A Weblog Dedicated to the Discussion of the Christian Faith and 21st Century Life
A Weblog Dedicated to the Discussion of the Christian Faith and 21st Century Life ___ I do not seek to understand that I may believe, but I believe in order to understand. For this also I believe, –that unless I believed, I should not understand.-- St. Anselm of Canterbury (1033-1109)
Interesting article Allan. I agree that we are spending this country into the trash can. However, the billionaire know-it-alls should take a page from their own book.
Show me what Mort Zuckerman is doing to expand his businesses and create jobs. Show me how he's looking for ways to make markets in hard-hit communities. Show me how he's trying to develop or improve communities.
It's far more likely that he's only looking more for ways to cut expenses and increase profits. He's using "private welfare", the capital created by employees, vendors and distributors, in the same way that the long-term unemployed are using public welfare; for personal benefit.
I have been out-of-work for nearly 10 months and busting my *** to change that situation. Not only have I been looking for employment but also trying to find ways to begin my own business. However, the numbers don't play out well and creates an inordinate amount of work to be successful. Yet I'm still trying to do it because I don't have other choices afforded by wealth.
The article just goes to show that they only care about themselves and their appearance of importance. They can keep their self-serving BS to themselves for all I care.
I almost forgot to answer it because I am at a loss over that article (well, editorial, really). How did the people who lost their jobs because of the financial crisis become the villains in the minds of the far right? Is our greatest necessity to "remove the incentives for idleness"? Those people wouldn't be idle if the same fat cats who are spouting this rhetoric hadn't run the economy into the ground to begin with. Talk about blaming the victim.
Just for clarification.... Zuckerman voted for Obama because of some of the very same issues you mentioned, but he now feels that he was sold a bill of goods by Obama and is far too extreme the other way. In other words, he felt that before Obama business was out of control; now he believes that it's government, which is out of control and is going to stifle incentives for business to expand and grow.
Allan - I appreciate your need to clarify and maybe I am posting in a way that unfairly includes Morty in with the "supporting idleness" crowd.
However, he loves the government policies that subsidize his real estate development, at the expense of local, state and federal taxpayers. He demands rewriting of zoning laws to make his projects more profitable as well as utilizing the market sectors that created the financial collapse, subsequently bailed out at tremendous taxpayer expense, in order finance his projects. (wow talk about a run-on sentence) Of course there's his beacon of critical and principled journalism that he can point to as to how he improves the quality of life in America.
We can all be critics of our government policies, I certainly am not a fan of the Obama administration, but the gall of these folks to set themselves as the brain trust of America only to expect someone else to actually do the work is appalling.
Chuck, my task here was not to be an apologist for Mort Zuckerman. I like Mort, I think he is an intelligent and thoughtful guy, which does not mean I always agree with him. I simply wanted to clarify where he is coming from electorial-wise so you know.
I hate to comment too much on these things because I do not want stifle comments; I want to encourage them.
Having lived for 21 years in the UK - and having paid a 40% tax rate at one point - I'm at a total loss to understand what it is about Europe that Americans think is so awful.
I'd personally move back to the UK in a heartbeat; life in the US seems far less civilized to me in many ways.
I will admit that I am not crazy about becoming a state like the UK with a forty% tax rate... (which may be due more to my ignorance) but having said that here are my two major issues. I certainly look forward to your response.
1) The US has a huge military budget and responsiblity that provides much support for the rest of the world. That massive amount of money takes away from domestic spending (and I am not including Iraq. Even without Iraq, we would still be putting a lot of nickles toward military spending that benefits Europe, etc.).
Of course, I would be in favor of cutting our military spending exponentially and bringing all of our troops home and closing our military bases all around the world, including Europe but I do not think our allies would appreciate that.
2) And more domestically, 50% of our populace pay no taxes. We spend so much time worrying about what the rich are paying, we have forgotten that we have let the lowest 50% pay nothing, which amounts to a lot of money.
About the Middle East, we are doing this for ourselves: to secure future oil supplies by buying allies in the region to protect us from a movement that we trained and funded when we were paranoid about communism. Is it worth it? Certainly not in the lives of our sons and daughters but beyond that I can't say.
Yes, I agree with you about taxes, as I have said in the past. Everyone here seems obsessed with not paying them - which is part of my point.
I don't know if there are any easy answers.
I just know that I'd prefer to live in the UK and I think that the demonizing of the system that goes on in the US is, in part, due to ignorance. We are frightened of what we don't know. (According to the UK media, for example, everyone in the US has a gun and will shoot anyone who looks at them cross-eyed. UK friends were amazed to come to the US and find that this was not so.)
Pam... I didn't know that about the UK and guns in America. I realize that we have very liberal gun laws but I have never been concerned that my neighbor might shoot me. By the way, I do not own a gun and never will, and I frankly do not care if my neighbor owns one. Call me whatever you want on this one.
Your comments do remind me of someone several years ago in the US who insisted that the streets of the UK were lawless and in control of gangs because of strict gun control laws. Having been there, I challenged him. He, of course, had never stepped foot on UK soil. He was simply appealing to misinformation that confirmed his own narrow worldview.
I am still interested in your thoughts on American miltatry support around the world. It is quite a drain on the budget. I say that knowing that Iraq and Afghanistan is also a drain.
We are frightened of what we don't know. I freely admit that in reference to my concern that the USA will look too much like the UK (even though I have loved it when I have been there). I am ready for it to be shown that I am just ignorant, but I also like free markets, even though they are not perfect. And I also admit that I do not trust our elected officials, not because as individuals they are untrustworthy, but because they get sucked into a system that too easily leads to corruption.
I accept the fact of your preference, and that makes me want to reconsider my perspective. Please also know that I have reasons for why I prefer what I do which has nothing to do with greed and getting all that I can.
Getting to know you and pondering your perspective is a wonderful gift God has given to me. I thank you for your willingness to share it.
Your comments do remind me of someone several years ago in the US who insisted that the streets of the UK were lawless and in control of gangs because of strict gun control laws.
It's actually the flip side of the same principle. My point is simply that we project our fears on to the systems that we don't know. Life in the UK is different than life in the US; this results in culture shock when one moves (it also resulted in culture shock for me even though I grew up in the area where I'm living now).
But life in the UK really isn't all that awful.
I am still interested in your thoughts on American miltatry support around the world. It is quite a drain on the budget. I say that knowing that Iraq and Afghanistan is also a drain.
I don't really feel that I have enough specific knowledge to comment. My knee-jerk reaction is to wonder why we spend so much money trying to do things which are ultimately futile. I think the answer of the person who believes in Realpolitik is because if we - the world's only Superpower for the moment - didn't step into the power vacuum that someone else would. And that could probably be true. From the point of view of someone living in the US, that's advantageous to me. From the point of view of someone living in another country, that might be frightening indeed (think of all the murderous regimes we supported in Latin America simply because they were "anti-Communist"). Theologically, we are are back to The Empire.
I accept the fact of your preference, and that makes me want to reconsider my perspective. Please also know that I have reasons for why I prefer what I do which has nothing to do with greed and getting all that I can.
Yeah, that's fine. *shrug* I'm not bothered by your views. I'm just trying to put forward that other view. I think that we are both interested in trying to understand and it's one of the few places I can try to understand a more conservative view than mine without someone getting incredibly angry at me, so I appreciate it too!
Is the United States on its way to becoming like Europe?
10 comments:
Interesting article Allan. I agree that we are spending this country into the trash can. However, the billionaire know-it-alls should take a page from their own book.
Show me what Mort Zuckerman is doing to expand his businesses and create jobs. Show me how he's looking for ways to make markets in hard-hit communities. Show me how he's trying to develop or improve communities.
It's far more likely that he's only looking more for ways to cut expenses and increase profits. He's using "private welfare", the capital created by employees, vendors and distributors, in the same way that the long-term unemployed are using public welfare; for personal benefit.
I have been out-of-work for nearly 10 months and busting my *** to change that situation. Not only have I been looking for employment but also trying to find ways to begin my own business. However, the numbers don't play out well and creates an inordinate amount of work to be successful. Yet I'm still trying to do it because I don't have other choices afforded by wealth.
The article just goes to show that they only care about themselves and their appearance of importance. They can keep their self-serving BS to themselves for all I care.
To answer your question: Maybe.
I almost forgot to answer it because I am at a loss over that article (well, editorial, really). How did the people who lost their jobs because of the financial crisis become the villains in the minds of the far right? Is our greatest necessity to "remove the incentives for idleness"? Those people wouldn't be idle if the same fat cats who are spouting this rhetoric hadn't run the economy into the ground to begin with. Talk about blaming the victim.
Chuck,
Just for clarification.... Zuckerman voted for Obama because of some of the very same issues you mentioned, but he now feels that he was sold a bill of goods by Obama and is far too extreme the other way. In other words, he felt that before Obama business was out of control; now he believes that it's government, which is out of control and is going to stifle incentives for business to expand and grow.
That's his view anyway.
Allan - I appreciate your need to clarify and maybe I am posting in a way that unfairly includes Morty in with the "supporting idleness" crowd.
However, he loves the government policies that subsidize his real estate development, at the expense of local, state and federal taxpayers. He demands rewriting of zoning laws to make his projects more profitable as well as utilizing the market sectors that created the financial collapse, subsequently bailed out at tremendous taxpayer expense, in order finance his projects. (wow talk about a run-on sentence) Of course there's his beacon of critical and principled journalism that he can point to as to how he improves the quality of life in America.
We can all be critics of our government policies, I certainly am not a fan of the Obama administration, but the gall of these folks to set themselves as the brain trust of America only to expect someone else to actually do the work is appalling.
Chuck, my task here was not to be an apologist for Mort Zuckerman. I like Mort, I think he is an intelligent and thoughtful guy, which does not mean I always agree with him. I simply wanted to clarify where he is coming from electorial-wise so you know.
I hate to comment too much on these things because I do not want stifle comments; I want to encourage them.
As always, Chuck, I appreciate your insights.
Having lived for 21 years in the UK - and having paid a 40% tax rate at one point - I'm at a total loss to understand what it is about Europe that Americans think is so awful.
I'd personally move back to the UK in a heartbeat; life in the US seems far less civilized to me in many ways.
Pam,
Thanks for your thoughts...
I will admit that I am not crazy about becoming a state like the UK with a forty% tax rate... (which may be due more to my ignorance) but having said that here are my two major issues. I certainly look forward to your response.
1) The US has a huge military budget and responsiblity that provides much support for the rest of the world. That massive amount of money takes away from domestic spending (and I am not including Iraq. Even without Iraq, we would still be putting a lot of nickles toward military spending that benefits Europe, etc.).
Of course, I would be in favor of cutting our military spending exponentially and bringing all of our troops home and closing our military bases all around the world, including Europe but I do not think our allies would appreciate that.
2) And more domestically, 50% of our populace pay no taxes. We spend so much time worrying about what the rich are paying, we have forgotten that we have let the lowest 50% pay nothing, which amounts to a lot of money.
What do you think of my comments?
What do I think of your comments?
About the Middle East, we are doing this for ourselves: to secure future oil supplies by buying allies in the region to protect us from a movement that we trained and funded when we were paranoid about communism. Is it worth it? Certainly not in the lives of our sons and daughters but beyond that I can't say.
Yes, I agree with you about taxes, as I have said in the past. Everyone here seems obsessed with not paying them - which is part of my point.
I don't know if there are any easy answers.
I just know that I'd prefer to live in the UK and I think that the demonizing of the system that goes on in the US is, in part, due to ignorance. We are frightened of what we don't know. (According to the UK media, for example, everyone in the US has a gun and will shoot anyone who looks at them cross-eyed. UK friends were amazed to come to the US and find that this was not so.)
Pam... I didn't know that about the UK and guns in America. I realize that we have very liberal gun laws but I have never been concerned that my neighbor might shoot me. By the way, I do not own a gun and never will, and I frankly do not care if my neighbor owns one. Call me whatever you want on this one.
Your comments do remind me of someone several years ago in the US who insisted that the streets of the UK were lawless and in control of gangs because of strict gun control laws. Having been there, I challenged him. He, of course, had never stepped foot on UK soil. He was simply appealing to misinformation that confirmed his own narrow worldview.
I am still interested in your thoughts on American miltatry support around the world. It is quite a drain on the budget. I say that knowing that Iraq and Afghanistan is also a drain.
We are frightened of what we don't know. I freely admit that in reference to my concern that the USA will look too much like the UK (even though I have loved it when I have been there). I am ready for it to be shown that I am just ignorant, but I also like free markets, even though they are not perfect. And I also admit that I do not trust our elected officials, not because as individuals they are untrustworthy, but because they get sucked into a system that too easily leads to corruption.
I accept the fact of your preference, and that makes me want to reconsider my perspective. Please also know that I have reasons for why I prefer what I do which has nothing to do with greed and getting all that I can.
Getting to know you and pondering your perspective is a wonderful gift God has given to me. I thank you for your willingness to share it.
This discussion is interesting indeed.
Your comments do remind me of someone several years ago in the US who insisted that the streets of the UK were lawless and in control of gangs because of strict gun control laws.
It's actually the flip side of the same principle. My point is simply that we project our fears on to the systems that we don't know. Life in the UK is different than life in the US; this results in culture shock when one moves (it also resulted in culture shock for me even though I grew up in the area where I'm living now).
But life in the UK really isn't all that awful.
I am still interested in your thoughts on American miltatry support around the world. It is quite a drain on the budget. I say that knowing that Iraq and Afghanistan is also a drain.
I don't really feel that I have enough specific knowledge to comment. My knee-jerk reaction is to wonder why we spend so much money trying to do things which are ultimately futile. I think the answer of the person who believes in Realpolitik is because if we - the world's only Superpower for the moment - didn't step into the power vacuum that someone else would. And that could probably be true. From the point of view of someone living in the US, that's advantageous to me. From the point of view of someone living in another country, that might be frightening indeed (think of all the murderous regimes we supported in Latin America simply because they were "anti-Communist"). Theologically, we are are back to The Empire.
I accept the fact of your preference, and that makes me want to reconsider my perspective. Please also know that I have reasons for why I prefer what I do which has nothing to do with greed and getting all that I can.
Yeah, that's fine. *shrug* I'm not bothered by your views. I'm just trying to put forward that other view. I think that we are both interested in trying to understand and it's one of the few places I can try to understand a more conservative view than mine without someone getting incredibly angry at me, so I appreciate it too!
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