nath981

I do believe that it's too late on both counts. Any democracy that disenfranchises the "of, by and for the people" is already ruined IMO. Now it's of, by and for those who finance my campaigns and screw the average joe.

RWhisen

It is a slow day in the small Dakota town of Pumphandle and streets are
deserted. Times are tough, everybody is in debt and living on credit. A
tourist visiting the area drives through town, stops at the motel, and
lays a $100 bill on the desk saying he wants to inspect the rooms
upstairs to pick one for the night.

As soon as he walks upstairs, the motel owner grabs the bill and runs
next door to pay his debt to the butcher.

The butcher takes the $100 and runs down the street to retire his debt
to the pig farmer.

The pig farmer takes the $100 and heads off to pay his bill to his
supplier, the Co-op.

The guy at the Co-op takes the $100 and runs to pay his debt to the
local prostitute, who has also been facing hard times and has had to
offer her "services" on credit.

The hooker rushes to the hotel and pays off her room bill with the hotel
owner. The hotel proprietor then places the $100 back on the counter so
the traveler will not suspect anything.

At that moment the traveler comes down the stairs, states that the rooms
are not satisfactory, picks up the $100 bill and leaves. No one produced
anything. No one earned anything... However, the whole town is now out of
debt and looks to the future with a lot more optimism.

This is how Obamanomics works.

nath981

i don't know about the economic optimism part, but Obama had the opportunity of the century, of a lifetime at least, to turn this country around, if indeed this is even possible considering the deficient caliber of our citizenry. 20 years of another phony war, stupid Reganomics that flipped the scales on the unions with the air controllers instead of evolving to another level, a tankerload of the two Bushes bullshit coupled with an explosion of arrogant american imperialism, and now we have the ball-less, patronizing Obummer closing the lid of the dumpster so we can stew in our own waste. Maybe this is the ultimate justice.

motokraft

religious wars : people killing each other over who has the best imaginary friend

superhawk22

My religion is better than your religion. Lol spoof song, it's funny as hell!

nath981

my thinking on reagan setting a precedent with the air controllers was another missed opportunity to advance the economic system to a new level. History tells us that not having unions allows employers to abuse their workers, and that too strong unions paralyze employers, so neither is the answer. All reagan did was to flip the scales back to what we already should have learned is not a satisfactory resolve.

a perceptive leader would never just revert back to what was already proven to be wrong. Instead he would have sought other solutions like economic incentives to companies who meaningfully include employees, or employee-owned companies, or other more amiable, less adversarial relationships. If he would have tried to reinforce initiatives that encourage companies and employees to work more as one, we might be in a different place by now. Competition has its place in business, sports, and many other endeavors, don't get me wrong; but it should not be considered the end-all-be-all. Society should be designed to meet the needs of all, not just the greedy and aggressive, or the one that just happens to have power at a particular time in history. Survival of the fittest is for animals who are programmed mostly to act instinctively, not for civilized, intelligent, sensitive, thoughtful people who have the ability to go beyond simplistic solutions that are inherently counter productive for any modern society.