Well, I'm back to blogging at MySpace. Because, quite simply, I have a lot of readers over there who have been reading my stuff for a long time. I'm not sure where they come from. But they go there to find it. I know this by reading the stats. If you want to check out my blog on MySpace, you just need to google David Vidal. The link to my website will pop up. Go there. At the bottom of the page is a link to MySpace. Click it. That will take you to my MySpace site. You can easily navigate that to find the latest blog, or the old ones, for that matter. You don't have to log onto MySpace to do this. You can also check out music, pictures, etc. You know the drill. It's freakin' MySpace. But you only have to log on in order to leave a comment.
Having said that... I like this spot too. It's a little more academic somehow. So, I'll probably leave the occasional literary droppings over here as well. (Excuse me... I have dogs and cats.)
I looked up economic theory today. On Wikipedia and maybe one other place. Because honestly I never studied it. And I like Paul Krugman, the writer at the New York Times. I like the way he thinks, and he's a good writer. And I kinda wanted to know more about what he's talking about. Because I know economic theory is just that... theory.
You probably know all this, but allow me to break down what I gleaned out of my perusing. You have Keynesian theory on the one hand, which is a belief that government manipulation of markets (interest rates, money flow and so on) is a good thing. On the other hand you have supply side economics (a theory that was apparently first named during the Nixon years) in which the basic premise is that markets will regulate themselves, and the best governance of them is no governance at all.
And it dawned on me (again, please humor me if this is old hat to you) that the difference between Democrats (who are essentially Keynesian) and Republicans (who are basically supply siders) all boils down to the conflict between these two economic theories. Everything else is just steam that rises into the air and dissipates. Hot air.
What we have in our actual economic system is a combination of the two theories. Were we to be totally Keynesian, we'd be socialist. The government would manipulate the market from top to bottom. Were we to be totally supply side, there would be no economic regulation at all.
The problem that our economy is going through now is that this amalgam of economic theories doesn't seem to be working. People who think in fundamentally Keynesian terms (I'm one of them... who knew) think that representative government in control of economic machinery is the best way to go. And supply siders (who in my world view have screwed things up since the days of Reagan) think the opposite.
What we have is a kind of wobbling back and forth between the two. Either one might work... but the combination of them probably doesn't.
Then it occurred to me... what if they're both wrong? I mean, in reality, most of us use something more akin to the Lord's Prayer in our personal economic policies. We're thankful for a roof over our head if we're fortunate enough to have one, and food on the table, if there is some. And we hope that tomorrow we will have those things still. Or get them.
Seems to me the entire monetary system has been about economic slavery from day one. It wasn't imposed for the betterment of humanity. Humanity might have gotten betterment from it, but that wasn't the driving force behind it. The driving force was (and is) for the people who control the coinage (antiquated term I know... there used to be actual coins involved in this deal, made of gold and silver 'n' stuff) to control the people who didn't. That simple. And people were forced, often under penalty of death, to use that coinage. Otherwise, the powers that be would ride into your village and lop your head off.
So all of economic theory (or at least a good part of it) is designed to keep control of the populace, and gain control over more people on the planet (growth economics). The Keynesian model believes that through manipulation of the markets, the serfs (you and me) will be kept happier and consume, consume, work, work. The supply side doesn't even pretend to give a rat's ass about the serfs, and goes by the old philosophy of just lopping their heads off if they doth protest too much. By that theory, the rich should get continually richer, and the poor... well, who cares, really.
The Keynesians don't really care much about the poor either... they just feel they're more easily controlled if they're relatively happy.
Now we find ourselves in the digital age... and everything is turned topsy turvy. Because coinage is now nothing more than digits. And trading of digits is based on speculation based on projection of ideas. And so on.
These things are couched in fancy schmancy economic speak by economists... but really, they don't know what to do.
And, actually, we don't either. But I think we're used to that, many of us. Or getting that way. Because, at the end of the day, if we have food on the table and a roof over our heads, we're still thankful. And if we don't, or somebody we know doesn't, or even somebody we don't know... we try to help them, and they us. Because most of us aren't out to control anybody.
What a concept.
I'm reminded of the old Chinese curse... "may you live in interesting times".
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Sunday, September 26, 2010
A Two Lane Çountry Road Into The Future
There's a great piece by Thomas Friedman in the New York Times, comparing the strategy the Chinese have for the coming decades to that of the U.S. The Chinese are developing infrastructure and going full bore into the post-oil dependence reality of the future. Which means, of course, a major commitment to electric cars, trains, etc. And we, meanwhile, are going full bore into developing the nation of Afghanistan. As Friedman points out, if we persist on our path of nation building, the Chinese are going to win that contest, and thus be the real global powerhouse.
Now Friedman has a lot more inside knowledge than I do, and works for the New York Times to boot, which means he kinda has to put a positive spin on this stuff. So he ends on a hopeful note... suggesting that somehow we will heal our internal rifts, give up our oil dependency, and forge boldly into the future. Or at least he suggests it's a possibility worth striving for. Which, of course, it is.
I guess.
On the other hand, I have spent a lot of time in Texas the last couple of years. And my sense of it is the Texas oil folks ain't a-gonna give up their stranglehold on the U.S. economy until every last drop of oil has been sucked out of the ground and used as fuel or turned into a plastic thingamabob.
I really do hope the Afghans are happy with the new country we're trying to build them. Whether they want it or not. And I'm darn thrilled that the Iraqi's have a new country too.
Kinda.
But these two disastrous escapades have put us way behind in the race toward the future. We were sitting in a pretty good position during the Bill Clinton era. But we're not in a very good position now.
We can still develop the stuff needed here. But then we can't seem to implement much. The left hand is constantly fighting the right hand. And so, the Chinese (and others) buy this cool techno stuff we've developed and actually utilize it.
While we argue back and forth about what the founders and Jesus would do.
The Chinese are not burdened with Democracy or religion. They don't care what the people want, nor the supposed representatives of the people. And they don't give a damn what Jesus would do. They look at science, evaluate, and act accordingly. Whether the science be environmental, economic, or whatever. The Chinese have been running China for a long time.
Honestly, I don't think America has much of a chance in this contest. It's kind of like pitting petulant children against grown ups. As much noise and disruption as the children cause, ultimately the grown ups are going to send them to their room. And Americans don't want to be anything but petulant children, really. It's all we know.
We're good at it, too.
Oddly enough, I'm pretty okay with America just being itself. With our quirky little ideas of democracy, our freedom of religion, and our love of classic cars. America is a huge country, full of wonderful people. It's just that we're not gonna dominate the planet forever. We've done it for fifty years or so, and already one gets the sense that we've gone beyond the apex. And the reason for that is quite simple. We haven't apparently learned from past empires... that what brings them down is military ventures far from their own borders, and the unwillingness or inability to pay for them. Every military venture ever engaged in by any empire was presented and sold with some rational argument. But eventually, they destroy the conquerors themselves.
Maybe we will stay neck and neck with China in the race to the future. But I doubt it. Because here in America, we're too attached to our past. And our past is that of a very recent frontier. Our values are formed by that frontier mentality, and don't necessarily juxtapose well with civilization. And in China, where civilization goes back so much further, they seem much more willing, and able, to move forward quickly and decisively.
I love America for what and who She really is. A quirky, industrious, musical, creative, petulant, ambitious, occasionally cruel, often funny and endlessly argumentative group of misfits and ne'er-do-wells who can't really agree on much of anything except that we have the right to disagree.
I don't think we can make anybody be like us even if we try. And I don't see why we'd want to.
Now Friedman has a lot more inside knowledge than I do, and works for the New York Times to boot, which means he kinda has to put a positive spin on this stuff. So he ends on a hopeful note... suggesting that somehow we will heal our internal rifts, give up our oil dependency, and forge boldly into the future. Or at least he suggests it's a possibility worth striving for. Which, of course, it is.
I guess.
On the other hand, I have spent a lot of time in Texas the last couple of years. And my sense of it is the Texas oil folks ain't a-gonna give up their stranglehold on the U.S. economy until every last drop of oil has been sucked out of the ground and used as fuel or turned into a plastic thingamabob.
I really do hope the Afghans are happy with the new country we're trying to build them. Whether they want it or not. And I'm darn thrilled that the Iraqi's have a new country too.
Kinda.
But these two disastrous escapades have put us way behind in the race toward the future. We were sitting in a pretty good position during the Bill Clinton era. But we're not in a very good position now.
We can still develop the stuff needed here. But then we can't seem to implement much. The left hand is constantly fighting the right hand. And so, the Chinese (and others) buy this cool techno stuff we've developed and actually utilize it.
While we argue back and forth about what the founders and Jesus would do.
The Chinese are not burdened with Democracy or religion. They don't care what the people want, nor the supposed representatives of the people. And they don't give a damn what Jesus would do. They look at science, evaluate, and act accordingly. Whether the science be environmental, economic, or whatever. The Chinese have been running China for a long time.
Honestly, I don't think America has much of a chance in this contest. It's kind of like pitting petulant children against grown ups. As much noise and disruption as the children cause, ultimately the grown ups are going to send them to their room. And Americans don't want to be anything but petulant children, really. It's all we know.
We're good at it, too.
Oddly enough, I'm pretty okay with America just being itself. With our quirky little ideas of democracy, our freedom of religion, and our love of classic cars. America is a huge country, full of wonderful people. It's just that we're not gonna dominate the planet forever. We've done it for fifty years or so, and already one gets the sense that we've gone beyond the apex. And the reason for that is quite simple. We haven't apparently learned from past empires... that what brings them down is military ventures far from their own borders, and the unwillingness or inability to pay for them. Every military venture ever engaged in by any empire was presented and sold with some rational argument. But eventually, they destroy the conquerors themselves.
Maybe we will stay neck and neck with China in the race to the future. But I doubt it. Because here in America, we're too attached to our past. And our past is that of a very recent frontier. Our values are formed by that frontier mentality, and don't necessarily juxtapose well with civilization. And in China, where civilization goes back so much further, they seem much more willing, and able, to move forward quickly and decisively.
I love America for what and who She really is. A quirky, industrious, musical, creative, petulant, ambitious, occasionally cruel, often funny and endlessly argumentative group of misfits and ne'er-do-wells who can't really agree on much of anything except that we have the right to disagree.
I don't think we can make anybody be like us even if we try. And I don't see why we'd want to.
Saturday, September 25, 2010
UFO's and Aliens
Well, I admit it. Tonight (actually in the wee hours of the morning) I was perusing sites about UFO's and aliens. Not the kind who sneak across the border to find work, but the kind who zip around in flying saucers and apparently sometimes crash and such.
I'm not sure how I got sucked into the search. It had something to do with military experts testifying that there has been a big coverup regarding space ships and aliens for decades, and how these ships were seen beaming lights into our nuclear arsenals, somehow disabling their launching capabilities. Or something. So, you know... a few clicks, and I'm looking at "dead alien" pictures, and autopsies, and different photos of alleged spacecraft.
One thing struck me right away. The UFO pictures taken in the 1960's show spacecraft that are a lot more clunky looking than the more recent pictures. Apparently, aliens like to buy a newer model space craft every year or so. Some of the classic space craft have a certain appeal to them, kind of like the old Cadillacs of the 50's. You know... solid, no discernible fins as yet, a little tank-like but ultimately functional and luxurious in a practical kind of way. The new ones are more modern... sleek, with fluid lines and much fancier lights. I don't know if the old classics are still up there zipping around or not. Maybe the aliens, like the Japanese, are required by law to upgrade every year. Maybe that's what's actually on the dark side of the moon, that the astronauts ostensibly saw and couldn't talk about. A giant wrecking yard full of old space ships, bunches of clunkers from the fifties and sixties that nobody wants to drive any more.
The autopsy picture I saw of an alien revealed that they don't have much skeletal structure, or muscle for that matter. Apparently you just kind of peel back their "skin" and there's a hodgepodge of gloppy lookin' stuff in there that vaguely resembles stew meat. Ahh, mysteries abound.
Lest you think I am totally skeptical of the existence of aliens... well, I'm not. Matter of fact, the odds of there being alien life forms are much better than the odds of there not. And I don't doubt some could have visited here, or even kinda keep an eye on the place. It's entirely possible. I don't trust 'em much, mind you. But by now, I don't really trust anyone very much. I've been around too long, and figure if I can't trust people born on the same planet as me, there's no reason to trust someone born in an entirely different galaxy. I figure E.T. was a con man.
This brings to mind one time in my wayward youth... when I was still in high school, actually. I was with a group of friends, driving on a dirt road south of Denver. We were, uhhh... in an altered state. Which makes one perfectly ripe for alien sightings. And sure enough, as we were driving down this bumpy dirt road in the twilight, a giant orb rose over the horizon. "Holy shit! What's that??" one friend asked incredulously. "Wow," said another, as that was all he could get out of his mouth. I pulled the car over to take a closer look. "What the fffffff....." exclaimed another. And I, always the party pooper, looked up and said, "Uhhhh... it's the moon." Which of course it was. It was big, and orange-ish, and orb like, and a little more imbued with life when viewed in an altered state. But it was, nonetheless, the moon.
"Ohhh," my friends exclaimed all at once. "Yeah.... it's the moon....."
And people wonder why Americans don't do that good on test scores. If you're so wrecked you can't tell the moon from a UFO, trigonometry is gonna throw you for a loop.
I took care of a gentleman with Alzheimer's disease a few years back. Eventually he passed away, as we all do. He was a retired Air Force officer, and at one point he had actually been in charge of the base near Roswell, New Mexico. He could remember stuff that happened a long time ago. He just couldn't necessarily remember stuff that happened a few minutes ago. And I asked him, point blank, one time if there was evidence of truth to the persistent rumors that aliens had been found near Roswell.
"Not that I ever saw," he smiled with the childlike honesty of the Alzheimer's afflicted.
Of course, he could have been part of the giant cover up plot...
I'm not sure how I got sucked into the search. It had something to do with military experts testifying that there has been a big coverup regarding space ships and aliens for decades, and how these ships were seen beaming lights into our nuclear arsenals, somehow disabling their launching capabilities. Or something. So, you know... a few clicks, and I'm looking at "dead alien" pictures, and autopsies, and different photos of alleged spacecraft.
One thing struck me right away. The UFO pictures taken in the 1960's show spacecraft that are a lot more clunky looking than the more recent pictures. Apparently, aliens like to buy a newer model space craft every year or so. Some of the classic space craft have a certain appeal to them, kind of like the old Cadillacs of the 50's. You know... solid, no discernible fins as yet, a little tank-like but ultimately functional and luxurious in a practical kind of way. The new ones are more modern... sleek, with fluid lines and much fancier lights. I don't know if the old classics are still up there zipping around or not. Maybe the aliens, like the Japanese, are required by law to upgrade every year. Maybe that's what's actually on the dark side of the moon, that the astronauts ostensibly saw and couldn't talk about. A giant wrecking yard full of old space ships, bunches of clunkers from the fifties and sixties that nobody wants to drive any more.
The autopsy picture I saw of an alien revealed that they don't have much skeletal structure, or muscle for that matter. Apparently you just kind of peel back their "skin" and there's a hodgepodge of gloppy lookin' stuff in there that vaguely resembles stew meat. Ahh, mysteries abound.
Lest you think I am totally skeptical of the existence of aliens... well, I'm not. Matter of fact, the odds of there being alien life forms are much better than the odds of there not. And I don't doubt some could have visited here, or even kinda keep an eye on the place. It's entirely possible. I don't trust 'em much, mind you. But by now, I don't really trust anyone very much. I've been around too long, and figure if I can't trust people born on the same planet as me, there's no reason to trust someone born in an entirely different galaxy. I figure E.T. was a con man.
This brings to mind one time in my wayward youth... when I was still in high school, actually. I was with a group of friends, driving on a dirt road south of Denver. We were, uhhh... in an altered state. Which makes one perfectly ripe for alien sightings. And sure enough, as we were driving down this bumpy dirt road in the twilight, a giant orb rose over the horizon. "Holy shit! What's that??" one friend asked incredulously. "Wow," said another, as that was all he could get out of his mouth. I pulled the car over to take a closer look. "What the fffffff....." exclaimed another. And I, always the party pooper, looked up and said, "Uhhhh... it's the moon." Which of course it was. It was big, and orange-ish, and orb like, and a little more imbued with life when viewed in an altered state. But it was, nonetheless, the moon.
"Ohhh," my friends exclaimed all at once. "Yeah.... it's the moon....."
And people wonder why Americans don't do that good on test scores. If you're so wrecked you can't tell the moon from a UFO, trigonometry is gonna throw you for a loop.
I took care of a gentleman with Alzheimer's disease a few years back. Eventually he passed away, as we all do. He was a retired Air Force officer, and at one point he had actually been in charge of the base near Roswell, New Mexico. He could remember stuff that happened a long time ago. He just couldn't necessarily remember stuff that happened a few minutes ago. And I asked him, point blank, one time if there was evidence of truth to the persistent rumors that aliens had been found near Roswell.
"Not that I ever saw," he smiled with the childlike honesty of the Alzheimer's afflicted.
Of course, he could have been part of the giant cover up plot...
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
My Sorry Ass Space
Well, I keep returning to the MySpace blog, where some of you know me from. Old habits are hard to break, I suppose. And also, I just get a lot more readers over there. But every time I think I can get used to the new format and barrage of mind numbing, eyeball-singeing promo clips they throw at you, and have crawling across the page, and leaping up out of nowhere... then they come up with another one. What kind of a brain dead moron thinks of these things? Now they've got it set up where your sign in page actually slides down your screen while some advertisement for something or other (I actually refuse to watch 'em, so really don't know what they're for) looms up and tries to beat you over the head with a cast iron skillet. It's become worse than television. Who knew that was even possible? I keep the sound down, so Lord knows what kind of noises are going on as well. There are usually some very earnest and often provocatively clothed young folk (hey, almost everybody looks young to me these days... old people actually call me "sir"... it ain't pretty). They are usually incredibly intense, blowing something up, or having something blow them up, or blow up them... or something. Somebody over there at MySpace is taking the bad drugs, seems to me.
However, I do still post over there on occasion. And if you don a flak jacket, a steel helmet, a hazmat suit, a gas mask and carry a giant b.s. detector, you might find it of interest. Be sure to fully hydrate yourself before you attempt entry, though. The log-in page to MySpace is strewn with the bodies of those who tried to enter without fully preparing themselves.
What I always liked about MySpace was the fact that it could serve basically as an all purpose site for communication, promotion, meeting new people, finding old friends, and so on. Of course, the Summer of Love had its brief moment of relevance too.
Now, with everything being scattered all over the internet, it seems to take an unwieldy amount of time to do things. I come here to write a blog (I also occasionally blog over at Lisa Ferreri's wonderful Wiffledust site). I have my Facebook page, of course. But I just can't get very comfortable on Facebook. I don't know why. And I have my Facebook Fan Page. Twitter. Reverb Nation. Plaxo. And honestly, I'm not sure what else. Oh yeah, my website.... www.davidvidal.net... which were it not for the heroic efforts of my friend Paul McCarty would be a wasteland of blowing tumbleweeds and rusting swing sets.
I used to be able to sit at the computer (yeah, I'm way old fashioned I know... I have an actual stupid phone, and I barely know how to use call waiting on it), go to MySpace, take care of e-mails (oh yeah, I forgot to mention e-mail), messages, promo, blogs and so on in one swell foop. Or close to it. Now, I feel like I'm spraying bullets with an automatic rifle, just hoping to hit something on the internet. (Dear FBI, please understand my occasional use of analogy, euphemism and other such linguistic baubles and don't put me on any more lists... 'kay? I asked nicely...)
And really, I shouldn't be doing any of this. There are always pressing matters in the "real" world as well. Ahhh, well.
Anybody havin' fun yet?
However, I do still post over there on occasion. And if you don a flak jacket, a steel helmet, a hazmat suit, a gas mask and carry a giant b.s. detector, you might find it of interest. Be sure to fully hydrate yourself before you attempt entry, though. The log-in page to MySpace is strewn with the bodies of those who tried to enter without fully preparing themselves.
What I always liked about MySpace was the fact that it could serve basically as an all purpose site for communication, promotion, meeting new people, finding old friends, and so on. Of course, the Summer of Love had its brief moment of relevance too.
Now, with everything being scattered all over the internet, it seems to take an unwieldy amount of time to do things. I come here to write a blog (I also occasionally blog over at Lisa Ferreri's wonderful Wiffledust site). I have my Facebook page, of course. But I just can't get very comfortable on Facebook. I don't know why. And I have my Facebook Fan Page. Twitter. Reverb Nation. Plaxo. And honestly, I'm not sure what else. Oh yeah, my website.... www.davidvidal.net... which were it not for the heroic efforts of my friend Paul McCarty would be a wasteland of blowing tumbleweeds and rusting swing sets.
I used to be able to sit at the computer (yeah, I'm way old fashioned I know... I have an actual stupid phone, and I barely know how to use call waiting on it), go to MySpace, take care of e-mails (oh yeah, I forgot to mention e-mail), messages, promo, blogs and so on in one swell foop. Or close to it. Now, I feel like I'm spraying bullets with an automatic rifle, just hoping to hit something on the internet. (Dear FBI, please understand my occasional use of analogy, euphemism and other such linguistic baubles and don't put me on any more lists... 'kay? I asked nicely...)
And really, I shouldn't be doing any of this. There are always pressing matters in the "real" world as well. Ahhh, well.
Anybody havin' fun yet?
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Dumpster Diving for Healthcare
I ran into my old friend David Chamberlain last night. Actually, I didn't run into him so much as went to see the band he plays with on occasion at a cocktail lounge in the San Fernando Valley. David is quite simply one of the best bass players on the planet. He's worked with Glenn Frey, Roy Buchanan, blah blah. He's melodic, funky and has the best tone maybe ever. More important, he's got a heart of gold, and has survived many of the addictions and afflictions musicians are prone to going through.
So in the course of conversation, we talked about... hip replacements. What else? Chamberlain is looking forward to having one. Because he's low income (as most musicians are) he has qualified, by waiting in the right lines and filling out the right forms, to have his hip replaced. And he's excited about it. I think it's cool that he's having it done. Meanwhile, I prefer to slowly let mine deteriorate. Partly out of stubbornness and blatant denial, and partly because I don't think I would qualify for such a thing.
I would certainly qualify in the income department, but because I own a house, I think my assets would throw me out of qualifying. Which is kind of the norm for a lot of us. We don't quite fit in any category. If you rent, and are below a certain income level, there are options for you. If you own, and are steadily and gainfully employed, there are options for you. If you fall through the cracks (which I'm pretty sure is how I got to this planet to begin with), you often find that your options are very limited.
I'm not complaining. And I'm actually happy for my friend, and the fact that my niece got her cancer treated, and so on. And I'm pretty okay with people who have great health insurance through their jobs or whatever. But it seems to me that the system we have is just too convoluted.
Many of us voted for Barack Obama because of his seeming dedication to universal health care. For all Americans. An expansion of existing programs to cover everyone. That's what he sold us. Many of us bought into his idea. I still buy into it. In this country, we seem willing to fire people who work for the post office, but God forbid any insurance executives lose their jobs.
As we all know, that's not at all what we got. After a year of political wrangling, wrestling, glad handing and brown nosing we got, instead of simple and understandable universal health care, a convoluted mess that we are all required by law to buy into, even though most of us don't have a clue what it is we are buying. And many of us are just going to take the hit. We'll pay the fine, and keep living on a wing and a prayer.
If Obama is looking for the source of mass discontent among many people who voted for him, he need look no further than this. Plain and simple, he did not deliver on his promise, and then has tried to convince us that what we got was what we really needed. It's kind of a father knows best line of thought that might work on his daughters, but doesn't work on most grown ups.
I don't hold Obama entirely accountable for the mess of a health care bill that wormed its way through the legislative process. He has an opposition party that has been nothing short of obstructionist from day one. And I don't think he had a clue how powerful the insurance company and pharmaceutical companies truly are. His big mistakes seem to be 1) he spent too much time trying to compromise with a group of people who wanted nothing short of his political head on a platter and 2) instead of fighting for what he promised in his campaign and possibly losing, he chose a Pyrrhic victory instead. And almost everyone agrees that the result was a total mess of a health care bill signed into law.
I'm not one who expects the government to fix everything for me. But I do resent it when somebody promises me a steak dinner and then tries to convince me that a cold meatloaf sandwich is the same thing. And then insists that I pay for the meatloaf sandwich that I didn't want to begin with.
This is going to bite Obama in the ass come election time. He's a masterful campaigner, and the Republican Party is in such disarray that I still think the smart money will be on him getting re-elected. But it's kind of reminiscent of the old Pete Townsend line, "meet the new boss, same as the old boss."
We have a new captain at the helm, but the ship is going the same direction.
Many of us had hoped that change would mean something... well, a little different....
So in the course of conversation, we talked about... hip replacements. What else? Chamberlain is looking forward to having one. Because he's low income (as most musicians are) he has qualified, by waiting in the right lines and filling out the right forms, to have his hip replaced. And he's excited about it. I think it's cool that he's having it done. Meanwhile, I prefer to slowly let mine deteriorate. Partly out of stubbornness and blatant denial, and partly because I don't think I would qualify for such a thing.
I would certainly qualify in the income department, but because I own a house, I think my assets would throw me out of qualifying. Which is kind of the norm for a lot of us. We don't quite fit in any category. If you rent, and are below a certain income level, there are options for you. If you own, and are steadily and gainfully employed, there are options for you. If you fall through the cracks (which I'm pretty sure is how I got to this planet to begin with), you often find that your options are very limited.
I'm not complaining. And I'm actually happy for my friend, and the fact that my niece got her cancer treated, and so on. And I'm pretty okay with people who have great health insurance through their jobs or whatever. But it seems to me that the system we have is just too convoluted.
Many of us voted for Barack Obama because of his seeming dedication to universal health care. For all Americans. An expansion of existing programs to cover everyone. That's what he sold us. Many of us bought into his idea. I still buy into it. In this country, we seem willing to fire people who work for the post office, but God forbid any insurance executives lose their jobs.
As we all know, that's not at all what we got. After a year of political wrangling, wrestling, glad handing and brown nosing we got, instead of simple and understandable universal health care, a convoluted mess that we are all required by law to buy into, even though most of us don't have a clue what it is we are buying. And many of us are just going to take the hit. We'll pay the fine, and keep living on a wing and a prayer.
If Obama is looking for the source of mass discontent among many people who voted for him, he need look no further than this. Plain and simple, he did not deliver on his promise, and then has tried to convince us that what we got was what we really needed. It's kind of a father knows best line of thought that might work on his daughters, but doesn't work on most grown ups.
I don't hold Obama entirely accountable for the mess of a health care bill that wormed its way through the legislative process. He has an opposition party that has been nothing short of obstructionist from day one. And I don't think he had a clue how powerful the insurance company and pharmaceutical companies truly are. His big mistakes seem to be 1) he spent too much time trying to compromise with a group of people who wanted nothing short of his political head on a platter and 2) instead of fighting for what he promised in his campaign and possibly losing, he chose a Pyrrhic victory instead. And almost everyone agrees that the result was a total mess of a health care bill signed into law.
I'm not one who expects the government to fix everything for me. But I do resent it when somebody promises me a steak dinner and then tries to convince me that a cold meatloaf sandwich is the same thing. And then insists that I pay for the meatloaf sandwich that I didn't want to begin with.
This is going to bite Obama in the ass come election time. He's a masterful campaigner, and the Republican Party is in such disarray that I still think the smart money will be on him getting re-elected. But it's kind of reminiscent of the old Pete Townsend line, "meet the new boss, same as the old boss."
We have a new captain at the helm, but the ship is going the same direction.
Many of us had hoped that change would mean something... well, a little different....
Saturday, September 18, 2010
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Step Away From The Bus
The real news in America is that the poverty rate is the highest that it's been in the fifty years since they started tracking such things. One in seven Americans now officially lives in poverty. And the demographics are remarkably egalitarian... in plain speak, it doesn't matter whether you have a degree or not. More and more people with advanced degrees and great looking resumes are now turning to shelters to feed their families.
Not being an economist, I have no idea when a recession crosses the line and becomes a depression. But this economy is looking more and more dastardly. We're all affected by it, some more than others. The exception seems to be the very wealthy. The upper few percent of Americans are doing remarkably well. They still conduct their lives much as they always have. Maybe even a bit more lavishly. And one gets the sense, not only from them but in general, that the rest of us now exist primarily to serve them.
This is not what the American Dream was sold as. And for all the opportunities that we still have in this country, more and more of those opportunities are slipping away for the average person.
Obviously this is going to lead to class resentment. How could it not? And that is the one thing that politicians fear, while at the same time they play on it to their own advantage. Because they. for the most part, have always served the interests of the very wealthy, while pretending to do otherwise.
There are going to be no solutions from our two party system. It has driven us into this ditch, as the Great Corporatocracy drives both of them. Yet it is so ingrained as part of America, I doubt that it will ever be jettisoned. Which doesn't bode well for our future. We're stuck with two perennially bickering political parties that hold each other hostage and accomplish little if anything in our interest.
The only way out of the ditch is for us to dig ourselves out. But, more and more, people are just deciding they really don't need the bus any way, and walking away.
Not being an economist, I have no idea when a recession crosses the line and becomes a depression. But this economy is looking more and more dastardly. We're all affected by it, some more than others. The exception seems to be the very wealthy. The upper few percent of Americans are doing remarkably well. They still conduct their lives much as they always have. Maybe even a bit more lavishly. And one gets the sense, not only from them but in general, that the rest of us now exist primarily to serve them.
This is not what the American Dream was sold as. And for all the opportunities that we still have in this country, more and more of those opportunities are slipping away for the average person.
Obviously this is going to lead to class resentment. How could it not? And that is the one thing that politicians fear, while at the same time they play on it to their own advantage. Because they. for the most part, have always served the interests of the very wealthy, while pretending to do otherwise.
There are going to be no solutions from our two party system. It has driven us into this ditch, as the Great Corporatocracy drives both of them. Yet it is so ingrained as part of America, I doubt that it will ever be jettisoned. Which doesn't bode well for our future. We're stuck with two perennially bickering political parties that hold each other hostage and accomplish little if anything in our interest.
The only way out of the ditch is for us to dig ourselves out. But, more and more, people are just deciding they really don't need the bus any way, and walking away.
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