Story Comments

This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »

To all those who carry on about the "Sub-prime mortgage lending mess":

This being the end of the “old” year, I’ve been hearing much blather from TV “economic” and “business” commentators “recapping” the “unfolding of the economic meltdown”. And it AMAZES me to hear these wonderfully “knowledgeable”, ostensibly erudite whiz-bangs focus on and ascribe blame to various disjointed “pieces of the elephant”. I wonder how long it is going to take for (and indeed, whether it ever really will come to pass that) these people will get BEYOND mere myopia!

The REAL problem is NOT the mortgages, or even the mortgage holders. It is MUCH broader than anything nearly so SIMPLISTIC as just THAT! The fact is that this entire society has LONG been COLLECTIVELY FAILING TO INNOVATE so as to generate NEW REAL WEALTH that is actually joined in by and shared with many of those who OCCUPY all those homes that have been built/rebuilt (by the honest, hardworking folks who did all of that INTRINSICALLY WORTHWHILE work!). But there is not enough GENUINELY PRODUCTIVE work for many OTHERS to do, PERIOD --- AND IT SIMPLY IS NOT POSSIBLE TO INDEFINITELY SUBSTITUTE MAKE-BELIEVE FOR REALITY!

“We” DO NOT need an army of folks running around flipping each others' burgers, polishing each others' boots, and computing each others' income taxes! A LIMITED number of not-TOO-overly-high-priced CEOs, Thespians, professional athletes, "financial advisors", and "political pooh-bahs" of differing stripes is UNAVOIDABLE --- but ENOUGH IS ENOUGH ALREADY! And “we” ESPECIALLY do NOT need a huge, VERY expensive army of MERCENARIES wittingly or unwittingly subverting this nation into cultivating an “empire” that would forcibly “expropriate” resources and energies of OTHER people and try to subject other cultures to do “our” bidding!

This ENTIRE NATION needs to get off its collective BUTT and get SERIOUSLY busy doing things that are REALLY useful. We ESPECIALLY need to WEAN "OUR"SELVES OFF OF "OUR" ADDICTIVE DEPENDENCY ON OTHER PEOPLES' OIL!! That means, in particular, COMPLETELY RECONSTITUTING “OUR” ENERGY DIET --- through such initiatives as REBUILDING “OUR” VEHICULAR FLEETS TO RUN ON ELECTRICAL POWER AND/OR NATURAL GAS (which “we” possess in ample supply). QUIT SQUANDERING BAZILIONS “SUBJUGATING” IRAQIS AND OTHERS AND GET TO WORK DOING THINGS THAT WOULD ACTUALLY BE USEFUL! Get GENUINELY busy on all of THAT, and there will be PLENTY of work for EVERYBODY for about the next CENTURY!!

0 Replies

This comment is below the standard viewing threshold View It »

"Personally, I don't know how much impact a President ... a single person has on an economy."

--Goppy, what amazes me is that one moment I'm hearing that the GOP Congress alone (nope. sorry. no way. nohow. Bill Clinton had nothing to do with it) is responsible for the budget surplus we had at the start of Bush's administration and now I'm suddenly being told by FOX fans that Christopher Dodd and Barney Frank were actually running the country all these years and, to my surprise, they also co-engineered the current global economic crisis.

Anyway, I'm all for more parties but I get the impression some people think that having more parties will somehow guarantee the person we elect will fulfill all our dreams and never disappoint or fail to deliver on a campaign promise. I had low expectations of Bush and has disgusted me beyond my worst imaginings. While I have high expectations of Obama, I realize he has been dealt an extremely crappy hand and I know he will do some things that will disappoint me. It'd be naive of me to think otherwise.

0 Replies