having to quit because of his sexual misconduct.
Nobody on either side of the aisle has suggested they take a pay cut, or have their pension and benefits requirements changed, or their staff reduced.
No accountability. The taxpayers are paying the thieves to steal, so what’s not to like.
I wish I could believe that O did not have a plan and that he was not working on it all the time. He cannot speak the truth about his plan because it is evil. It involves massive amounts of propaganda directed at the weakest in society. The one thing he didn’t figure in on his plan, though, is the real backbone of our country, our people!
I’m 66, drawing SocSec, and still working. There is no option but to accept the payments because I don’t know when my death will come (maybe in 2 days or maybe in 30 years), but I’m taking the money now.
I do wish I’d had a choice back in 1964 of paying the FICA tax or instead investing the money in a compound interest bearing account, but that would have thrown the money into the realm of private property and the socialist-wannabes HATE private property.
This point in time is the economic armageddon, the final battle between capitalism/free markets/personal freedom and the statist/central control/collectivist socialism. Roger Simon is spot on, but I’m more pessimistic about the demise of the Democrat-Socialists. Too many Americans DEMAND wealth confiscation from the “rich”, expecting Obama to raid their bank accounts and liquidate their portfolios, “spreading the wealth more equitably”.
It’s a fool’s game and can only destroy the USA, yet many Americans are more than willing to do just that.
Actually, the hard-core liberals like Krugman and his fans, are demanding that taxes be raised on everybody, not just “the rich.” They want all the Bush tax cuts to expire, not just the ones on those earning over $250,000/year.
Well at least that’s fair. I would also get after that half of America that’s exempting and deducting itself out of paying federal income tax.
I’m glad to read Mr. Simon’s optimistic take on America’s political future. It stands to reason Americans would recognize that the long-term effects of progressive politics is not Shinola. Still, I’ve had my doubts that there are enough Americans left for that to matter. One hopeful fact stands out: America is not like any other nation, and no matter how well-supported he may be by the media, by the elite of academia, by a shabby mob of dole-dependent fools, or by the labor unions, here a narcissistic fraud cannot seize dictatorial power by declaring a crisis or by (in a moment of whimsy) re-interpreting the Constitution—although it is rumored he may try.
Good article. I agree that the Democratic Party has reached the end of its shelf life. It’s party-wide mania to ramp up entitlement spending each year—with some Republicans being guilty of some of the same—was bound to bring it to this point. Still, it was Obama’s way-over-the-top contribution that is really going to put a stake in the party’s political heart. Of course, it will survive after next year as a much reduced image of its former self and may even be revitalized by more realistic types farther down the road. But the dem party’s rendezvous with, or avoidance of, electoral disaster was always predicated on its ability to fend off its Obamas or at least keep them mollified where they couldn’t do Obama-level damage to the country and, therefore, to it. For decades dems were able to successfully pull off this trick and delay their day of reckoning; but, then, along came Obama and he’s a doozy of a party crasher.
If you don’t give us what we want, we are going to BLOW UP the US economy. We are going to DEFAULT in 5 days and plunge the US economy and global economy into a GREAT DEPRESSION, if you don’t give in to our demands.
1)We WILL NOT raise the debt ceiling one red cent!
2)We DEMAND IMMEDIATE CUTS of $1.6 Trillion!
3)We DEMAND a BALANCED BUDGET IMMEDIATELY!
4)We DEMAND $25 Trillion in spending cuts over the next 10 years!
If you don’t accede to our demands, we will DEFAULT on our $14.3 Trillion debt, and BLOW UP the US economy and global economy and bring about a GREAT DEPRESSION. Either do what we tell you, or we will BLOW UP THE WORLD! You have 5 days to give an answer. We are holding the US economy and global economy hostage. Either you will accede to our demands, or…you will suffer the consequences. The clock is ticking….
Spoken like Chairman O and Scary Reid. They got a bill from the house, and decided to reject it. Buy the way, when did they start calling themselves “TEA PARTY JIHADI?
Here – suck on this for a while:
1. Efffective immediately, only those who have had to meet a payroll, led men in combat or otherwise served in the military may hold public office. This applies to current office holders.
2. No one who receives government largesse in the form of welfare of any kind may vote. No one who holds public office of any kind may vote. It’s a simple conflict of interest.
3. No one may vote unless they can present vaild photo ID that establishes their full US citizenship. Period.
4. Clean and sober shall be the primary means test for all existing welfare recipients of any kind. Test positive, you’re history and with no appeal.
5. Effective immediately, the salaries and benefits of Congress and Senate and the salaries and benefits of US military personnel shall without exception be transposed.
6. Effective immediately, all members of the House and Senate shall be subject to the same rules, rugulations, laws and taxes they impose on the rest of us. No exceptions.
7. Members of the legal and banking professions shall immediately and forever be disqualified to hold public office. This includes current office holders. Out you go.
8. A Balanced Budget Amendment shall be enacted within 30 days.
9. End foreign aid to any nation not an ally and a trade partner of ours. Reward our friends and punish our enemies. In other words, if you danced in the streets and handed out candies on 9/11, we will not assist you in any way. We will do our best to see that you go down.
10. Close the borders, enforce with the National Guard. Build the fence. Enforce rigorously. We will not continue to act as the welfare department for the corrupt and failed state of Mexico.
11. Term limits. Romanian style if necessary.
12. Two for one act of Congress. No new legislation unless it rescinds or ends two existing acts with its passage.
13. Physical exam for welfare recipients, if you are diagnosed as able bodied…you must work.
14. Open all US oil and coal fields to development.
15. Revive the nuclear power industry with reasonable, fact-based safeguards and sound engineering practices.
16. Defund the EPA, DEA, BATF, NEA (both of them), cashier their employees and declare all current rules, laws and regulations enforced by these agencies null and void pursuant to starting with a blank and Constitutional blank slate.
17. Arrest, try and convict all current public employees found to be in violation of their durable oath of office.
18. End progressive income taxes. Set max tax rate to 10% – applicable to everybody.
19. Recognize that Islam is in fact the mortal and existential enemy of Western Civilization and free human beings everywhere. The message is simple, direct and unmistakeable: threaten our civilization and yours is forfeit.
A good start, I think. And worth fighting for.
With the exception of wanting a flat tax (I think 17% has been mentioned often), SIGN ME UP!
The most valuable suggestion is #2::
“No one who receives government largesse in the form of welfare of any kind may vote. No one who holds public office of any kind may vote. It’s a simple conflict of interest.”
Two Changes:
1. Government employees are on this list, as well. Anyone who receives more money from the government than he pays in taxes is not a net contributor to the purse and deserves no say in how that purse is used. “No representation without taxation!”
2. This only applies to the House: the branch with primary responsibility for the purse. government employees still have a legitimate interest in making and applying non-economic laws.
The problem is: how do you get the massive numbers of recipients to agree to a limitation of their power?
Excellent qualifiers and modifications. This is what we must demand from our elected representatives. As to this question:
The problem is: how do you get the massive numbers of recipients to agree to a limitation of their power?
I didn’t say it would be pretty or without cost. The remedy will likely be a revolution followed by a very nasty, high-casualty civil war. Here’s the unfortunate truth: we moved past the point of debate and reasoned argument some time ago. There’s a price to be paid for the outcomes of bad ideas. There’s a pride to be paid for forgetfulness. It will come in the form of a butcher’s bill. As Livy put it so long ago, we have reached a critical junction in our history, the “dark dawning of our modern day when we can neither endure our vices nor face the remedies needed to cure them.” In that regard, we can go the way of Rome or we can regain control of our destiny – we’ll pay a terrible price either way.
You said:”I didn’t say it would be pretty or without cost. The remedy will likely be a revolution followed by a very nasty, high-casualty civil war.”
How can there be a civil war if one side has nukes?
Side1: Oh, you guys in Atlanta are mostly rebels? (pushes button) Ha ha ha… Not anymore!
Side 2(minus several million in Atlanta): Ok! Ok! You win.
And don’t tell me the military won’t let that happen. It only takes one finger to push a button. A crazed, loony, zealot can certainly make it happen.
Excellent. Many thanks.
Mr. Simon;
Would it be possible for you to get this piece delivered directly to Mr. Obama? The poor fellow is so far in over his less than stellar capabilities and intelligence that it just could work as a wakeup call.
To draw on an old college song with some literary license,‘he is as one of the sheep who has lost its way and wanders about going blah, blah, blah.’
“Would it be possible for you to get this piece delivered directly to Mr. Obama? …that it just could work as a wakeup call.”
BWWWAAAA-HAAAA-HAAAAA-HAAAA. Oh, that’s rich. Thanks for the laugh, Mr. Bodell. As it were, our Dear Leader is wide awake and knows exactly what he’s doing. Sucks to be us.
I remember reading, I think in ‘A People’s History of the United States’, that in the late 1800′s America sent an envoy to europe when to find out why so many were immigrating here. The overwhelming answer given by the immigrants was “There are no kings there”. I think I have that right, or that was the gist of it anyway.
My grandfather was prudent enough to keep his mother’s family farm in rural louisiana, and to add substantially to it over the course of 50 years. Once, while hiking in the Louisiana heat and across tough terrain to mark the back property line, I came across some split pine-rails buried in the leaves. They were obviously the old fence. They were split by axe, had rough cut ends and some square nails in them. Standing there in the heat swatting misquitoes, a mile from the road it really sunk in what that generation went through. They cut that timber, split those rails, hauled them and built their fences with a mule, a handsaw and axes. My god, very few people in this country today even understand what that means in terms of hard labor.
People came here, went into the wilderness and carved out little hard scrabble farms from nothing to escape the tyranny of kings. They did it one family at a time. Who else, anywhere, ever wandered into the wild and chose a place and said ” I am going to build something here by myself, for myself, and answer to no one.” Is there any other culture that has that mentality? Anyone who does it? People make fun of ‘rednecks’, or ‘bitter clingers’, but there is much to be said for them.
It is true that the welfare state is doomed. It is true that the dead-enders are headed for a very bad time. Its also true that the spirit of our grandfathers still lives in us, and those who are determined to be self reliant and answer to no one will be the last standing.
You are right on the money. Those who will work, will survive. What existence we will have is debatable. Looks like Khrushchev was right.
I, too, spend a lot of time thinking about the people who settled the land around me, but that was then and this is now. So many things have changed in relation to the accessibility of new land, our material and medical needs and/or desires, not to mention the FACT that we live in a country of 300 million people with many millions living in cities.
Yes, things are very different, but life moves on. So many people here sound baffled and furious at modern life. It is what it is, and must be lived, accordingly.
The above is not to say that serious adjustments must be made, but getting back to the good ole days, is simply not an option.
Let’s try, “this is not to say that serious adjustments should NOT be made.”
Yes, Dwight…many things have changed! Those who demand to lead the nations peoples by their self annointed literary in the many medium’s garnering attention, are the least capable among us to live the values and the hard life styles of our fore fathers. They come from the cities and the universities and are the self annointed eleitist that haven’t ‘independently’ produced any viable goods or services to their communities and the nation in their lifetimes. Most couldn’t fall a tree, much less build something from it, even with the most technological tools of today. Most couldn’t work the soil for 14 to 18 hours a day in season or care for whatever came up. Most couldn’t put in 12-14 hours a day digging post holes by hand or know how to build a straight fence. and the list goes on. And yet, it is those least capable who demand the folks listen to them and follow their ever self annoited intellectual words.
Sadly, the folks continue to listen and follow those least capable among us!
Well, yes, but Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Hamilton, Madison etc were not our Founders because they were the best entrepreneurs, farmers, or mechanics, but because they were generally well-educated, literate “leaders;” lawyers, usually.
Yes, the political class is substantially separate from people who make things, including money from their own businesses, but most politicians have been that way. Lincoln could supposedly split rails (although not for long if he could help it) but most of the Presidents, Senators, and Congressmen were not renowned for the callouses on their hands or their acumen in business.
Many of the callouses now are on the hands of people not born in this country.
Now I need to ruminate more, before I regurgitate.
You missed the entire point Teach, but that okay! Most people are aware that those founders had credible occupations and common capacities of labor other than politically running their mouths.
Dwight, are you trying to claim that the founding fathers were typically lawyers? Umm, not so much…
Check this out: http://www.usconstitution.net/constframedata.html
What occupation would YOU say is the most common among them?
“Now I need to ruminate more, before I regurgitate.”
Well said D-White.
Even when it was passed, clear-thinking folk, even amongst those who voted for it, recognized SocSec as being deeply unConstitutional. Nowhere in the document is Congress authorized to force the citizens of the various states into a Federal retirement/disability/medical program. Regardless of its putative benefits or faults, it should be ended simply because it’s illegal. If it’s so all-fired important to have SocSec of some sort, pass an amendment authorizing it. Otherwise we should quit allowing our legislators to trample on our foundational Law. Of course We the People, like a wicked and lazy sovereign, have been enabling the tramplers for decades, from EPA to OSHA, from SocSec to Medicare, from the Depts of Labor to Education, from HHS to the FDA. All grossly unConstitutional, all throwing not sand but boulders into the gears of business, enriching only the megacorps and the bureaucrats, hurting the poor and ruining our republic.
Unfortunately we’re probably well past the tipping point. Not one in 100 of even those who vote conservative have a working knowledge of the Constitution, the enumeration of powers, the 10th amendment, etc. Most voters couldn’t care less. Hence we get the gov’t we deserve.
The little hope I have now is that some state, in somewhat better shape economically than the rest, and desperate to avoid being dragged down with the rest of the nation into the sucking hole of the flight of the last remaining wealth-producers and the mountain of debt, unilaterally declares, if not cecession, at least that all unConstitutional laws/regs are from henceforth unenforceable in that state, and dare any Fed agent to try to enforce them, matching force with force if necessary. This would at least free them up to be a haven for business. The risk? Well, once upon a time Massachusetts, Indiana, Illinois, Minnesota, and Maine had the guts to do Antietam. I’m not sure they’d be willing to stand up today to, say, Texas. Just sayin’…
OK, but the Constitution is only a piece of what we have been and have become. What seems to work in a given moment is the coin of the realm and pretty much has been from the ratification of the Constitution, on. When things stop working, we respond with our latest patch, whose viability is determined not by its constitutionality, but whether a patchwork plurality thinks, and therefore votes or refrains from voting in the hope that the newest patch will make things work better.
Just look at how Antietam morphed into a patched-up Emancipation Proclamation, overriding supposed property rights of slave-holders, who also happened to be rebelling, or sticking up for their Constitutional rights to do whatever they wanted to do, including holding slaves. Sam Houston, very correctly told his fellow Texans what they refused to hear; that the wimpy North was slow to anger, but once they slumped and lurched toward retribution, they would make Texas (to morph Houston and Sherman) howl.
Got to love the ‘conservative constitutionalists” who cherry pick the constitution just as they do their Bibles, eh?
“sticking up for their Constitutional rights to do whatever they wanted to do, including holding slaves. ”
Can you lay out for me where that is a consitutional right?
I was being at least somewhat ironic, but certainly the Constitution did protect one’s property and in Dred Scott, the Taney court affirmed that escaped property had to go back to the owner. Given the 3/5ths rule, there is no question that slavery was definitely within the penumbra of the Sublime Document as ratified, although the agreement not to address the issue for a certain time period had expired.
“Eisenhower: “Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history.”
Unfortunately, when Eisenhower was president, that’s about all the Federal Government did. That and provide for the national defense. You didn’t have horrific Government agencies like the Department of Energy or the Department of Education, things that suck literally billions of dollars out of our budget each year. And that’s just scratching the service. I wish we only had to worry about the things Eisenhower had to worry about. It would actually save this nation. Heck, the Democrats don’t even want to return to 2008 spending limits. When you get people who are as inflexible as that, then you know you’re dealing with crazy people. And people like Nancy Pelosi, Barbara Boxer, and Harry Reid only prove my point.
If we consider the two ideologies of ‘how to live’ – the statist socialism vs the genuine liberal of individual freedom and self-reliance – is the first one really going to be thrown overboard?
Statist socialism is always authoritarian; it can’t operate unless everyone is reduced to a passive clone. Equally, it requires totalitarian authority to prevent any differences, any deviation, any individual thought from emerging. It is utopian, informng us that there IS a perfect society, if only we all obey the rules. It is, furthermore, magical! That is, it relies on a supernatural force to supply its needs. These can be the spirits, the gods or…in the case of this Democratic Party..The Rich.
The Rich are viewed as some kind of magical bubbling cauldron, endlessly refilling no matter how much is removed. Why, Obama even redefines ‘The Rich’; a millionaire is now 1/5 of its arithmatic number; a 200,000 income is now a millionaire.
I think the Democrats have reached the limit of their authoritarianism, although, as Obama is now more and more declaring, ‘it would be nice for him to operate just on his own Will and without Congress (and the will of the people).
But there remain problems. There is the massive subculture of dependency, created under FDR and used with deliberate electoral intent by subsequent Democrats.
There is the permanent and growing dead-end subculture who have no intention of being producers in the society.
Then, there are the equally massive bureaucracy and civil service – all dependent on government funding and alienated from self-reliance and productivity. Obama’s Stimulus was for them. And the EPA/Cap and Trade,..and the Health Care – which most of them have waivered out of.
And – And Obama is seeking further subculture electoral bases: the illegal aliens – whom he wants to turn into a major electoral base.
These subsets, which make up at least half of the US population – have to be considered.
Then, there is a creeping world wide movement of statism: Islamism, which is yet another version of authoritarian non-productive statist socialism. It is moving, as an ideology, into the dead-end subset, for its mindset is the same: Someone else funds my life.
The ‘saving point’ to consider, however, is economics. A statist economy cannot support a large population. Period. The fact that it is/was doing so in the Middle East is ONLY because of their resource of oil. Remember, these peoples didn’t even have the knowledge, the technology, the industrial development to extract and process this oil resource; they have to rely on the West’s independence of thought to develop the technological expertise. BUT – this resource is insufficient to support the ME – and that’s why they are imploding.
The only economic method capable of supporting large populations is free capitalism. Obama and his Gang are trying to destroy this – but Americans are standing up and fighting. It’s not a shallow fight; it’s a major conflict and freedom must win.
There are so many points you made that are not supported by facts, I don’t know where to start. Islamism is a form of socialism? “The only economic method capable of supporting large populations is free capitalism.” Gee, I don’t see China imploding. I would suggest a sufficient amount of Independent thinking to free the mind from simplistic talking points.
I can’t tell you how tired Independents are with the armchair BS from the right and left. If you were all on my board of engineers, I would be handing out the pink slips.
Conservatives aren’t freaks from hell and the majority of Liberals aren’t secret commies. If this ideological crap continues, I hope Americans cleans house.
So you think command and control Islam is what? capitalistic, entrepreneurial, inventive? If it isn’t a centrally planned economy, what is? ETAB is exactly correct. Islam is a statist culture. The fairy dust of Islam is Allah, instead of rich people. Marxism and Islam are two peas in a pod; two tier societies with an unassailable elite and a mass of peasants, total control by the elite, pixie dust and violence to control them.
That’s why they are comrades in arms in the destruction of western civilization.
You might want to save one of those pink slips for yourself.
The Chinese still have a communist political system but their economy
now operates more and more on capitalist principles – Chinese tax
rates are on a par with ours. China’s growth is based on capitalists
around the world investing in the Chinese economy, providing technology
and innovation the Asian country still cannot provide for itself.
Without this outside investment China’s economic ‘miracle’ would
grind to a halt. Of course these outside investors are allowed
to make a profit – sounds like capitalism to me.
Just look at the disparity in wealth, per capita, between the U.S.
and China. China’s glorious communist past has provided a per capita
GDP of roughly $5,000; U.S. GDP is approximately $50,000. Whatever
else this comparison shows, one thing can be said – Capitalism is
good, communism really sucks.
China will likely continue it’s economic expansion for as long as their environment will sustain them. At some point they are going to overload the air land and water to the point where people and animals start dying off like flies. You don’t hear much about pollution in China. I read an in-depth article a few years (NewsMax IIRC) ago that wasn’t very flattering to the Chinese – they don’t seem to understand you have to strike some kind of balance. Of course they may be factoring this into their future expansion goals – like invading Western Russia and Siberia to gain some elbow room. They look north and see relatively unused lands and plot.
The Marxists see Islam as a “useful idiots” and Islam sees the Marxists as “useful idiots.” Do some reading and listening to these people in their own words. Also, the union (leadership, at least,) is heavily into Marxism. You know, everything must be destroyed before we, the great thinkers of the world, can get hold of all your money, live high off the hog, and manage your wee lives in early little thing we allow you to do.
Great comment.
Hayek in “The Fatal Conceit” analyzed the characteristics of a prosperous society, based on the evolution of civilization, and provided a list of those. These are traditional morals which were the bedrock of the US foundations of rule of law, respect for property, truthfulness, committment to contracts, etc. Free market capitalism, under the traditional value system the West respected for centuries, is the answer to our present dilemna. It is impossible to central plan the undefined and unknowable entities involved in millions of people making millions of decisions. The Soviet Union should be studied in depth, as the end result was a nation of poverty and corruption. The US population fell for the oldest political trick in the book, the promise of free things.
The new information age is going to make possible a new awakening of freedoms lost and of the backroom deals by politicians. The electronic revolution will change the political landscape all over the world, as the desire for real personal freedom is innate to the human being.
["The electronic revolution will change the political landscape all over the world..."]
Obvious you weren’t around when telegraph, printing presses, radio’s, telephones, Big scren news clips and TV’s were the rage of the age and going to inform the world and…….
So far, the internet has been a great tool to bring out the self annoited intellectual elists and above all the closet bound Jerry Springer crowd….oh, and the pornography folks.
His Highness has just booked his $50,000/week Marthas Vineyard estate vacation for August 2011.
I continue to wonder what phrase will define his Presidency?
Will it be-
” Shared sacrifice.”
” Let me make this clear tuh yuh ”
or most likely -
” What? Me worry? ”
Americans thought they voted for Bill Cosby and they elected Huey Newton.
Your observation about our Prez’s vacation plans reminded me of something. Didn’t we establish, at some expense, Camp David as the official “Presidential Retreat” where the Chief Executive could vacation or otherwise “get away from it all?” Why is this President, or any other for that matter, vacationing somewher other than Camp David? The place is located in beautiful country and has every security mechanism that the Secret Service can dream up. Just a thought.
Obama’s main talent always has been manipulating white people. He’s extremely good at that — witness the ’08 election, an episode of mass delusion if there ever was one — but beyond it he’s totally at sea. He has no clue whatsoever about economics, what the constitution means, the true lessons of U.S. and world history and the real strengths and weaknesses of this country (like most faculty lefties, he sees the strengths as weaknesses and vice-versa). He will have done a huge amount of damage before January of ’13, but hopefully not quite enough to sink the ship. Just getting rid of ObamaCare and the watermelon radicals at the EPA would be huge steps forward. Add a flat tax, and the US of A could be off to the races again, the wonder of the world.
Phantomorphan, I agree completely with your assessment of Dear Leader’s main talent, manipulating white people. But I can’t for the life of me figure out why people still continue to believe “he has no clue whatsoever about economics” or “what the constitution means”. He knows he despises the constitution because it (originally) limits power. He also knows he hates free-market capitalism because it’s “unfair”, produces have and have nots, rewards hard work and provides no place at the table for a central state or ruler (him) to “manage” things. It’s all about his power and a resentment of traditional America. However he can bring us down he will. HE’S DOING THIS ON PURPOSE.
I don’t think that Obama manipulates only ‘white people’. Obama manipulates everyone. Everyone.
Obama is pathological; he lives within a cocoon, disconnected from the reality of objective facts and other people. He interacts with this external reality, not directly as an equal, but only within his skills of manipulation. Verbal manipulation. Words.
Therefore, he is a pathological liar; his Words aren’t meant to refer to external reality; they are meant to manipulate you to be in his control. That’s all his words do: manipulate you to be ‘his’. As Obama has said, the GOP must ‘sit in the back’; he’s the driver. Not the people of America.
Obama focuses on emotional manipulation: fear, apocalyptic results if you don’t do His Will…and if you do, a utopian wonderful future. But the reason for this is his own pathology: he MUST control you.
And yes, as thoughtcriminal says, Obama dislikes the Constitution because it limits power. Notice how often in these days Obama is saying that he wishes he could make laws on his own – without Congress. He’s saying that more and more.
And, he detests capitalism for the same reason; it gives power to individuals rather than making people dependent on the State. Dependent on Obama’s Will.
He’s dangerous and malicious. His only focus now – is his re-election. I suggest that Obama would like a default – so that he can blame, not merely the GOP but the Tea Party. That’s Obama’s biggest fear at the moment: the Tea Party – and he’s out to vilify them and destroy them. Because all that Obama cares about is: Obama.
Psychopaths are very good at imitating normal behavior. They learn to observe and mimic normal behavior early in life and, by the time they are adults, have mastered the art of covering up their lack of a conscience and their deranged, diabolical personalities. This is the person who is living in the White House right now.
He knows exactly what he is doing to the U.S. It has been planned in his brain since he was a young man. Those of us who took the time to investigate him back in 2007/2008 realized at once who he is. 53 percent of the people were duped. Unfortunately, a large portion of that 53 percent will be duped again in 2012.
Took a quick peek at Saul Alinsky on wikipedia. Here are some nuggets: Under occupation he’s listed as ‘community organizer’, ‘writer’. Further below, he describes what a “People’s Organization” is:
snip….A People’s Organization is a conflict group, [and] this must be openly and fully recognized. Its sole reason in coming into being is to wage war against all evils which cause suffering and unhappiness. A People’s Organization is the banding together of large numbers of men and women to fight for those rights which insure a decent way of life. . . .
A People’s Organization is dedicated to an eternal war. It is a war against poverty, misery, delinquency, disease, injustice, hopelessness, despair, and unhappiness. They are basically the same issues for which nations have gone to war in almost every generation. . . . War is not an intellectual debate, and in the war against social evils there are no rules of fair play. . . .
A People’s Organization lives in a world of hard reality. It lives in the midst of smashing forces, dashing struggles, sweeping cross-currents, ripping passions, conflict, confusion, seeming chaos, the hot and the cold, the squalor and the drama, which people prosaically refer to as life and students describe as ‘society’.
…./snip
I feel this describes Obama’s motivations to a ‘T’ and, sharing a similar background such as he does with Alinsky (who was born in Chicago in 1909), he has perhaps more than a glancing familiarity with his tactics. ‘Disciple’ and ‘protege’ are words that come to mind. ‘Wannabe’ works too as a certain amount of intellectual laziness is apparent whenever the teleprompter isn’t available.
My greatest fear is that this Dunce With Large Ears cannot conceive of the damage he is doing and might do should his efforts to ‘fundamentally change’ America come to pass. Something on par with allowing a three-year-old into a shop featuring much glass and trinketry with a baseball bat, while blaming it all on somebody else- pick ‘em, freeze ‘em, and proceed to destroy them. The Tea Party, for instance.
["...while blaming it all on somebody else- pick ‘em, freeze ‘em, and proceed to destroy them. The Tea Party, for instance."]
I think the shoes you describe also fit the Tea Party folks pretty durn well also!
Obama’s cluelessness on the economy, Constitution, etc, and lack of actual leadership skills are features, not bugs of the Marxist Messiah. He was hired by Soros and crew to vandalize the United States, and he’s done a hell of a job so far. Kind of like throwing a crazed, starving Doberman into a henhouse. It doesn’t matter which hens get attacked or what order he attacks them in as long as he creates massive destruction.
Only with the demise of the United States can world government be formed.
http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/oreilly/2011/07/28/bill-oreilly-why-debt-deal-cant-get-done
You can blow hot air if you want to, but Indies decide elections and I can’t help but nod as McCain uses the hobbit word.
Yakov, there’s a tent city growing in Israel. Perhaps that is worthy of your comments. I would say Israeli politics trumps the show here. You know the US would not subsidize a class of people who preferred to be religious rather than work. I suspect a double standard.
The problem is less home prices than it is the concentration of business and jobs in the Tel Aviv area. Israel has had one of the best real estate markets on the planet and the unemployment rate is at historic lows. The religious population has more members of the workforce than ever and is over represented statistically in both the IDF officer class and in combat units. Not everybody can afford to live in Manhattan and not everybody can afford to live in Tel Aviv.
The government can do more and it should. My first suggestion would be to restore the cuts Olmert made for those who depend on vehicles. There used to be special allowances for second cars for those that lived in the periphery because mass transit was unavailable. Since it is not unusual for both husband and wife to be working the second car is not a luxury it is a necessity.
We have plenty of land and we are expanding mass transit. We need to do more and we will.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-25/israeli-unemployment-hits-record-low-5-7-.html
https://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/insideisrael/2010/October/Israel-Rated-Top-Global-Housing-Market-/
Disagree with the premise, the idea underlying and stated in the post, that we’re running out of money. Allowing for the pain one wishes to inflict there’s always some money to be drained from a suffering populace. Free people can be crushed, blood gotten from a rock, oppression and pain as a parlor game for the twisted left. Things can never be too bad for these scummers.
I too disagree with the premise that we are ‘running out of money’. No folks – we are in danger of running out of the ability to pay back the money we borrow to fund all the mandates and programs Congress has foisted upon us. At some place in time a tipping point will be reached where we can no longer service the dept much less pay it back.
The US Treasury will still be taking in revenue on and after Aug. 3rd – an arbitrary date to be sure. Dept payments will be made (US bonds are bought back) – SS checks will be paid – and the world will continue to revolve on it’s axis. What will happen – if Obama is smart – many of the ‘non-essential government functions’ (is that the ultimate oxymoron or what?) of government will grind to a halt (goody-goody!!!) until funds can be found to start those functions up once again. We can only hope they don’t!
Places like the Department of Energy (how many kilowatts do they produce each year anyway?) – Department of Education – a place that takes in our money then sends some of it back and tells us how to spend it – do we really need such churlish guidance? – Homeland Security (another money pit when the likes of Big Sis are at the wheel) – and there are many more. That is where the ‘hit’ should take place.
I’m betting that Obama is scheming to see if he can blame Republicans for no SS checks if there is no dept deal before Aug. 3rd.
Don’t bet against me!
Or as Zero would say – “don’t call my bluff”. Gee Mr. President – I had no idea you’d bluff.
What a moron.
Enjoyed the article Mr. Simon. The cow’s run dry and we can’t pry the dems lips from the teet. Anybody who’s a political junkie realizes there will be a splatter on the fan in short order. What has me scratching my head is that our GOP leaders in DC are not ringing the bell loud enough.
Roosevelt’s New Deal infused America’s infrastructure with awe inspiring art and hope for everyone. Conservatives made fortunes on this hope of the future that America created.
Now if Obamanation was to declare war on drugs like Reagan we would get right on track. Unfortunately the Democrats have been in bed with organized crime (White Marijuana cartels) for over twenty years; they can’t stay in power unless they keep their constituency doped up and the country can’t work without a working class, (one with hope for the future) hence the Mexicans.
This is not a time for action. This is a time for talk, skilled, persuasive talk. Something Obama will never be capable of, nor responsible enough to implement. I have said it before, this is a free country, you are free to leave. Why don’t you? Oh, yes, because we are still the best thing going.
An undeniably unbalanced President calls for a balanced approach to a debt crisis of his own 4 trillion spending spree in three and a half year making.
Not totally a surprise. When he was running for President, The anointed one pledged to transform this nation. What he didn’t say was that he wanted a nation of comrades. The handsome brown man with a yellow streak down his back wants to paint the financial system of this country a bright shade of Stalin red.
I think it’s high time this nation transformed Obama. A 20 year all expenses stay at the closest witless protection program isn’t the solution. But it’s a start.
Barack Obama may win the 2012 presidential contest. Yes, bureaucrats and judges will continue to impose new and costly regulations on the economy.
But it doesn’t matter. The long-term trends are almost all bad news for the left wing of the party.
It matters to me. Because another 4 years of this daily and deep crapola coming out of DC, endless vapid verbiage spewing from His Hollowness (American Thinker) and I’ll have to catch the next spaceship to Mars.
(At least it’s more (melo) dramatic than Alex Baldwin threatening to leave the US)
The diehards will never give up, no matter what works or doesn’t work. Their complete personality structures are intertwined with and indistinguishable from the ideology.
And they’ve created an entire infrastructure of dependency clones.
“a 1954 (!) quote from Eisenhower: “Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history.”
Are you listening?
So, now, just raise the necessary taxes.
Yes, I am listening. I wasn’t aware, however, that you advocated reducing the Federal Government to the size (and influence) of the mid-50′s, but I support your plan.
So, now, just cut the government.
Your problem, vivo, is that you subscribe to the Magic Cauldron theory of economics.
This is a view that wealth is not produced by people working in private enterprise but within a Magic Cauldron. You can, using this imagery, take infinite amounts out of the pot; it just keeps bubbling up and fills up again. The Magic Cauldron theory is based around the CONSUMPTION of wealth. Not how it is produced..after all, it’s all produced in that magic pot, isn’t it? So, you can consume and consume and consume..and never, ever, have to worry about producing it. Heh. Neat.
The problem is; this is a fiction. The economics of reality knows that wealth is produced by private enterprise. Private enterprise production of wealth requires, not the total consumption of all the surplus that is produced, but the INVESTMENT of this surplus back into wealth-production.
INVESTMENT of wealth means that the money is put into hiring more people, expanding the factory, industry, service, developing and using better technology and so on.
CONSUMPTION of wealth means: no investment.
So, your simplistic notion of ‘tax them’ means, ‘Go to The Magic Cauldron and get more and more and more for us to consume!!
But, vivo, wealth doesn’t come from a Magic Cauldron. It comes from private enterprise producing goods and services..which are sold on the free market. The surplus is then INVESTED back into making more and better goods and services..which results in hiring more people, expanding industry and so on.
Social services, i.e., provision of goods/services for consumption only, of a nation are meant to function as minimal infrastructures of an economy. Not as key components. The reason for this is because if an economy consumes its capacity-to-produce wealth…then, that economy is ‘dead’. Your Magic Cauldron theory of economics ignores this.
Obama wants to make “Stone Soup”.
Rather pathetic!
["CONSUMPTION of wealth means: no investment."]
Wealth and economic condition of a nation is measured by it’s GDP and GNP!
What is GDP?
GDP. The total “market” (market being consumers) value of all final goods and services produced in a country in a given year, equal to total CONSUMER, investment and government spending, plus the value of exports (to consumers), minus the value of imports.
What is GNP?
GNP is the total value of all final goods and services produced within a nation in a particular year, plus income earned by its citizens (including income of those located abroad), minus income of non-residents located in that country. Basically, GNP measures the value of goods and services that the country’s citizens produced regardless of their location. GNP is one measure of the economic condition of a country…
Wealth distribution.
2004 data suggests that wealth is concentrated in the hands of a small number of families. The wealthiest 1 percent of families owns roughly 34.3% of the nation’s net worth, the top 10% of families owns over 71%, and the bottom 40% of the population owns way less than 1%. We can discuss the credit debt issues later. Bet this data is void in your philosophers Bible!
Now apply the population variables to the wealth distribution data. What percentage of the population does that less than 1% of wealth holders represent? The greater percentage of the domestic market… consumers?
Even a rock can analyze this data and see why our dometic economies are no longer sustainable and why domestic economies play to and move to other global marketplaces! We can discuss arbitary and circular inflation issues later.
The top wealth holders (71+% of wealth) don’t ‘produce’ ANYTHING! The lesser wealth holders ‘produces’ EVERYTHING! Currently, adjusted to economic conditions, the top wealth holders owns even a greater percentage of the wealth. And that structure ain’t going to change anytime soon!
This is an example of why the socialist democrats win repeatedly and so easily with the majority population of working class folks….and why the ‘demon’ government has had to prop up the nations economies for so long. Between the wealth holder elitists and a middle working class creating an arbitrary and cicular inflation of for the values of goods and services thinking it benefits them, they create a widening class of poverty in America….a class that the Tea Party GOP folks have no solutions (no interest) for except, I suppose…sacrifice the no good lazy impoverished, infirmed and aged bastards.
So talk all the intellectual philosophy crap…theres a real world out there and that will continue to play to democrat socialists so long as the Tea party GOP of today ignores the realities.
Your janitors perspective evokes crocodile tears.
If I, as one of your Top 1% folks, own Walmart(for example), what do I produce as long as I keep the doors open? Answer: The largest company in the world, employing the most employees in the world and therefore providing JOBS for all those wonderful, unwashed masses. I produce jobs. As a result, men can feed and house their families, educate their children, provide medical and dental care for their loved ones.
But YOU say I produce nothing, while whining that the problem is- “no jobs!”
Every dollar you steal from me to buy the votes of the slothful is a dollar I cannot invest in an enterprise that creates jobs. Every government regulation that costs me money also detracts from my investment potential. Inflation eats at my principal, so I must invest and profit or impoverish myself. Make it difficult for me to invest profitably and then blubber that you have no job.
Damn LameO, this newly emerging habit of Modern Liberals quoting The Damned is a sure sign that somebody is running out of somebody else’s money.
If you think this country is the same as it was sixty years ago, you’re even more delusional than you imagine the TEA Party is.
Fine essay by Mr. Simon. The good news is that there is today much greater recognition of the problem: an exhausted ‘liberal’ welfare state that has reached a philosophical and political dead end, and which, in its current metastasized form, is inimical to a healthy civil society whose chief strength is the free and responsible individual. Recognizing the problem, however, while a necessary first step, is not the same as crafting a solution. From this point on, it gets complicated, our perennial desire for simple answers notwithstanding. The solution will require time, smart politics, smart policies, and—most importantly—a sustained effort to persuade our fellow citizens that serious reforms are the only option. It will be difficult on all counts.
There are two kinds of opinion articles that I routinely take with a grain of salt:
1. The ones that claim “The Democratic [or Republican] Party is Finished.”
2. The ones that claim “The Emerging Permanent Democratic [or Republican] Majority.”
American history teaches us that nothing is permanent in American politics. In our two-party system, both parties continually reinvent themselves. And as a result, neither party ever gets a permanent upper hand. Just look at who controlled the White House since 1952:
1952-1960: GOP
1961-1968: Dem
1969-1976: GOP
1977-1980: Dem
1981-1992: GOP
1993-2000: Dem
2001-2008: GOP
2009-now: Dem
Obama has certainly been unable to produce a plan. But that doesn’t mean he can’t sign off on someone else’s.
I still say there’s an excellent chance that some compromise plan will be approved by both houses of Congress. Then Obama will sign it (he has no choice at this point), and tout it as a triumph of bipartisanship that wouldn’t have occurred if Obama hadn’t been constantly cajoling everyone to compromise.
The Tea Party won’t like it, and the ultra-liberals who read Krugman won’t like it. But the rest of us will be able to get back to enjoying the rest of the summer.
Hey, let’s knock of the common sense, will ya? It is not what PJMers usually want to hear.
A lot of folks on here could benefit from being forced to watch for 24 hours straight, a rabid coyote on video.
I seem to recall not too many years ago (2007-8) the MSM and the lefty loons (Mathews – Olbermann and other frothing-at-the-mouth ‘liberals’) proclaiming the permanent end to the Republican Party as they knew it.
Although I’d like to think this is the end of the lefties I know better. Republicans are just as good at shooting their foot as the Democrats are.
You are dead wrong. When an animal is wounded, that is when he is most dangerous. So the language used by the left gets shriller, louder, and more violent. Do you really think they are going to unclench their grubby little hands from their grip on power? No they will lie, cheat and steal more and more votes. They don’t care when the votes come from felons, illegal aliens, or voting more than once.
Don’t forget there is the vast wealth in 40lK and IRA plans. Don’t bet for one minute that they wouldn’t steal the money just to keep the game going.
Obama has a plan. Let the Republicans fall all over themselves to deliver him enough borrowing power so he can buy more votes and probably fund that “civilian” security force. And the stupid Republicans stiff their base one more time to deliver largess to the DemonCrats. Its their MO for over 70 years. Don’t expect change to come from Washington. They refuse to get off the spending and debt merry go round.
You got that right, particularly in regard to seizing IRA’s. When the going gets rough they will probably “replace” them with government IOUs, just as they did with the money that Social Security taxes generated.
In a world without the welfare/pork barrel state the current Political class would have no place. They will fight to the end even if it means taking everything down with them.
Unlike a wounded animal, when progressives are frustrated they get sloppy. Yes, they’ll lash out, but they’ll do so in a way that isn’t actually effective. See, they have a tendency to riot when they don’t get their way, and Americans are armed to the teeth and don’t like riots.
In healthy organizations poor outcomes result in change and corrections–there is a feedback loop that corrects mistakes. But do not count on that feedback loop in politics. It is possible for disastrous policies to be rewarded. Look at American cities. Would Detroit have ended up as it has if the electorate had thrown out their incompetent politicians? Or consider Argentina, a nation that a century ago had one of the highest living standards in the world. Then Peron ruined it, but even so, he is still considered a hero in that country. Roger Simon assumes that decline sets up forces that will stop decline. I am not so confident. Decline may set up forces that accelerate decline. As the nation gets poorer, demagogues stoke people’s resentment against the rich to enact measures that make the nation even poorer.
Eisenhower knew the truth: the purpose of ‘conservatives’ to ‘conserve’ the bold advances of their ‘liberal’ predecessors. I expect no less of Obama’s Republican successor.
#24 sinz54
I recommend you look at this
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Control_of_the_U.S._House_of_Representatives.PNG
to discover the source of our problems.
Withdraw any GOP plans on the table. Let the manure hit the fan. And when it does, let’s see what Zippy is going to do. He’s been hiding behind his party and the dimwits that voted for him. Time for this worthless punk to show his hand.
WITHDRAW GOP PLANS and tell them to go fly a kite!
Nope. Pass the Boehner plan. Get it through the Senate. The president will have to sign it. If he doesn’t sign it, he’s toast in 2012. By signing it, his chances of winning in 2012 will be far lower than if a Dem tax-increase plan or a clean bill got through. He will sign it and grind his teeth.
A bill with real cuts wouldn’t pass the Senate. The Boehner plan is no good but it hurts the Dems and helps the GOP. It is the optimal possible plan. The Dems in the White House and the Senate must be removed in 2012 so that bankrupcy might be avoided. The only chance of saving the country is a GOP Congress and White House by 2013 (which is a low chance, but its the only game in town.)
I’m a big fan of Mr. Simon, and his article is absolutely correct at a certain level, but he misses the most ominous point.
One potential outcome is certainly what he suggests…that the big-government, more-entitlements-forever theory of government is dead, regardless of the specific events of the next few years. Nobody who can do math can quibble with the basic conclusion.
And I also like Mr. Simon’s optimistic approach.
But the plain truth is that the more likely outcome is much darker. If our country does in fact emerge from this genuine crisis stronger and more free, it would be the first in history to do so. I’m not saying it can’t happen, and non-trolls at this site obviously pray that it does happen, but the odds are much better that the United States will descend into a dark age than that it will emerge stronger. It will take a renaissance more dramatic than the renaissance that was triggered by WWII to stop the more likely outcome.
The dominant political condition of post-agricultural humanity is tyranny. It’s a fact, not an opinion.
That’s how high the stakes are….just in case you are one of the people deciding to sit out the next election if your poster candidate doesn’t get the nod.
proreason…whether or not the country comes out of its crisis…depends on…. its ability to understand the core problems and seek solutions to those. Thus far, it isn’t! If folks continue to follow like bait fish, all the ‘political’ activists and punditry of both sides, the future doesn’t look so bright for the nation.
The big bad government, by monetary policies, subsidies and consumption, has propped up this nations corrupted and unsustainable economies (private sector) for decades since the 60′s. The American ‘people’ were enamored by the European model and now in a global community and economy we suffer the same problems of Europe. The ‘people’ collapsed our economy…not the government.
The continuing government deficits and debt are only the by-products of the problems created by ‘the people’ over the decades in the private sector economy. The party is over and now the people and their political pundits, want to create all kinds of diversions and blame away from the core causations leading to all the problems of today. Not a recipe for an honest resolve to any problems.
Kindly provide some evidence that the private sector economy is responsible for the economic ills of the US economy.
ETAB;
The privately owned ratings agencies gave good ratings to those packaged sub-prime mortgage products.
the same ones that float the notions of downgrades in credit ratings?
These ‘privately owned’ ratings companies aren’t private business enterprises; they are politically aligned with the various parties. Remember, they are not offering a marketable commodity that can be chosen or rejected by the consumer. So, your example is invalid. I’m waiting for TTThomas to reply but he never substantiates his assertions.
When you begin to provide factual data to support ANY of you long, long diserations of borrowed rambling theories…I may consider your DEMANDS.
Anbody who listens to long dissertations purporting that ‘consumption’ from any source(s) isn’t the sole driving force of private sector productivity….they’re lost!
Likewise, and certainly not in your lifetime, has ANY private sector economy INDEPENDENTLY provided funding for the nations infrastructures for the common good of the nation.
Nope – you can’t get away with such a childish response…that you won’t support your own arguments…unless I support mine.
First- I DO support my arguments with data and logical analysis. And explicit reference. BUT, even if I didn’t, that doesn’t mean that you can just fling your empty opinions around and expect to be taken seriously..UNLESS you substantiate your opinions.
Oh – my views are ‘ borrowed’? What the heck does that mean? Are you seriously suggesting that an economic analysis should emerge, not from knowledge but from my feelings? An economic analysis should be based on an understanding of economic theory – and that doesn’t bubble up on its own. You have to read, study, analyze.
No, consumption isn’t the driving force of an economy. Production of the goods to be consumed..is the driving force. After all, if there’s nothing to consume, then…Then, these privately manufactured/produced goods and services are offered in the open market place for accountable consumption. ..which means, the consumer chooses the best value. That’s a robust economy. You, on the other hand, are totally missing the infrastructure of a robust economy. Read Hayek and Friedman. Read Locke as well, on the Social Contract. And you might learn a great, great deal from Popper’s The Open Society and its Enemies.
Your red herring of the private sector ‘independently funding the national infrastructure’ rejects of course, the massive foundations, hospitals and universities set up by the private sector. But above all, you ignore the Social Contract theory of society, where the private individual gives up some of his wealth for common purposes – such as roads, clean water,etc etc.
The problem is, that govt has moved into the wealth-producing sector of the society, grabbing more and more wealth, and thus, starving the economy of its ability to produce wealth and above all, to invest. The govt has swallowed up this wealth for itself and its massive bureaucracies AND created a subclass of dependents – a high ratio of the population who produce no wealth, no goods and services but live off the productive sector. That destroys an economy.
Keynes’ utterly stupid comment that investment is reduced because the ‘animal spirits’ of the people disappear – is psychological blather. And of course, you don’t understand the nature of an economy as a CAS, a complex adaptive system..and have no interest in exploring the articles I’ve provided on that.
Try again -
Understanding is certainly part of it, but I agree with ETAB that government isn’t the solution, it’s the problem.
Private enterprise is largely self-correcting, when not corrupted by government.
Businesses that fail go out of business. Governments that fail never go out of business….the country does.
A little bit optimistic, don’t you think, Roger? You assume that the Democrat Party will just go kaput. Fat chance. They will have to be destroyed. The thesis that they can no longer politically afford to have a budget plan is valid and has already come to pass. But these leeches will never go quietly away and I think we will be in for a couple of generations of all out strife before a new post Democrat Party society can emerge. “Happy Days are Here Again” is not the song we will be singing.
The difference between the honorable Dem Party and the ignoble Jonestown Party is that Harry, Nan and Barry want the evil Rethugs to drink the Kool-Aid first while they blow their tin horns and proclaim their charismatic charity. This gives them enough time, hope and change to get reelected.
Roger:
I’m encouraged by your optimism, which I share mainly because I believe the American experiment is unique an will work if given it’s head. The problem with the welfare state atrophying is the institutionalized poverty and dependence the left has built. I am confident my children — who never participated in that instutionalized dependence — will do ok, but how about the tens of thousands who live in Detroit or Baltimore or D.C., who have never known anything but living off the dole? The people for whom having babies is an industry that rewards you for production? I don’t know how we build a mentality of thrift, independence and self-reliance into whole populations who have been taught for generations that government will take care of them. Do you? F
I think your SS benefits should be pegged to the number of taxpaying children you put into the economy.
Yeah, good idea. That’s what I call value added means testing. If you want to collect social security at 65, you better knock 5 babies out, otherwise the minimum age for SS is 85, which means most people wont be collecting social security, because most people will die before eligibility–which actually was the case during the first decade of SS under FDR. Oh, and make the means testing apply starting with the baby boomers. It’s only fair after all. Do it for the children. By hooking up with trophy wives, some of the boomers should be able to knock out 5 babies and make the cut for SS by, say, age 70. Of course, same sex marriages are SOL when it comes to knocking out babies, so maybe an exemption is called for? ( Although this might create an incentive for baby boomers to show up in drag at 65 to collect social security; those damn unintended consequences do have consequences, like the gay draft exemption during the Vietnam War.)
De Tocqueville knew nothing in the eighteenth century. He wasn’t born until 1805.
I’m not sure of your point. The 18th century is the period from 1700 to 1799. Surely de Toqueville would have known the historical data from this period.
[“Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history.”]
To ignore that comment as ideological fantasy is playing the ostrich! I have long been a fan of B.F. Skinners works. Want to understand how America became what it is today…study his works!
Makes no differecne in who or what the ideological hierarchy in charge was. What is important, is what their tools were to change the society.
1. The literary community.
2. The entertainment community (film and TV in particular).
3. The education community.
4. The religious community.
5. Human frailty.
The ‘reward’ for comformity? Social justice and equality for all!
The ‘people’ of ALL stripes submitted and comformed to reap the ‘individual rewards’ (treats) of social justice and equality in it myriad of forms.
Now the ‘treats” are running low and the minions are rebelling one against the other…another ‘conditioned’ human trait of politics.
Most of the world looks at America as a ‘people’ not specifically a government and thus, they’re seeing a society of dysfunction on many levels. Not exactly a good perception of a peoples going about the world nation building and proclaiming social principles and economic superiority.
The nation is broken from the bottom up…not the top down!
Skinner? Sheesh – simplistic mechanical behaviorism. I know you have a mechanical view of economics but wasn’t aware that you had the same view of people.
And no, your list is what I define as the ‘surface level’ of a societal system. This surface ideology is embedded within the deep infrastructure -which is always: the economy. And the economy rests on the environmental resources of that nation’s geography. The water resources, soil type and arable lands, climate, mineral resources, animals and plant resources. These cannot be ignored and indeed, the reason for the West’s rise in knowledge and technology is due to the fact that the European biome is the richest biome on this planet.
No, the US is not broken from the bottom but from the top. Government has moved into a dominant economic and intellectual role interfering in private enterprise and wealth production, taking more and more wealth away from the necessary investment needs of the economy. And interfering in intellectual freedom and research and technology – whether it be in the scam of AGW to the interference in childhood education reducing knowledge to feelings.
The rise of the Tea Party, with its focus on limited government, adherence to the Constitution, free markets and budgetary responsibility – is clear evidence that the people of America remain free and strong – and the ideas that founded such democracy, the principles of free speech and self-reliance and independence of work – remain strong.
Lets see some facts behind all your assumptions.
Don’t try going down the road and preaching to me what a natural resource economy is and how it contributes and advances the general economy….especially in any areas of agriculture. You might learn what you don’t want to learn…all backed up with hard facts!
Though America’s agricultural ‘seed stock’ was European, the agricultrual divide between the two is great today. Many foodstuffs of the world were predominately influenced and enhanced by the Bactrians, Mongols, Scythians, Parthians, Kushans, Huns, Arabs, Turks, Afghans, and Dutch. U.S. Exports of meat stock and products today, is conflicted with a strong European influence…not the U.S. Government, that has been a constant struggle for U.S. producers to overcome completely. So when you invoke the agricultural/market economy you don’t know what you’re talking about! Especially, in a global economy! For example! The only thing saving the U.S. meat export market is our constant efforts and ability to define ‘quality’ in the face of adversarial influences by Europe over our common practices of castration and harmone replacement….NOT U.S. government policies! The same applies domestically, with all the special interest whacko’s. I might add, that without the government supports in our efforts (not only meats) our agricultural contributions to the nations economy and achieveing a slice of the global marketplaces would be far less. But what do I know! You say ‘consumption’ doesn’t drive productivity and an economy.
Your intellect and knowledge of the facts are waning!
That has to be the most off-topic and weird reply I’ve read in many years.
You’ve totally ignored my rejection of your surface level (of ideology) as causal of a society – and my locating it firmly in the economy. You have a naive mechanical view of the economy, ignoring the requirements of production capacity (primary and secondary resources, population, knowledge base, work energy)..and instead focus on the ‘mouth’…the consumption…totally ignoring the massive energy costs of production.
And you’ve misunderstood ‘environment’ as ‘agriculture’! How could you make such an error?!
The environmental biome of a region isn’t just the agricultural foods it produces; it’s the raw resources – such as water, climate, natural resources and energy supplies and minerals. That’s not agriculture!
It’s the climate: do you live in darkness for 6 months? Are there wet and dry seasons that prevent plant and animal growth? Is it freezing for 5 months and you can’t build a highway?
The fact that most seeds are hybrids is totally irrelevant; seed hybridization (and that of animals as well) is as old as humans.
Again, why don’t you read some basic economics of Hayek, Friedman. How about moving out of your mechanical haven (Skinner!!!) and read some stuff on Networks and the economy: eg, Castells ‘The Rise of the Network Society’.
["The environmental biome of a region isn’t just the agricultural foods it produces; it’s the raw resources – such as water, climate, natural resources and energy supplies and minerals. That’s not agriculture!"]
Speaking of bizzare comments! Try being a farmer and rancher and not rely upon any of those elements! Your commenting is beginning to take on the characteristics of whats the word…starts with an “m” and ends with a “n” I believe. Now, let me ask you a question since you purport, in following certain economic philosophers, that comsumptions is not the driver of productivity in an an economy…..
Why do the producers of goods and services spend gazillions in advertising and packaging. Why do producers of innovations of products and exisiting products and services spend gazzillions in market research” Who is their advertising and packaging and research directed to…themselves….or to the “consumers” of goods and services?
Show me an innovation that has not been “consumer” based and driven! Innovations follow “consumer trends”…well, at least in the real world!
Just like in research…everything builds upon itself according to needs and wants of a society i.e. its consumers. Fire lead to a new energy, heat and light for example, which led to candles, lanters and alternate energy sources through refining processes and eventually up to the lights of today…for a “consuming” society.
Sure, I understand your innovative theory but you and your philosophical Gods are simply wrong as history repeats over and over. There ‘may’ have been a time for your Gods theory but not in the world of today…not even the computers or the internet innovations were developed without a measure of consumer need established by consumers trends.
Argue the chicken and egg theory all you want! Theres a real world out there with real people in it that consume and that all producers cater to by necessity, in their innovations and marketing.
In reply to TTThomas – again, you are diverting. I’m not talking about farmers or agriculture. You don’t understand ecological constraints on economies.
You state that ‘consumption is the driver of productivity of an economy’. That’s a logical fallacy. Effectively you are stating that the consumer ‘knows’ what they want to be produced and pressures the ‘producers’ to produce these new goods. This doesn’t make sense.
For example, we consumers didn’t ‘know’ that we wanted cars. Or telephones. Or computers. But, the innovative producers came up with an idea for a vehicle that used, not animal or human energy to move it, but a fossil fuel as its energy base. They produced it – and it became a desirable consumer item, and a network of other products went along with it. These innovations emerge within a network; after all, Da Vinci came up with the idea of a helicopter but it sure wasn’t developed in the 16th century!
Advertising functions in the competitive market, to market this private industry’s product vs another private industry’s product. The function is to sell their product to the consumer; make a profit; and then, reinvest this profit into producing more goods. Your claim that this shows that consumerism is the key to the economy isn’t valid. The producer must produce the goods, and make a profit, so that he can invest this profit into more goods.
You can’t set up the ‘needs and wants’ of a society as some kind of a priori set. You can’t prove that the society ‘needed and wanted’ cars, telephones, computers. This linear mechanical connection that you are building up between the consumer’s desires and some kind of insistence that a producer fulfill these desires – well, what proof do you have of such a connection? Can you prove that all the people of X-country, wanted a telephone, before they were even invented? Was that why the computer was invented – because the consumers of the UK wanted them? This is a specious theory of yours..without any evidence.
Sorry, I don’t buy it.
Well, at least T. T. Thomas has exposed the pedigree of his ideas. Of course, he’s not about to admit to the intellectual company he keeps. That is, those who regard human beings as things, animals or machines. And this is one of the themes I’m exploring with respect to the book I’m working on. I’ve had to re-think some of my original premises, and I’ve had to dig deep in order to check the others. I’ve still got a lot of work to do. But the research is sound and the premises hold. The foundational essay is here: Killers Without Conscience.
The essence of it is this: the convergence of some key ideas and worldviews over the last two hundred years or so have produced a particularly lethal cocktail of human behaviors. The rise of the will to power as a prime human motivator in some – but not all – human beings to fill the vacuum left by the rejection of religion as a guide to conscience and the denial of reason as the common code by which all human beings might deal with one another has led to a continuous and unending litany of slaughter and atrocity. At NO time in the last two hundred years have we been free from it.
We are overtly tyrannized by the will-to-power driven men who perpetrate the slaughters and we are passively tyrannized by the weak who allow it to happen and who in many cases welcome it with open arms – a decision that they some of them may come to regret, but by then, it’s far too late. As Thomas Sowell has said in his The Quest for Cosmic Justice, “As history has shwon, and especially in the twentieth century, one of the first things an ideologue will do afte achieving absolute power is kill.”
I’m really starting to despise these people with an implacable, nuclear fuel rod-driven, core-of-the-sun-hot hatred. Even the Missus is starting to see it that way. They’re killing our country while mocking and spitting on every principle we hold dear. They mean to rule us like cattle and slaughter millions of us in the same manner. Some of them have said as much, and some of them now craft policy and advise the President.
I’ve recently arrived at the notion that I cannot really call them monsters any more. That denies them their human agency – the fact that they have made a choice to act in this manner. To call them monsters grants them an excuse of sorts. An excuse that I am not willing to grant. In a way, we can accept that monsters do what monsters do. What we cannot accept are human beings who act in monstrous ways.
A great evil is upon us and if we surrender to it, it is an open question as to whether what remains after another thousand years of this could even be called human. Solzhenitsyn said as much. That’s what’s at stake here – that we, with all of our hopes, dreams, loves and aspirations and yes, failings – everything that makes us human may remain, and not become the things, animals or machines as our erstwhile masters see us.
With regard to your very interesting comments on ‘the will to power’, one of the best books I’ve read on this theme is:
Jean Bethke Elsthain ‘Sovereignty: God, State and Self’. An excellent analysis of the Sovereign Will to Power – that trumps laws and morals’. A critique of such actions as essentially totalitarian.
And of course, there’s my constant favorite: Karl Popper’s ‘The Open Society and its Enemies’ – a critique of Plato, Hegel and Marx and their rejection of the free individual.
Thanks for the references. I’ve got some of Popper’s work in my library, and The Open Society and its Enemies is a well-read classic that informs some of my work. BTW, Australian philsopher and mathemetician David Stove is no fan of Popper, so his work makes for interesting reading – recommend Against The Idols of the Age, a compendium of Stove’s essays assembled by Roger Kimball. Some really good stuuf, there. I have not encountered Elsthain’s work; that one’s now on my list.
Regards – Ward
minor correction in spelling.
It’s Jean Bethke ELSHTAIN.
And thanks for the reference to Stove. I’ll check him out.
Lets get one fact out of the way first! All the political and social philosophers and their ilk for which you folks regurgitate over and over, can’t agree on anything amongst themselves. So, to rely upon the words of these kinds of folks is not only usleless but a proven fact of their lacking capacities to deal with reality. Otherwise, this would be a perfect world handed us…… by those types. You folks are intellectual ‘slaves’ to your centuries old predecessor philospohers…regurgitating robots…making them your Gods and Prophets.
Write and hock all the books you want but, this much I can assure you, not one of you will be the author of any solutions to any of the worlds problems. That siad, I have no doubts your works will feed your ego’s.
Speaking of devotion to and regurgitation of old philosophers – ever heard of B.F.Skinner? Heh.
Were you sober when you wrote that, TT boy? Survey says…. Doubtful.
Your point is exactly why it’s so foolish to dismiss Obama and his sychophants as stupid but harmless liberals.
The only harmless liberals are the ones who don’t feel sufficiently empowered to act as they would like.
” And the economy rests on the environmental resources of that nation’s geography. The water resources, soil type and arable lands, climate, mineral resources, animals and plant resources. These cannot be ignored and indeed, the reason for the West’s rise in knowledge and technology is due to the fact that the European biome is the richest biome on this planet. ”
Nope.
While the economy of any country certainly benefits from natural resources they are not the most important factor for success. We have little water here so we developed desalinization. We have little arable land so we developed hydroponics. I could go on and on. A countries greatest asset is its people. They must be educated, motivated and willing to accept the challenges life presents. Most importantly they must be willing to sacrifice to make their country better for their children and the generations to come. We have built one of the worlds great economies , despite lack of natural resources and in the face of great hostility, wars, boycotts, embargoes and the like. Our best days are still ahead, please G-d.
Give me what I’ve paid in and you don’t have to give me a dime when I retire. Deal?
Yup, the parties over. Of course, going back to a Hoover/ FDR level of budget spending and taxing for social programs also means going back to a pre 1938 naval oriented “volunteer” military of two air craft carriers and a minimal army and air corp, no NASA, and AMTRAK is history. Volunteer mass armies are expensive. I noticed that because of the state department’s failure to get Israel’s public and government on board the new American foreign policy of engagement in the middle east the new administration recommendation is for ending American loan guarantees to Israel; meanwhile it’s American loan guarantee business as usual with the rest of the Arab Spring asylum. Oil talks and BS walks. I think the reality is that, in order to deal with current and projected American debt service, taxes on everyone is going up, spending is going down, and more inflation is the name of the game to make up the political slack over the inability to have significant cuts in spending and increased taxes to deal with the fiscal crisis of the state.
Our government, state and federal, screw us in more ways than I can count. I’ll bet there is not a person on this board that doesn’t pay at least $2 out of every $5 dollars he or she makes to a federal, state, or local government. Bet most here pay 50% of their wages in taxes.
Off the top of my head, I can think of two problems that are even more relevant to our current dilemma than the
Ponzi schemeSocial Security.(1) U.S. regulations cost $1.75 trillion in compliance costs. That’s right. One out of every eight dollars of GDP is compliance. Absolutely Insane.
(2) The highest corporate tax rate in the industrialized world. And anybody with a lick of sense recognizes a corporate tax is just another name for a personal tax passed through to the consumer. Our superior productivity can no longer offset the costs – salaries have no where to go but down for all but the few. You pay a hell of a lot more in federal taxes than what appears on your personalized W-2.
Simply getting rid of Obama will not solve our problems. It’s a step in the right direction, but there is a country mile of steps that need to be implemented to get us out of this mess.
Our government must be restored to the original intent – as small as administratively possible.
There are entire Depts. that should be eliminated. And you can start with the useless Dept. of Education. The Dept. of Energy isn’t two steps behind them in fecklessness. And no one in Congress even has the backbone to make the suggestion that I’m aware.
These radicals from the 70′s learned a big lesson. They don’t have to burn down buildings, blow up government offices, and shut down universities in order to take over the system. Bill Ayers is a perfect example of a leftist radical who followed Antonio Gramsci’s model for revolutionary (communist) change. After building their coalition “they must enter into every civil, cultural and political activity in every nation, patiently leavening them all as thoroughly as yeast leavens bread.”
To change the culture, Gramsci argued, “would require a ‘long march through the institutions’—the arts, cinema, theater, schools, colleges, seminaries, newspapers, magazines, and the . . . [media].” And that’s what they’ve done.It was Saul Alinsky who wrote, “Do one of three things. One, go find a wailing wall and feel sorry for yourselves. Two, go psycho and start bombing—but this will only swing people to the right. Three, learn a lesson. Go home, organize, build power and at the next convention, you be the delegates.”Today, Ayers and many other former radicals are the system.
The implication of the Eisenhower quote is the opposite of what the friend who sent it to you intended. She was likely referring to the Republican party as being the party that will cease to exist, but, as you point out, if the Democrats have their way, social security and all those other programs will go bankrupt and thus, if Eisenhower’s prediction is accurate, it will be the Democrats who we never hear of again.
I’m 52 and have been working since I was 12. Except a grand total of $2,500 in student loans for undergrad and grad school, which I paid off a couple years after graduation, I have never received any government assistance. I worked 2 or 3 jobs to make ends meet, never carried over a balance on my credit cards, and paid off my mortgage in 14 years. I have ALWAYS known there would be no Soc Sec by the time I retire, so I have saved aggressively for retirement. My daughter will get 4 years of Soc Sec Survivor’s Benefit because my husband died young, and we are laughing all the way to the bank, putting it away for her college education. It’s all we’ll ever get after years of paying taxes.
The Pubbies are doing their standard timid act at a time when they should be demanding huge spending cuts NOW. Passing strange to me that professional politicians, who are or should be attuned to the slightest change in the public mood, have a tin ear for the zeitgeist. Middle America is rising and snorting like a burdened animal trying to shake a tormenting rider off its back and the Republicans say “We can’t see you, we can’t hear you.” What a tragedy if this opportunity to unseat the statist Dems is missed. And what a catastrophe to come.
Here’s an excellent article
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903999904576470551476951590.html?mod=WSJ_hp_mostpop_read
The Road to a Downgrade – a short history of the entitlement state. This article outlines the origins and devt of the US as a socialist entitlement state.. It outlines this history as essentially, government intervention and engineering ‘run amok’. Medicare was supposed to cost 12 billion by 1990 and instead cost 110 billion. This same exponential rise in costs – ten times as much as originally promised – is found everywhere. Plus, LBJ and other Democrats added other ‘entitlements’ such as food stamps, public housing etc – none of which were reviewed for costs and budget needs..
And here’s what it says about Obama:
“Then came Mr. Obama, arguably the most spendthrift president in history. He inherited a recession and responded by blowing up the U.S. balance sheet. Spending as a share of GDP in the last three years is higher than at any time since 1946. In three years the debt has increased by more than $4 trillion thanks to stimulus, cash for clunkers, mortgage modification programs, 99 weeks of jobless benefits, record expansions in Medicaid, and more.”
“This is the road to fiscal perdition. The looming debt downgrade only confirms what everyone knows: Congress has made so many promises to so many Americans that there is no conceivable way those promises can be kept. Tax rates might have to rise to 60%, 70%, even 80% to raise the revenues to finance these promises, but that would be economically ruinous.
Yet Mr. Obama and most Democrats still oppose any serious reform of Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. This insistence on no reform reinforces the notion that our entitlement state is too big to afford but also too big to change politically. This is how a AAA country becomes AA, the first step on the march to Greece.”
My own view is that Obama isn’t spending because he’s an ideological statist; he’s spending because, as a pathological psyche, with a need to control others, spending/bribing the electorate is his only means of so doing.
I love it!
Those fools are trying to tell the American public the Republicans are trying to ruin next Christmas!
If they get their way, every Christmas from now ’til Christmas is cancelled by the Democrats is going to be a disaster.
And they are saying the Republicans are being “juvenile”!!!! They’re stealing the Conservative criticism, and repeating it against the Republicans every time they quit sucking their thumb long enough to make a statement.
What a bunch of losers.
The American People have been effectively disenfranchised from their government for about 5 years, thanks to the Progressive Democrats.
Look! The nature and scope of the financial fiasco is simple. The cartel (FED) runs the country through it’s politicians. The politicians do NOT represent the people. They have their own interests in mind. Out of 535 members of both houses NOT one stands on truth and speaks the truth. We have a known fraud in the Oval office. Negotiations with a known fraud affecting the entire financial future of America, how’s that for insanity?
How many document experts (some are former CIA) does it take to convince CONgress we have a forgery in barry soetero’s birth record? How many faxes, phone calls, letters does it take to alert the FBI, the Congressional investigator, and CONgress in general that liar-in-chief is a phony? False social security # (you try it and see how far you go)and an executive order (#13489) signed less than 24 hrs. in office blocking his past records.
A previous judge writes for PJMedia (uh-umm Mr.Adams)and says nothing about the fraud against the citizens of this Republic. For sure he knows plenty from other justices but NO guts, no integrity no fortitude to address the MAIN impediment to recovering America. Article 2, sec 1 clause 5 of the Constitution is not an optional requirement for POTUS. It is the qualifying clause of eligibility for both POTUS & VP POTUS. Is there any out there in media-ville that care? Afraid of a birther label? Even if your 100% correct?
Maybe Holder was right, “a Nation of COWARDS”! Our little brave voices don’t count. However, count them together and we have movement rebelling. WE WANT OUR COUNTRY BACK!
this is obummer’s waterloo. he doesn’t get a new checkbook, full of our tax $$$, he has no way to buy votes. he starts cutting the entitled welfare rates he will lose his base. he can’t back down and get re-elected.
give up to prez spendsalot and the Tea Party will look weak. voters will start seeing that both parties are pretty much the same.
looks to me that RINO’s like mccain are on their way out, either way. the folks are mad. things will change, just maybe not like what anybody expects.
hang in there pubs. the sky isn’t really falling. just the socialist’s commie dreams of their fathers.
Personally, I don’t care if the President has a plan. Congress should have something more concrete at this point. If anything the POTUS should been more dignified than calling out an attack on republicans.
http://www.intellectualtakeout.org/library/articles-commentary-blog/national-debt-faq
ETAB…
["Speaking of devotion to and regurgitation of old philosophers – ever heard of B.F.Skinner? Heh."]
At least the “skinner works” I refer to was Skinner being a real scientist, working in a real lab with a real and valid research model….something you and your Gods can remotely claim.
Science can’t be confined to a laboratory and the definition of a scientist is not ‘someone who works in a lab’. Furthermore what is a ‘real research model’ as differentiated from an ‘unreal research model’. Same question with ‘valid’.
Skinner’s views were shown to be invalid outside of the controlled and ‘unreal’ constraints of the laboratory; again, they are therefore invalid.
Durn! I’m getting slow! I’ve been dealing with a can of spaghetti o’s missing it’s spaghetti o’s.
ETAB….["You can’t set up the ‘needs and wants’ of a society as some kind of a priori set. You can’t prove that the society ‘needed and wanted’ cars, telephones, computers."]
What nonsense…but predictable form you!
Auto-MOBILES came as a result of a “MOBILE” society! First walkin on foot, pulling sleds and carts with goods, then on animals for personal and goods transportation, then in buggys and wagons attatched to animals, then came steam and trains and combustion engines to automobiles to do what? MOVE A ‘MOBILE’ PEOPLE AND THINGS FROM POINT ‘A’ TO POINT ‘B’ FASTER AND EASIER THAN WALKING or riding annimals and animal powered vehicles?
Likewise, for telephones and computers…building upon consumer traits of communicating to one another. Computers have additional consumer motivations.
Don’t stop now! You long ago diverted from the topic of Mr. Simon!
No, there is no predetermined technological path in history, or indeed, any predetermination in history.
You cannot declare that the emergence of automobiles is inherent and predetermined in the human species, because they are ‘mobile’. All living organisms are mobile but there is no predetermined form in their evolution.
["No, there is no predetermined technological path in history..."]
Of course not! Not in the real world anyway. The people and their universe are always evolving in advance of techonolgy and thus, techonological advances ‘serves’ evolution. Next time you go to your doc, ask him to give a vaccination for an ‘unknown’ fatal disease and see if he gives you that okay, “I’m referring you to a psychiatrist” look.
But hey, if you’ve got some R&D that will produce a goods or service completely ‘foreign’ to mankind and their universe…God bless you!
By the way! Flight has been around on earth probably since the beginning of time and has always captured the minds of folks. When the people and their societies evolutionized to a point where flight would benefit their needs…an airplane was developed to fulfil that need.
Speaking of fulfilling human needs. If I were younger, I think I would R&D something edible to feed peoples ego’s. Say, something like a candybar and when say, ole ETAB’s ego needs a boost (rarely I suspect) you just grab one of ole Thomas’ ego bars and keep typing and preaching the Gospels of philosophical absolutes.
Nope – I disagree with your Skinner mechanism/ sociobiology. Totally disagree. There is no evolutionary path for humans or any biological species.
There IS evolution but it’s not predetermined or linear. I’d suggest some books and articles but since you are Stuck-on-Skinner I doubt if you’d even consider them. But heck, you could try out Stu Kauffman ‘The Origins of Order’ and Per Bak’s ‘How Nature Works’.
["There IS evolution but it’s not predetermined or linear."]
Thats grand news! Maybe you’ll morph into a squid next week and squirm off for the ocean forever…opps I mean those puddles that used to be oceans last week… I can see it now, the former Hominidae flea picker turned know it all Homo Sapien ETAB, is now a puddle squid. Happy evolution! You do know I hope, inspite of all your intellectual arrogance, that when you die not a soul on earth will give a moments notice what you thought you knew or how great or superior you thought you were. I’m pretty sure you will not have left any achievements for which historians will record other than by a obit notice.
The claim that “there are…those so handicapped that the state should step in” exemplifies a fundamental error in political ideology. That government must force the good and successful citizens to help the helpless ones is not only an insult and ludicrous in our overwhelmingly beneficent and bounteous country, but also, most importantly, it’s fundamentally irrational.
Forced charity is not only an oxymoron, but also contrary to human nature. Reason, the fundamental tool of human survival, requires freedom from force. After all, “A gun is not an argument.”
When government violates rather than protects freedom in this fashion it becomes the most insidious purveyor of evil.
Cling tightly to your social philosophy and the dem socialists with their majority following across all party lines on core social issues, will clean your clock…just as they have been for the best of 80 years now!
You know it just came to me that Obamas hate for Israel, in fact the hate the ” progressive ” movements has for Israel is that we have tried their ” spread it around ” philosophy and proven it is a failure. In our early days Israel was as progressive and socialist as you get. The famous kibbutz movement was grounded in ” it takes a village ” philosophy.
Everybody got the same little house, everybody got the same little salary. Fruit pickers got paid the same as managers. heck even the children were raised communally. The end result was bankruptcy. Nobody was motivated to work harder because the next guy got the same benefits even if he was a loafer. Children left as soon as they were able. The kibbutzim became landlords and leased land to shopping center developers to pay their bills. The whole system failed economically. Maybe thats why they hate us.
I keep hearing that BHO doesn’t have a plan! I think he has a plan and is playing both houses of congress and the American sheeple like a cheap fiddle. First, I think one could say that he is a Fabian socialist (socialism by evolution, not revolution). And second, his plan is right out of Alinsky’s playbook – create chaos and unrest, then take over. Has he not demonstrated his socialist beliefs? Has he not created chaos/unrest? The next step in his plan is to take over. “Never let a good crisis go to waste.” Wake up, congress – wake up, sheeple. Time is running out. BHO has a plan, and he’s implementing is like a well-lubricated machine.
Yesterday upon the stair I saw a plan that was not there. It was not there again today. I wish, I wish that it would go away.
Along with the man with no plan.
The lack of any published scorable plan is a serious weakness for Obama. I am happy repubs have wised up and begun pointing out that simple fact. They should keep up a continuous drumbeat on that issue, since it is something any american should understand, and the MSM will be unable to conceal for too much longer. Once he finally puts out a real scorable plan, his lies and demagaguery are exposed by simple arithmatic. It is another big difference between Obama and Clinton. Clintons budget plans had some funny math, and weren’t that good, but at least he always had one. Obamas ideas are so radical and incompetant that he can’t possibly afford to put them on paper. The last time he did, his Jan budget, it lost in the dem controlled senate, getting ZERO votes. Even his fellow dems could not vote for that piece of trash.
O’Mamba has a plan alright; unfortunately it translates into burning down the closest thing to paradise one shrine, principle and dollar at a time so that he and his gang can sit in the ashes.
Any sociopath with his backing would do the same thing — waving to the suicide watch as they go down in the end.
Too bad every one of those 72 virgins looks like Yasser Arafat.
We can rebuild. We will.
Roger Simon, in the column “Man Without a Plan” mentions the necessity of a government-provided safety net. I heard this mentioned last night on Stossel’s Fox News show, and from other Conservatives – usually prefaced by the obligatory “Of Course”. Everybody seems to agree.
Why?
Are American’s not generous enough to help out our fellows without being forced to do so? Must we threaten to jail our fellow citizens if they do not contribute to charity? That is what the “social safety net” is – compulsory contribution backed, as are all laws, by threat of state violence. (Before anyone gets upset, all laws must be backed by the threat of legitimate state violence; without this there is no civilization. And civilization de-legitimizes private violence; that is what civilization is.)
I’ve been through the Gospels several times. While Jesus repeatedly tells His followers to help the poor and needy, I can find no place where He tells His followers to force the unwilling to help the poor (whether the decision to coerce the unwilling was made democratically or otherwise) so the argument that we need a social safety net funded by coercive confiscation because “it is Christian to help the poor” flunks the smell test.
We don’t force people to give blood, but we do have a steady supply of donated blood (we’d have a lot more if Liberals donated at the same rate as Conservatives). Conservatives give vast sums of money, voluntarily, to charities. Is the coercion necessary because Liberals must force each other to help our unfortunate fellows? This coercion didn’t exist 100 years ago, yet people survived. We’re much richer now, so much more able to give.
Why is it legitimate to force people to give their labor (or their income – the fruit of their labor – the same thing) to others (not the community, but other individuals) but not legitimate to force them to give their blood?
I’d be grateful for any cogent arguments as to why we must use the law to threaten force in order to be able to protect the most vulnerable among us.
Thank you.
Greg Norton