The news on our economy is worrisome because I function within the economy, and if the economy is bad, it’s highly possible that things are going to be bad for me, and for everyone I care about. I am looking for a job, and that is worrisome, or maybe worri-whole-bunches. The way I understand it the Bush administration has asking Congress to let the government buy $700 billion in bad mortgages as a financial bailout. I also understand that this bailout is so huge that the government also has to raise the statutory limitation on our National Debt from $10.6 trillion to $11.3 trillion just to make sure this gigantic rescue is even possible.
If a guy is looking for work and the economic news is so incredibly bleak, it just stands to reason that, for employers, it is a whole lot easier NOT to hire someone than it is to lay people off. Of course the issue is bigger than me, and my little problems.
I believe this big ole need for our government bailing out bad mortgages, and failing insurance companies, and belly up investment firms, is the reason why I am a Democrat. It’s not that I believe the Democrats are perfect. Democrats is just a big ole club, and it is populated with people and people not only make mistakes they also do the wrong thing on purpose sometimes. But the purpose behind the club is what matters to me.
In general, I would describe Republicans as supporting the following:
Less government and fewer regulations
Lower taxes
Trickle-down economics
Privatized Social Security
No National Health care
1. Less government and fewer regulations
Less government and fewer regulations meant that there were fewer people watching the activities of the big business. People were making loans to people who could not afford to repay them, and then the lenders were selling the loans to bigger companies. This means that when the loans go into default the person holding the bad loan is not the same person who lent the money. You could see this as a crime, IF the lender made a bad loan, and knew that he could pass it off to someone else BEFORE the deal goes south.
Isn’t it illegal to sell a product that you know is defective? Well selling bad loans is selling something defective. The problem here is that there is no rule in place to make that practice illegal. Fewer regulations and a smaller government made this bad, should be illegal practice possible.
Democrats believe there should be regulations in place to protect the public, and the Republicans believe in a let-the-buyer-beware, you’re on your own political philosophy.
2. Lower taxes and Trickle-down economics
GW Bush cut taxes to big business, and McCain has said he thought those tax cuts needed to be permanent. McCain may have changed his mind with these recent events, but that remains to be seen. The Republican POV seems to be that IF you let big business alone, deregulate, and allow them to keep more of their profits rather than forcing them to pay taxes, that big business will continue to get bigger, and the bigger and better business is the more money they will have, their big money will trickle down until the lower and middle class are drenched in their excess money.
My experience is that business is in the business of making money. Employees are always the greatest cost to a business, so, to make more money they have to control the cost of wages and benefits going to employees.
Wages and benefits are controlled by:
If a guy is looking for work and the economic news is so incredibly bleak, it just stands to reason that, for employers, it is a whole lot easier NOT to hire someone than it is to lay people off. Of course the issue is bigger than me, and my little problems.
I believe this big ole need for our government bailing out bad mortgages, and failing insurance companies, and belly up investment firms, is the reason why I am a Democrat. It’s not that I believe the Democrats are perfect. Democrats is just a big ole club, and it is populated with people and people not only make mistakes they also do the wrong thing on purpose sometimes. But the purpose behind the club is what matters to me.
In general, I would describe Republicans as supporting the following:
Less government and fewer regulations
Lower taxes
Trickle-down economics
Privatized Social Security
No National Health care
1. Less government and fewer regulations
Less government and fewer regulations meant that there were fewer people watching the activities of the big business. People were making loans to people who could not afford to repay them, and then the lenders were selling the loans to bigger companies. This means that when the loans go into default the person holding the bad loan is not the same person who lent the money. You could see this as a crime, IF the lender made a bad loan, and knew that he could pass it off to someone else BEFORE the deal goes south.
Isn’t it illegal to sell a product that you know is defective? Well selling bad loans is selling something defective. The problem here is that there is no rule in place to make that practice illegal. Fewer regulations and a smaller government made this bad, should be illegal practice possible.
Democrats believe there should be regulations in place to protect the public, and the Republicans believe in a let-the-buyer-beware, you’re on your own political philosophy.
2. Lower taxes and Trickle-down economics
GW Bush cut taxes to big business, and McCain has said he thought those tax cuts needed to be permanent. McCain may have changed his mind with these recent events, but that remains to be seen. The Republican POV seems to be that IF you let big business alone, deregulate, and allow them to keep more of their profits rather than forcing them to pay taxes, that big business will continue to get bigger, and the bigger and better business is the more money they will have, their big money will trickle down until the lower and middle class are drenched in their excess money.
My experience is that business is in the business of making money. Employees are always the greatest cost to a business, so, to make more money they have to control the cost of wages and benefits going to employees.
Wages and benefits are controlled by:
a) paying as little as possible, and cutting benefits. There are increases from time to time, but only as much as they have to pay to keep their employees.
b) subcontracting work so that business is paying wages, but not paying for any benefits.
c) moving production to foreign countries where the wages are much, much lower, the regulations regarding safe working conditions are non-existent, and there are zero benefits.
3. Privatized Social Security.
.
So far, social security has not been privatized, but had it been, all citizens would have their social security dollars invested in companies that now are dropping like stones, and requiring government to bail them out by just paying off their debts.
I have no education to qualify my opinion, but I do have a unqualified opinion: privatization is rarely the answer. For some of us short-sighted people, our only income after we are too old to work, is going to be social security, and that is something that can’t be gambled with in the stock market.
5. No National Health care.
I have no education to qualify my opinion, but I do have a unqualified opinion: privatization is rarely the answer. For some of us short-sighted people, our only income after we are too old to work, is going to be social security, and that is something that can’t be gambled with in the stock market.
5. No National Health care.
.
As badly as I feel it is needed, it seems likely that this economic disaster we are having right now will be the excuse for postponing enacting a National Health care system.
The problem is, in my unqualified opinion, mostly the fault of the Republican political philosophy, but this mess will now be the reason for delaying National Health Insurance.
Living in a society has benefits, but it also has costs. It is a benefit when we want police protection because if everyone is required to pay in a little we can hire people to protect us from criminals. Of course, we could all carry guns, and sticks and when criminals mess with us, we could be on our own and handle that problem by our individual little self. Sometimes things would work out great for the innocent. Other times the criminals might come out on top.
Living in society means that we can require everyone to pay in and have fire protection. No longer is a house fire solely the responsibility of the homeowner. We don’t have to rely on a bucket to save our home. We paid in and now everyone’s home has protection.
In my unqualified opinion National Health Care is like that. If we all are required to chip in, then when people are sick, they can get treatment. A republican would say, “Why should I have to pay in, if the people using the National Health System are sick because of their own stupid life-style? If they smoke, or have unprotected sex, why should the rest of us have to support that?
There is some logic to train of thought, except people make bad choices. If we lived alone in a wilderness, then yes, a bad choice is your own fault, and if you die its your own fault. But in a society, what do we do? Let people die of treatable diseases? What about burying them? If they have no money for the funeral, what do we do, just let them lay where they died until the body rots away and turns into dust? Society comes with benefits, but it also comes with costs.
I remember seeing a picture in a National Geography magazine of someone walking in the streets of some third world country, passing a dead body in the street, and the cutline to that picture said that people won’t look at a dead body on the streets for fear they might be required to bury that person.
The path of a Republican philosophy leads to us letting the poor, and the stupid, and the people with bad luck just suffer the consequences, and unless their family wants to care for them we will just let them die in the streets.
I think living in a society requires us to pay in some of our income to provide basic services to all of society. People with no kids would still pay taxes to provide children with an education. We need to provide all of society with cops, firemen, national defense, child protective services, health care, roads, bridges, clean water, and on and on it goes. The benefits of society have a cost, and the cost is worth it.
I find it interesting that this no taxes, no regulations stuff of the Republicans has at least temporarily disappeared now that the economy is in such trouble. Suddenly our Republican President is all for using tax money to bail out companies that would not be in trouble now had there been adequate regulations in place. McCain, who things regulations are the problem, and that the solution to our problems is to remove the regulations and let free business thrive, is now calling for more regulations. The regulations are often a pain in the ass, but they are there to protect society.
I live in society. I support the concept that Government is needed to keep society functioning properly. I don’t like taxes, but I am willing to be taxed if it means that the benefits possible from society are available to me, and to everyone. That is why I’m a democrat. I’m worried that not enough people share my views.
The problem is, in my unqualified opinion, mostly the fault of the Republican political philosophy, but this mess will now be the reason for delaying National Health Insurance.
Living in a society has benefits, but it also has costs. It is a benefit when we want police protection because if everyone is required to pay in a little we can hire people to protect us from criminals. Of course, we could all carry guns, and sticks and when criminals mess with us, we could be on our own and handle that problem by our individual little self. Sometimes things would work out great for the innocent. Other times the criminals might come out on top.
Living in society means that we can require everyone to pay in and have fire protection. No longer is a house fire solely the responsibility of the homeowner. We don’t have to rely on a bucket to save our home. We paid in and now everyone’s home has protection.
In my unqualified opinion National Health Care is like that. If we all are required to chip in, then when people are sick, they can get treatment. A republican would say, “Why should I have to pay in, if the people using the National Health System are sick because of their own stupid life-style? If they smoke, or have unprotected sex, why should the rest of us have to support that?
There is some logic to train of thought, except people make bad choices. If we lived alone in a wilderness, then yes, a bad choice is your own fault, and if you die its your own fault. But in a society, what do we do? Let people die of treatable diseases? What about burying them? If they have no money for the funeral, what do we do, just let them lay where they died until the body rots away and turns into dust? Society comes with benefits, but it also comes with costs.
I remember seeing a picture in a National Geography magazine of someone walking in the streets of some third world country, passing a dead body in the street, and the cutline to that picture said that people won’t look at a dead body on the streets for fear they might be required to bury that person.
The path of a Republican philosophy leads to us letting the poor, and the stupid, and the people with bad luck just suffer the consequences, and unless their family wants to care for them we will just let them die in the streets.
I think living in a society requires us to pay in some of our income to provide basic services to all of society. People with no kids would still pay taxes to provide children with an education. We need to provide all of society with cops, firemen, national defense, child protective services, health care, roads, bridges, clean water, and on and on it goes. The benefits of society have a cost, and the cost is worth it.
I find it interesting that this no taxes, no regulations stuff of the Republicans has at least temporarily disappeared now that the economy is in such trouble. Suddenly our Republican President is all for using tax money to bail out companies that would not be in trouble now had there been adequate regulations in place. McCain, who things regulations are the problem, and that the solution to our problems is to remove the regulations and let free business thrive, is now calling for more regulations. The regulations are often a pain in the ass, but they are there to protect society.
I live in society. I support the concept that Government is needed to keep society functioning properly. I don’t like taxes, but I am willing to be taxed if it means that the benefits possible from society are available to me, and to everyone. That is why I’m a democrat. I’m worried that not enough people share my views.
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