Rant part deux!

I'm not really a political person, although I do make sure to vote. Don't get me wrong, I most definitely have my ideas, I just mostly keep them to myself. Not worth arguing about usually. I'd like to continue with the idea that I need to quit reading and watching documentaries and the news, since it alternately pisses me off and scares the hell out of me. Mostly I worry about the future of our country and planet and what kind of shape it's going to be in for my boys as they grow up. I can make my own personal efforts to make a difference for me and my family, but usually feel helpless on a larger scale. This becomes especially true living in Utah with a liberal viewpoint. There I said it, I am, "gasp", a liberal. I don't know where or when that became such a dirty word, but I think it's time it was embraced again. Not that I really have any answers, I am not educated enough or well versed enough to provide them, but I have had these thought roiling around in my head for a few weeks and wanted to get them out.



To fix what ails this country you need to go the base or root of the issue and work up from there. To start, everything comes back to money, so if you want to find any answers follow the money. That brings me to my first thought, to bring about any significant change (on the government side of things), whether it be in health care, finance reform, or anything for that matter, there will first have to be campaign finance reform. Politicians spend far too much time trying to rake in contributions when they should be governing. Then of course there is all the influence those contributions bring, and you can't tell me it doesn't, because if it didn't work you wouldn't be seeing the millions poured into campaigns. That flow needs to be shut off. I'm not sure how or if it would work, but I think there needs to be strictly government funded elections with no private donations. With the way news coverage is everywhere and the ease with which information can be distributed online, I have to believe there is no need for exorbitantly priced campaigns. Bring back going door to door to spread your message, or town halls, or even online forums. Those who vote on the issues will seek out the information, for those who vote strictly based on what animal is next to your name the information doesn't matter anyway. Maybe without corporate money influences, there can be more honest open debate about what's best for the population as a whole.



Last week Exxon Mobil announced earnings for the first three months of the year of $6.3 billion dollars. Are you kidding me in three months they profited $6 billion dollars? That is difficult to comprehend that much money. Ford Motor company posted first quarter profits of $2 billion dollars (pre-tax). I kind of think corporations could be paying a little higher taxes on these obscene profits. I don't buy that taxing them more is going to shut down the economy, especially with all the millions they'll be saving by not having to donate to campaigns.



Health care has gotten out of control we're paying more and more, and receiving less care, and it just seems to continue to spiral upward. The health care bill was great for getting insurance for uninsured, but it really didn't address the problems of what the system is doing to everyone else. I haven't got a clue what to do about that. What I do think is that people need to try and live healthier lives, try to make people healthy before they get sick. If we go to a large root of the problem, it is what and the way people eat. I heard a statistic on TV that in twenty years, 75% of the population of Texas will be obese. People need to become educated about where there food comes from, and what it is we are eating. I think the documentaries Food Inc. and the World According to Monsanto, should be required viewing for everyone. I know it's not feasible to feed the world organically, but what food industry corporations have done to our food supply is criminal. What may be worse is what has been done to the government oversight of the industry and the departments that are supposed to keep citizens safe and healthy. I would really like there to be labelling for any food I purchase that has been genetically modified, I don't think that's too much to ask. Some of the information about food is really scary. As a corollary to this, people need to get off their ass and do something, anything, just be a little bit more active. I feel that if people lived healthier, then we wouldn't have as many reasons to go the the doctor, and maybe health care costs could come down.

I am of the general opinion that the US should not be policing the world. I don't feel we belong in Iraq or Afghanistan, but I'm not sure how we leave, or even if we should at this point. I would really like it for all the troops to come home, not sure if they can. The fact that we spend thirty times as much on defense as the next highest country is ridiculous. Maybe it's time we looked at pairing that down to say fifteen times as much, we should still be safe, and I bet we might be able to lower the national debt. There are enough domestic problems to worry about without trying to fix places halfway around the world that are trying to blow us up for being there.

I'm not touching immigration. No easy or good answers.

We are falling behind the rest of the world when it comes to education. This should not happen. Teaching needs to become an honored profession again, complete with the financial incentive to make it worth it. How can we hope to have a bright future unless we can educate the next generation to lead us there? Maybe some of that military savings could go toward education as well.

I'm slowing down on my rant, I think it's time to pack it in. I feel so much better now! Always good to get things off your chest! Maybe now I can go back to writing funny things about my kids, only 6 weeks left of school, not sure what's going to happen after that.

I feel a rant coming on

I told my dad the other day that I needed to quit watching documentaries and reading books, because it was freaking me out and pissing me off. Apparently I've got to quit reading my sons monthly school newsletter as well. The last few have each had a little article about freedom, this month it is on the impact of freedom on the economy. I think Glen Beck would be very proud of this article. "When government intrudes upon trade, one or both parties are forced to sacrifice their choice in the terms of the trade, as in the recent government mandate that banks lend financially unsound mortgages. Such actions lead to the loss of property rights and therefore a loss of LIFE.". What? I must have missed that mandate. But wait, there's more. "Over the years agents of the US government have exerted more control over the economy, claiming that a free market of labor and wages would result in massive unemployment. Their "logic" says that when people save their money, they hurt the economy and cause unemployment. This is why they believe that the government must step in and redistribute the wealth." Again, what? There has been massive deregulation for the last 20 plus years, many of which have at least partially caused the economic problems among other problems as well. And who in the hell are the "agents", "they", and "their" in that paragraph. I'm beginning to wonder if my boys are attending the Fox News of private schools. The article also contends that US fiscal policy "promotes unreal economic stimulation through invented public projects (the bridges to nowhere). This Keynesian economic approach has resulted in
-a national debt of almost $13 trillion, an increase of 50% since 2006
-severe mortgage defaults, with a new wave on the near horizon
-1.41 million Americans filing personal bankruptcy in 2009
-a perceived devaluation of the US dollar, threatening its world status
-37 million Americans on food stamps and 50% of the population who pay no income tax
-decreased corporate profits, resulting in 55% reduction in September 2009 tax receipts
-unemployment of 15 million people, 6 million for 27 weeks or more"

I'm no economist, but seriously, how can you blame all this on Keynesian economic policy of the government. I'm pretty sure we've been involved in an overseas quagmire of a war contributing a large amount of that debt. I'm worried that I'm going to have to check to see if my son's textbooks are being printed in Texas. Next the article says " 'Un-free' economics leads to rights violations---just consider how, in order to bail out General Motors, the government confiscated and appropriated shareholder and dealer property. Such injustice would never be upheld by free enterprise---the only true economic system for a free society." Really? Pretty sure GM was begging for money and would have done anything to get it.

I'm not advocating for the downfall of capitalism, I just think this article takes quite a bit of liberty and huge jumps in logic. I'm also wondering what place it has in a school newsletter (it's a private school with many campuses in 4 states and this is the whole group newsletter). The point made at the very end is that the school's mission to "prepare children to become self reliant, productive individuals is not just an abstract idea. We encourage them to think and work for themselves and to cherish their freedoms and defend their individual rights." That last sentence sounds like my son is part of a militia (a quick Google search of the school founder pulled up her political donations, which were heavily conservative and included donations to the Minuteman PAC, so no suprise there), but I do hope my boys do learn to think and decide for themselves. I don't want them to believe the overly simplistic load of crap in this article. I'm not even going into the economic allegory (Mr. Capital in Free Isle) that goes with article the tells of the honest capitalist businessman whose life is brought to ruin by government interference. Not that I wasn't before, but I am obviously going to have to pay attention to what my sons are being taught. I'm not going to pull the boys out because of this, we've been very happy with the education they've been receiving, but I do question the judgement shown in printing the article. I find it unconscionable that a learning institution can play so loose and fast with the facts, I'll make sure my boys learn to properly research what they write for school.