Anyone for some pork????

[DWII]

I'd also like to agree with what you said, you have some really good points...BUT>"some of what you said is “sweepingly general and not entirely accurate” !!!

I guess I’ll start with this quote:

The "ones who earned them" have manipulated the system to their benefit and due to greed and lack of foresight, they have created a quagmire that "we, the people" lib, con, indy, whatever divisive label the narrow minded apply cannot get out of without gov't. Intervention. It's a sad reality.

The ones who earned them in “general” did earn them (of coarse there are the exceptions ie: the Rockefellers, corrupt corporate execs, The Governmental Burocrats, and others), however many of the “RICH” esp. in the lower levels got their, from ABSOLUTE poverty by the sweat of their brow and the perseverance that enabled them to overcome all obstacles. I hold “we the people” to be responsible first, as we elected those who were next most responsible: The Government, and after that of course theirs the Banks, Those I mentioned before, and others. We do need Gov. intervention but not in spending!

Next:

On the other hand, there are some targeted areas where we MUST spend and I don't mean entitlements. Stem cell research, alternative energy development, the broken medical and insurance industries. We MUST break the stranglehold big oil has on this country. We MUST get away from Bush's "religious right" pandering over technological and medical research. America needs to LEAD the world into new technologies and EXPORT these or we will never maintain the quality of life we desire.

I’ll leave this one mostly alone as its personal opinion, however I will say that that the medical & Insurance industries are definitely broken. However I don’t think spending is necessarily the best way to fix them as that seems to have been part of what created the problem. (I disagree on the stem cell research) and agree mostly on alternative energy development “with proper supervision.”


Next:

Capitalism would work if left alone, but unfortunately it WASN'T left alone. Financial investment vehicles were created that did not reflect true value. The gold standard is long gone. Ponzi schemes pass as legitimate investing. Wall Street has no basis in reality and is now a glorified casino with many card counters and sharks manipulating the game.

Capitalism wasn’t left alone more the pity. But financial vehicles were not the cause of its downfall as you implied. It was government intervention coupled with the fed, and ignorance of how money works by the general public, as well as a list of other things I won’t go into for the sake of space. I can’t quite tell what you mean by Ponzi scheme*, the only “legal investment Ponzi scheme” I know of is Social Security which is a TAX, not an investment!!! You may be referring to the recent case of Bernard Madoff but he was a scam artist and a really good one at that who tried to pass of his baloney as a real investment yet it was still characterized by all of the tale tale signs of a ponzi scheme. The people who got burned were either ignorant of the signs or let their greed get the better of their caution. This is a function of the free market if your to greedy you get burned badly. Lastly on this section Wall Street is only a “glorified casino” if you don’t know how it works although there are those who do manipulate it for personal gain, the same is true of any field of business.(If you need clarification on this one just ask P.M.).

Next:

Some intervention is due, but the money must be watched like a hawk. As though it was your or my business or livelihood at stake. The gov't is just incapable of functioning that way. They just cannot be accountable and the companies lined up for a handout cannot be trusted to "do the right thing."

Your absolutely right here as this quote states: “absolute power absolutely corrupts”

Next:

It's a sad mess we're in. It will get better. It always does, but someone has to step up and do the right thing. Unfortunately, Obama seems to be more of the same.

Ron Paul would have been the better choice.

I hope it gets better but if hyperinflation sets in<if we use any south american country as an example> it will be years, toil, hardship, civil war (or at least unrest) and 3 governments later before things get straightened out. However I think even if it does get that bad I think America will pull out of it allot faster than they did although I can’t imagine the difficulties that would be endured, the closest example I can think of would be the worst thing that Y2K could have been. I hate to be so pessimistic but I really see that as a possibility, as horrible as it seems, if this thing doesn’t get fixed. Of course the government might save us all and we would become either an oligarchy, monarchy, or a socialist society. But enough of the dark side. Obama does seem at this time to be more of the same but he may come round, and actually pull this country out of this mess, at least I pray so!!! As far as Ron Paul lets just say he might have done some good things for this country “if he had been elected” although I disagree with allot of his ideas. But the past is in the past let us learn from it and face the future united.

My personal thoughts are that every one in this country needs to learn how money works. And the government needs to slash taxes way back as well as all true PORK and even as much of the exes spending on healthcare, welfare, and government aid projects as possible, and pay off the National Debt and spend whatever extra into rebuilding the economy, real hardcore stuff that will create jobs and give us an export surplus. This is not saying that I think we should eliminate, government programs just that they need to be more localized and monitored, theirs homeless beggars on the streets of big cities who are making over 200K a year of tax free income as professional beggars while the majority of single moms in the U.S. are under the poverty line. Yet they share equally in the program or the beggars might even get a little more. It’s not right and it needs changed. The moms are real hardworking citizens who need help the beggars are leaches on society. The jail inmates are given a free bed, free TV, free food, and in some cases even free education, in exchange for light work. While there are dozens of hard working families who are barely scraping by and even being laid of for a month could cause bankruptcy. We’ve all probably herd the joke about the street bum who purposely went around breaking the law trying to get thrown in jail for the winter the sad thing is it really happens. I guess I got a little of track their but the point is were really wasting a lot of money rewarding those who leach off taxpayers while those who really need the money aren’t getting sufficient assistance and that needs to change.

I could go on but I think I’ll stop after this comment: None of us have it all right, because we can’t see the whole beast from every side, but if we listen to each other we can see it from more angles and forum a better conclusion. We will all see things a little differently, and we’ll all have some things right and some things wrong. The point is to take the good and praise it, and take the bad and reprove it as gently as.

*(Definition: A Ponzi scheme is a fraudulent investment operation that pays returns to investors from their own money or money paid by subsequent investors rather than from profit. The term "Ponzi scheme" is used primarily in the United States, while other English-speaking countries do not distinguish colloquially between this scheme and other pyramid schemes. Source=Wikipedia)