Republicans, at least the ones I know, are always going on about the almighty market and it's ability to overcome all the ills of the world. The market place will take care of this and the market place will take care of that, as long as we decrease regulation, let the full force of the market spread it's wealth across the breadth of the economy. The market will weed out the weak, enrich the strong and provide everlasting dividends to those brave enough and wealthy enough to swim in its languid pools of prosperity and largesse.
Republicans, at least the ones I know, are always complaining about the welfare state and 'hand outs' to the poor being a drag on the economy. Let each person be responsible for their own destiny they cry, the American economy should not be expected to look after it's young, it's poor, it's despondent and it's sick, we cannot afford 'socialized' medicine, social security is anethema to the free market spirit and unbridled capitalist nature of the American psyche.
Republicans, at least the ones I know, believe that every American should be welcomed into the 'ownership society', we should own our homes and have a vested position in the corporate behemoths who only have our best interests at heart.
Republicans, at least the ones I know, believe that creating individual wealth is all that matters and in the creation of that wealth the individual will be able to constantly attain the trappings of wealth where one no longer has to worry about health care costs, I can afford the best. Education, I send my child to the best private school I can afford. Housing, I'm selling the McMansion for another much bigger one. Social security, I'm not worried about retirement I have a portfolio that will provide more cash than I will ever be able to spend.
But those people are not representative of the 98% of Americans who rely on Government to help fill in missing parts of the American Dream that blood, sweat and tears cannot alone provide. And, they are looking at what is going on right now and probably thinking... what the f*** is going on?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Do you think that "government" is just some sort of magical, benign force in the universe that conjures up goodies for the downtrodden in your Dickensian morality play?
By your logic, 98% of the population needs to be supported by 2%. Government doesn't create anything. It's a transfer mechanism. It takes from one set of people, and gives to a more politically favored group, after extracting an 80% transfer fee. Perhaps I'm wrong, but I don't believe that's a recipe for a sustainable society.
Conservatives like me believe that maybe not everyone is capable of self-reliance, but almost everyone is. I don't view the average person as some sort of pathetic victim who can't look out for himself. I believe in the dignity of the individual.
It's important to strike the right balance between genuine compassion toward those who deserve it, versus fostering a culture of dependency and weakness. Not everyone needs a handout.
The problem with government redistribution schemes is, someone's got to create the wealth in the first place. Who's going to do it? Your 2%? Pretty soon everywhere starts to look like Buffalo, where everyone's trying to whack up an ever-shrinking pie.
America's a unique place. It wasn't built by people who were looking to be taken care of by the government. It was built by hardheaded, tough sons of bitches who made their own way in the world.
Today, in places like China and India, there are hungry, smart, motivated people who can do just about anything their wealthier, more expensive American counterparts can. We will not prevail if we view ourselves as wage slaves. We need to think like owners.
It's not true that Republicans believe that creating individual wealth is all that matters. But it does matter. I believe that all people have an obligation to develop their talents in the service of their fellow man. We're blessed to live in a place and time where the reward for that can be a life of great comfort. Why is that bad?
When you rely on government, you're relying on someone else's sweat, blood and tears. There is no free lunch. There's a cost to the man who pays, but he'll get over that. The real cost is to the guy who sacrifices his dignity, his self-respect and his freedom.
You really have no idea what either you or I are talking about. The allusion in my post was toward the fact that in a time of economic crisis the mantra from conservatives was to alleviate the problem by expanding corporate welfare and making permanent, tax cuts to the rich. It is all you know... and all you care about and now we all know what a complete crock of crap it is. Whilst the top 2% of this country will be mostly insulated from this recession the other 98% will find themselves needlessly victimized by a system so broken and totally biased against them, not one proposal out there designed to fix this thing addresses the root cause of the crisis we face and throwing $150Billion into a $13Trillion economy in the hopes of 'stimulating' it is, frankly, comical. You appear to lack any grasp of basic economic theory and instead revert back to what got us into this mess in the first place. Your history is also at fault, this country was founded by religious zealots, aristocratic- slave owning europeans, robber barons and assorted misanthropes hell bent on lining their own pockets until, by acts of congress, they were finally stopped short of creating their own perculiar form of feudalism. This is a great country but like any great country it is not perfect and never has been, it is by the will of the people, not some hard headed entrepreneurs and self styled sons of bitches, and the influence they were able to exert on gevernment, that this country has sustained and succeeded. The little guy has played just as large a roll in shaping the destiny of America as any self-righteous nabob of the oligarchy.
A $600 to $1200 dollar check coming through the mail in May really is a complete slap in the face and will be small consollation to the people of this country who will find themselves losing their homes, incomes and way of life.
That to sustain the 'Bush Boom' most of this country borrowed up to the hilt and beyond is beyond your ken, the fact that this administration, the banks and practically every lending institution encouraged this reckless abandonment of fiscal responsibility, and indeed de-regulated to ensure they could get away with it, regardless of the long term implications means nothing to you or your ilk, you have absolutely no idea how bad this really is and instead break out all the old, tired, misty-eyed but intrinsicly right wing intellectual baloney your party is so infamous for. You are governed by two basic interests, greed and fear. Accept that, admit to it, dispense with any illusions that you care about your fellow Americans and I might have more respect for your hackneyed platitudes and condescending rhetoric on compassion and dependency.
Post a Comment