My fellow Americans, be of good cheer! Know full well that despite the dark days through which we are living and a dim horizon we should take heart in the firm knowledge that we could not be doing more to shoot our own selves in the foot than we have been doing for the past thirty odd years!
Hey USA, QUIT DIGGING!
Having proved to the world (from 1940-1980) that a great nation can indeed fall and then pick its self up by the bootstraps and become better in every way...we have (since) 1980 proceeded to sit on our laurels, ignore hard lessons learned and by golly we have dug ourselves into another hole similar to that last one we fell into.
After we enacted the kinds of fair tax laws and logical financial regulations (in the 1940s) which led us out of the dark pit we were in and on to the good times of the 1950s to 1970s, we got complacent and lost focus in the 1980s.
We began cutting taxes on the super-wealthy to the point that today they pay at only 1/3 the rate they did from 1940-80. We simply got too full of ourselves and childishly decided that 'American Capitalism' could do no wrong. So we took a meat cleaver to all of the financial regulations that had helped us right our ship.
Instead of continuing to show the world how a nation can better its self and prosper financially while also improving human rights and giving more opportunities to its citizenry, we said, 'Let's see how the other half lives' and we passed trade laws which allowed American companies to manufacture their products in totalitarian nations with abysmal human rights standards and no environmental laws to speak of at all. Guess what? You can make stuff cheaper with slave labor especially when you're allowed to dump your industrial waste anywhere you want...Bye bye US manufacturing base, so long American Dream!
you sound despairing. Don't lose hope. Somehow, it will all turn around....
ReplyDelete'course, it may take 3/4 of the world's people dying of starvation....
Notice all the killer weather in the red states this week? How come no one is saying it's because God hates conservatives?
Thanks Kim. I guess I have felt a little 'stalled out' recently. This post was intended as a sobering prelude to a positive platform for political change...but I stopped before the positive political change part...I wish I could run for office (US House, my current rep. is none other than Paul Broun the wacko), even if only to push some issues and shed some light in our public discourse, but it turns out (much to my surprise) that as a University of GA employee I would be forced to quit my job roughly six months prior to the 2012 elections. I could request a leave of absence, but not only would I be unsure of regaining my position, but more importantly I simply couldn't do without the income for six months. Of course one could say that there is no use running if you don't have more money than I do, but in this internet age there is a lot I could do just from home...posting video speeches etc. Below here is the section from our Board of Regents policy statement on the subject. If you happen to know anything about such policies in Ca. or elsewhere I'd be curious. Thanks, Chip
ReplyDeleteBoard of Regents Policy Manual---
8.2.15.3 Political
As responsible and interested citizens in a democratic society, USG employees are encouraged to fulfill their civic obligations and otherwise engage in the normal political processes of society. Nevertheless, it is inappropriate for USG personnel to manage or enter political campaigns while on duty to perform services for the USG or to hold elective political office at the state or federal level while employed by the USG.
Therefore, the following policies governing political activities are hereby adopted:
Employees may not manage or take an active part in a political campaign which interferes with the performance of duties or services for which he or she receives compensation from the USG.
Employees may not hold elective political office at the state or federal level.
Employees seeking elective political office at the state or federal level must first request a leave of absence without pay beginning prior to qualification as a candidate in a primary or general election and ending after the general or final election. If elected to state or federal office such person must resign prior to assuming office.
Employees may seek and hold elective office at other than the state or federal level, or appointive office, when such candidacy for or holding of the office does not conflict or interfere with the employee’s duties and responsibilities to the institution or the USG.
"...proceeded to sit on our laurels, ignore hard lessons learned and by golly we have dug ourselves into another hole similar to that last one we fell into."
ReplyDeleteOne of the reasons we aren't paying any attention to lessons "learned" from The Great Depression is that it's just long enough ago that most people who lived through it are gone (either dead or out of public life). This is why we go through this about every 80 to 100 years -- when all the people who learned the lesson are gone, we have to learn it all over again. No one seems to pay any attention to those of us on the sidelines shouting, "You're doing it again! It was a bad idea last time, haven't you learned?!?!"
I just read The greatest moment in the history of our country. It brought tears to my eyes.
ReplyDelete