Why is it I have a feeling that if our Founding Fathers were to look at us, they would laugh?
Or worse, be ashamed of us.
We have become a country where the loudest voices tell the biggest lies, where much of our effort goes to protecting the wealthiest of us.
We have reached a point where something like one of every seven working people is either unemployed or underemployed, yet efforts to help them in any other way than discredited trickle-down economics is decried as "socialism."
Indeed, if you listen to the loudest of their voices, socialism morphs without difficulty into "communism" and "Marxism," as if the discredited, long-dead commissars of the old Soviet Union were running America.
Well, pardon me, but that is such a load of crap.
Economically, the middle class in this country is no better off than it was in 1972, when far more families lived on only one income. Individual debt is staggeringly high; too many people have bought into the "he who dies with the most toys wins" philosophy. Got a 37-inch HD-television? Hey, look at this 52-incher.
Meanwhile, one of every eight homeowners is either in foreclosure or more than a month behind on mortgage payments. Of course, we're more concerned about whether gays are allowed to get married.
And if you think this downturn in the economy will somehow even things out, don't kid yourself. During the Great Depression, the rich got a lot richer, picking up distressed properties for 10 cents on the dollar.
Ever since Ronald Reagan took office in 1981, the share of America's wealth controlled by the top 1 percent has increased. We're now at the point where 1 percent of our people control about 25 percent of money, property. etc.
Meanwhile, the "American Dream" of upward mobility, that any boy or girl can become rich through intelligence and hard work, has become almost impossible for many. George Carlin put it best when he said, "They call it the American Dream because you have to be asleep to believe it."
Well, I think we could do with a little more socialism in this country. For all the right wing says about European socialism being a failure because their economies are 30 percent less productive, well, so what?
I think if you asked people in this country if they would be willing to have significantly higher taxes in return for guaranteed health care, free education for their children through college and an assured retirement, you might be surprised how many would say yes.
We are on the verge of a massive disaster in this country, the likes of which we have never seen. The Baby Boomer generation is approaching retirement, and it's a good bet that something like 70 percent are totally unprepared. Remember, most Baby Boomers will not have pensions. All they'll have is Social Security and whatever they've managed to save.
Quite a few of us have been counting on selling our houses for big profits to finance our golden years, but housing prices have plummeted the last two years.
What you're going to see is older workers staying on past 65 -- if they can.
The American Dream?
It's time to start creating a new American Reality, something we can do by shutting off talk radio and the screamers and realizing that we may not know the guy next door, but we are all in this together.
We need a little less Calvinism and a little more Socialism.
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12 comments:
You must not understand Calvinism.
Work hard. Make as much money as you can. Share it with as many people as you can.
If differs from socialism in the first two all-important aspects.
In socialism, people are not encouraged nor do they actually practice working hard, or making as much "legitimate:" money as they can.
They merely spread poverty and misery to everyone.
Better check your facts, baby Boomer, before you venture out onto the tiny branch of logic.
I was truly annoyed by your last post, but this one makes you seem like a simpering little wimp.
"Government is best when it governs least" is what Thomas Jefferson wrote.
I know you're far more aware of what Rush Limbaugh spouts, but he has neither the depth or gift for logic that Jefferson possessed.
Next time, do a little research and find out what Calvinism is first before you put it down. (or conversely, find out the horrors of a state-run socialist society before you start promoting it.)
My grandfathers emigrated from Soviet Russsia. they came here. They worked hard. they saved. they invested. They shared. they brought relatives over. They helped their neighbors. they became citizens by virtue of studying for and passing the citizen test.
I wonder if you could pass that test, buster.
You're as big a blabbermouth as the guy you call "fat man", but you don't have his gall or his audience.
Do you ever think BEFORE you write your blog.
I don't know why my nephew has you bookmarked on my computer, but I am beginning to wonder why you do this.
Just as the others wrote in response to your last blog, maybe it's time for you to shut up and grow up.
Whoa.... a little harsh.
Mike, maybe you misspoke.
But comparing you to Rush is just cold.
No more socialism of any kind.
Sorry, I disagree.
You know, the whole concept of retirement is fairly recent.
Most people lived and worked right up to the day they died.
In fact, Social Security was established with the idea that not that many people would survive past their 65th birthday.
Now it's not unusual to have people live to eighty, ninety, even a hundred years.
A couple of flaws in your logic: that anyone deserves anything, and that the American Dream has anything to do with comfort.
The American dream was to be able to work, provide for your family and yourself, and make life better for your kids -- all the while enjoying liberty and freedom.
The way you're interpreting the American Dream, I'm sure the founding fathers would be dismayed if not disgusted.
It would be good that people contributing to this blog keep in mind that there are very poor people around, disabled or simply unable to work because they are too old or because life has been harsh with them. I am tutoring kids in a public school. A couple of them live in a car...
Thus maybe this discussion of socialism vs. calvinism is not so much relevant to the baby boomers whose stock options crashed during the last few months, or whose houses will not yield as much money as expected.The need for socialism makes sense when you consider people who don't have a house, who don't have any stock options, and who barely can afford basic health insurance.
Whether it is Mike or any of you above, the truth is that you should feel privileged to have a house, free time to blog while having a cup of coffee, without having to worry too much about how you are going to pay for your bread tomorrow.
As to commenter #1, you do not have to be so hostile. You are not the only one who understands something about politics. Mike's point of view is what it is, and even IF he were wrong, insulting him does not help improve the quality of the discussion.
The American Dream is going to be different for different people.
for some, it is the promise of freedom to worship or even choose a job rather than being forced to work one.
For others, it will be home ownership, or the promise of that.
For others, it is a lifestyle.
One thing is clear: America is not (nor has it ever been) just one thing.
One of the problems is we have a mythology in this country that works against the individual even as it claims to be for the individual.
Socialism never works because it requires a tyranny to keep the carpet nailed down.
Capitalism when practiced by greedy and selfish people leads to the situation we have today -- an economic meltdown.
The real question is whether or not America can practice self-restraint? Or will it have to compel it?
And if it must compel self-restraint, who makes the decisions and the judgments?
I, for one, am uncomfortable with the sleezebags in Washington (or any political arena) making those choices.
(And for those who believe our political system allows the "people" to run the system, I would caution you that such a belief is also a "myth -- the people of this country have little or no say over the affairs of state or the conduct of business. Particularly when news and information is micro-managed by so few people. With a "free" press, there is little chance that the public will be well-informed.)
So, while I have my own doubts about Mike's ideas, I challenge any of the other readers to come up with better ones.
Socialism will not work, I concede, but we can't simply let the present system continue.
We need a serious national dialogue on a variety of issues and possible solutions to the ever-growing list of local, state and national problems.
Folks take a chill pill.
Yes, Mike may not understand Calvinism or even socialism, but he's promoting discussion, not a put-down forum.
I hate other blog sites where people snipe at one another or their perceived boogeymen.
This seems a bit more classy and erudite.
Let's keep it fact-based and less combative, you think?
Well, the discussions so far have prompted me to look into Calvinism.
And from what I've been able to read, the one blogger is right: Mike doesn't understand it.
But Mike makes a great point -- the system is broken and it's not going to fix itself.
maybe Mike should have used a different term, other than Calvinism.
(Just so it's clear, I'm not a socialist nor do i believe in socialism. It's never worked wherever it's been practiced. Eventually, the dark side of human nature takes over and some despot turns socialism into a tyranny.)
Still,if government intervention is not the answer, what is?
Maybe I was a little imprecise in my language. What I was referring to was that I'm disgusted with the idea that was fostered during the Reagan era that rich people are somehow better, harder-working people than the rest of us.
Republicans gained the upper hand in one debate when they branded the inheritance tax as the "Death Tax."
I like the suggestion that repealing the estate tax should be called the Paris Hilton tax cut.
It amazes me that so many of you seem so cold, when the fact is that 70 percent of the people in this country are either not making it or are barely making it.
We've become a financial oligarchy, and I'm not speaking as a wannabe here, either. My wife and I have consistently been in the top 10 percent in family income.
What are Americans owed?
I don't know, but I'm a little sick of hearing quotes from more than 200 years ago applied to a world the Founding Fathers wouldn't even recognize.
They had a wide-open frontier where anyone could go, work hard and succeed.
We have millions of families where the kids are screwed for life just based on where they were born.
So defend old John Calvin if you want, but don't say socialism works only under authoritarian rule. An awful lot of those "socialist" countries in Europe rank above us in all sorts of things -- education, health care, lifespan.
Grow up and stop spouting the cliches.
You have to be a dyed-in-the-wool liberal fascist to truly believe what you wrote:
"What I was referring to was that I'm disgusted with the idea that was fostered during the Reagan era that rich people are somehow better, harder-working people than the rest of us."
Maybe in your fantasy world, you misinterpreted something that was said or you invented that sentiment, but no one I ever knew ever articulated that -- and I was a liberal Democrat back then.
Today, I'm 62, divroced, and happy to be on my own. I'm not a feminist, but I am also not a pushover and I draw the line at what you wrote.
What color is the sea or the sky in Mike's World?
You are living in the same made-up fantasy world that I once shared with my ex-husband.
He would go on and on about Reagan and I would join in.
I'm no Newt Gingrich, but Reagan and his policies were not bad for America. In fact, looking back, I regret calling him "an old man" with delusions of what never was, but what he wished life could have been.
He was a realist, and yet an optimist. I have come a very long ways to the point where can admire the man and the way he conducted his job as President and his personal life.
And as much as you will hate this, Reagan IS the reason why our country survived the 1980's intact and the Soviets didn't. He led us into the future by reminding us what values we needed to rely on.
Of course, to you and other zealots Reagan was the political reincarnation of Nixon, Stalin, and Hitler.
Complain all you like, but you can't change history or even distort what was.
When I finally booted that negative force and Reagan-hater(my husband) out the door, and I finally faced life alone, I grew up.
Maybe you should, too.
Maybe you should apply your own advice -- look in the mirror, see that the problem lies within you and "grow up and stop spouting the cliches."
Oh, my gosh. Another old, fat hag defends the dead guy who put us in this economic trouble.
Do you realize that Reagan was the single worst thing to happen to this country -- far worse than Nixon and Joseph McCartney.
He was a horrible actor (the monkey was better than him) and terrible guvernor, and a jerk, too.
He knew there was a cure for AIDS but he kept it secret, and finally ordered it destroyed.
He tried t suppress homosexuality. He wanted all the "queers" to die.
he hated women. he hated blacks, and Mexicans.
he tried to invade Cuba by way of Granadadine and he messed up the U.S. currency.
I hate it when you fat neo-conservatives idolialize him.
Obama s a breadth of fresh air. But Republicans are trying to stop him because they hate poor people and black people and gay people.
Go, Mike, were with you all the way.
Overturn Prop 8 -- and outlaw straights!
This is pure crap: "maybe this discussion of socialism vs. calvinism is not so much relevant to the baby boomers whose stock options crashed during the last few months, or whose houses will not yield as much money as expected.The need for socialism makes sense when you consider people who don't have a house, who don't have any stock options, and who barely can afford basic health insurance."
I know lots of people without houses. Every one in family -- all six brothers and sisters have families and no one owns a house.
This is pure distortion.
We would all oppose socialism because our parents came from Cuba, and socialism failed miserably there.
Sure, you could argue that capitalism was corrupt, but life is miserable under socialism.
That's why my parents emigrated to America.
For chrissakes, can we drop the discussion here.
Mike chose the wrong term.
End of discussion.
He didn't mean that Calvinism is bad or that socialism is good.
he just wanted to point out that looking out for your fellow man ought to be promoted more.
Holy crap, it's like you people are starting another civil war.
Get by this, please.
Everyone is entitled to an opinion. It doesn't mean it's right. It just means they get a chance to choose what they believe.
Read Mike's latest blog on civility.
Maybe both sides would be better off practicing self-control and civility.
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