It's time for the Thursday survey (Thurvey) again. I exhort you to enter the world of commentary, letting your opinion be spread throughout the cyber-universe by responding to the question of the week. Just click on the comment button, type your comment in the window, press anonymous, (type your name after your comment if you wish to be known), and click on publish.
The United States is now finding, borrowing, and printing trillions of dollars, most of which is being applied to rescue huge business institutions the survival of which has been deemed to be necessary to the economic survival our America and possibly the world. In the past six years America has found hundreds of billions of dollars to begin and prosecute a questionable war.
Why has comparable money not been available for education, health care reform, new energy systems, meaningful foreign aid to close neighbors such as Haiti, (or others that you may wish to raise)?
I think that it is a statement of how broken the system has become. I think the the fix is easy. 3 term limit on Congress. There hasn't been any money spent on the things you (and many Americans) see necessary because your representative is insulated by Washington and lobbyists. The only reason this is happening is because the money is behind this.
ReplyDeleteI don't agree with these bailouts. I think that sending these companies to Bankruptcy would have solved a lot of America's problem. The companies would have been able to reorganize, break themselves up, and continue on. There would have been a significant economic hit, but I don't think it would have been much worse that what we have already experienced. More importantly it would have set the precedent that we are not going to e the safety net for those that take excessive risks.
This is a good question. I brought up a very similar question in class last Monday. We were talking about the constitutionality of government actions in the latest economic crisis and I wondered why it was alright to use a color coded terror threat chart to keep the people on edge in order to justify war, but it is not alright for the government to take action in this economic crisis. I was accused of being cynical for suggesting that politicians don't make decisions based on the constitutionality of a decision but rather on their own interests and beliefs. Both of these are true. The same Republican politicians that get worked up over the size of government are not concerned when that large government wields its power to bomb other nations, illegally detain foreigners, and illegally survey American citizens. Democrats concerned with outrageous spending habits of one administration are not nearly as concerned when their party is in charge of the spending.
ReplyDeleteAll I am saying is that governance is not about rationality or consistency or even doing what is right. Too often governance comes down to power plays and special interests and making the people believe a certain thing in order to justify upcoming actions, be they war or torture or healthcare. The business of government is creating a favorable framework in which to govern. If that involves fear, terror and crisis then so be it.