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FirmhandKY -> RE: Financial Reality (7/25/2011 8:50:43 AM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Musicmystery
quote:
it still would not change the underlying political and social factors that gave rise to it.
So what's your plan, Firm?
So far, you're just predicting there's nothing that can be done, but the culture is what it is, and nothing will ever work for long.
And yes, that's a conversation ender, however much being told that pisses you off, because there's nowhere to go from there. It's defeatist, with all the victimization firmly in place. We're helpless.
So, that's how you feel. Good luck with that.
You seem to be at a conversation stopping point yourself. We have to do as you say, then everything will work out for everyone thereafter. Oh, except that it might hurt the economy.
This is a superficial answer and viewpoint, because:
1. It does nothing to address the structural causes of the problem (as I have mentioned several times), and,
2. It doesn't address the "hurting the economy" much at all.
Both of which I believe to be more important issues than fixing the short-term problem.
Giving an alcoholic a drink in when they are in DTs might stop the immediate worst symptoms of the addiction, but does little to address the reasons and long-term affects of the addiction.
My plan? I don't have one, really, although there are some things we might consider trying.
The reason I don't have "the master plan" is that I don't think we can really "get there from here", without more pain than anyone is willing to accept, and without some basic changes in the electorates expectations. We will eventually "get there", but it will require events and actions that few would hope for, or plan.
The basic problem is one discovered thousands of years ago by the Greeks, and then the Romans: The Bread and Circuses dilemma of democracy. As politicians discover that giving money to voters will get them elected, and citizens discover that they can get the politicians to take money by government fiat from one group and give it to them, then - absent some strong moral and cultural imperatives or societal or governmental structural protections - a democracy will end up in a dictatorship.
I personally think the two structural changes that has allowed this to happen in the US is the direct election of Senators, and the Federal Income tax, both amendments to the Constitution.
I also do not think that we will change either of these back to what they were.
This then leaves us with a problem, and the likelihood of the US becoming economically weaker, politically divisive, and our current institutions too weak to overcome the problem until we have a "significant emotional event".
A case in point is the failure of the last Democratic Congress and President to even pass a budget, which is a direct violation of the US Constitution. Another is the recent proposal for a "Super Congress", in which the our elected bodies would become secondary to a political elite who "can get things done". Another is Obama's instructions to murder an American Citizen without due process. There are others.
My plan? Prepare for the worst, and hope for the best. In the short-term, your plan will work, but at the cost of delaying the inevitable, and making the resulting times of trouble longer, and more intense.
Firm
edited: to add link for "Super Congress"
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