Why Do We Accept Being Everyone Else’s Chump?

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AMERICA IS RUNNING ON AN UNLIT, UNPAVED
ROAD TO NOWHERE.
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By Beezernotes.com

August 2, 2010--There are many problems we face. That’s a given.  But our ability to coalesce around a common goal or goals seems to have disappeared of late.

As a result we seem to have become everyone else’s chump.  We allowed our manufacturing base to decline precipitously under pressure from aggressive foreign exporters who manipulated their currencies, thus imposing de facto import tariffs on our goods and subsidies on theirs.

We allowed unscrupulous lenders to laden mortgage and credit card contracts with hidden fees that helped make debt unmanageable, even as they increased their profits.  We allowed wild west style investment banking to infect the more staid commercial banks, thus turning our financial system into a rigged, casino-like free-for- all.

We stood by as income inequality climbed and climbed, beggaring labor and the middle class as the wealthiest among us enjoyed special tax shelters and tax breaks!

Maxinne Udall (girl economist) writes cleanly, and in my opinion, with great insight. Recently she posted a nice article where she wonders what has happened to America’s sense of being the United States of America.

Entitled “The Road To Serfdom Is Gravel,” professor Udall uses the history of roads and their impact on economies. She starts by pointing out that, in order to not raise taxes, several communities in America are allowing some roads to degrade back to their gravel state.

She points out how ‘plank’ roads and bad weather affected Civil War battle outcomes. And how the Roman road system was integral to the Empire’s health. She cites the 1950 Interstate highway system in America, begun under the leadership of President Dwight Eisenhower, and how it boosted economic growth.

But the road history is really a way of asking why we don’t do these things anymore. We’ve lost something along the road, it seems.  Udall doesn’t provide any answers. But she does ask a  very important question. Beezer’s often argued that we need to frame the right questions in order to develop the right answers. Udall’s small post asks the same question but in a different, very creative way.

She concludes with this paragraph:

“What passes for discussion about social choice and taxation in this country has become the sound of one hand clapping. The divisions in discourse have been strategically engineered by interests whose objectives I do not understand, but that I am sure are not the commonweal.

The divisions are fueled by oblique appeals to base sentiments about race, class, and sexual preference that all of us harbor to a greater or lesser extent. They drive wedges on issues on which most would otherwise agree; and from which most would benefit almost equally from the same solution.

While sentiments are used to divide us, a nation founded on the idea of a government of, by and for the people lists dangerously toward income inequality and its bedfellow, concentrated economic and political power,* while we bequeath to our grandchildren a world in which they travel a network of gravel roads with barely a high school education. They live in cities and towns with failing sewers and water systems, and risk their and our great grand-children’s lives crossing crumbling bridges and overpasses.

But their taxes will be low. I wonder if they’ll thank us?”

Once again, thanks to economist’s view for highlighting Udall’s post.

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Let me get my 2 cents in...while I still have 2 cents.

Colorado turned off its street lights to conserve money. Some states are cutting back public school education to 4 days a week. Streets are being depaved...not depraved...depaved...and they are being replaced with gravel roads!

All of a sudden we can’t afford these things...But Tax Cuts? Bring ‘em on, baby! America is now running on unpaved, unlit roads...Can you say THIRD WORLD? I thought you could.

OMG! We’re po!
 

Need to Get Rid of Pesky Wildlife or Marine Life?

No problem. Corexit!

Samples Confirm Corexit Ingredients In Gulf Spill Area Far Above Toxic Concentrations

By Tyler Durden 

July 8, 2010 –- Yet another data point on why the Obama administration and BP are both so concerned about media access to spill areas comes courtesy of this youtube video by jamescfox.

In his own words: "Oil and water samples were taken from both the Shores of Grand Isle and from 20 miles out. The preliminary analysis was done at an academic analytical chemistry laboratory. The laboratory was looking for the likely pollutants from the deep water Horizon Oil spill. It was focused on the detection of benzene and propylene glycol. Benzene and other highly toxic contaminants were very low however the concentration of propylene glycol was between 360 and 440 parts per million. Just 25 parts per million is know to kill most fish and propylene glycol is just one of many ingredients found in Corexit. In short, the Gulf is being poisoned by BP's usage of the dispersants even after the EPA asked them to stop back in May. We are willing to provide ANY respected/known laboratory these samples or provide them with more. This is very serious to all people and marine life in and around the Gulf."

Our very own Chernobyl. Thanks BP.