Maybe Occupy a Job…Before You Wax Intellectual on Economics
I want to personally thank 2 organizations…1) Occupy Wall Street and 2) the Democratic Party that has embraced them.
Does anyone have any idea how hard it has been to explain just how radically left wing, anti capitalist, anti private property, anti limited government the main stream Democratic party has become? I cant tell you how many conversations, debates, arguments etc. I have had with people who want to believe that the differences between the two parties is really superficial. “It’s good to have one party in charge and then give the other guys a try 4-8 years later”. As if we aren’t talking about two completely different ideologies. I attempted to explain this in my post about Obama’s leadership qualities. How a person can vote for Bush then Obama baffles me, not because they come from different political parties, but because their stated world views are so different. They actually elected Obama because they were mad at certain Bush policies. But Obama ran on doubling down on the very Bush policies many people didn’t like, or at least didn’t like the results of. But finally…FINALLY…the “main stream Democratic party” has come out and embraced the Occupy Wall Street crowd, referring to it as their version of the Tea party.
So lets do a quick side by side here…
Occupy Wall Street i.e. “Democratic Tea Party” (Liberal/Progressive/Socialist/Anarchist/insert pet cause here________)=
Demand one: Restoration of the living wage. This demand can only be met by ending “Freetrade” by re-imposing trade tariffs on all imported goods entering the American market to level the playing field for domestic family farming and domestic manufacturing as most nations that are dumping cheap products onto the American market have radical wage and environmental regulation advantages. Another policy that must be instituted is raise the minimum wage to twenty dollars an hr.
-yeah…how is any of this supposed to be accomplished…what is a “living wage” and who gets to decide what that is? Apparently the arbitrary number of $20 an hour will cover it…until of course inflation kicks in due to the “happy happy joy joy, no basis in reality” approach to economics being pushed here. As far as free trade, I always wondered how refusing to buy things from people in the developing world improved their lot in life, or ours, but apparently a bunch of kids who never travel to the”icky countries” have it all figured out.
Demand two: Institute a universal single payer healthcare system. To do this all private insurers must be banned from the healthcare market as their only effect on the health of patients is to take money away from doctors, nurses and hospitals preventing them from doing their jobs and hand that money to wall st. investors.
-So the solution here is to adopt the Cuban approach to health care where you have no other option. How very “democratic” of our friends at OWS. To deny anyone the ability to choose a program other than the one they will now impose…I know! Lets have single payer government run grocery stores…and Birkenstock stores…and…
Demand three: Guaranteed living wage income regardless of employment.
-This will of course be paid with the profits of evil corporations we have just banned…oh damn wait. So essentially they want to be paid for doing nothing… indefinitely. Yeah sounds like a real economic winner! How about insisting on the power of flight as well!
Demand four: Free college education.
-So we can have more people sleeping out on the streets in protest to whatever else they dream up. Free sure comes up a lot, do they mean free as in “requires no labor or resources” or free as in free for them at the expense of someone else? Perhaps they are advocating slavery for college professors?
Demand five: Begin a fast track process to bring the fossil fuel economy to an end while at the same bringing the alternative energy economy up to energy demand.
-So clearly worm hole technology or time travel will be necessary in order to put this on the “fast track”. Especially now that we are essentially destroying the economic system that could have perhaps made alternative fuels more economically viable in a reasonable time frame…I don’t know about you but I didn’t see many people with that “scientific genius” look about them at these rallies.
Demand six: One trillion dollars in infrastructure (Water, Sewer, Rail, Roads and Bridges and Electrical Grid) spending now.
-Quick spend the money before they demand a gergillion dollars!
Demand seven: One trillion dollars in ecological restoration planting forests, reestablishing wetlands and the natural flow of river systems and decommissioning of all of America’s nuclear power plants.
-And pet unicorns for everyone! The 99% demand the immediate government confiscation and redistribution of the unicorn population that rich executives have been keeping from the people! ATTICA!!!!
Demand eight: Racial and gender equal rights amendment.
-Om my gosh I didn’t know they had heard of the constitution much less amendments! But why do they need one for this but not everything else, and what would this look like?
Lets contrast this with….
Tea Party (Conservative/Libertarian) =
1) Limited constitutional government. This essentially means that the Federal Government is limited by the Constitution, State governments are limited by state constitutions and people should in most matters be governed by institutions closest to them, e.g. Town, City, County.
2) Lower taxes. Taxation should be about imposing a fair and equitable tax across the board which does not punish success and is purely to generate sufficient revenue to sustain legitimate functions of government; NOT to redistribute or achieve “economic leveling” under the guise of “social justice” or whatever popular turn of phrase is being used to justify taking form one person merely to give it to someone who will vote for you.
3) Less government regulation. See #1. Regulation should be limited to only those actions which lead to neighboorhood effects which cannot other wise be dealt with through voluntary cooperation.
4) Emphasis on Federalism. Federal government is a creation of the states, not the other way around. The greatest check to centralized power is NOT the checks and balances between the federal judiciary, executive and legislative branches of government, but the federalist check between the federal government and the States.
5) Emphasis on personal responsibility and individual liberty. If the law is somehow abridging an individual freedom or responsibility it is probably over reaching. Especially at the federal level. Not always…but probably.
6) Appreciation for our founding fathers and documents. This is both a principled and practical appreciation which realizes and understands the uniqueness and ultimate fragility of American exceptionalism. Wealth and security are NOT the norm throughout history and it is a mistake to ask “why is there poverty” when the real question should be “why is there wealth”. The answer lies in embracing a world view which promotes individual liberty, personal responsibility and the falleness of man, like our founders did.
7) A respect for private property and capitalism. I once asked fellow college students to define the capitalist system they despised so much. Not one of them could do it. Even the professor had some trouble. Capitalism is simply the private ownership of property and the means of production and distribution through voluntary cooperation and exchange. Essentially we can only do business if we are both willing. That is the only appropriate economic system for a free people.
8) A dependency upon God. This is not to say that all tea partiers are religious, but the existence of truth and objective morality is based upon the presupposition of God and the vast majority of the Tea Party along with our Founders recognized this.
I think it is also important to note that you never see some of the antics regularly exhibited by the “Democratic Tea Party” e.g. Violence, defecating on police cars, anti-semetic remarks, sex in public, vandalism, littering, pervasive cursing, etc. the Tae Party protesters (which during tehri several marches have numbered from hundreds of thousands to over a million) actually pick up their own trash, use designated facilities to relieve themselves, wave American flags, don’t ask for handouts, don’t assail passers by, and also leave after their permit has expired to get back to their JOBS! In essence one is a peaceful political movement dedicated to individual liberty and the other is a socialist mob dedicated to empowering the state.
So Thank you democrats for finally giving the American people some real insight into who you are, and what you represent…see you at the polls next November.
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