unemployement, a possible cause.

Yeah corrupt unions, yeah corrupt corporations, the thing is Georgeob what we got is what I (in all my cranky glory) call the "California Syndrome." Namely,
Americans want Congress to bring down a federal budget deficit that many believe is “dangerously out of control,” only under two conditions: minimize the pain and make the rich pay.

The public wants Congress to keep its hands off entitlements such as Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, a Bloomberg National Poll shows. They oppose cuts in most other major domestic programs and defense. They want to maintain subsidies for farmers and tax breaks like the mortgage-interest deduction. And they’re against an increase in the gasoline tax.

That aversion to sacrifice is at odds with a spate of recent studies, including one by President Barack Obama’s debt panel, that say reductions in Medicare, Social Security, military and other spending are necessary to curb a deficit that totaled $1.29 trillion in the fiscal year ended Sept. 30, or 9 percent of the gross domestic product.

“The idea that we can solve our structural-deficit problems merely by asking more of the well-off is totally unrealistic,” said David Walker, who was U.S. comptroller general from 1998 to 2008 and now leads a group advocating against deficits. “The math simply doesn’t work.”

I agree. The central theme here is that government benefits of almost any kind rather quickly spawn the creation of well organized and highly motivated groups of beneficiaries who see to it that the benefits are continued even in the face of proof they do no good. That's why we still have quotas on imported sugar in a world that has a huge surplus of the stuff and in a country that consumes much more of it than it really needs for its own good. That's why we still have ethanol subsidies and mandates even though it does nothing for the CO2 issue (for those who believe that is important). Now, after watching the cost of Medicare, Medicaid and Tricare exceed the original estimates of their costs by multiples of five or more, we have a still committed cadre of "reformers" who firmly believe that a government-operated single payer health care system will somehow save us money. With that kind of credulity, addiction to fantasy and greed there may be no hope for us. Soon we will have mandates, quotas and subsidies for wind and solar power adding still more proof that manipulating the actions of an ever more intrusive government is a more efficient way to get market control than producing economically beneficial goods and services. Then those same people will find someone else to blame for the demise of what remains of American private industry.

well georgeob, it's always a mis-step agreeing with me. There are many entitlements I support especially programs like pre-K/headstart, school meals, environmental preservation, public t.v./radio. etc. etc. etc. My biggest disagreement is that I firmly believe every expenditure (including Iraq/Afghanistan) should be paid for. I see liberals pretty much equal to conservatives when it comes to unfunded spending, the only difference is what the spending is for. The few of us liberals that remain ( I count 19) in the USA are dedicated to human/social/individual/environmental rights as well as a sane economy.

Most government budgets don't work.

This from a guy who presided during big tax cuts for the wealthy that only increased the deficits. After a period where a liberal president had at least balanced the budget. I don't put much stock in his math abilities.


Your point that everyone wants everyone else to pay is a good one.

It is not a matter of who should pay; but who can pay, and only the rich have everything.... And this is a commonwealth, and the government was the original owner and stands behind the property of the entire commonwealth.... If the government is gowing broke defending the property of the rich abroad, and supporting the poor at home who are deprived of the means of even minimal support, then the property of the commonwealth even in private hands has still got to support the population...

This country was designed with property paying for the support of government and it made property cheap and labor dear.. . Taxing labor has made labor cheap and property dear; but the question is: Since the government holds ultimate title to all the land in the names of the people, why would it put public property in private hand only to be denied the benefit of that property forever??? Who ever occupies the land, and who ever says they own it, it must support the population and pay for its own defense... The rich may exclude the poor from their land, but they cannot defend it, and they will not even stoop to paying taxes to defend what they alone enjoy... It is time for the rich to pay taxes on their wealth or surrender it all, and join the rabble... If they are noble and superior they should not take long in establishing themselves in their mansions and castles, again... If the only difference between them and us is their pretentions they can join the crowd...

the demoKKKrat party...

Couldn't possibly be kkkapitalism, that is always promising if you will make it they will buy it even if you are long gone and paid off??? Twenty percent of people with jobs are actually engaged in production and that accounts for 80% of our e3xports... What are the rest living on??? In support of global capitalism we have watched our jobs disappear overseas... How are all the unemployed then going to remain as consumers??? If we had all our old production we would still have to sell over seas at the point of a gun... Who would pay for that military??? There is no getting past the point that capitalism only survives because it is artificially supported by the government and churches... It is an ideology whose benefits are manifold, but so are its curses... It kills our environment... It kills our liberty... It breaks the government... It breaks the people... And it demands war on a small scale and on a world scale, and since we have exported our productive capacity and brain power, our education and capital, our inventions for aquick profit- We can no longer defend ourselves without the help of our enemies...

We live with the failures of capitalism in our face, breaking the government, and demanding more and more sacrifices from the people and borrowing money from the communists... Doesn't the obvious ever ring your bell ding dong???

Fido, you could stir up a revolution if you tried!

Power to the people!

I call for a bread strike.

I ain't gonna participate in any bread strike!

yeah, french revolutions are boring.

Let the people eat plastic.

After which he resigned. Are you familiar with David Walker's work since leaving the government?

Frank; Revolutions are too easy to start because meaningful change is too long denied, but they are too difficult to stop even when they have become counter revolution... Everybody wants change.... Some people want to advance the hands of time, and some want to turn them back.... No meaningful change, no meaningful change of forms which would constitute a revolutionary change, is possible unless it has at it heart the desire to recapture the values and relationships that now make the past seem ideal... The future so frightens people because there lies death, and they can only approach it looking backwards, backing into the future out of a desparation over the present, and then suddenly they are there.... And once their dice are cast they can never go back, and hopefully, never want to...

All my bread isn't worth a 10 minute strike... What is the point???...

The rich already knows that the belly leads and the mind follows... That is the whole idea of the corporation farm... If they have the food, we have the pleasing demeanor...

striking people with bread rarely inflicts much damage.

I would recommend a lead pipe.

Only because it had too little sex and too much blood... Once the revolution had killed off the best revolutionaries it had no defense from the right... There is a lesson there... Kill em all... Liquidate the rich, and liquidate their assets, and any near do well relatives who come out of the woods looking for their fortunes with out any talent... Go forward without any baggage from the past, without free loaders ..

A man walked into a bar; and said: Ouch!!!

So what future do you look forward to, Fido?