The "gifts" of the government and a few words
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In my last article i talked about, mr Romney's remark - as well as many republicans who share his thinking - about people "dependent on the government".
Clearly the man had in mind people who get social security, people who get food stamps, people who get all kinds of welfare support, etc There's a lot of these social programs, and indeed they are big in the american economy, this is proof that the economy does not 'provide' for most americans and so the government ADDS to their income with these programs.
But any notion that the "gifting" of the government ( federal , state and local ) is primarily that sort of thing is at best naive and at worst evil intended.
And to drive my point home,i 'll use an interesting story appeared a few months ago in the new York Times ( around dec 2012 ) with the title:
"As companies seek tax deals, governments pay high price"
And this - first of all nothing new about it, i'll tell you in a minute what's in the article but i want you to understand this is something that has been going on for DECADES - one of these stories is focused particular on the state of Michigan and to be more exact, it's relation with the General Motors Company ( GMC ).
Over the years, GMC has done - what MANY corporations did and in fact STILL DO, but i use GMC because you can check the evidence.
Here's the way it works and this sounds like a SCAM to you, then you understan😛
"Hello! ( on the phone ) I am the manager of GMC in the town of Ypsilanti Michigan ( an actual case by the way ), i am calling you mr mayor to tell - terrible news - but we're thinking of closing down the factory here and moving someplace else..because... ( at which point the mayor has stopped listening ).
Why? Because the mayor is facing the end of his career as a politician.
Well it's America and as a people we have been TRAINED that whenever a company leaves the people blame the mayor - who had ZILCH to do with the decision!
But that's how our mind works.
So the mayor knows, the purpose of the phone call is not to let him know they are leaving but to give him enough time to come up with a solution to CONVINCE the company to stay. And how can he do that?
A tax break. Or maybe a new road to the factory.
Or cheaper utilities. Or maybe a program to allow the inmates at the local jail to work for free at the GMC plant. Or some subsidies or maybe some "eco-study" that show the green sludge they pour into your drinking water is good for you children and doesn't grow them a 3rd eye.
ANYTHING that can be done WILL be done. The mayor will even go to the governor and ask for money if needed.
IS IT A SCAM?
There's no way to know. The only way to know would be by looking at the GMC records - which they are not legally bound to show anyone, and they will DEFINITELY not show to you who they are trying to rip off.
You wanna call the bluff?
"Fine" says GMC."We'll leave, and as we leave we will have a press conference where we will say:
- We called the mayor, we told him all about it, we tried to negociate...he wouldn't listen to us"
Well his political career was in the toilet then now it would be flushing, he can't do it ! So he comes up with the money.
THE CATCH: the money used for these GIFTS is money that cannot be used by the city for schools, road or anything else for that matter.
And by the way, this is not hidden, it's done in plain sight: it's called "urban renewal" OR "redevelopment" or whatever, the words are easy to find we get a lot of graduates with useless degrees that fit this kind of job description of finding complicated words to describe a simple SCAM.
In this sense the government is handing out ....what is that word... GIFTS to the corporations !
Mr Romney missed that one.
Moving on,
for many MANY companies the government is a crucial buyer. Some of you may recall we get periodical scandals in the press of toilet seats sold for 400$ a piece for the Pentagon, or maybe plastic pen ) the ones you can pick up freely at your local bank ) being retailed at 18$ a piece for government uses and so on.
So in that sense many companies get wonderful...GIFTS in the nature of these contracts. The notion they only go to poor people, or old people or sick or..that's part of the ideological propaganda of mr Romney and his party.
Next:
Under the healthcare bill that was fought over last year and that the supreme court declared to be constitutional there is a provision for medic-aid.
For those who don't know medic-aid is the govt. program to provide medical insurance for people who can't AFFORD it. Not to be confused with medicare.
this one is for those too poor to afford.
So this bill supposedly wants to raise the elegibillity - ergo to get medicaid you used to need to earn the poverty line or lower ( which if you know is VERY LOW in this country ).
So the new bill says in order to qualify you can now have as high as 1,35 times the normal poverty level. So it helps the poor.
in order to make this work the government states in this bill, that every state that agrees to sign this up ( in the US the state can agree or not - in this case - if MILLIONS of poor people DIE or not ) for the first 3 years - if you agree - "the federal govt pays 100% of costs ( no costs to the states at all ) and after the 3rd year the federal govt picks-up 90% of the cost, and the states 10%, indefinitely!
16 states so far have declared, they're not gonna do it. And when asked "why?" they sai😛
"we have to be FISCALLY PRUDENT". So 10% more AFTER 3 years is "not prudent".
This even MORE interesting if you know how the law works. The law allows them to participate for 3 years FREE of any cost and then bail out after the 3rd year!
So what is all this about then?
This is - as i said in my previous article - the signs that a part of our society who is beginning to see the country divided as US or THEM.
And THEM are not worth even taking care of, their health or education because they are sloppy, lazy, and are just leeching off the government.
We can see this in Europe too - much more serious -in SPAIN, where a conservative government voted for deep austerity ( that thing we call "fiscal responsability" here but it's the same thing ) that will ...basically KILL millions of poor people.
And you had this grotesque spectacle on european TV where the right-wing of that country stood up and APPLAUDED this meassure and they were quoted saying that this was the right thing to do for getting rid of the "lazy incompetent moochers off the govt's back".
These are what is left of Franco's FASCISTS. ( they're all of them old or middle age men with very conservative ideas about the world ).
Let's talk now a bit about democracy. "Democracy", we americans love this word, its meaning to us, it's symbolism.
it is a shocking fact however that we like our democracy only in half of our lifetime, the half we are not at work. The half part of our life we spend our work we give up our democratic beliefs and we follow..."orders".
Capitalism has always been at odds - throughout history - with democracy and this may shock again some of you but i will explain why:
As capitalism polarizes wealth and inequality becomes larger and the gap between rich and poor grows, a fear also grows in the rich minority.
The fear that the poor masses may use the POLITICAL system to undo their loss in the ECONOMIC system.
"We can't beat them in the economic system, they've got us....ah haha! but we got the majority of VOTES, so we'll slap them silly with so many taxes that we will UNDO the inequality"
This is the great fear that corporations and the rich have - they know.
A crisis means large masses of people SUFFER.
And as they suffer they are going to get ANGRY.
And as they get angry they are going to look for someone to blame. One choice is to blame the system, who doesn't seem to be working for them, and the rich who seem to do really well - but at the expense of everyone else.
And the other choice - the one being pushed by republicans and other right-wing groups ( which i will explain in a later article are FUNDED by corporations to divert attention from the real issue ) is to say:
"no..the system is fine...the problems is..IMMIGRANTS...or maybe..those BLACK PEOPLE...or BANKSTERS..or JEWS ( this one seems to be growing in popularity more and more and we would be very blind to not remember that this kind of thinking took us to a dark place in 1936 )."
So the surge in racism, xenophobia, homophobia and hatred in general is not without cause, it is actually created deliberately to confuse and divide a population that does not understand - and since most americans don't understand economics this is easy to do - that the problem is the SYSTEM who rewards people for such behavior.
Ok i'll end now but i wanna leave you with one thing.
A man known as ADAM SMITH is hailed - and not him but rather what he said - as a great intellectual.
The phrase he said was something along the lines of "If everyone pursued their own self-interest in life with disregard of the interest of others then we would all benefit from it"
I want you to think very well about that phrase and how "intelligent" does it sound to you and how reasonable.
In the next article i'll talk a little about the "great" Iron lady ( which passes away recently ) and a bit about the "online courses" madness that has popped up everywhere and what does it mean for us.
Comments
Why is this about real life?
http://i.imgur.com/seMU0.jpg
lol fair enough
LOL response of the year
Sums it up quite nicely.
v+s 07
so again everybody is racist because you don't like something? I think that we need to limit government as much as we can now and get Barry out of the white house. by the way i'm not racist because i don't like obama i just don't like is agenda. he is one of the most anti American persons i have ever known being controlled by george soros. so anyway we should all be dependent upon government is that what you are asking. because they worked hard to get to the top and now you want the gov to take all their success away and give it to you? politics is a strange subject that nobody really understands
Those who advocate for "small government" don't really understand how the government actually is a barrier against the social darwinism of the rich, or are part of the filthy rich who looted this country.
You don't have to be a racist to hate Obama - he's doing some really stupid shit from the perspective of the middle class but GREAT things from the perspective of the rich.
Oh...sorry..i mean "Job Creators" as republicans keep telling us : )
John Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, J P Morgan, Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, Nikola Tesla, all built this country on great ideas. who would have invested in these ideas had there been big government who would have crippled them and today with regulations and taxes and who knows what. just saying this is the only country where you can have true success in your own terms. these "job creaters" are having have of their success taken away from them and given to dead beats living on the street getting high while not working a day in their life. i just have to say what Obama has done to destroy this country is really sad and it will only get worse as he divides the country
Wrong!
Not only capitalism STIFFLES creativity ( ask any poor sap stuck in a cublicle ) it only piggy backs on the technological success and claims it for itself.
The assertion that "we must get out from the under the slow and incompetent governemtn" who is "suck a terrible burden and' i what you expect to be - right wing propaganda ( very effective one.
And why is that?
Well if you read my answer about how captalism is uneasy with democracy you will understand WHY the rich want a small, weak, government, uncapable of regulating them, un capable of creating a fair playing field.
The notion that the rich as "job creators" is just the echo of ms Thather and mr Reagan - but i'll talk a lot about those two stooges in my next article.
it is evolution! ha, well what ever you want to call it. the people who do not like to work. either find a way to not work or don't. if the people who work feed those who don't. then those who don't multiply while those who work are to tired to. then those who don't work grow large and finally a war is needed to kill those who don't work. WW2 was needed. sure maybe a few who worked were killed also. but hitler started with the handicaped! now what am i saying. either let those who don't work die or eventaully go to war and kill them. i do not care. another perspective. those who do work and get from the goverment well all for them as long as they are manufacturing a product if they need help to buy food so they can work. well i am almost certian they are not making more money than benefit of the product being produced. so tax the buisness owner to give to the employee so the employee is happy and the business owner makes money. however if the slave gets discontent. i mean if the employee becomes discontent. then there will be a war. so. we need government to make sure slaves are treated fairly. and make sure they don't get mad for working their entire lifetime and dying poor.
Your comment alone proves my point about this kind of barbaric thinking.
Social darwinism at its finest.
"The poor should be killed and US "hard working" ( not really but in your warped reality deserve the world."
By the way, between those who " don't work" are WW2 veterans who are "handicaped". Thy don't pay income taxes either 'the moochers, old folk who have fought for this country.
Should we put them to death to? I mean they "don't work" right? And there are SO MANY jobs to work in, how dare they not work !
yeah kill the ww2 vets. hm, so it was ok for them to kill to save lives but it is not ok for me to kill them so i can stop a war? which would save lives. well yeah they are providing no benefit to me currently nor at any point in the future will they benefit me. they are however consuming resources some one has to produce. so kill them and there would be more for me! i know one day some one will think it is good to kill me but i am not worried. i would rather kill some one while they are sleeping so they don't feel it than to shoot them while they are loooking at me. they definatly will feel it that way.
well heres an idea. from now on because you want to support people who don't work. please send me 2 tanks and 500 energy a day. if you don't send me those then i will know you really would not give some one what is needed to keep them alive! and to me. not giving some one food when they are hungry and giving them a pill to die are the same thing! i am killing lots of afircan wemon and children because i refuse to give them food and medicine. i am killing lots of chinese because i am not giving them food. i am killing the poor south americans because i am doing nothing to get ride of the drug cartels that are raping the wemon and killing the children
The sense that people are entitled to things sickens me and is making the country go broke. If you want something earn it.
Also why do you keep talking about Romney? He has nothing to do with anything going on right now, you are still trying to blame republicans for everything?
The simple fact that you do not understand that basic services are MANDATORY in a crisis in order to make the economy run is exactly why i am bashing republicans - you're a victim of that thinking.
Austerity ( or wait, it's America so we call it "Fiscal responsability" ) is ALWAYS damaging for the economy. And this means cutting social security, cutting wellfare, cutting medicare and medicaid, cutting, cutting AND increasing taxes.
Romney is a mouthpiece for the GOP - his "ideas" are shared and applauded in that party. I just explained you what his ideas actually mean - and it would be very unwise to not pay attention to his rhetoric.
yes government is needed to some point and for some programs that we do need. but by totally regulating our lives is not right. if you want communism or socialism or marxism or whatever go to china or somewhere else but this is the land of the free. you know why this country was founded was because they wanted to escape from the british and their taxes and their style of government. learn your history about the founders. if they were alive today i think they would be sick to their stomach at what has happened to America and everything that was great about it. now its all about "my fair share" and how much more the government owes you. we need to go back and learn our history. but i'll tell you one thing, we can't keep spending trillions of dollars every year without passing a budget like mr obama and stimulus did nothing to help. healthcare now controls 1/6 of your life. i mean at what point do you draw the line and say thats enough. you know now they want to ban our guns because a bad guy used them and killed people. yes thats bad but you don't take them away from people like me. all the liberals ever do is just ban everything little by little. cant have too much soda so big cups our banned lol. you want to have a discussion on guns, i'd be happy to tell you whats right
@I am the best123: Oh i have been waiting for this reply for a LONG time.
So if i want "communism" i go to China ( and communism is evil ) and also if i am against capitalism i am "against freedom".
Yeah ok, my next article will touch that subject and you'll see that this "capitalism = freedom" is a very thorny matter. One which probably you don't even understand.
Also it's called "gun CONTROL" not BAN.
Stop listening to the likes of the NRA.
These are the same crazies that said this :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5D0C7gTHGE
Lunacy at its finest !
@jkeller4000: I usually don't get angered easily but you're an idiot. People aren't unemployed because they are "lazy" or enjoy being unemployed DUMBASS, they are unemployed because there ARE NO JOBS.
You're either some really fucked up neo-nazi redneck or i dunno what the fuck but you got issues buddy.
"Hitler was right to start a war to kill people because many people died and among them were the so called moochers" ? Seriously?
Wow...you're a fucking idiot.
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