Defining issues of today's politics / Left vs Right

What okie has failed to understand is the simple fact that there is no delineation between left and right - politics or voters.

In the US, we have two center-right parties fighting over a very limited span of disputed territory on the political spectrum. They might as well be the Big-Endians and the Little-Endians.

No right-minded person in America pays any attention to Canada. Too obscure. It's a pity, because Canada's recent economic history debunks a lot of myths about what caused the crisis in the US, and about how to get out of it.

The Republicans plan to wreck the economy and blame the Democrats. Will they get away with it.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/The-Republican-plan-to-wre-by-Richard-Clark-100805-768.html

Let's give your posting a tad more focus:

1. Economic recessions and depressions almost always result from insufficient "effective" consumer demand for goods and services produced domestically. In economic terms, merely wanting something does not constitute "effective demand." For a want to become an "effective" demand for goods or services, it must be accompanied by the monetary ability to actually make the purchase.



2. Jobs are not created by just having large pools of investment money available, as most big corporations and banks now do. There must also be the opportunity to invest in a business that will have customers who have the money to buy the goods and services. Then and only then will investment money flow into business opportunities and job creation.

3. Over the last 30 years, the Republican-Right economic theory that economic prosperity and employment automatically "trickle-down from the wealthy" has been proven again and again to be fallacious. Tax cuts for the wealthy create huge investment money pools -- but not jobs.

4. Republicans are seeking to extend the tax cuts for the wealthy by falsely stating that increases in taxes for the upper 2% of income earners would hurt demand and prolong the economic downturn. Experience and history prove otherwise. The large majority of buying is done by the remaining 98% of the population. The top 2% invest much of their income, not spend it on consumer goods.

Well stated; but I would also add that the growing federal deficit while the conservatives wish to declare the wealthy folks money off limits to taxes, our children and grandchildren will be left with the bill, and increase the handicap to grow our economy in the future.

Can you reconcile their feelings about taxation and a few other things, like exporting jobs, with their self-described personal responsibility?

I believe it's necessary to some degree to export our jobs overseas, but I also believe the heads of companies earn too much in relation to the workers. When they can "earn" millions on one trade on their stock option, I see that as greed and not deserved.

I also believe in comparative advantage; economies that develop new products and services will continue to grow while transferring low-tech labor intensive products to other growing economies.

That's the reason why I feel that our country is failing our children - by teaching our children to pass standardized tests rather than increasing their ability to be creative/innovative. Not all children learn at the same rate by age; that's the biggest mistake "No Child Left Behind" has imposed on our educational system.

i like your analysis of NCLB.

A teacher wrote a piece for a professional journal for English teachers in which he outlined all of the standardized tests, etc., that kids take today. One day was left for teaching.

I ran the MCAS, the Massachusetts' test, for the high school where I was a permanent sub. It is a ridiculous amount of work and time for nothing.

When I was in grade school, we took machine corrected "achievement tests" twice a year which measured each individual student's progress in reading and math for their grade level. I think four hours were devoted to these tests during the year. The results were for the student, his parents and his teacher. We simply took them and accepted them.

In a state like MA where the majority of students start college and take the SAT, the MCAS duplicates that effort. The students who don't take the SAT are generally kids whose mental abilities would prevent them from going on further in school.

A minor correction.

which shoud not be necessary