Time to Change – Eliminate all Incumbent Politicians
Today I suffered through a couple of hours of Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke testifying to Barney Franks and the House Financial Services Committee. It was evident that the current administration is beginning to talk about how bad the US economy really is as they prepare for a change in the Whitehouse in the next elections, but that is another story. Listening to the representatives speak evidences that career politicians talk in sound bites and do not have the mental capability to support a single argument.A Latino representative, I could hardly understand his English, asked about outsourcing of American jobs. He blamed the Republicans for allowing corporate America to drive down wages. He then moved immediately to ask what would happen to the US economy if all the illegal immigrants were sent home. He wanted Bernanke to say, “Sending all of the illegal immigrants home would destroy the US economy.”
Bernanke simply indicated, “Dislocations of resources would be the result.”
His answer should have been, “Reduced labor against stable demand would raise wages and benefits for the workforce!”
The real sad point, one that makes me think we must eliminate politicians and replace them with normal people who have no political experience, is that Bernanke is politically correct. If he had responded as an economist, the reason for which he was appointed as Federal Reserve Chairman, our Latino Representative would have looked like an idiot because in one breath he wants to protect the American worker. His very next breath is used to support open borders which reduces wages, benefits and working conditions for American workers.
A black representative, I believe we are still allowed to use the adjective black, asked a question about inequality. He wanted to know why blacks have twice the unemployment rate as whites. He said the game was stacked against blacks since to make it in today’s world you must have a college degree. If you are poor a college degree is 10 times harder than if you are a little white girl whose daddy is going to take out a loan on the house to pay for her college.
The representative surely was promoting some legislation to give more money to black students. This is stupid because it will only pass if you get a lot of white guys to vote for it.
Why is this representative not taking on the real problem?
Why do students have to pay to go to school?
Consider that even Ethopia offers free University education. If we want to create equal opportunity we must have free healthcare and free University for all, not just some group. Singling out a group of individuals increases dependence on the welfare state. We should not be latinos, blacks, whites, etc. We should be Americans. Our representatives, even if they speak Spanglish, should represent this country, as a whole, in good faith.
WE THE PEOPLE must take back our country. We must vote out of office all incumbent politicians. We must eliminate the Electoral College. We must institute national referendums. We must have a way to make our government fail when it no longer represents the people’s wishes. We must eliminate lobbies.
Tags: Government Illegal Immigration Corporate America Corruption
Labels: Class Warfare, Democrats, Education, Immigration, Minimum Wage, Trade Agreements, US Poverty
posted by Small Business USA at 5:17 PM
6 Comments:
Viva democracy!
Lexcen I have always thought that a government is the face of a people as a whole. Is this really who we are?
I've always thought that people get the government they deserve. If this is true then it is truly depressing.
I have always thought the same yet I see many americans trying to make a difference. Unfortunately the resounding theme is that they are frustrated and that our basic system does not allow the people to be involved. One friend expressed it perfectly, "Thank God we do not get all the government we pay for!"
David, the Australian experience on free university study is interesting.
When I first went to university there were fees, but there were also scholarships. Teachers Scholarships - Australia then had a very major shortage of teachers - paid more, but were bonded. So you had to teach for a period or pay the bond. Commonwealth scholarships paid less, but left you debt free at the end of the process.
A far smaller proportion of the population then went to uni. But the system allowed children from poorer families to get a university education. Further, very few full time undergraduate students worked, so you got the total university experience.
The university I went to had a high proportion of students from lower income families who were the first in their family to get into university. The university emphasised the total university experience because it saw part of its role as equiping first generation students for a broader life. There was no compromise on academic standards, but the overall approach was very egalitarian.
The Whitlam Labor Government abolished university fees in the first half of the seventies on egalitarian grounds similar to those you espouse. Unfortunately. two things happened.
The first was an explosion in student numbers. This coincided with the economic troubles of the seventies. Successive Commonwealth Governments found that they could not afford the approach.
Funding was cut, placing pressures on the Universities who also became creatures of the central Government. Then fees came back, if still in a more egalitarian way than that holding in the US.
The second problem was scholarships were wound back. The big problem for poorer students was not just fees, but living costs. So the social composition of the student body became less equal.
So in all, the abolition of fees had the opposite effect to that originally intended.
All this leads me to think that the best way of addressing the education problem you identify is through a generous - I emphasise the word generous - system of means-tested scholarships.
Jim You are blaming the "free system" when you should be blaming the idiots who improperly defined costs or more likely sold out the free system so they could send more money to business.
Europe works fine as does Senegal, Nigeria, India, and even Ethiopia.
Any government not being able to afford free education and free healthcare is a country not interested in equality of opportunity for all citizens. There are other things more important for them like tax breaks for the top 1/2 of 1 percent of the population.
It is a shame that Australia had to lose such an important battle in the advancement of civilization but I guess that is why the US and Australia are such good buddies.
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