TonySutton
11-04-2010, 06:43 PM
A mail list I am on recently had a thread about Obama's failures. This is a reply someone posted.
Enjoy...
*Sighs*
I call it the plight of the microwave warriors... You know, the folks you see fidgeting in front of a microwave because it's not cranking out the hot sandwich fast enough?
A little history.
Americans have been gulping down the snake oil of putting off paying for infrastructure maintainance for sixty years. They've also swallowed heaping helpings of 'Business is good, Government is bad.' for over a hundred years. And for eighty years have put less thought into their candidate's actual record and qualifications than yesterday's weather.
Some hard facts:
-There are big, hard, nasty organizations out there, with agendas we would not be pleased to see implemented. Some of these are foriegn governments, with military and economic forces that are brought to bear in friendly and not-so-friendly competition. Others are multinational corporations, which, no matter their public image, exist only to generate maximum cash flow, regardless of all other considerations.
These can only be countered by a strong federal government. Sorry, but that's that. Keeping it from overreaching in the private sector involves balance and constant watchdogging, but we seem to be short on the sane versions of those right now...
-Business isn't more efficient than government. Never was, never will be. Saying that is like saying an apple is more apple than an orange. The purpose of business is to make a profit. Period. Anything else is nice, but extra, and easily discarded in a crisis. The purpose of government is whatever social contract provisions we decide to give it. Oddly enough, if you decide to run your government like a business, you're technically straying into classic Communism as it was practiced in Stalinist Russia.
-Job killing taxes is a phony scare phrase. Taxes are at the lowest rate in the last century. But that doesn't seem to be encouraging job growth, does it? Like, for instance, when taxes were at their height, back in the late forties, with booming job markets. Here's a hint; when taxes are higher, the rich are more desperate to make more money, so they tend not to sit on their piles of cash. Silly? At least it makes more sense, historically, than 'trickle down', or any of the other excuses for not restoring some balance.
-Opinions aren't sacred. Whatever your beliefs are, or mine for that matter, nobody has the right to inflict a mode of behavior or restrictions on others due to beliefs, unless it involves minors or nonconsensual harm to another. Period. And regarding somebody with strong beliefs as somehow 'special' and exempt from the usual responsibilities of society is so childish as to possibly be classed with a form of mental illness.
-Taxes are the bills we pay. Grown-ups pay bills. You can try to adjust your budget, but some things just need to be paid for. Again, period. It's time to get past the concept of the magic cupboard that always has cookies in it because we don't see the grown-ups restocking it. We're the grown-ups now, and we have to keep things fixed, people healthy, and children cared for. Now. Not on the next billing cycle. Now.
Given all this, you expected the complete fix in two years? With a Roman chorus constantly screaming against any moves he made?
Really?
Sorry, just a little mild crankiness. But I do get so tired of people complaining while buying into the popular myths.
Enjoy...
*Sighs*
I call it the plight of the microwave warriors... You know, the folks you see fidgeting in front of a microwave because it's not cranking out the hot sandwich fast enough?
A little history.
Americans have been gulping down the snake oil of putting off paying for infrastructure maintainance for sixty years. They've also swallowed heaping helpings of 'Business is good, Government is bad.' for over a hundred years. And for eighty years have put less thought into their candidate's actual record and qualifications than yesterday's weather.
Some hard facts:
-There are big, hard, nasty organizations out there, with agendas we would not be pleased to see implemented. Some of these are foriegn governments, with military and economic forces that are brought to bear in friendly and not-so-friendly competition. Others are multinational corporations, which, no matter their public image, exist only to generate maximum cash flow, regardless of all other considerations.
These can only be countered by a strong federal government. Sorry, but that's that. Keeping it from overreaching in the private sector involves balance and constant watchdogging, but we seem to be short on the sane versions of those right now...
-Business isn't more efficient than government. Never was, never will be. Saying that is like saying an apple is more apple than an orange. The purpose of business is to make a profit. Period. Anything else is nice, but extra, and easily discarded in a crisis. The purpose of government is whatever social contract provisions we decide to give it. Oddly enough, if you decide to run your government like a business, you're technically straying into classic Communism as it was practiced in Stalinist Russia.
-Job killing taxes is a phony scare phrase. Taxes are at the lowest rate in the last century. But that doesn't seem to be encouraging job growth, does it? Like, for instance, when taxes were at their height, back in the late forties, with booming job markets. Here's a hint; when taxes are higher, the rich are more desperate to make more money, so they tend not to sit on their piles of cash. Silly? At least it makes more sense, historically, than 'trickle down', or any of the other excuses for not restoring some balance.
-Opinions aren't sacred. Whatever your beliefs are, or mine for that matter, nobody has the right to inflict a mode of behavior or restrictions on others due to beliefs, unless it involves minors or nonconsensual harm to another. Period. And regarding somebody with strong beliefs as somehow 'special' and exempt from the usual responsibilities of society is so childish as to possibly be classed with a form of mental illness.
-Taxes are the bills we pay. Grown-ups pay bills. You can try to adjust your budget, but some things just need to be paid for. Again, period. It's time to get past the concept of the magic cupboard that always has cookies in it because we don't see the grown-ups restocking it. We're the grown-ups now, and we have to keep things fixed, people healthy, and children cared for. Now. Not on the next billing cycle. Now.
Given all this, you expected the complete fix in two years? With a Roman chorus constantly screaming against any moves he made?
Really?
Sorry, just a little mild crankiness. But I do get so tired of people complaining while buying into the popular myths.