Mired in vis a vis antipodal exchanges
A sign of the complexities and variegations of the times are exchanges like the following:
"The bastard Governor (of Illinois) just signed legislation to increase the state income tax by 66%" "He is trying to balance the budget so the state doesn't go bankrupt" "Well then he should reduce spending". You mean cut state budgets by laying off employees?" "Of course, there is plenty of fat and patronage to be weeded out." But to make any sizable dent in the state debt 20% of state employees would have to be laid off". "So what, the state and federal government should live within their means, they get enough money." "But if 20% are laid off where will they get a job? They then are on welfare of various sorts and costing tax money there. If they have no job, unemployment goes up, they have no money to spend, and the economy just dives further down." "Look, the federal and state deficits cannot be allowed to go any higher, we need to pay down the huge deficit." "Ok, shouldn't this cost of reducing the deficit be shared by everyone in some form or fashion?" " That's why the cuts need to be made across the board." "Ok, the laid off workers have paid their sacrifice to reduce the debt, the remaining workers have to pick up their work at no salary change, and so they have made a sacrifice. What sacrifice should you be made to pay since paying more taxes you feel is outrageous?" "Look, tax cuts are the answer, if I have more money I will spend more money and this helps revive the economy." "Are you saying that some should lose their job, some should have to work more for no more, or less money, others should lose their pensions, some should do without health care and you should get a tax break?" "Hey, I work hard for what I have, I have earned it the old fashioned way, and there are jobs out there if somebody really wants one." "But again, in what way are you personally sacrificing to pay back the huge federal and state deficits? Getting a tax cut is not exactly a sacrifice?" "Well, there is too much government regulation and red tape and interference. The government should just stay out of free enterprise. Things were better when the government left businesses alone.""You mean like the government does with private ownership of professional sport teams? That seems a great deal for the owners and the players who get million dollar contracts and multimillion dollar profits at the expense of fans and the cities in which they play. Without the fans or the cities being represented at the bargaining table, and with no judicial oversight, where will this pot of gold for the owners and players end?" "I am not talking about professional sports, why change what works?" "Ok, let's be silly and say the manner in which professional sports is run is just fine, but in the past the wealthy faced 90% income tax rates and an equally steep inheritance tax, are you willing to go back to that?" "Hey these wealthy people pay a good deal of the taxes in this country, a good percentage."
"Well, if the top 1-5% of the people in this country now own 90% of the wealth, what do you think would be a good percentage of the total taxes they should pay?" "Well, the wealthy spend this money, and that helps employment, and this 'trickle down effect' helps the poor." "Then why isn't the percentage of poor in this country going down? Are they avoiding the trickle?" "Look, labor unions have made it difficult for us to produce things in this country what with their ridiculously high wages." "Aren't the wages of professional athletes and corporate administrators a bit high?" "That's different, there are only a few of them." "Okay, let's exempt them. Are you suggesting we do away with minimum wages?" "Look, our companies have to compete with foreign workers, and labor unions just make it impossible to do so." "It is difficult to compete with slave labor. Isn't it ethically wrong to buy goods made by slave labor, even though the slaves don't live on plantations?" "People should be free to buy from whomever they want. This is what a free labor market is."
Okay, then are you saying in order to compete against slave labor, minimum wage laws should be revoked? Wouldn't it be better to have minimum wage laws globally?" "I suppose so if such a thing could be done." "You realize if such a thing were to be done you would be paying more for many of the things you purchase. Are you willing to do that?" "No. There is no need to do away with the wonderful bargains we finally get on the internet on sites like Amazon with no state taxes and often free shipping." "I see, said the blind man as he picked up his hammer and saw. So you find nothing unethical about buying goods made with slave labor, and you also think most retail stores in a community can survive with most things bought over the internet and the states can do without the income from the sales tax"? "I didn't say any such thing. I am just saying the state and federal government spend too much money. Look at some of the pension costs for state and federal employees. Other people don't get those kind of pension benefits." " It is true that pension and health care benefits are disappearing from the private sector as they try to compete with slave labor abroad. So, to be fair, you think everyone should lose good pensions and health care benefits, is this how you see it?" "You keep putting words in my mouth, I just said the government spends too much money on government benefits to their employees. Instead, the government should do things to provide jobs in this country so people can make money and afford to buy their own health care and set up their own pension plans." "How can the government create jobs if so many jobs are going over seas?" "Well, if we leave businesses alone and get government off their backs, employers will downsize, adjust wages, hire employees on temporary contracts, get free from health care obligations, leave employees free to set up their own pension plans, and we can then compete globally." "You seem to define freedom as nothing left to lose. I still don't understand what sacrifice you are personally willing to make to help reduce the federal and state debts? So far you are against paying more taxes or paying more for things made by living wage jobs, and think the solution is more people without jobs via government layoffs." "I know the government is wasting money. Look at other industrial countries with their fancy rail systems, their universal health care, their 6 wk paid vacations, their improved educational systems, what are we getting for all the tax money we give our government?" "Well, you get military bases all over the globe, you get to support two wars at a time, you get a military budget greater than the military budgets of all the other industrialized nations combined, you get a police War on Drugs that puts a greater percentage of citizens in jail than any other country at a cost of $30,000 per year per inmate, you get people running for office who can afford to spend $150 million dollars to get elected, you get candidates who run for office with unlimited contributions from corporations and the wealthy, and you get the lowest tax rate of any other major country. Do you agree with these priorities?" "We need a strong military to protect our security and are you saying we should legalize recreational drug use?" "No, I am saying that recreational drug abuse is an addiction, frequently a bad addiction, and should be treated like all addictions, as a medical problem---like we do for the affluent in this country." "Well, we are the richest country in the world and we can do all----support wars, support military bases all over the globe, put recreational drug users in jail---except alcohol users and nicotine users, and cut loose all these deadbeats who never work for a living." "Suppose we no longer can do all of this, should we raise taxes to continue to do it and what about the national debt, just forget about it like we have been doing for decades?" "Well, I grew up in better days, when we knew what we were doing, and decent people were the ones being taken care of, not all the riff-raft, sometimes even illegal, low class scum living off the work of the decent people. You want to know what I think we should do? Hey, I don't give a damn anymore. I just want the country to hold out a few more years until I am dead. We need someone like Sarah Palin to be President. I believe she would personally go up in a plane, like she does with the moose in Alaska, and start shooting all the unemployed, racial mongrels, sexual deviates, female feminists, urban and rural gangbangers, welfare moms, pot heads----bring back the good ole days when the 'right' people counted." " I am curious, can you name one historical empire of any sort that did not collapse from the financial burden of an over extended foreign 'empire' and the accumulation of too much wealth in the hands of too few? And at what point do you consider our planet to be overpopulated with humans? It has doubled already once in my lifetime. Do you really think there are enough natural resources for everybody on the earth to live a lifestyle that the affluent now live?
"We are supposed to be talking about government waste and you drag other issues into it. Reagan himself said the government was the problem. And who are you to question great thinkers like Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin, and others? When they say the planet is overpopulated, or that climate change is something to worry about, or that we are spending too much on military bases and wars and bombs, then I will believe it." " I see and understand. If faith based beliefs are the basis of your perceptions, then reason, logic, and facts are irrelevant. I still wonder exactly what sacrifice you personally are willing to make to eliminate our huge debts? It just seems strange that everything you suggest involves other people paying it off." "Yeah, well I wonder about a couple of things too, like I wonder whether Obama is a Muslim and was even born in this country. If we could just get these questions answered he will be discredited and all will be well again in this country. I am a strong 'family values' person----me and my family comes first." That sounds like a religious conviction. Do you think God or Christ or any of the major prophets ever preached that YOUR family comes first? That wars and military bases and slave labor and denying health care to the less fortunate is ethical? Is 'family values' the real basis for your feelings that others, not yourself, should be forced to pay off the state and national debts?" "Look!. I don't want to talk about this anymore!!!!! Goodbye!!!!! "
It might be well to remember, that in the whole long history of this planet, Mother Nature always bats last. It sure looks like She is standing in the on deck circle.
And it looks like either Sarah Palin or Rush Limbaugh or some sort of TEA Partyist is warming up to pitch to Her. So far Obama at bat can only hit singles and an occasional double, no miracle home runs to solve the planet's ills. If and when the Tea Party steps to the plate the National Anthem and the Lincoln/Jefferson notion of justice and freedom for all will be replaced by the song 'TURN OUT THE LIGHTS---THE PARTY'S OVER."
