Good M(orning)T(2U2), MT
I’ve enjoyed your posts as well.
MT: I'm hoping your final line wasn't a voice of annoyance as I felt it might have been..?
NS: Not at all. I meant it as a challenge. Your issue with campaign contributions (or is it any undue political influence whatsoever(?)), and my more libertarian opposition to any infringement on political access, seemed to keep things at a too theoretical level. So, I hoped to show you the practical impossibility of your aims. At the Vampire Club meetings, there is a lot of: “there ought to be a law against sunshine.” And, of course, there could be a law enacted if our membership sunk their teeth into the effort, and sucked up to the legislature. But, how do we go about enforcing this ‘sunshine law’? Ah, there’s the rub.
MT: quite a compliment and indeed, a challenge nobody has ever given me.
NS: Yet alas, a challenge you apparently chose to ignore.
I wasn’t necessarily asking you to rewrite the US Constitution, but simply to prohibit all excessive political influence (which, if I’ve read you correctly, means any influence exceeding that of any anonymous, typical, citizen’s). As with my Vampire Club, I’m chiefly looking for your enforcement plan(?).
M(idas)T(ouched): wealth, in particular, Corporate wealth has the ability to threaten the freedoms guaranteed by our Founding Fathers some 234 years ago.
NS: Well, there you and I must stand butt abutted to butt, rather than eye 2 eye. Since I take ‘wealth’ as the cure, rather than the problem, for ‘debt.’
Many banks (and other businesses of all sorts) over-extended recklessly, as did even a larger percentage of American households. That is not the fault of ‘wealth,’ but a flagrant disregard for it. Spending is expending (giving away) wealth. Spend more than you have, and you achieve negative (minus) wealth. If ‘wealth’ were the problem, then falling into debt would have to be the solution. Since ‘debt’ is the actual problem, then ‘wealth’ is the solution. Please pass that fact on to your good buddy Obama, who, unlike Clinton, seems to have taken a Republican POV, much like your own.
MT: I'm not in favor of any government redistributing America's wealth amongst all its people like it was chicken feed,
NS: That’s a relief, I would have guessed otherwise. Is that because you enjoy grousing about the 10% haves v the poor downtrodden 99.9% (I know how you love to exaggerate the stats ;
I just finished an article longing for the return of the Robber Barons. Not because they were as proficient in creating debt, as our illustrious leaders, but for the very opposite reason. Yes, they lived in grand style; much like today’s Larry Ellison, of Oracle fame. But, Mr. Ellison created 49,000 (mostly well paying) jobs. To me, if that means Ellison gets some expensive toys in return…lets do it.
MT: Paying the debt is only a device of a number system devoted to an economic system that has become outdated and unfair for the vast majority of people.
NS: So, you are after an entirely new (utopian?) economic system? You don’t appear to grasp the nature of the present one, so I never took you for an economic theorist. Have you made any effort to flesh out your economic conception’s details? I’d dearly love to see them(?).
I confess to the abject inability to create new economic systems, nor to fully grasp the nature of our present one’s complexity. I’ve taken but a single course in the topic in grad school. I do understand, though, what ‘capital’ is (as compared to ‘wealth’), and ‘debt’ is (as compared to “a device of a number system”). I know these creatures intimately due to my being an active investor in financial markets for decades. Even as I write this I’m watching the quotes stream by (with whisperings of Governmental intrusion).
I’d be writing this post all day if I were to attempt to respond to your numerous economic misstatements. But, your general theme is correct: the little guy IS being unfairly robbed. Not by corporate interests, they are our salvation; but by the national governments who demand a share in your salary/profits, but never share in your lack of employment/losses. The Gov loves for you to blame others (terrorists, corporations, China), from whom they are always saving us with ‘our’ money. ‘Little guy,’ himself, is also to blame for his own (political & economic) carelessness. The natural law: “A fool and his money are soon parted,” will always apply.
Getting long, getting gone. Later, my good friend.