a lack of focus
Sure looks that way to me.
Everywhere.
We have a new President now, (I really hadn't noticed, the bullshit factor seems to be about the same......). The party on the right is pouting and refusing to play at all, while the party on the left is strutting and playing the same old "it's all their fault" tune.
Focus.
A news item that I saw this morning notes that a whopping 66% of all cellphone data traffic is generated by the iPhone.
Can I ask who cares?
I saw an item last week noting that the state of Virginia is considering a tax (or is it a fee?) on every mile that autos drive, to support roads and infrastructure in that state. (I wonder what they do with gasoline and diesel taxes?). Along those lines, may I suggest a tax on the iPhone, (or is it a fee), to support those of us who pay outlandish rates for auto insurance and for cellular phones?
There is a crisis in this country. It is not economic or political or moral.
It is a detachment from reality, and that condition just happens to extend into those aforementioned arena's.
The Obama administration keeps stimulating the economy, but they have not a clue as to what they are stimulating, or what they are trying to cure. The other party, while crying the blues, along with their choir of pundits and talking heads has no better notion of what is going on.
This sucks.
It is time to simply back off. The president needs to chill a little and stop spending money. I am not saying that his heart is not in the right place, but neither he, not anyone else it seems, has a clear idea of what has happened or why, and what is happening now.
The economic crunch has been a long time in coming, and it has been orchestrated in such a way that any attempt to stem the damage only exacerbates the problem. The middle class in this country is being wiped out, we are becoming a nation of haves and have-nots, very quickly now, and efforts to throw relief at those who see themselves slipping across that metaphysical line are benefitting the haves more than anyone else. Wealth is being drawn away from the general population at an alarming rate, and concentrated in the hands of a very few, (a good percentage of whom do not live or vote in this country). The rules of commerce favor them overwhelmingly, (there is now a convenience fee attached to the act of paying a bill in cash, rather than allowing a merchant access to my bank account).
This is deregulation gone amok!
If the government wants to give me a little relief, it needs to first level the playing field, and stop the hemorrage of wealth. Right now, throwing money into the economy is throwing money into the same funnel that sucked the life out of us for the last eight years. It accomplishes nothing save finishing the job.
Then, there is the other side of the coin.
Are we worth saving?
Most days I have to say that I doubt it. We are a culture that lives vicariously through text messaging and the pornography of talk radio and news TV. What is there to save? Family values? C'mon---name one and show me how it is practiced on a wide scale here in the USSA.
We used to say that the times, they were a changin'. Geez did we ever undershoot on that notion......
posted by eccentric recluse at 2:17 PM
3 Comments:
When our country (culture) works, it works so well that the "how/why" of it is nebulous. Like that mysterious, good feeling that a person gets, and they aren't even sure why. And when they try understand it well enough to maintain it, it's lost.
"Conservatism" and "liberalism" coexist; not out of any person's effort... but simply by definition.. because you CANNOT have one, without the other as a reference. If we were all liberals, how would we even know it ?
When a group of people become foolish enough to think that they can skew the balance.. the trouble begins, in some level of fascism.
Similarly... capitalism and socialism (in a healthy, conscientious society) not only coexist.. they're co-dependent. One cannot exist (for long) without the other. Pit them against each other, and they both die. Instead of turning to each other to work together.. they'll stand in the kitchen, arguing over recipes, while the house burns down, because nobody was keeping an eye on the oven.
I won't deny my politics (conservative/libertarian) while pointing out that focusing on historical blame is pointless (plenty to go around).. and state clearly, that the current administration is aggravating things, above and beyond both parties and their posturing.
He's proposing things that are simply, mathematically impossible.. And considering that HE knows this.. I have to wonder what his true intentions might be.
As the real effect of growing unemployment starts filtering into an already crippled tax-base.. utter collapse is looming.. prob something that has alreday happened.. and we're stuck, only able to watch.
Where does that leave us ? And is it what Obama is aiming for ?
I say yes.
No argument with this post!
It's only a matter of how long it will take to dig out from under this insanity's aftermath. That it will fail, is a given. Obama would need a government beyond what a private sector can fund.. no matter how he tries to tax it.. to make this all work. This is just, plain math.
The amusing side-show (that WILL be the mark of his end); will be all the 25-35 year-old, stary-eyed supporters; when cell-phones, internet-access and cable-TV become expensive luxuries. THEIR outrage will at least be entertainingly ironic.
Then the slow recovery begins.
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