“ecosystemic feedback loop”
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBx2Y5HhplI]
Blame
Corporations, corporations, corporation…the root of all evil. Faceless disembodied entities that are ruining the world, the environment and now the political system in the United States by their ability to funnel unlimited amounts of cash into the coffers of willing politicians. The Supreme Court of the United States blocked a ban limiting how much corporations could spend on political campaigns.
It is all the fault of corporations. These mindless soulless beings that wreck havoc in the world, utterly uncontrollable.
But what a minute…don’t these corporations have presidents and CEOs and board members?!?
Aren’t those the people who are actually making the decisions, the bad decisions that we all hate?
And isn’t it possible to find out who these people are?
So why don’t we go after these people more? Instead of saying that corporations are ruining the political system, why not actually name the people who are making the decisions? Why not put a face to those actions?
Yes, that would be harder to do. It is much easier to say that the corporations are at fault as opposed to naming every Tom, Dick and Harriet who sits on the board of those harbingers of doom. It is much easier to blame(and here I will automatically lose this argument, some say, by invoking Hitler) Hitler than all the generals, colonels, captains, corporals who also decided to kill people.
Corporations…Hitler…it is much easier to demonize a single entity than all the actual individuals involved.
Is it any more effective?
Federal Oversight
I am not sure about the Republican argument against Obama’s socialist takeover/makeover of healthcare in the United States, something about how the Constitution doesn’t allow for the Federal Government to require people to have health insurance.
SIDE NOTE – Please check what the Constitution has to say about marijuana (nothing, yes?) and the internet (nothing).
And from what I know, the Federal Government has the right to oversee and regulate businesses that cross state lines. I don’t think there is a national health care commission. There is a person who oversees insurance in California. Maybe other states have such an office.
I can’t imagine that the health care in any state does not cross state lines in many ways. The doctors are educated in another state. The test tubes, pipettes and needles are probably made in China. All the diagnostic equipment – MRIs, Ultrasounds etcs – if not made in another state of the Union or Germany are probably made in China. The billing services that the health insurance companies use probably are involved in more than one company and one state. The patients who get sick are crossing state lines bringing illness home from other states. Food, a known vehicle of pathogens (spinach, eggs to name a couple of recent vectors) crosses many states lines.
With all of this interstate business involved in the business of health care, shouldn’t the Feds be involved to make sure it all runs smoothly? Maybe they already are, but if so, they sure are doing a crappy job.
Taxes for Veterans
Some people argue that American foreign policy is largely governed by the United States insatiable thirst for oil. Please note we invaded Iraq to save them from Saddam, but haven’t given as much of a concerted effort in other troubled locations – Rwanda, Somalia – to name a couple. And in our foreign policy efforts, we send many troops into harm’s way. Then veterans come back home physically and mentally harmed.
What I propose is a 1¢/gallon tax increase on gasoline. The more gas you buy/use the more you pay. And these extra funds go to help veterans. I would like to see the right try to talk down the idea of increased aid for veterans.
Sub
This current economic crisis is another example of people not paying enough attention to language.
Sub-prime. They were called sub-prime mortgages. Sub-prime. SUB as in less than as in lower, as in not as good.
As in subpar.
As in substandard.
Yes, the prefix “sub” can be used with other words and not necessarily mean less than as in submarine, subway, substitute (though, there ain’t nothing like the real thing, baby! And what is a stitute?).
But pair the word sub with prime…
Below prime, less then prime, under prime…
Would you be surprised if the grade “F” eggs you bought were spoiled and gave you food poisoning?
Would you be surprised if you went to a no star motel and it was a dump?
Would you be surprised if you paid $15.99 for a flat screen TV and it didn’t work?
If so, you have a future in finance and or politics in the US.
Deficits
Can someone please explain to me why when Dubya was running up the deficit (after he spent all the surplus Clinton left him) spending money on destroying another country no one was bitchin’.
And now when Obama adds to the deficit trying to build up OUR OWN COUNTRY, everyone goes crazy and gets mad at him.
Borrowing Money
I do not understand why conservatives object to borrowing money to pay for the healthcare of their fellow citizens, i.e. increase the general welfare of our country, but have no objection to destroying the huge post-Clinton surplus we had to and borrowing massive amounts to attack Iraq on false grounds. And the war in Iraq does not have a positive effect on life in the U.S.A.
Fair Health Care
If the U.S government won’t pay for its citizens healthcare, why should it pay for the healthcare of the politicians?
Beauty Contests
In the 1930s, financial markets, for obvious reasons, didn’t get much respect. Keynes compared them to “those newspaper competitions in which the competitors have to pick out the six prettiest faces from a hundred photographs, the prize being awarded to the competitor whose choice most nearly corresponds to the average preferences of the competitors as a whole; so that each competitor has to pick, not those faces which he himself finds prettiest, but those that he thinks likeliest to catch the fancy of the other competitors.” – from the NY Times.
sounds like an apt description to me