Saturday, October 25, 2008

America Deserves Obama


The fools. A protest vote against Bush is going to propel this country into socialism and financial ruin. That's where we were headed anyway, mind you. The Republicans were in control in 2005 when the truth about Fannie and Freddie became obvious. Not only did they not go public with this boondoggle's ties to the Democrats they then sat silently by while the Democrats ran the next year yelling, "Culture Of Corruption!" at the Republicans. And they were 100% right...the Republicans were so corrupt that you could mistake them for Democrats. In fact the comity of the Bush years had created one big Government Party, a giant engine dedicated to dishing out entitlements and subsidies to all and sundry. The same mighty entity that hands Archer Daniels Midland billions in ethanol subsidies also created mortgage rules that allowed people to cite welfare and food stamps as income on their mortgage applications. Universities have been wallowing in cash from subsidized and guaranteed government loans to middle class students as they scrambled for the most prestigious degree possible as credentials replace merit as a criteria in hiring. Millions receive the 'Earned Income Tax Credit', a great big fat government check for doing absolutely nothing. The expanding bureaucracy sops up millions of middle class youths with empty college degrees qualifying them to engage in feckless, brain-dead paper shuffling for all eternity.

Thats the thing about the end of the New Deal, virtually everybody is on the take by now. The hidden math is now becoming obvious; the only way that the government can fund its operations now is to print money. Digital money, not worth the paper it isn't printed on. But what does a country filled with idiots who are hopelessly up to their eyeballs in debt know or care about sound financing? Who cares about that kind of crap anyway? John Q Public runs his household on the plastic, with an occasional refinance to zero the cards out. These current troubles are all Bush's fault so if we get rid of Bush and the Republicans it'll be OK, right?

Its certain that raising taxes will lower revenues drastically. That is, its certain to me. Its not so certain to the Democrats. Somehow they missed the memo about what happens to investment capital when you tax it too highly. It disappears. When you tax income too highly people tend to spend rather than invest and in many cases lower their incomes by doing less work. There's a country 150 miles to the South of me where you only have to look to see the results of oppressive government. I'm glad the Racists didn't get that fence built, we might need to get under it to get the jobs that will blossom down in Mexico once the environmental laws in this country close down the agricultural sector up here. A nice job in Sinaloa picking tomatoes. Thats what those idiots are voting for. It'll be a nice 'Change'.

I was talking to my brother on the phone. He's a cement contractor in Las Vegas. I asked him if people had thought this 'spreading the wealth around' thing through. After all, the most valued customers in Las Vegas are the upper middle class, people with real disposable income. But that disposable income is going to get 'spread around' (ie. seized by the state). That can't be good for a place like Vegas. The enviros want an end to individual automobile ownership and consider filling the air with Global Warming-causing carbon fumes as you drive from LA to Vegas as a crime against the planet. Why is Obama ahead in the polls in Las Vegas? A socialist government will reduce that City Of Fools to a desert ghost town where tumbleweeds blow down the deserted streets.

Why are they voting for Obama in Michigan? Or New York? These are places that are staring bankruptcy in the face because of excessive taxation and regulations. I thought people always voted for their economic best interests but here we are. The people who have the most to lose are the most enthusiastic advocates of economic suicide. The upper middle class is living in a dream world. There are already bills in Congress that will nationalize all private 401k's. Lets vote for more Democrats so that they can get passed more easily. When the rich and their money take a powder because of high taxes whose wealth do you think it is thats going to get spread around?

Thats why I'm sad. This society is completely delusional. Our image of who we are does not match the reality of who we are. This is a whining, spoiled country of people who feel entitled to carve out a nice cushy spot for themselves at the expense of everyone else. The outside world is forgotten, aspirations to world leadership an expense and a bore. The old rules that built the most prosperous society in history are scorned and ignored. Enterprise has turned into a few giant companies bribing compliant legislators for protection from competition and conniving huge subsidies from the public purse. These giant multi-nationals encompass bureaucracies as large and counter-productive as those in government. Labor unions have become not the champions of oppressed laborers but the bloated advocates for overpaid, lazy and worthless parasites.

The old ethic of individual achievement is scorned. The collective is what's important. That was the essence of America's greatness, the idea that your fate was your own. I've spent a lifetime listening to immigrants telling me how lucky Americans are to be masters of their own fates; that was the definition of freedom to them. But how many of those same immigrants, now completely assimilated into American society, are going to vote to rob themselves and their children of that very freedom they struggled so hard to obtain? I suspect they'll be voting for Obama in large numbers.

That we could have an election with so many unmentioned weighty issues hanging over our heads and two such inferior candidates is what's wrong with this country. This election is a failure of the current political and social system. The cataclysm which will follow as these Democrats put their absurd social engineering schemes into motion will be dire. But not undeserved.

11 comments:

Frank Gerratana said...

What segment of the population do you consider to be "upper middle class"?

skep41 said...

Above 100k per year. Now that the engine of inflation has kicked in that might be a bit low. Two LA cops married to each other have a family income of 200k. I would say that anyone with 30k of disposable income after paying their bills is in that category. They will be the targets of redistribution. The recipients of redistribution will be those who qualify for the Earned Income Tax Credit.

Frank Gerratana said...

It's my understanding that, until crossing the $250K threshold, the Obama tax plan would benefit this group more in terms of take-home income than would the McCain tax plan.

skep41 said...

The Reid-Pelosi Tax Plan might be a little different. Redistribution will hit anybody making more than 100k right between the eyes. This government is broke NOW without the addition of what a sixty-vote Dem Senate and 250-vote Pelosi House will pass. If you listen to what Obama said before he tacked to the right for political expediency then you'll have to conclude that 250k+ number will not raise enough...or any more than they get now if you believe the Laffer Curve (I do). An ocean of red ink will cause the Dems to look elsewhere for revenues.

Frank Gerratana said...

The Laffer curve is useful if we can figure out where the apex of the bell curve is, if the curve follows a standard distribution, etc. Although, I don't know if any economists have a model for this yet. If not, it probably only tells us "Don't raise taxes too high. How high is too high?"

You have a good point that there will probably be several different tax/funding proposals. My guess is that the final result will probably be some bizarre frankenstein plan.

Frank Gerratana said...

BTW, if you're a Laffer fan, this was on RCP yesterday:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122506830024970697.html

skep41 said...

The Laffer Curve says that there is a level of taxation that brings in the maximum revenue. Thats where tax rates should be. But if you're embarked on a social reengineering of society digitally created money is just as good. This is starting to remind me of the pre-French Revolution. After the overwhelming Democratic victory they should meet in the Capitol Building tennis court.

I copied and pasted that article url and got an error message. Whats the title of it so I can just go find it on WSJ. Isn't WSJ a pay site?

Frank Gerratana said...

Nope, not a pay site. The article is "The Age of Prosperity Is Over" - it's all over Google News.

skep41 said...

Frank. I already read it. It was on Real Clear politics.com

Frank Gerratana said...

Yeah, that's what I meant by RCP, I should've known you read the site as obsessively as I do!

skep41 said...

I love RCP. They have the best selection and range of columns. I'm sure you're pleased with their electoral college map. Dont take my ravings as a sign that insanity runs in the family. I had a monkey wrench dropped on my head as a young child.