|
I don’t know if Obama’s spending is going to solve our problems. I do not know if we possess the creative energy to leverage that spending for change. But I am certain that giving money back to the rich, turning a blind eye to irresponsible greed, invading the wrong country, grossly underestimating the strength and resolve of Al-Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan, and continuing to divide this country did not and will not work. |
I am extremely sympathetic to this sentiment. But would we rather close his schools, layoff the rest of his family, leave his continued good health to chance, watch his roads and bridges crumble, continue to arrogantly dominate the consumption of dwindling resources and deface the planet?I watched a little bit of Fox News — “know thine enemy.” I try not to vent my political views here, but I’m tired, my judgement is probably diminished, and I’m getting worried.
I report all of my income to the government. They get a lot of it and I wish that it wasn’t so much. But I’m not complaining. I am lucky to be in a position to be able to pay a lot of taxes. I am proud to pay it. It is my patriotic duty.
America does not come cheap, and its costs are more than the blood that we so eagerly celebrate. It’s our work, our dedication to a great experiment, and our patriotic willingness to invest in that experiment — to invest in this country. It is my opinion that those who seek offices of power by promising lower taxes are selling out the country.
The government is not perfect. It is far from perfect. ..and this country is very sick. But anyone who says that the medicine should not taste bad, that the cure is simple and cheap, that it’s the doctor who is responsible and not the disease — is actually trying to sell you something else!
Bravo! Bravo!!! Encore! Well said. An excelllent description of the concept of patriotism in an age with that idea is often twisted out of shape…
Amen, brother! I’m so sick of everyone placing BLAME. It’s not any one person’s fault. We ALL need to work together for positive change.
Laura,
I agree that it isn’t ONE person’s fault…however, I also hope you weren’t one of those people putting all of the blame on ONE person who’s name starts with a B and ends in “ush” a few years ago.
You are a brave man! I visit News Hounds: We Watch Fox So You Don’t Have To; helps keep the blood pressure down. You’re spot on in your writing! It’s gonna take a long time to reverse the past mistakes; much like teaching- harder to undo than start new. A challenge- just hope there’s more collaboration in the days, weeks, months, and years ahead.
It’s not really the news and ideas that bother me nearly so much as the way that it is presented, and the liberal media (of which I do not include NPR or PBS) are just as bad. The aim the news at your emotions rather than at your intellect. Their goal is to generate emotional energy. They (Fox News, the now defunct Air America, and Move On) all seem more interested in a reactionary citizenry, rather than an informed one.
David,
Unfortunately emotional energy gets ratings…really. A couple of things I disagree with you, however, are: (1) You said “giving back to the rich,” but really I think it was theirs to begin with. Yes, they should do their part, but I also don’t think it is their job to pay for Madame Defit’s trip to Spain either (check http://bit.ly/9pPUL2). (2) I think the “bad tasting” medicine for an unhealthy budget/economy is far from “spend our way out of it.” If we learn from history, the New Deal didn’t get us out of the Great Depression, nor does spending get us out of a dire situation in our own households. That bad tasting medicine looks more like a sacrifice where we cut spending and do some good old fashioned savings.
Thanks for always bringing up intriguing ideas on 2Cents.
Jeff
Jeff, I should have mentioned spending cuts, because you are absolutely right. That is part of the strong medecine that we need. My objection is the mantras repeated by many, implying that taxes are bad and that government is evil. To what degree do the weathy depend on the infrastructure that built and maintained by federal and state governments. How weathy might they become in a country with poor roads, railroads, communication networks, etc.?
Increasing taxes is NOT the answer. Taxes are the same percentage when compared to GDP as 15 years ago. Govt spending on the other hand has increased and is out of control. This is not one person’s or party’s fault but the current administration is not helping. We need change and that change requires bad tasting medicine of making difficult spending cuts. Higher taxes are not necessary. If you want to give more so the govt can spend it however they want be my guest, just don’t steal it from me or other small business owners who employ 2/3 of Americans.
Fair enough, and I get what you are saying. I do not want to pay more taxes either. What bothers me is how “tax cuts” has become the mantra for a clan of politicians who are seeking power, not a stronger country — and spending cuts to schools and our infrastructure does not strengthen the country.
There are certain services that are so critical to a democratic society that we simply can not rely on the market place to provide them — and sometimes I wonder if democracy really means what it use to…
Thanks for commenting.
Good job David!!! I couldn’t agree more and I applaud you for being brave enough to say it! In the Bible Belt, Fox news is a staple and it makes me sick!!! Thank you for voicing the opinion of many who cannot.
I’m afraid, as several others have pointed out, that government spending is not the answer. It has, on the other hand, been shown repeatedly that tax-cuts do help because they allow the citizens to spend that money to stimulate the economy. As for education, I can say as a public school teacher, that pushing more money into education has not fixed anything. Until school district administrators learn to effectively use what has already been given them, the system will never auto correct. I recently read a book on consulting (High Impact Consulting…I don’t remember the author) in which the author suggested that most consultants only throw ideas at their clients, accept their payment and then leave. The same thing happens in education as we have program after program forced onto teachers with a promise of improved test scores only to face another year where there is no real training on how to implement the programs or tactics in order to truly see a gain.
My two cents on yours…
Thanks for your comment, Allen. It is true that citizen spending does stimulate the economy. But so do roads, bridges, telecommunication, schools, waste control, and security (police and fire protection). With some astounding exceptions, history shows us that tax-breaks to corporate interests do not automatically mean economic growth, advancement, or innovation. The Telcos, since the early 1990s, have gained $billions, not just in new revenues, but also in tax breaks..1 Yet the U.S. has sunk to 15th in the world in broadband penetration.2
We should not (ever) forget that the Internet was invented from government funding.
You write, “As for education, …as a public school teacher, that pushing more money into education has not fixed anything.” Certainly there are lots of studies that illustrate the rise in education expenditures along side test scores, showing the more money does not help. I think that you “as a public school teacher” would agree that the issues are far FAR more complex than how much money.
You continue, “Until school district administrators learn to effectively use what has already been given them, the system will never auto correct.” You imply that there is waste, and I see this as one of the great mantras of those who seek power based on this argument. Sure there is waste. But do you think that there is no waste at Wal-Mart, Exxon, General Electric, Bank of America, AT&T or Hewlett-Packard? You’d think, listening to the rhetoric, that government was the only place where waste happens.
And if I might be so bold, is waste a bad thing. Certainly when it happens as a result of negligence or incompetence, it is bad. But when it happens as a result of bold innovation, then isn’t that what we want? Innovation? As a simple and obvious example, how much time and fibre did Edison waste, before he created the first working light bulb?
You are correct in saying that “..the system will never auto correct.” Education, by its very nature, is a conservative and self-perpetuating institution. It is why outside ideas are so important, why consultants are so important — most of them bringing in decades of education experience and others carrying other outside-the-box perspectives. Much of it doesn’t work. But, again, this is how true innovation happens, by trial and error.
Finally, do you think we need better education? Do our children deserve better than they’re getting? Does this nation need better educated citizenry? If you do, what would help?
Just a couple of suggestions, and you say if it would help.
1) Smaller class size?
2) More planning time?
3) More interactive and dynamic content?
4) More effective delivery and communication systems?
Does this come free? Can you imagine any other successful industry existing today without technologies that didn’t exist 10 years earlier? Who paid for that? We did!
1 Kushnick, Bruce. $300 Billion Broadband Scandal. New York: New Networks Institute, 2009. eBook.
2“U.S. Still Fiftheenth In Broadband Penetration.” BroadBand. DSLReport.com, 22 May 2009. Web. 10 Aug 2010. <http://bit.ly/aJeJnk>.
Citizen spending is only a fraction of what stimulates the economy. The complete waste of money we spend on useless programs is what really gets me going. I know of programs that we the tax payers spend millions on per year and they produce 0. If we could ever run the government like a business we wouldn’t be in this problem.
online education programs
As I said in my post, the Government is not perfect. I’ve also wondered if the country might do better with a CEO or some sort of dedicated, benevolent, dictator or monarch might actually be better. We have politicians who get re-elected by promising and sometimes delivering services that are illogical and sometimes even detrimental to the overall health of the nation and the world in order to satisfy a few folks in a position to help them get votes or campaign funding. Elections are a HUGE industry…
But even programs that seem to make little sense feed the economy. Somebody is getting paid to do something, and that salary is getting fed back into the economy, because those scientists, engineers, and undereducated unskilled labors are buying cloths, groceries, cars, televisions; and so are the folks who manufacture and transport the tools and materials needed.
It is clearly a redistribution of the wealth. The question is, “Should that be the job of the government?” I think it is part of what our government should do. You may disagree.
Its always good to get some hints like you share for blog posting. Thank you for your interesting posts and keep on writing posts in such a quality manner.