- Rambling
I really do put a lot of work into trying to put a factual face on what is going on. I even have two books on economics, one from each of the two different ideologies of how an economy should work. Totally confusing, by the way. One of Jim Mahon’s degrees gives him insight into this area and he got me the books. I do have the text of HR 3590, the Affordable Care Act on my desktop; refer to it all the time. I read and study different areas, and have for some time now, so I can try and understand from an informed place. There is a lot of myth out there that has been planted by, well big business. I was just talking to a good friend who accused me of always bashing big business. She stated as long as big business was making money she does ok. So as she said, big business needs to be healthy, but the middle class also needs to be healthy, and a dime or two in the pocketbook, is what makes big business healthy. Henry Ford created the middle class. He did this by paying his factory workers three times more than anyone else. By doing so he made his workers able to afford his cars. At first he was called a traitor by big business, but then they saw that if there was a huge population that could afford to spend on items other than the basics, they made more money, way more than the cost of the wage increase. They also saw Henry getting very rich, so that helped. We have gotten away from this, and we are now driven by the quick profit. Companies are only dedicated to their shareholders, not their customers. We do this with minimum wage jobs, shipping jobs overseas where taxes and wages are less demanding, and the middle class is slipping away. Now this only works if unions are disabled so they cannot collectively bargain for wages, and if profits are made by using third world labor and positioning a company so as not to pay a lot of U.S. taxes. So companies have big profits, but you and me, not so much, and the federal, and yes, state governments go into debt because the revenue from big business just is not there anymore. So they feed you this bullshit about socialism and entitlements and how you and I need to tighten our belts and leave them the hell alone. Now it used to be that as long as big business thrived you and I did ok, but the jobs the companies created were here in the U.S. being done by you and me. And even if your job was not union, a company had to compete for the best workers so had to pay a man or women well above minimum wage to attract that person. But today that is not the norm. Also, thanks to Wall Street and big banks playing with our money and lying to us about it for profit, there is a huge workforce out there desperate for any job, so again, you work two jobs if you can get it, because one puts food and maybe pays some utilities, the other puts a roof over your head, if your lucky. For those of us trying to secure the higher paying jobs, big banks are charging so much for student loans that people with degrees and an education are at risk when they retire because they are still saddled with a huge debt they still have not paid off, so must work up until the day they expire. I have found a huge portion of our mid level executives who say they will be in this fix at retirement age. In order to afford an education at a good college, they are saddled with immense debt. Student loans are charged out at exorbitant rates, with very little oversight. So yes, they have better paying jobs, but they have less freedom than you might think. And yes I think big business has bought politics, and you and I are not represented. It is not a government by the people anymore, and it does not matter what party you are in.
I have also been allowed to read several so called less expensive insurance policies, if it was less money it was a whole lot of “less” coverage. Actually they all cut you off with severe limits if you had anything other than a small accident, and that accident had better not be too severe. Your friends, if you actually read their policies, will have severe limitations. They will have caps on hospital stays, money, testing, and what operations you are allowed to have. So basically if you stay healthy, they will be glad to help pay for a few Doc visits and take your money, since they are making a profit off of you. But if you get sick, you get dumped faster than a rattlesnake in a baby carriage. So minimums were set for care, and maximum profits based on how much we pay the company as a collective whole under the Affordable Care Act. So the health care industry started pouring billions into the rumor mill and the political machines to defeat the very idea.
So my dilemma is that Obamacare is too unwieldy and has some severe drawbacks, but the premise of Obamacare is not such a bad idea. And the socialism thing, big business starts banging that drum whenever anyone tries to exercise any control over their actions, no matter how outrageous they get. Wall street and the current banking systems are prime examples. They have finagled their way into being able to use our money, which means your savings, retirement accounts, even your checking, and gamble with it on Wall Street. That is why banks can fail, and this used to be illegal and for good reason. I could go on and on.In closing, Capitalism is great, but for you and me, a healthy middle class is needed. And I am sorry, the way to do that is exactly how we did it in the past, and yes it was called socialism then also. Look, big business is making more profit now than anytime in history, so if they cry, it is just more of that same bullshit I mentioned before. If you want to see how it works today, go to Detroit and drive around for a couple of hours. If you survive, you will see what todays agenda gets you. Look, I am not oblivious to the fact that we need to pay down the deficit and the debt. It has to be done. But you get our businesses paying taxes here in the U.S., wages being paid here, which also increases the tax base, and enough so we can spend on “stuff”, and that in combination with closing loopholes and austerity is the way to go. Austerity alone simply punishes those of us who are already strapped. Don’t get me started on Social Security. That is the only system, when left alone that pays for itself and adds nothing to the debt. It would have also stayed equal to the task if politicians had not stripped trillions out of it, and then when it came time to pay the piper they want the very people they stole it from to pay it back. So how is that fair or an entitlement, and how is it socialism to tell them to go suck on a rock! Most of you will know this, but your employer also matched your contribution to the Social Security fund. When they figure out how much you contributed that amount is ignored.
Oh, and bye the way, if China loves it, it stinks for you and me, guaranteed! Not sure if that statement fits the conversation, but true nonetheless, and made me feel good.
Now usually I know whom I am going to get a response from. I also have several followers, even from foreign countries, but my friends here and in Idaho are my primary targets. So I will post on Facebook, and will email this. If you bother to read it, and disagree, as I know almost everyone in Idaho will, give me hell. I will respond and I will not be disrespectful. If you can educate me, have at it. Jim Mahon and I are great friends, best friends as a matter of fact, but we have to agree to disagree all the time. But I have learned much from the experience, and I hope, so has he.
Bye the way, one of my followers is in grade school in Eastern Europe and knows more about American politics than most of us!
The Love Chronicles 
Yes, we have to disagree on many of the trends of thoughts you have here. Not the main issues, but the fix or blame is where we disagree. It is now a world economy and that complicates things astronomically. Business is no longer just competing within our borders for customers, and resources, they are competing with the world, and thus the game changes. I agree with the concept that business seems to be more intent in making money for it’s executives through rising stock prices, than in producing goods and services, and banks seem to be more interested in making money outside it’s core interests, but costs of limited resources has a hand in this. I won’t mention financial markets or insurance companies as both seem to be making money out of thin air through manipulation, but this phenomenon does seems to be a carrot business as well as individuals seem to be chasing.
Middle class is disappearing through tax loopholes in that every time a tax is added to the cost of doing business, that cost is passed down the line to the consumers who pick up the lion’s share of the burden as they (we) don’t have anyone to pass it down to. And every time an entitlement is in-acted to feed, or benefit the poor in some way, those who are the working class pay for it further reducing the middle class. That last is an over generalization, but nevertheless can be considered a trueism. The sad fact is that the pool of individuals at the bottom are needing more and more government handouts to exist to buy consumer goods, and that cost is being raised through our government borrowing money (debt and deficit). Someday, we will need to pay that bill, and it will be our children who do. We no longer seem to have a legacy to pass down other than an increasing debt.
Ah, hell, all I am doing is complicating the discussion with half truths, as the “REAL” truth is there are no easy answers as anything we do further complicates the problems we are facing. Blame simply shifts the responsibility making the problem “not your fault,” but when all anyone and everyone does is blame, no one seems available to fix the problems. Can you say Republicans and Democrats…..
Somewhere lies the answer, and I am worried that the idea of Nero fiddling while Rome burned equates to our times, and our present government. Perhaps we need to dream of the legendary Phoenix rising from the ashes, or that there will be no “dark ages,” as there were when the world economy collapsed with the Roman Empire. Did I get the timing right historically on that last thought? Not sure…
All I can say is that I will miss the modern gladiatorial games we call “football,” and hope the Irish can again save civilization. Now there is a historical leap!
Comment made Bro….
Brother Jim
Sent from Windows Mail
Well I appreciate the comment. I kind of know what to expect, but I liked the fact that you pointed out that people are requiring more “help” in order to get by, which further causes debt, which just exacerbates the problem. By loopholes I mean something else I think. Lets see if I can give you an example. Oil companies get paid by the government to explore for and drill exploratory wells for gas and oil. However when they hit the mother load they are not required to pay back any of the money they were paid to find it in the first place. Then they write off the expense of getting it out of the ground and to the refinery, so you only get a little dribble of tax paid on all this industry that just happened. I have more, but that would get boring. I also agree with your loophole theory as long as you do not count out why we need a strong and prosperous middle class, and that outsourcing our labor and paying taxes in foreign countries where they take less of a bite is a major contributing factor. I don’t believe China needs to making Apple products and that they could not make a decent profit here int the USA. Plus when you have to put anti-suicide nets around your factory, well there is something wrong with that picture!