Funny Observation About Economics and Politics

[SorianoFanHFW]

I was with my friends watching the Mets game and I said, "What I don't get is why Liberals complain about how the American government is oppressive and is the reason why all these bad things happen on Earth, and yet they want to EXPAND it."

 

My misguided liberal friend (I call him that because he had the liberal upbringing and so he has all these beliefs and doesn't know why), said, "But we don't want an evil government. We want the government to do good things."

 

Implying that conservatives are somehow inherently evil was funny enough, but I said, "But the government is going to do the same thing all the time, look at the cold war and the dominance of the democratic party."

 

He then replied, "All I want from government is to be good to the people and help the economy."

 

He was obviously implying two things: one, republicans must want to be bad to the people and bad for the economy, and furthermore, that it is possible to give everyone everything they need and simutaneously strengthen the economy.

 

The absurdity of the both assertions is rather clear. I really don't blame him, listen to politicians these days. They promise us every friggin' program on Earth, pass a lot of it into law, and then say they are going to help the economy...something has got to give. The people think they can have their cake and eat it too, but the truth is that there are obvious trade-offs when it comes to the government spending more money and the hit the economy takes.

 

Taking money out of the economy is never good for the economy. However, there is also a question of equity, and some people believe equity is more important and therefore the economy must take a hit for the sake of fairness.

 

Fine, this is a matter of one's personal beliefs. However the majority of America want BOTH and the politicians promise BOTH and the very though of having both is absurd, because it is impossible.

 

Why do we let politicians get away with these absurd notions? We listen to the same crap every time, "I will improve education, I will fix medicare, I will strengthen the military, I will fix social security, I will do prescription drugs, I will fix the economy, ect."

 

These promises are impossible, yet we listen to them and take it seriously. They say impossible things, follow it up with innuendo, no substance, and no proof...and we suck it up. Why aren't we laughing in these people's faces? Why isn't the media criticizing the politicians for their absurd view of politics or us for that matter?

 

When Ross Perot came around, he was charismatic, but more importantly had a clear set of issues and actually would take out graphs, explain them, analyze a situation, and tell you exactly what he plans on doing. I'm not going to comment whether or not I agree with Perot's politics, but he had faith in the American people to actually CARE about the issues, not silly promises, and actually discuss the issues.

 

This is what made Perot stupid...people don't care about the truth, they like stupid impossible promises...they like people who play the Sax or say "fuzzy math" a billion times. The media would make fun of perot as "that crazy rich guy with all those graphs that talks too much." Ironically, he was criticized for trying to inform people about the issues instead of spewing Bull Sh!t. It is more embarassing to sound smart than to sound stupid. How can our society stay on top so long with this sort of dumbass mentality?

 

I do not blame my friend, when most of the country is like this, you get sucked in. The media has to stop tolerating this crap and us voters the same. It has to get to the point where we stop voting for the two big parties. This election is a very hard one to start this, because Bush is a borderline war criminal...however, when it came initially to Gore-Bush, Clinton-Dole, and ect, we still voted for the two biggest dopes around. We have to stop this, this just has to stop.

[Shamrock]

The government that helps me the most picks my pocket the least

 

Equality of opportunity is not the same as equality of outcome (liberals can't seem to understand this)

There are still inequalities in our economic system, so I disagree partially with you. African-Americans for example are finally starting to head towards the middle-class after over a hundred years of poverty. Legislation passed in the 60s has finally produced. A quarter of the African-American population is now considered middle-class, although they are still the most urbanized group in the US, indicating lingering racism/discrimination.

 

I agree 500% with SF with the his main point on giving people information over style/image. How can we ever know who truly represents what direction we want to see the world and the US go towards? Image is everything in this country and substance is lacking, not only in politics, but almost every facet of our lives.

[SorianoFanHFW]

Not to drag this subject to far off topic (that being image is destroying the issues of politics), I must say that until we live in a society where immigrants stay poor for many generations when they continue to work hard, I fail to see how current racism can anymore be to blame for social and economic problems within the black community.

 

However, Johnson and Nixon did help finally gain a place at the table for blacks.