Night Strike wrote: PLAYER57832 wrote:The real problem, the real power, right now is in money. You and I, according to the "powers that be" no longer truly have a right to our money, no longer truly have a right to expect reasonable payment for reasonable work done. We barely have the right to reasonably safe working conditions and certainly don't seem to have the right to health care and medical treatment, except for kids (and then not in every state uniformly).
Then why can't we keep more of our money by paying less taxes?
Because so many of the things our taxes support are necessary for a long term sustained economy, as well as things percieved as "tangential" or "esoteric" by conservatives, but which are really just taken for granted.
For example, most of us cannot remember a time when Measles and whooping cough killed children in our school every year. (that day is returning, but due to ignorance and misinformation about risks of vaccines compared to risks of the diseases themselves). You are safer because slums are no longer bastions of tuberculosis, diptheria, etc. Some of those diseases are returning, but not in the levels they were present prior to all the government funded research and government funded vaccine campaigns.
You no doubt drive on a highway system funded by taxes, but now, in many places on the verge of disintegrating because of years of neglect and failure to properly repair or even to just plan for future repairs. If you think privatization is the answer, then just consider the demise of our rail system. Tracks are privately owned... and many are in notoriously poor condition, many others were decommissioned because the routes were no longer profitable.
You have dismissed a lot of scientific research as "unproductive". That is true. But, when you say that, you ignore what science is and does. Many of our best and greatest discoveries in history did not come because someone directed research into well-funded ideas with definite profitability potential. Just the opposite. Companies are notorious for taking free government research or "tangential" research (something a dedicated scientists discovers, but is not able to market well, because that is not their skill), and then make millions. The result is a system and economy, politics that are extraordinarily weighted toward those skilled purely at making money and not necessarily at making things, discovering things or fixing anything except their own personal budgets.
Understand, I realize we NEED marketers, bankers, CEO's, etc. But, this idea that its OK for a CEO to take a 6 million dollar bonus, (to pick a LOW figure), that its OK for stockholders to make profits and then lower level employees just have to deal with whatever is left after the bigwigs take what they want... that is just wrong. That ethic, that idea that only those at the top deserve what they get and the rest are just operating on the "grace" fo the leaders... only deserving whatever the economic leaders decide to give, that is market fuedalism. The difference is that we still do have more personal freedom than serfs, and certainly live amongst better "things", but... the turn of politics today is to take many of those things away from us. When even someone like Woodruff, involved in the military and rather conservative, is concerned about loss of liberties.. you know it is a real issue.
Night Strike wrote:Raising wages is not the only solution. In fact, cutting taxes will create more jobs than forcing higher, non-market wages.
ONLY in the short term. Forget that without farmers to grow food, farmers who are able to have decent lives, support themselves and their families as well as people "in town", and you lose your agriculture. We are already seeing that happen. We are still an exporter of food, but how much longer. This idea that there is some great "technology" fix out there is a mistake. In fact, many of the "technology" fixes already implemented have shown themselves to be a very, very mixed gain at best. Pesticides,irrigation and such mean fewer pests, but also polluted waterways, polluted soils (from salt accumulation, for example), health issues for the communities where food is grown. Genetic issues are not even being considered. Right now, you have a hard time finding out if the food you buy is genetically engineered (depending on where you live). The promoters claim it is "tested". Well... so was DDT, Thalamide, etc. The latest request to allow genetically altered salmon is rife with ignorant claims. We already have triploid (3 chromosome) slamon introduced to the great lakes that were not supposed to reproduce, yet they did. Fish are fairly primitive. Like the dinosaurs in Jurassic park, "nature finds a way". Except, this is not fictitious dinosaurs on a remote island, these are real fish.
Night Strike wrote:We don't have the right to our own money because the government decrees they have to take a large percentage of it.
Some, yes. Because you USE and benefit from the services the government provides. I certainly don't agree with every war we have, but I fundamentally accept that we need an army if we won't be invaded by idiots. I may not use every road in our country, but I understand that I use the roads near me and that I get food, goods, etc that travel across many roads. I understand that everything from our economy to safety, etc depend upon a fairly uniform and consistantly decent road system Not every little rural byway needs to allow 70MPH traffic, but they have to meet some basic standards.
Night Strike wrote:No one ever said you had no right to health care or treatment: you don't have a right to insurance. No one ever said those rights had to be free of charge either.
And no one said that you should be able to live outside of a fully contained, disease free unit. For, you see, diseases don't stop at poorer areas. Fighting diseases, plagues became a national, world issue because they impact EVERYONE, regardless of income or where you live.
Second, most of the people in this country DO want to live in a world where people can go to the doctor when they need. No, not everyone should get breast implants and facelifts, but a child should not have to live with a cleft pallet, no one should die because they could not afford insuline or blood pressure regulating medication. Maybe you think that world is fine. Well.. then go to Africa. You will find it there. The wealthy there get whatever they want, but the rest do not. Me... I prefer our system. OR, better yet Europe. AND, despite your claims about the terrors of socialism, the real truth is that people in those countries are generally happier than here by independent measures.