Muddled Thinking: The angry public

I ventured into blog reading some time ago to get a feel for blogging sentiment and thought structure. . . The sentiment is angry and the structure of the blogging is lame attempts to tar a feather someone, usually the president for the economic ills being felt today. The equivalent to blaming the nurse who is taking your temperature because you are sick with a high fever, for your sickness. The first clue might be that the recession began a year before the current president was sworn in, and the crashing sounds of the great stock market, which began last year, was the house of cards fashioned from deregulation gurus. . . and I'm not thinking they come from the current administration nor the democratic side of politics.

The shrill attacks coming from the loudest critics are arguing both sides of the coin. They argue that the government is totally incapable of doing anything correctly nor at a reasonable cost. Only business can do that. Really? The second argument goes like this. . . On President Obama's watch, jobs are being lost. . . so his stimulus idea isn't working and he's pissing away our precious money. The second clue would be that it is business that is sheding the jobs sited. The rest of the rant was aimed at the fact that all the jobs remaining in this country. . . were loser jobs that paid nothing. Again, business has those jobs, sets those pay rates, offers the hours, benefits, time off and other issues, not government. The reason for the above situation where the mainstay of living wage jobs is no longer available in this country is rather simple. Those jobs have been filled in other countries. When manufacturing jobs were 'outsourced' to other countries as in China, Phillipines, Thailand, Hong Kong and the like, or maquiadora labor south of the border in Sonora, Mexico, Americans moved to service sector jobs. . . they paid half what manufacturing did. That lasted a few years until they too were outsourced to India, mostly. Bombay, Calcutta, Bangalore.

All this paid huge dividends for business. Labor amazingly cheap and lower taxes on top of that with the tax cuts put into place. The problem with all that is simply this. What is good for business is good for business. What is good for business more often than not is not good for the citizens of this country or the social structure they live in. It is not the case that business is evil or that business is bad. Business is a very good thing, if, it isn't distructive to the society it is attached to. Government is not evil or bad either. It is an instrument to which the populace rely upon for the structure for which they depend for long term social, and personal survival.

I have owned my own business for thirty years. Paid my share of taxes and taken my lumps. I have been around long enough to have observed first hand the changes in 'business' over that time period. Business is much like Love. . . there's every meaning to what that might mean. The growth of the 'too big to fail' businesses. . . began with the 'Greed is Good!" creed. You saw where that led us, and it begs the question to ask. . . "so how's that working out for you?". . . .

And the idiots that created this subversion of business and shook down all those that did business with them. . . we paid them well with our tax dollars for their. . . losses, so they would be insured of getting their million dollar bonuses. . . on top of their million dollar salaries. How many government workers even get to keep their jobs if they make billion dollar mistakes? The criticisms coming out of the ranting blogs are misplaced, but then that's never stopped such pontificating and blustering. It would seem that if the social body hands over trillions of dollars of it's treasury to wealthy individuals, corporations and wall street. . . it's a tax cut. If the same social body spends it's own money on public projects, education or health care for its citizens. . . it's welfare, or. . . . . . socialism. How quaint a notion.