- This topic has 11 replies, 7 voices, and was last updated 7 years, 11 months ago by mark47n.
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April 20, 2016 at 12:09 pm #841050
HMC RichParticipantI found this Vanity Fair article interesting. What are your reactions. Hope you are having a nice spring. http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2016/04/why-democrats-are-becoming-the-party-of-the-1-percent
May 7, 2016 at 12:22 am #843090
HMC RichParticipantCrickets
May 7, 2016 at 6:06 am #843100
waynsterParticipantMay 7, 2016 at 9:26 pm #843230
dobroParticipantThe reason I think there’s little reaction to this is because it merely states the obvious. The R party has gone off the deep end and nominated a vile, misogynistic, racist slime ball
as their candidate and, predictably, a lot of the moneyed interests who make bank on the status quo are going to bail and move to the Ds. After a crushing defeat for the Rs in which they lose the Presidential, the Senate, and several House seats,there will be a political realignment over time as the Trump/TeaParty wackos shrivel away, The Ds split in 2 with one wing becoming the “moderate Republicans” and one, the Bernie wing, taking up the cause of the working folks and middle class. There will be much Sturm and Drang along the way, of course, but I think that’s the likely outcome.May 8, 2016 at 5:24 am #843258
ernieusafretParticipantThe R’s hasn’t had anyone worth a tinkers dam in a very long time, and the D’s just want what is in your wallet.
It’s time we got rid of them and start over.
This election reminds me of a playground fight in Elementary school.
And don’t get me started on the politicians in Seattle.
I was born and raised here, and sometimes I am ashamed to admit it.May 8, 2016 at 8:58 am #843278
mark47nParticipant@Ernie: An interesting claim that the Democrats “want what’s in your wallet”. What does that mean? Are you referring to taxes or your drivers license? Let’s examine what taxes are. First, let’s examine the idea that the taxes that are removed from your income are “yours”. They are not, they are “ours”. Those darn taxes pay for so many things and most of it isn’t welfare or similar programs for the poor, which come to such a small amount that it’s laughable. If you want to see more fiscal responsibiliyt you could cut the militar budget in half and still have a larger military that necessary. Taxes, federal, state and local pay for roads, police, EMS and fire, courts, clean water, subsidies for food, parks of all stripes and other conservation of resources, you know, for the future and stuff.
I am far more concerned about the things that the private sector want: more private prisons, to lay claim to all of the water tht lies beneath us so that it can be bottled and sold at $1.5/.5L, health insurance (note I did’t say healthcare) private war (read mercenaries, such as blackwater) and more and more of our public dollars for ridiculous project such as the F-35 Joint Task Force Fighter, a plane that none of the military wanted but was informed that it would get anyway, at a price of around $100M/ea.
If the politicians did what they should we would have healthcare for all, we would have accessible education (read free to the student or available at a minimal nominal fee for tuition), road that didn’r shred our car and bridges that weren’t on the verge of collapse, and the list goes on. Profits shouldn’t be derived by the suffering and misery of people, in fact, even in this country that was sort of believed until until Reagan allowed for profit health insurance. Free (see note above) should be viewed as an investment in the future, not as a giveaway.
My point is that yes, the government want your hard earned cash but you get services for that, services that we as a people believe should not come with a profit derived from it. Private industry, however, wants the money for your wallet. They want it to flow into their coffers and then into the pockets of their executives. To think otherwise is naive.
I guess the real question is this: do you believe that the government is for, by and of the people or business? For the last 35 years it’s definitely been the latter.
May 8, 2016 at 1:46 pm #843295
HMC RichParticipantI don’t believe any of you are wrong but not all of us are necessarily correct either. Fact . . . Government and Private companies want our cash. What is too much and too little? The Stock Market is booming at times but the GDP is extremely weak (And after 8 years don’t blame Bush, there has been enough water under the bridge). The stock market does not really help the lower classes unless they can invest or have a company match on a 401k. But to get elected the Front Runners are part of the Stock Market and Business community. Are you going to bash Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Trump for that? Embrace it?
May 8, 2016 at 2:19 pm #843307
dobroParticipantFor me, the choice has nothing to do with finance. I’d prefer Bernie, but at this point I don’t think he’s going to win the nomination. The choice we will be presented with will be 1) experienced, center-right, status quo maintaining, gov’t service apparatchik, 1st viable female candidate vs. 2) vile, sexist, racist, unqualified for dog catcher, one percenter who inherited Daddy’s money and acts like he’s actually worked for something, no gov’t experience, narcissistic a**hole…I think it’ll be door number one for me.
May 8, 2016 at 4:12 pm #843320
JayDeeParticipantI read today that in terms of income (of all types) that the top 10% of families own roughly 75% of our Nations wealth. The bottom 50% of families own 1.1% of the nation’s wealth. And 3/4ths of those near retirement age (I am assuming 55 years old) have $30,000 in their 401K. Even the Kochs are abandoning the Republicans. But we should all be ashamed that the inequality is our country is equivalent to that in 1929. HMC: Financial firms function as a tax on our society because they skim money off the top with no productivity aside from capital luxury purchases they chose to make. I am glad to see some of them having to lay off staff. I wont vote for Rump. I will reluctantly vote for Hilary D-Goldman Sachs if she doesn’t get indicted because she is the lesser evil.
May 8, 2016 at 4:15 pm #843321
JayDeeParticipantMay 8, 2016 at 8:38 pm #843340
JTBParticipantHere’s a long but straightforward overview of how economic, political and social conditions have reached the current state. neoliberalism
It makes clear that that distinctions between Democrats and Republicans are superficial at most—-do you want it bad or very bad?
As the article concludes, we need an alternative to the guiding principles that are at work now, but as far as I can tell no such alternative is presently on the horizon. Certainly no conservative minded folks are in favor of returning to the hey days of democratic capitalism when tax rates were high and wealth distribution was equitable, you know, the period before neoliberalism began to take hold and finance capitalism began to establish dominance.Added note: My apology to anyone who looked at this post earlier and didn’t see a title for the link. It’s now functional.
May 9, 2016 at 7:09 am #843364
mark47nParticipant@HMC: I agree that everyone want our money. My point is what do I get for it? I got health insurance statement for my taxes and it was $15,000! We were also I formec that costs to administer the plan went up but the available funds did as well, to over $500M. So, I’m healthy and, while I do receive some healthcare on an annual basis it certainly doesn’t approach 15k. Couple that with the fact that care can be denied by my insurance company and that no one can really tell me what a procedure costs until it gets funneled through all of the associated office is discomforting at best. I also know that birthing a child costs more that 10k in this country. To the North it costs only 10%. Yes, their taxes are higher, but they are getting something for it without stuffing cash in someones pocket.
This applies to a growing number of things in this country. Education, providing services to the military that used to be in house, such as Starbucks and McDonalds being available to GIs in Iraq, the financial services industry clamoring to get their grubby little hands on Social Security funds and my favorite, requiring me, by dint of simply being alive and a citizen of this country, to purchase health INSURANCE, from a private for profit company. A company that can deny that care that is proposed by a doctor.
As to presidential choices, I’ll happily vote for Bernie Sanders, a senator who has held and espoused the same principles for his entire career over Hillary Clinton whose recorc has proven that there isn’t a war she won’t support, a bomb she won’t drop or a corporate dollar she wont accept. She pivots so often it’s a wonder the doesn’t fall down from being so dizzy! Hillary is a disgusting candidate only marginally better than Herr Trump. And for those that would say I, or other like me, won’t vote for her because she’s a woman I say that I would enthusiastically vote for Senator Elizabeth Warren. In fact enthusiastically may not be a strong enough word.
The old saw that we must now pick between the least of two evils has brought us to this point. We have been doing that for so long that we can no longer spot the politician that would serve the interests of the people, whose voices are drowned out by lobbyists, cash, perks and post congress jobs offering even more wads of cash. Trump is one of those people…but so is Hillary. Perhaps, selecting between those evils we have ended up lowering the bar and we, the people are at fault.
It’s time to raise the bar.
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