Letters to the Editor
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@ natesmith124
(Can you guess who I'm voting for?)
-- natesmith124
B. Hussein Obama? Hope not!
Check out Obama - The Postmodern Coup: Making of a Manchurian Candidate on Amazon.
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I'm Wealthier Than My Parents
But then only in strictly material ways. I drive a far more luxurious car than my parents did at my age (I'm 43). I have toys to play with that my parents didn't have: The internet, Call of Duty 4, an incredible computer system, an amazing professional-quality video camera and the software to create my own short films, a large screen stereo television, 500-channel digital cable, a DVD player and Netflix to keep it humming. I can eat out every night if I choose. Each day at lunch my colleagues and I eat at restaurants my parents could never have afforded and in any case didn't exist because back then the immigrants weren't around to operate them. When I go into debt I can get out of it right quick. And so on.
But then at my age my parents had built a loving family with two children and each other, brought together under the roof of a house that was modest but comfortable and that they could afford. I have no children, no spouse, no house. I can afford all of the toys because I have no one on whom to spend my money. And so in actuality I am deeply impoverished. Most of the people my age, in my industry, in my state and region, are in the same boat. When I post a video on YouTube that's longer than 3 minutes I get comments consisting of the acronym "TLDW" - "Too Long, Didn't Watch." Yes, most of are incapable of communicating except in sound bytes and we are paying the price for it, and it will only get worse as we grow old.
Some more observations: In 1968 my grandfather earned $44K as a heavy construction carpenter (I'm not supposed to know that - suffice it to say that in childhood I was known as "big ears"), and could afford a house, family AND toys. Last year I earned $98k but kept only $48k, and the only reason that pisses me off is because I see almost nothing of that directly impacting my life; quite the contrary, the roads and highways are a mess of potholes, unemployment is a joke, healthcare is eating up 14% of GDP and, worst of all, much of my $52K "contribution" goes to finance an illegal, immoral war.
Speaking of war, the people here arguing that there is no class war, that everything is about "personal responsibility", are either being disengenuous or are just plain stupid. When asked about class warfare, none other than Warren Buffet had this to say: "Of course there's a class war going on, and we're winning." You want more than Warren's word on that? Fine, read Barron's, Business Week, The Financial Times and/or The Wall Street Journal. And as you read keep in mind that you are listening to the ruling class talking to itself. What you hear will make your hair stand on end. And once you've heard, what are you prepared to do about it?
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Walter: love it
If you don't mind I will forward that to my righteous and upstanding Conservative Republican inlaws.
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The T word
In bbqx77's comment to the Mooney article, he/she suggests that if only we did not have to pay taxes . . . we pay for our own health care without blinking an eye, afford wonderful homes without crushing debt, pay to send our kids to Harvard, retire with dignity, etc, etc, ba hum bug!
I ask that bbqx77 look beyond the amoral virtues of Ann Rynd selfishness. Stop trying to con hard working Americans into believing the utter economic nonsense espoused by the greedy. Read books like (1) The Great Risk Shift (Hacker), (2) The Disposed American: Layoffs and their Consequences (Uchitelle), (3) Nickle and Dimed and also Bait & Swiitch (Ehrenreich). Force yourself to watch the documentary Sicko. Finally, you need to stop acting as if your libertarian views have the same factual legitimacy as gravity. We "liberals" want to make sure you are not left out in the cold when your old and sick should your thrift and prudence be for naught and your investments evaporate. We are all in the same boat. An injury to one is an injury to all.
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Re Electo Robot
I have to say it - good lord! Electo Robot, you have my sympathy, and so does your ,mother.
It is sad that you are troubled by the success of the New Deal. You lament the fact that millions of people benefited from shared prosperity and shared risk, and that it resulted in a reduction of poverty and an increase in the standard of living for the average person. Do you think the average person should live less well? Do tell - do you think there should be no middle class? Should we have but two economic classes - the rich and the poor? Have you been brain washed by neoconsevative libertarian tooth and claw capatislists? Are you one of them?
Yes, my sympathy to your mother. Your last comment about wanting to pull the plug as she lies dying - because she was a greedy middle class person who enriched herself with "freebies" like a pension that she worked for - that tells me all about your value system - the neoconservative value system. If they can't wait to pull the plug on their own moms, imagine their fantasys about everyone else's mom.
For those who did not read the Robot's comment to the article, it follows unedited below.
Electo Robot wrote:
Well it depends on how you perceive value, to some extent
The so called Greatest Generation as well as the Korean War Generation right after it are in fact anomalies. No where else in the history of people was there an entire generation that voted and awarded itself such an enormous bag of free stuff. From SSI to early retirement to rich union plans to subsidized healthcare, IRA's, 401Ks, the GI bill, massive tax breaks, to the greatest long run surge in property values from 1955 to 1995, Medicare, Medicaid, and long slow retirement where expensive and extensive travel is the norm not the exception and it goes on from age 55 to age 85. Not only did those generations not take care of their own parents, outsourcing them to nursing homes, but they didn't take care of their children's generation either - letting them take out loans for the their college or letting the government pick up the tab, so long as they got out of the house at 18.
No on and on and on there's hundreds of examples that show that that bubble from Truman to Reagan is a one time only affair. And the rest of us are fucked. Fucked good and hard. I'm not retiring at 55 or 60 with free non contrib no copay health insurance like my mother's county employee gig. I didn't go to CCNY/CUNY for free. I didn't get a Levitt house for $9000 to sell it 45 years later for $550,000. My employer doesn't know what 'benefits' are. And even if they did, it's a toss up whether my job will wind up in fucking Bangalore where people are still occasionally eaten by tigers.
So are we falling behind? No not really, we NEVER had a chance. They got their greedy little claws in and it will take a bullet to the head to release them.
Dear Mom - if you leave me with your living will decision I will pull the plug so fast it will spark. It's just business.
-- Electro Robot
[Read Electro Robot's other letters]Permalink Tuesday, May 13, 2008 09:28 PM
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