dagblog - Comments for "My Country is Breaking my Heart"

tanka haiku: America

MrSmith1 — Tue, 17 May 2011 04:57:55 +0000

In reply to My Country is Breaking my Heart

tanka haiku: America lies
Dazed and bleeding on the mat
Its greatness drained by
Greedy corporations that
Pledge allegiance to themselves.

Oh for cryin out loud,

Michael Wolraich — Tue, 17 May 2011 00:41:12 +0000

In reply to My Country is Breaking my Heart

Oh for cryin out loud, Ramona, you too? This country gives up every damn recession. Pack of spoiled fair-weather patriots, if you ask me. And I include liberals with the conservatives in that regard.

And by the way, the Koch's and the Coors and the rest are not The Rich. They are just a few nutty right-wingers who happen to have money.

“self-interest properly

Resistance — Tue, 17 May 2011 00:06:11 +0000

In reply to My Country is Breaking my Heart

“self-interest properly understood.”

Americans caring for Americans

For this you have every inducement of sympathy and interest. Citizens, by birth or choice, of a common country, that country has a right to concentrate your affections. The name of American, which belongs to you in your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of patriotism more than any appellation derived from local discriminations.......Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence (I conjure you to believe me, fellow-citizens) the jealousy of a free people ought to be constantly awake, since history and experience prove that foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of republican government. G. Washington

SELF INTEREST

Hey, Ramona; I'm sorry you

we are stardust — Mon, 16 May 2011 22:12:23 +0000

In reply to My Country is Breaking my Heart

Hey, Ramona; I'm sorry you are suffering such heart-break. The Stiglitz piece is great, isn't it? I stuck it up on the In the News section (I think it was there) and we discussed it a bit maybe a week or so ago.

The Hightower piece was pretty good, too, but I did want to point out the differences I see between the two.

Hightower frames the problem as a Dem v. Republican one, and it sure is in those states. Stiglitz, however, if you read it again, frames it as an Elites v. Everyone else scenario, and in that, I think he's right. If you notice, he mentions the lack of anti-trust enforcements during the Bush years, but many of the other trends were down to this administration as well. Other economists use a 4%-ers as the Elites Ruling and ratcheting the power upwards, as well as the wealth, but they also remind us that once you've rubbed elbows with supremely rich and powerful (like Congresspeople have) you tend to want more if you're of that ilk, which nost of them seem to be, too.

Anyhoo, that's how I read the two pieces, and for my money, the Stiglitz take is more useful to the national debate. I do think the various states' populations are kicking back hard, though undoing some of more ungodly moves like selling off public infrastructure to private entities will be longer-term problems not easily fixed.

I put up a blog about Galbraith and Auerback writing of some solutions to the state and municipal financial straits they find themselves in now, and how Giethner is making it worse. Hope Obama hears them.

At least the girl in this

mageduley — Mon, 16 May 2011 21:02:33 +0000

In reply to My Country is Breaking my Heart

At least the girl in this cartoon has the option of going home for "something else". If things keep going in the current direction of corporatocracy, we may not have that option.

(No subject)

cmaukonen — Mon, 16 May 2011 18:45:19 +0000

In reply to As for ... this once-proud

Saddest to me is that most

MrSmith1 — Mon, 16 May 2011 18:12:59 +0000

In reply to My Country is Breaking my Heart

Saddest to me is that most of the rhetoric about "Restoring our Nation's Greatness", is being made by the very people that destroyed it. Their idea of restoration has more to do with bringing back robber barons and the social mores of the 19th century and dismantling every Liberal policy put into place over the last 80 years than reviving the spirit of 'looking out for the other guy' and creating a nation in which all individuals can thrive.

As for ... this once-proud

Beetlejuice — Mon, 16 May 2011 16:56:21 +0000

In reply to My Country is Breaking my Heart

As for ... this once-proud nation lying in a rusted heap, bankrupt and riven and the laughingstock of the world ...

Seems it was choice by the majority. Everyone worried about getting ahead of their rivals, neighbors and their friends. Focus was more on the Me than on the We.

A good example is myself.

I thought by purchasing foreign, that would make the US industry take notice and force them to pull themselves up by their bootstraps. What it did was make them consider re-locating off-shore to take advantage of extremely low wages in industrial poor nations to produce the same shitty product. While their lines remained crappy, prices began to get competitive. However, the significant savings in reduced labor costs and benefits created a flood of cash to sate Wall Street expectations and significantly boost share-holder equity.

In other words, my defiance had the exact opposite affect I was expecting. Now, I see I should have actively engaged industry by refusing to make any purchases. Seems the correct method to get industry attention is to stifle the flow of consumer capital for products. If people were sitting on cash and making do with what ever was available instead of purchasing new, it would have sent the message the public wasn't buying what they were selling and they needed to make the necessary changes. So moving over to a foreign product line only forced the US industry to marginally adapt to consumer preferences, thus saving them a fortune in wages, benefits and pensions, rather than retool their product lines to meet consumer expectations...they made more money doing the same thing, it didn't cost them a penny to make the change, and they don't have any union, environmental or government interference to financially tie them down.

And just to prove my point look at how Europe handles public health care when compared to the US. Rather than grasp the essence of the best of all the European health care systems and create something the world would envy, the US would rather keep the old system intact even though it's way too expensive for what you get and many have to forgo procedures simply because they can't afford the cost. Such as having a tooth pulled because one can't afford a root canal and crown.

url : http://prospect.org/cs/articles?article=the_health_of_nations

And one thing you will find in Europe you won't see in the US are high individual taxes coupled with high salaries to pay for those taxes. That's why we became run-down and flea-bitten...WE allowed our Senators and Representatives in Congress give industry incentives to ignore passing on portions of the profits earned by their employee's hard work as increased wages, better benefit packages and secured retirement pensions.

And as you well know from living in Michigan, those who control the reins of power have no care or concern about the people...it's all about business and how to create the perfect environment without the worry of government controls or taxes.

WE have only ourselves to blame.

When I was in Saudia Arabia

Beetlejuice — Mon, 16 May 2011 16:09:42 +0000

In reply to My Country is Breaking my Heart

When I was in Saudia Arabia years ago, I had a Saudi tell me this story.

You're in the middle of no where. It's hot and dry and you have little food and water with you. The nearest village is miles away and you have to walk. You have a scratch on your little finger that has become infected. You do your best to treat it and move on.

After a few days, you make it to the village. The local medic gives you a quick look over and notices that infected cut looks to be gangrene.

You have a choice to make.

You can take the treatment and medicine he has available, or you can have the medic cut the finger off.

And he tells you the medicine he has isn't strong enough, but if you can get to the next major city, 500 miles away, they may be able to save it.

The next bus for the big city will depart tomorrow evening and it will take 3 days and the medic is worried that if you decide to go, by the time you get to the big city, it will be too late to arrest the spread.

It's a hard choice.

So my question to your post is simply...do we try the medicine then head for the major city and hope things don't get any worst than they already are or go under the knife, get it over with and learn to live the decision?

All is propaganda!

Richard Day — Mon, 16 May 2011 15:17:27 +0000

In reply to The Sunday news shows always

All is propaganda!