I'm sorry you can't see any improvements. Much of what you say is true but I think you are seeing things in a somewhat jaded light. Here are a couple of contrasts. There are thousands.
In the last economic crisis worse than this one -- the crash of '29' -- millions of people across this nation were standing in breadlines, some starving to death -- the old and the ill mostly -- others were walking the streets or hopping freight cars to mere rumours of work. Today we just extendted unemployment benefits past 99 weeks for the chronically unemployed and food stamps keep virtually everyone eating a good diet. Yes, it is true that fear of terrorism has grown recently and rightly so. But I think most older folks would rather live with a fear of random attack than that of nuclear holocaust. I recall the fears of ducking under our desks at school, warnings not to look at the bright ball of light. Bomb shelters were the hottest item in America. What has happened is the fear of nuclear annhilation has changed into fear of terrorism and I think that if I have to make a choice, I'll take terrorism. It's randomness alone speaks of a wide margin of safety. With a little judicial common sense (staying away from high priority targets) the odds of being hit by a terrorist are really rather slim. Your millions of illegal immigrants are not the leaches you see. At least not to the degree your disdain suggests. The majority of them work, earn money, spend money, and in a lot of cases, via a forged or fake SS#, pay withholding taxes and social security taxes that they'll never file a 1040 to recover part of because that would lead to their discovery, all of which gives our coffers a larger share of their income than the legal worker. This is a large portion of the illegal labor in this country which can be easily seen in the high traffic in forged or fake ID. None of this invalidates your GBS citation but neither does it change the fact that we are changing and from all appearances it appears for the better. I doubt we'll ever again see world wars the likes of which last century had three (I, II and The Cold). I'd rather face down terrorists any day of the week, especially given the odds of ever actually meeting one. As for the politicans, well, you've heard me stay this before and it still rings true. People get the sort of government they deserve. Until a majority of the electorate becomes more aware and educated in the issue of the day and until they react rationally with their vote rather than emotionally as most of them do now, we will only have a government that is a reflection of the electorate. We have the responsibility for government. It says so in the Constitution. Re your "The whole of it needs revamping as is the case with any revolution.", look around. We are in the midst of a revolution. It is happening all around us. The whole globe is changing and we have the choice between holding our breath in anticipation or letting rational voices be heard at the ballot box. Capitalism breeds a lot of things that are not so good, but that breeding is done in the individual human beings who practice capitalism. Marx saw that greed was one of the major downfalls in capitalism. And, yes, capitalism in its inception, produced a vast gulf between the haves and have-nots. But WWII produced a vast middle class in this nation and throughout the western world. I'm not denying the wealth still have most of the power but a vast swath of middle class people have far more power today than ever before. Hell, there's never been a middle class in any society before this one. So the division between the rich and the poor is just as vast as it ever was but now there's a wide band of people in the middle who are not poor and not wealthy but for the most part, pretty damned comfortable. Regardless that America has a reputation of being stingy with its own, we DO protect our poor. (Food stamps, Medicaid, private charity, etc. We may not be as generous to our poor as some European nations, but the poor do not go hungry or without medical care. Just not to the degree either of us would like to see. I don't know what your motivation is, but mine is that elimination of poverty reduces destructive drug and alcohol use, lower crime rates drastically, and raises a lot of people up to a point where they can make their own way. The good side of capitalism is that it has made western nations wealth enough to be generous and supportive of the poor and elderly. The future of capitalism -- what's coming in the near future -- is a blend wherein we grow sufficiently prosperous to enable us to fund all sorts of wonderful programs and opportunities for those on the lower levels of our society. It's the least we owe, to take care of the less fortunate in a capitalist society. On Aug 9, 7:40 am, Slip Disc <[email protected]> wrote: > ..............how do we confront a level of fear that > allows us to get past it and function more fully without stripping > away that portion which keeps us from being vanquished by the world? > > As individual units we can adjust our sense of fear accordingly and > within the parameters of our environmental circumstance but as a > global society I don't see anything changing for the better or for the > worse. Global fears would have to be replaced with global trusts in > order to circumvent what seems to have been the mode de jeur for > centuries. Private gated communities have established a secluded > sense of trust within the confines of the community but the presence > of the gates themselves indicate the distrust of all that lies beyond > the perimeter. Fear has grown over the past several years with the > ever growing terrorist threat. Neighbors are increasingly looking at > others around them as potential threats as homeland security pushes to > expose homegrown terror. The economic landslide, post the subprime > mortgage scenario, is a wake up call for many who never thought they > had anything to fear; losing home, job and a good life is a reality. > Meanwhile millions of illegal immigrants continue to leach off the > public coffers further depleting the resources that once sustained the > country. George Bernard Shaw “You see things; and you say, ‘Why?’ > But I dream things that never were; and I say, “Why not?". This in > all reality can change things but I'm not sure that people are still > capable of dreaming and bringing those dreams to fruition. We have > become sullen and morose and complacently waiting for things to change > on their own or trusting others to make the changes. Soap box > politicians are still leading us down the path of delusion without any > real change and we are stuck in a quagmire of stagnation politics. > The whole of it needs revamping as is the case with any revolution. > Governments wield the power to make real change but have only indulged > those in the world of high finance and capitalist gain; I think > capitalism breeds fear. From Pat in another thread: ".........there's > a moral wealth > that is completely ignored by the ruthlessness of applied capitalism. > Capitalism divides society into 2 parts: the rich and the poor. > Socialism, to some extent, tries to redress the balance and bring that > excess 'wealth' back into a useful form for society's poor. If > America doesn't try to protect the well-being of its own poor, then > they will be forced to defend themselves against an enemy government, > and, the Declaration of Independence, whilst NOT the Constitution, > still lays down a framework granting justification for such a self- > defence if presented with "...a long chain of abuses and usurpations > pursuing, invariably, the same object, evinces a design to reduce them > under absolute despotism...". > As a proponent of capitalism I don't think you would agree with the > premise or the outcome but for sure it is or should be considered as > one element underlying the climate of global fear. >
