Comments | joannahurley: The flaw in redistribution

joannahurley

The flaw in redistribution

Oct 22, 2008 08:31

I know I've said I'd avoid politics, but I've reached the point where I'm downright scared about the future of this country. Bush? *snort* He did NOTHING compared to what I think a Pres Obama will do:

( Read why I'm terrified for the future of my way of life.... )

rants, politics

Comments 14

baavgai October 22 2008, 18:23:00 UTC

Both parties have always sucked at managing their checkbooks. While the style of suck differs slightly, the outcome is usually the same. I wouldn't believe any candidate that talked about cutting taxes, even if he said "read my lips..." ;)

If the Republicans ever offered a financial conservative, that would be nice. However, Bush is a Fundamentalist Fascist and those who follow him show just as much economic savvy.

joannahurley October 22 2008, 18:34:55 UTC

Oh, no argument there. Bush is an example of everything that's wrong with the Republican party. I just think that when you have such a close race, you have to pick the lesser of two evils. I'm pissed at McCain's idea of paying mortgages for people who can't afford them. Hey, wanna buy one for me, too, then?!? Grr.

There's got to be a way to balance a true free market economy with keeping the "little guy" from being stomped on by mega corporations. (Don't mind me, I also have Shadowrun on the brain.)

baavgai October 22 2008, 19:26:12 UTC

"Don't mind me, I also have Shadowrun on the brain."

Lol, excellent.

When I was still in school ( um, a while ago ) I actually did a modern lit paper on the cyberpunk genre. The idea of the megacorp as semi autonomous entity that was a law unto itself seemed plausible enough then. Today, in some respects, it seems depressingly real.

I quite enjoyed shadowrun, but the system was busted. I even wrote a simulation to prove that equal opponents could engage each other for an average of 100 rounds in some cases.

joannahurley October 23 2008, 11:44:19 UTC

Yeah, I think one of the biggest problems is the use & abuse of "mediation." It stacks the odds against the individual. They were SUPPOSED to be used corp to corp, not corp vs individual. There's some regulation on businesses I'd like to see.

Oh, dear, you only played 1st ed, huh? 4E has fixed that, needless to say. :) (BTW, we have a semi-active game, if you're interested.)

karistan October 23 2008, 03:53:27 UTC

I tried to find info backing up the opinion statements on factcheck.org to no avail. I've been watching Obama's campaign very closely and a few things that he's "promising" in this piece are a new surprise to me. I think there's a reason it's in the Op/Ed section. :)

I for one am ready for this election to be over so we can actually get together and talk without having to ignore the big, white political elephant in the room.

joannahurley October 23 2008, 11:42:00 UTC

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rYgKFWHzE0

Obama's own words, "...when you spread the wealth around it's good for everyone..." That's income redistribution, and it's a concept that I think will make the economy worse than it already is, and there's a lot of economists who are agreeing.

karistan October 23 2008, 11:50:29 UTC

But the US is ALREADY doing that! It's called welfare.

joannahurley October 23 2008, 12:04:04 UTC

I know. I think it's a bad idea. Not the concept, but the implementation. I don't think it should be hard to get if you need it, but I think there should be incentives to get away from it. We have people who spend most of their lives on it, and that's a problem. If you can't work or you simply can't get a job near you (or even if the work that you can find can't completely support you), yes, there's a role for government there. But I don't know if even then it's a role for the *federal* government. The federal government has a relatively limited role according the constitution and I want to see it cut way back. Maybe I should start voting for Ron Paul *wry ( ... )

Thread 6

karistan October 23 2008, 04:05:47 UTC

I'm emailing you regarding your closing line, btw.

dqg_neal October 23 2008, 11:30:06 UTC

Yeah, I work in the government and under the current administration government, teachers, and emergency services have all lost major health services and other benefits from our contracts. So safe doesn't mean much really.

And some of your friends probably have never voted your way in an election.

joannahurley October 23 2008, 11:49:32 UTC

You work for the *county* government in a state that's going broke. Also, dem governor, primarily dem congress at the state level, worse state taxes in the country. Do you know that to buy a crappy house, it's going to cost us at least $500/mth more, just for the *property taxes*?!? Talk to folks out of state (like Kari's parents or Morte) and see what they're paying compared to those in state (like your father; his town's gone up in recent years). It's driving people out of the state; how's that good for the local economy.

And, actually, some of us probably voted the same back when I voted Dem. :) Heck, I think I'm voting for the town Dems right now.

dqg_neal October 23 2008, 12:02:43 UTC

Possibly.. although I don't vote Dem.. I vote for a particular person and their policies. I could care less about party lines because I don't agree with them.

And your statement about county government is based on the fact that you don't understand where our funding comes from. Human Services gets maybe 25% of their budget from the County. The vast majority of it comes from federal funds. Funds have been slashed by the Feds, which means that programs aren't funded as they should be. And bodies were moved to programs that the Feds matched salaries 100%, leaving us severely understaffed in areas where the funding percentages changed.

As for the rest of the state economy that is a whole nothing ball of wax.