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Cletus Awreetus-Awrightus
Lyndon Johnson's Great Society and VietNam debacle left the U.S. a very different place than it had been before. This is taking place - again - right now with OWS. It will happen again. As a living entity, the U.S. will morph and emerge a different place from time to time. There will constantly be a struggle between left and right. Maybe not left and right as we know yesterday or today but according to conditions at the time. As long as government doesn't kill the country first.
You'd do well to stick with being Independent. If you have a problem with the Republican Party and the Tea Party then if you would embrace being Independent you'd also have a problem with the Democrat Party. Any party alignment results in someone thinking government is trying to screw them over. This highlights the advantage of small government is good government.
The less government has influence in your life - our lives - the less opportunity it has to do harm.
Small government is good. That's one reason I was a Republican to begin with. I was for 'small government', back before it was a popular fad, back when the Republicans were expanding Medicare and running deficits.
Small government is NOT a panacea. Free, competitive markets, with low barriers to entry, is FAR more important than having small government, in my opinion. A fair tax code with equitable rates between wage earners, wealth owners, and businesses, is just as important as small government. A sound currency is just as important as small government, and small government does NOT guarantee a sound currency.
The Occupy movement is being driven by the Millenial Generation. They have used their superior technological and social networking skills to organize, educate, and inspire people to their cause while befuddling and confusing the authorities. They continue to rally more young people to their fight against Wall Street and K Street tyranny. The generational lines of battle are being drawn. The Baby Boom Generation, who is at the point of maximum power in society, fears this movement. They control Wall Street, corporate America, Congress, the courts, academia and the media. They have reached their peak of influence and power, which will rapidly wane over the next fifteen years. They see the Occupy movement as a threat to their supremacy and control of the system. The cynical, alienated, pragmatic Generation X is caught between the Boomers and the Millenials in this escalating conflict. It is likely the majority of this generation will side with the Millenials, realizing the future of the country depends on them and not the elderly Boomers. To clarify, not every Boomer, Gen Xer, or Millenial will act in concert with their generational cohort. But it doesn’t matter if a few cattle stray from the herd, when the herd is stampeding in one direction.
Although some of these characterizations are appropriate, the battles are not really about one generation vs. another. Lots of Wall Street is full of Gen X people. Those younger hotshot investment bankers from Harvard that make $500K per year are not Baby Boomers.
The Millenials may be tech-savvy, but that merely speeds the rate at which communication occurs. It doesn't automatically change their values vs. people in other generations.
The OWS people are younger, idle or near idle, grew up well taken care of, they are frustrated and angry, and currently amenable to groupthink.
So you are entitled to that Manhattan loft and brand new Mercedes SLK because you are an American?
Such inequality that you have to live in a normal house and drive a Chevy instead. It's tragic, really.
Ever heard of the Law of Diminishing Returns? There is a big difference in comfort and lifestyle between someone who makes 20K a year vs someone who makes 60K, somewhat less between someone who makes 60K vs 100K and even less between a 100K earner and a 200K earner. By the time you get to the millions, there is hardly a difference in lifestyle at all, despite adding millions of dollars to their incomes.
Luxury goods are invented and pandered to part the wealthy from their money with a basis in status, not lifestyle improvement. A Rolls Royce won't get you to the grocery store any faster than an Aveo.
You shouldn't feel deprived because you drive an Aveo. You are lucky to have a car; most people in the world don't. They don't even have enough to eat or clean water to drink.
The point is, you are wasting your life if you spend it chasing dollar bills. Once you get to a certain point where your needs are taken care of and you are safe, warm, secure and comfortable, additional spending for fancier stuff is just buying prestige among other hollow, stuff-obsessed people. I am not jealous of extremely wealthy people, I feel bad for them for putting so much time and effort into something that is worthless in the end.
Who said I want a Manhattan loft and Rolls Royce? I am fine with my lifestyle. What I am not fine with is Corporations and Banks infiltrating our Government and putting policies in place that have effectively ruined our economy and drifted our country so far from the original Constitution that our "Democracy" has turned into a "Corporatocracy".
You seem to be missing the bigger picture. We are fighting endless wars because of Israeli lobbyists and For-Profit war Corporations. The Federal Reserve is raping the American taxpayer blind and you seem to think that the poor are simply jealous of the rich. It may take you a few years to notice but keep electing the status quo and YOU WILL feel the effects that the younger and poorer populations have been experiencing in mass.
Reducing taxes and the size of government screws over young people eh?
That's news to me...
You are out of your mind if you think the mainstream Republican party candidates wish to reduce the size of Government. George Bush and The Patriot Act ring a bell? No Child Left Behind? When will people realize that BOTH PARTIES ARE THE SAME.
Ron Paul is the only candidate that will reduce the size of the Federal Government.
You are out of your mind if you think the mainstream Republican party candidates wish to reduce the size of Government. George Bush and The Patriot Act ring a bell? No Child Left Behind? When will people realize that BOTH PARTIES ARE THE SAME.
Ron Paul is the only candidate that will reduce the size of the Federal Government.
I agree, but remind me again which party Ron Paul is a part of?
Fantastic article. Boomers should be completely ashamed at themselves for destroying this country and sending it down the ****ter. The millenials really will have to pick up the ashes and restore this country from scratch. This country will be in a noose until the Boomers get the hell out of office.
Who said I want a Manhattan loft and Rolls Royce? I am fine with my lifestyle. What I am not fine with is Corporations and Banks infiltrating our Government and putting policies in place that have effectively ruined our economy and drifted our country so far from the original Constitution that our "Democracy" has turned into a "Corporatocracy".
You seem to be missing the bigger picture. We are fighting endless wars because of Israeli lobbyists and For-Profit war Corporations. The Federal Reserve is raping the American taxpayer blind and you seem to think that the poor are simply jealous of the rich. It may take you a few years to notice but keep electing the status quo and YOU WILL feel the effects that the younger and poorer populations have been experiencing in mass.
OK, I'd go with that... but the whole Occupy Wall street still boils down to a "you have more than me, it's not fair" whiner-fest. The above set of circumstances has been that way for quite some time... decades even.
The people gave up their power piece by piece years ago when they decided it was easier to drift off into their own little worlds of entertainment and self-induglement instead of being politically active, protecting their rights and becomming involved in the democratic process.
It's too late now to come back now and hope to get the power back, just like it's too late to get your money back after you've been scammed.
Reducing taxes and the size of government screws over young people eh?
That's news to me...
only in the way that the we're choosing to do it.
healthcare, for example, you hear a lot about screwing everyone under 55, which i suppose would affect younger boomers as well. Even Obamacare from the Dems has a provision that the most expensive (elderly) plans can't cost over 3 times more than the cheapest (younger) plans. http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2...r-medicare.php
taxes, for example.. capital gains taxes affect older people, wage taxes affect younger people. How many politicians do you know that have proposed eliminating wage taxes? Now, how about cap gains taxes?
labor vs. capital, for example. Older people tend to own assets and stocks, young people tend to work more and earn salaries. We take policy steps to boost the stock market, which helps retirees, but we take none whatsoever which would jeapordize stock prices, and create jobs.
Last edited by Cletus Awreetus-Awrightus; 11-04-2011 at 12:33 PM..
Just a quick breeze through the paper, "the Great Power Saeculum (82)' caught my attention and what immediately caught my eye was the seeming historical amnesia of the authors who dismiss the rise of Anarcho-syndicalism, socialist and radicalization of the American labor movement. I mean goodness the same folks who assassinated an American President, tried to murder a number of major industrialist, provoked scores of labor riots, and other general acts of "terrorism" in the late 19th century up to and including during the Great Depression deserve as much notice as the Anti-war movement and certainly as much as the OWS folks. But that is just a brief impression, maybe more later this evening.
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