Trickle down economics works
I had to turn off ABC’s Extremely sad Home Make Over last night. It makes me angry to think that in this state, in this city which I work, people are that destitute. A 70 year old woman sleeps downstairs with plastic sheets hanging over hallways to keep the cold out. Sad, pathetic and all too telling of the state of our democracy. Karl Marx is probably watching this show and laughing his ass off at us.
At a time where our fucking pResident has spent over HALF A TRILLION (that’s 500,000,000,000.00 people) on a war based on multiple lies (lest you have forgotten) I can’t help but think even 25% of that could have been spent repairing this country. But Praise the Lord (insert Reverend Wright type voice) ohhhhh, Praise the LORRRDDDDD, the Faith based initiatives are gonnnnnnaaaaaaa SAveeeeee us all, eh, we are going to show you what happensssss eh, when the communiiiiiitttttEEEE gets into action eh, when the governmentTTTTTTT takes their hands out of the pot, eh and let’s people decide, eh, let’s them make a difference eh, let’s them take care of their own eh…..
Can I get an Amen?
FUCK YOU!
Close enough, I’ll take it.
We have a freaking television show getting hand outs for the needy. What the hell is wrong with this country man? What makes me even sicker is the fact that this show, I’m sure is only on television because it makes money for the network. Once those ratings go away, bye-bye kindness train. The show is an hour long promo for everything Disney, akaThe Make a Wish for a Tragedy foundation.
They have rebuilt homes for flood victims and Iraq war amputees….what the hell does that tell you about our system?
Well as I peruse through the news this AM, on the heels of last night’s show I come across this:
As that freak of nature Ty would say “Welcome Home American Citizens, Welcome home!”
Tags: Bush, Bush's Fubar Economy, Delaware, Donviti
Karl ROVE is probably watching this show and laughing his ass off at us.
*
Fixed your typo. It is the GOPerheads that want to cut these ‘entitlement whores” out of the budget, DV. Really.
Thanks for blogging about the show, BTW, I would have missed it. As it went, I was crying practically the whole time. If you are only now aware of how bad it is in some of the communities around us then, heck, the lord works in mysterious ways.
So, don’t dis the show for at least getting something done. Thank Senator McDowell for his efforts in these communities with his weatherization teams that he funded this year.
On the east side, the People’s Settlement Assn has a program that has helped 25 families so far with two of them getting new heaters in the bargain.
I know that everyone likes to kick the good senator around (I do my share) but there are areas where he is doing stuff that make a difference every day, not just the one -shot teevee show deal that you are venting against.
The tons of individuals who jumped on the chance to get in the headlines and get their company in the news and on the web site are a more fair target, IMHO. Where are all of those people today? They did good as long as the cameras were running. Have they gone back and continued to try to help families in need now that the ‘excitement’ died down? I hope so.
(and I know my not-nice GOPerheads term for entitlement recipients doesn’t apply to this family although I imaging that they were getting some help for the child with cerebral palsey).
And here’s more economic pain, Greenville-style:
“It does make you think twice about buying specialty cuts of meat, maybe buying less organic items.I keep buying what I buy, but it definitely has gone up.”
Why isn’t this an indictment of the welfare system rather than market economics?
It should be an indictment of both Duffy. Becuase the welfare/warfare state is a product of neo-liberal economics. These are not the Adam Smith Markets you might be thinking of but a command economy based on the Chicago school and Keynes and that always leads to poverty and mercantilism and welfare just like the UK.
“Why isn’t this an indictment of the welfare system rather than market economics?”
Because market economics makes welfare necessary. You mistake the effect for the cause.
Dana; Please direct me to the economic system that creates more wealth and less poverty than capitalism.
I didn’t know creating more wealth held by fewer people was the point of it all, but if it is than I concede the point.
If the goal is to make the top .01% or.1% or 1% or 5% vast fortunes then, Duffster, you are right on the money.
It’s interesting, too, that you never see a poor person make that argument. Hey it’s free market economics anyway. Somebody’s gotta lose right.
You know if the Oligarchs of the American Business Sectors actually held-up to their end of the bargain and stopped their COLLUDING ways, then maybe the government could allow them to be less regulated.
But time after time, those Oligarchs cannot help themselves….kinda like a 5YO and a cookie jar…
Trickle-Down? Fucking please! That phrase means nothing more than Fiefdom.
capitalism- a system of free markets.
That is not what we are doing. We are using managed markets from the Chicago school of neo-liberal economics. It is a long story. I’ll post a link so you can see what we are doing. Even Forbes agrees that it is not very free out there. There is a natural and appropriate tension between freedom and equality. Right now the head honcho’s of the world have united and are managing markets and people, they are not really competing on anything like a level playing field for the little guys becuase they use Asia to make everything like a colony. But that will not last and I think somewhere in their heart of hearts they better know it.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/IJ12Dj01.html
Under the Bush regime…we have “trickle up economics”! It never trickled down to the people. Shock and Awe Disaster Capitalism is in its last throes.
No Liz, the goal is to transfer it to a supranational disaster Chicago school neo-liberalism with Mexico and Canada working with us to do so. It is not capitalism. It is mercantilism. Asia especially China is about to throw a monkey wrench in that and then who knows what the hell will happen….
duffy,
I see the road you are going down already. Pretty soon you will start the arguement that because poor people have cell phones in this country doesn’t mean that they really are poor in the grand scheme of things….
“Dana; Please direct me to the economic system that creates more wealth and less poverty than capitalism.”
The social-democratic mixed economies of most European nations, particularly Sweden.
Dana,
The American system works well if we would use it. It actually works better in many ways than the European system.
Because like the negative freedom of the bill of rights, it tells government what it can’t do and gives the people the maximum amount of liberty to do what they can do….and it can be tempered in a humane way like France, Scandanavia or some of the other pre-EU nations. In fact we used to do that and it worked very well.
Contrary to the current debates we have, the American system historically was and is not averse to social democracy; but it is a decidedly libertarian varient.
We need to understand that the EU has not made social democracy a perfect thing; it often looks like a soviet and it can be very draconian. Not like a social democracy and not always very “republican” as in of a republican form of government. Chile under Blanchet, and Uruguay look better than some parts of the EU.
Sweden is nice but is also decidely mixed social democracy and libertarian state and if you note they like Norway, Denmark and Leichtenstien and a few others use Austrian school economics to out compete other EU states and a a result have a higher standard of living and more stability and greater tolerance for each other and for change.
Last time I was in Florence it was like Armenia SSR that is what it reminded me of. It was like a lovely Tuscan soviet. I loved the countryside, foos, people etc…but the government was a plutocratic aristocracy pretending everything was democratic for the visitors while pushing each other around like thugs.
By and large a big part of EU and British peace and prosperity is only a reality because we are spending our tax money to provide for their security. If we stopped that, let them take care of themselves, Sweden would be fine, Norway would be fine, Denmark would be fine, Finalnd would not be fine, Germany would not be fine….France would be fine if it reverted to its pre-EU state.
But what they do have that we do not have are socially responsible corporations. We could use that.
In Delaware we could do it more like the way the merchants in Venice did during the 1500’s. That was not a bad model of European republicanism and it was a social democracy without being a “socialist” democracy. It was pre-socialism, but had elements that I think are analogous to what Delaware could become if we really play our card right.
It was I believe TJ’s favorite of the republics that is why he loved Palladio and made Monticello and the University of Virginia after Palladio’s designs in the Italian countryside. If you are interested you can read about it at the link on my name.
Just something to think about….
Dana- sorry, I noticed the link is on the fall of Venice. It fell after a little over a thousand years of republican government. That is not bad. Delaware is in a position to do the same thing….but history’s window is not that big…we need to either choose to do it with a mixed economic structure and libertarian idealism, or if we fail to do it plan for a contingency….and pray it works.
The Most Serene Republic of Venice (Venetian: (Serenìssima) Repùblica Vèneta or Repùblica de Venesia, Italian: Serenissima Repubblica di Venezia), was an Italian state originating from the city of Venice (today in Northeastern Italy). It existed for over a millennium, from the late 7th century until the late 18th century (1797).
It is often referred to as La Serenissima, in reference to its title in Venetian, The Most Serene Republic. It is also referred to as the Republic of Venice or the Venetian Republic.