I’m back. Start the insanity.
After a summer of news headlines featuring- a failed immigration bill, a wrestler committing a double-murder and suicide trifecta, Paris Hilton’s release from prison, incessant Kevin Garnett trade rumors, Michael Vick’s indictment for running a dog-fighting ring, the collapse of a well-travelled bridge, not to mention my own annual battle with sugar ants, I will withhold further comment on all of those and jump right into a Sam’s club-sized issue; this is big- the Middle class blog epic continued- part 6.
A dead horse: I’m sure that readers are coming to this site looking for something else, something more entertaining- well, not until I’ve beaten this subject to death can I will myself away. Hey, some people name their cars, some people water their lawns in the middle of the day when half of the water evaporates, and I beat dead horses. I took a Gallup poll . . . and thing is, this horse isn’t dead. There are PLENTY of, "facts", nay, “proofs” available in newspapers, online/internet articles, magazines, and books that support my points and from which one might logically make connections about the nature of the economic road ahead for future middle class citizens. Forgive me if I haven't set all of my cards out on the table quite yet . . . I'm still betting. I hate formulaic movies and books, and have a hard time writing linearly, because I like to exercise my imagination; if you love movies because the plots are familiar and books because of a certain genre- well, I'm sorry already. I'm directionally impaired and it seems that extends to the route I take to get to the crux of the matter with my blog topics. Forgive me if the subject matter this time out doesn't seem to build noticeably on what I established last time I posted. It is related, even if you can't see how at this point.
Skeptics and Revisionists: I’ve given a lot of information thus far, and I’m sure there are skeptics who question just about everything, except for their appetite for subjectivity. They continue to worship the proof not even a scientist can provide them and wouldn’t be convinced a set of Botox treatments would fill in the wrinkles on the face of a sharpie. Too many people wait for something to happen and then comment on its relative insignificance or importance- like how revisionists are stating that the gas tax should have been raised so that our roads and bridges could be improved and maintained. And, all of the money generated from the increased tax on gas would have gone to the 35W bridge. Nonsense! The trick is to be the odds maker of fortune and consider things that might happen. The economic forsaking of future generations of middle class kids by excessive taxation (a political issue) and the hefty price tags on PLENTY of products and services by businesses offering “necessary cost” items (a free market issue) will prevent the middle class from being economically able to afford a college education, because they won't be able to get married, go on a honeymoon, buy a house and a car and attend college- they won't be able to make enough money. I feel compelled to comment on this likelihood now, before it happens. If I’m wrong- wouldn’t that be great? While the middle class dilemma I see coming is hardly an "ideal" I can't wait for it to be realized before it is worthy of comment- it is worthy of comment now:
“An ideal cannot wait for its realization to prove its validity.” - George Santayana
By Degrees: I don’t want to overvalue a degree, because I have seen complete morons who have obtained one, probably through the mail, and am surprised they could work a stamp to send for it. I have also known those who have not “earned” a degree who are intelligent, and who reason more effectively than PLENTY of their “educated” counterparts. The financially leveraged college degree, or the lack of one, is almost as often a potential ticket to affluence than a demonstration of intelligence. I have a degree, but I do boneheaded things every day. A full realization of the problems facing the middle class is largely dependent on one’s class. If a person is doing fairly well, they are likely to be more apathetic or downright confrontational if you claim that things could be better, because they are hard-pressed to imagine things being better for them. I have seemed to complain a lot on behalf of successive generations of middle-class kids and their right to afford any number of things that might properly be termed- “necessary costs,” a right to an affordable college education among them. I’ve written to senators and district house representatives about immigration and the Twins stadium issue, so I don’t merely desire to fight battles with windmills, at least not exclusively. In fact, I have a strong hunch Don Quixote's antics will be considered more productive than mine.
Proposals: Below are four things I would do to begin to alleviate a money crunch that will soon overtax the coming generations of middle class kids. I’m sure you look forward to my constant diatribes at least as much as the ridding from your imaginations of the image of a giraffe spooning with an iguana slated for gender reassignment surgery, an image which wasn’t in place until just now- ha! There is some irreverence in them, but you can't get anything done if you don't upset someone's pristine notion of fairness. These are the short answer ideas, the embellishment and detail will likely come later, perhaps in various other associated blog topics, after I’ve exhausted this particular topic:
1) Find out how much of the $527 billion that is annually directed to military/defense spending is spent needlessly, and negotiate that price down; find out how much of it is earmarked for defense contractors, and how much is guaranteed to maintain the functionality of cold war weaponry that may never be used, etc.;
2) Likewise- remove the funding to the Welfare system that goes to people who abuse the system- who don’t look for jobs, who use money to support drug habits, who continue to have children, they, and society at large, cannot afford for them to have. Defense spending and money distributed to major social aid programs comprise a combined 49% of the federal budget- shouldn’t the money be spent wisely after we learn how and where money is currently directed?
3) Stop catering to the rich- the richest 1-5% of citizens and the corporations. No more corporate welfare. Change all state tax laws that make it a less attractive option for a corporation or little man with a big business idea to go to Vermont to start or grow a business than to stay put in Nebraska. That way, a business can’t hold a state, the state’s legislative and governing bodies, and worse yet, because of the potential for lost jobs, the citizens of that state, hostage by threatening to move their business. The free market won't crumble if you alter this aspect of it.
4) Pass a god-damned immigration bill! Make legal the 12+ million illegals that are already here. Many of them are doing a lot of work. Spend the money that would be saved by not hunting down every illegal on hunting down the illegals who are breaking other laws (besides being here illegally), that center around violence, drugs, gangs, irreverence, taxation, identity theft, etc. All immigrants must learn English, and cannot sue people for illegitimate reasons (more on that in the more complete version of the list). They must not prevent us from dressing our kids in Halloween costumes and sending them to school and saying “Christmas” whenever we please, (and again, I gave up being a christian for lent about 18 years ago), and they must pay taxes (which I understand plenty of them do). We could then concentrate on border control, citizen identification cards, making sure they can read traffic signs and acquire a driver's license only after demonstrating they can drive a car (I know, I'm shooting for the moon), and allow in only those who are productive, law-abiding, Americana-genuflecting immigrants. With that, and with an eye on #3 above, make it no more attractive for an illegal immigrant to settle in Minnesota, because of the welfare laws, than in Montana.
Four Limbs: I stopped at four because I think those are the most important. The other ideas aren’t all that less important, but these are just so big. Yes, yes, logistically, people would argue against undermining state’s rights, specifically where taxation is concerned, and we would have to get into the constitutionality of it all. But you have to start somewhere. It is thought that limbs once broken heal to be stronger than they were before. This country has many weak limbs in need of being broken, and coincidentally we have four limbs. Huh, ironic.
To show you that I am on the level, no anarchist, and worse yet, not a dismissively pompous republican or democrat, just someone in between who thinks that the rich should be a little more like Robin Hood and the poor not so much of a collective leech-gatherer, I give you the very quotable Winston Churchill-
“The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.”
Capitalism and Democracy: Capitalism has thus far proven to be the most effective economic system for fostering the free exchange of products, services, ideas, and money. There are some issues with it, but I can see no other economic system that has been as successful. I read Milton Friedman’s book- Capitalism and Freedom this summer. And though, he probably still knows more about economics, than I could ever hope to comprehend, and he’s been dead for nine months, I found a few faults in his line of thinking- foremost among them- that capitalism and democracy in concert, working together, are doing just fine, excepting that the rich are penalized too much for their success and the poor rewarded too often for their failure, according to him. Capitalism has been a grand success for reasons that if you have stomached reading to this point, you don’t need me to detail for you. But democracy? Yeah, riiiiiight- and there is no meaningful connection between children who spend their time at daycare and the prevalence of diagnosed cases of ear infections.
Four Score and "Soylent Green" spoiler warning: Another reason I stopped at four and decided that those four were the most imperative things to consider altering is because among them you will find that I am no republican as I desire to question outlays to the military and the filthy rich, and I am no democrat, as I would forsake the social aid/welfare people who are clearly abusing the system. I am what many people would be if they stopped continually voting for the lesser of two evils each election- sane. Yeah, I make up for that sanity by being crazy elsewhere. Sure, much of what I've written in the nine months since I started this blog is dismissed because it is combative, elusive, extremist, nonsensical and irreverent, and people think that I don't mean it, I'm just looking for shock value, like just about every other blogger out there. No, I actually think we should legitimize a third and fourth political party. I'm not being irreverent unnecessarily, but rather purposefully, with better intentions than most who continue to vote blindly like a barn full of livestock merely following the herd. I'm irreverent for a reason, but sometimes it just happens accidentally. While we are not slaves, or the proletariat in a socialist state, and we aren't served up as food like in the fairly unpredictable storyline of Charleton Heston's "Soylent Green," after we have ceased to lead productive lives, it is becoming a little more clear that the degree of liberty we enjoy is at issue. And shouldn't someone comment on this for the benefit of successive generations?
"Irreverence is the champion of Liberty"- Mark Twain
It is quite ironic, that I just this weekend heard that line in a speech given by Robin Williams playing the role of a president in "Man of the Year," a somewhat formulaic movie about a man elected to office, helped out by a computer glitch, who tells people the truth, whose irreverence for the status quo is downright respectable.
Next time- I'll take a few steps back- just wanted to show how profoundly far-reaching this topic is- that will make you long for my disgust for people who are apalled by someone putting ketchup on "their" steak.
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