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View Full Version : If You Want To See What's Wrong With America - Look at these debate questions!




JPFromTally
08-09-2007, 10:21 PM
At the AFL-CIO Democrats debate on MSNBC they had some ordinary folk ask questions to the candidates. What I found interesting about these questions is how they followed a common populist theme.

The formula is:

I WANT SOMETHING +
GOVERNMENT SHOULD GIVE IT TO ME
-----------------------------------------------
HOW WILL YOU USE THE POWER OF GOVT
TO GET IT FOR ME?

Is this what American has come to? We used to be the land of the free and the home of the brave? Now we've been reduced to beggin for charity from the government elite.

Examples:

ROBERT FLYNN (Insulator): Yes. I’m a union insulator. We work building buildings, making them energy efficient. (Cheers.) Unfortunately, many companies don’t invest in energy-efficient products, even though in the long run they’ll save money. If you’re president, what policies would you implement to make businesses invest in energy-efficient technologies to stop our reliances on foreign oil and help our environment?

---------

STEVE SKVARA (retired steel worker): Not a problem.

After 34 years with LTV Steel, I was forced to retire because of a disability. Two years later, LTV filed bankruptcy. I lost a third of my pension, and my family lost their health care. Every day of my life I sit at the kitchen table across from the woman who devoted 36 years of her life to my family, and I can’t afford to pay for her health care. What’s wrong with America, and what will you do to change it? (Extended cheers, applause.)

--------

JIM MCGOVERN (FORMER MAYTAG WORKER AND IRAQ WAR VETERAN): Hello.

After serving in Iraq for a year, I came home to find that my factory job at Maytag had closed and moved to Mexico. That’s not what I was hoping for when I came home from war. I was making good wages and benefits, and it was devastating to me and my family and our community and after three years, it still is.

So what will you do to keep manufacturing jobs like mine from leaving the country?

---------

I work for Resurrection Hospital in the Chicago area for over 11 years. My co-workers and I have been trying to form a union. Resurrection has challenged us every step of the way. Even eight of my co-workers has been fired who supported the union.

I want to know, what would you do to restore the rights of workers like myself who want to form a union?

---------

DEBORAH HAMNER (Sago miner widow): Thank you.

My husband, George Junior Hamner, was one of the 12 men who were killed in the Sago Mine last year. It’s happening again right now with the six trapped miners in Utah. I feel that the Bush administration has failed workers like my husband by rolling back dozens of important workplace protections.

My question is, as president, what will you do to improve the health and safety in our coal mines and all of our workplaces across America?

---------

BARBARA JANUSIAK (intensive care nurse): As a nurse, I live with the failures of the American health care system daily.

We don’t have enough nurses to staff our hospitals. There are millions of unemployed -- well, that too, but millions of uninsured. And even those who are insured do not get the care that they need because they are either denied coverage or the costs are too high.

As president, how would you address these issues?

---------

american.swan
08-09-2007, 10:25 PM
AMEN!! Totally agree. History shows that these kind of "government hands out charity" is what dooms all Democracy sense time began. Nothing like government handing out worthless paper for those who want it.

Shink
08-09-2007, 10:33 PM
I don't really agree with outsourcing jobs from Americans, but I know what you mean. (I'm sure the answer for me on that has something to do with the free market, but I'm not an economist yet, haven't read Mises or the others)

Less government will save people from so many grievances, and for those who think otherwise, it's unfortunate that the media ingrained it in their psychology to be weak-minded mewling kittens.

ctb619
08-09-2007, 10:33 PM
They're not all bad questions, particularly the question from the Iraq war veteran about his manufacturing job being shipped overseas...but you do make an excellent point - generally these people want more government intervention, not less.

tsetsefly
08-09-2007, 10:45 PM
I don't really agree with outsourcing jobs from Americans, but I know what you mean. (I'm sure the answer for me on that has something to do with the free market, but I'm not an economist yet, haven't read Mises or the others)

Less government will save people from so many grievances, and for those who think otherwise, it's unfortunate that the media ingrained it in their psychology to be weak-minded mewling kittens.

you know the USA out of first world countries has the highest tax rate on corporations 35%, even more socialized European countries are going lower than 20%, this puts US companies at a huge disadvantage, plus they get double taxation...

Everyone tries to fight for a piece of the pie, like bastiat says "the state is that great fiction by which everyone tries to live at the expense of everyone else" so true.. What you cant win fairly in the market you need to turn to government force to get. BTW, everyone that has not read The Law (http://www.amazon.com/Law-Frederick-Bastiat/dp/1933550147/ref=pd_bbs_1/104-6633135-0054330?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1186720990&sr=8-1) by bastiat, must redead, it is possibly the greatest book on government and what its role should be, and it was written in 80 pages! and 150 years ago, but you read the book and you think it was written last week, lol, in the reviews on person was amazed to find out the book was written 150 years ago after he finished reading it...

Although it is true that alot of these people have had their jobs lost because of america's tax policies against businesses...

Kuldebar
08-09-2007, 10:48 PM
Leonard E. Read, the founder of the Foundation for Economic Education in 1946, used to say that Americans live in a country in which various levels of government extract over 40% of their productivity, yet they call this system freedom. "They don’t know the difference between freedom and coercion."

So, I do not pay much attention to national politics. Politics always reflects the understanding of the voters, and the voters cannot tell the difference between freedom and coercion. Worse: they are unwilling to surrender coercion for freedom.

It is not just America. Citizens all over the world are persuaded of the grand illusion of the 20th century, namely, that government coercion provides personal security: a safety net against hard times. They look at the government’s net and think "safety." I look at the net and think "entrapment." Voters say, "Don’t take away the net. We paid for it. We deserve it." They do, indeed.

-Gary North

Yes, it's worrisome. A lot of Ron Paul's work involves educating people about freedom and responsibility.

ThePieSwindler
08-09-2007, 10:49 PM
you know the USA out of first world countries has the highest tax rate on corporations 35%, even more socialized European countries are going lower than 20%, this puts US companies at a huge disadvantage, plus they get double taxation...



Ah the irony - they tax them, then subsidize them with corporate welfare.

fj45lvr
08-10-2007, 11:09 AM
It always make me sick to my stomach when people and candidates talk of "creating jobs" etc. as it is NOT something that gov. is responsible for.....they really should be asking themselves why they are leaving?? I used to work for a large U.S. company with manufacturing all over the globe...they would do the R&D here, get the production lines figured out and then ship it overseas for the duration....I never knew the difference in cost as to wages but I know there is MUCH MUCH more than that (besides general work ethic and discipline) Insurance costs, workman's comp claims for such things as sore wrists(You won't see those overseas!!!), lawyer costs, property taxes, environmental regulation and permitting, benefits, etc. and etc. If there is truly a "global economy" we can essentially price ourselves out of the market with all these "other" types of expenses piled on and revolving heavily around the legal system (suits). Wake up people.