A beautifully (clouded) mind

Before I start this I'm going to define a couple of terms so that it is clear how I am using them ... these terms are often thrown around and used as political labels and, as with many words in the English language, their meaning is sometimes a moving target. To give fair credit I am taking these definitions from local Atlanta radio host Herman Cain.

Conservative - Person who believes in increased individual responsibility, decreased taxes, and less government.

Liberal - Person who believes in decreased individual responsibility, increased taxes, and more government.

Now ... some people that consider themselves 'Liberals' take offense to the 'increased taxes' part of the definition above ... but when pressed on how to pay for increased government spending they will almost all default to 'raising taxes on the rich'. Many of them will complain that they don't stand for 'decreased individual responsibility' ... and yet they will back programs such as Universal Health Care, Social Security, and Welfare, that take the responsibility for a person's well being out of the hands of individuals in favor of giving that responsibility to the government. Many of them will say that they don't want 'more government' and yet, they will go along with increased government spending, more government programs, and increased levels of government regulation in the markets....

Basically what they're saying is 'well it sounds so BAD when you put it that way.....'

Now ... on to the real reason for the rant ... my conversation a few days back with a liberal. I couldn't help but notice throughout the course of the conversation that any time I mentioned a fact, rather than disputing it he changed the subject. And THEN said that's the problem with 'you guys' ... you never give up and go all over the place.

o.O

I had to scroll back up through the conversation and make sure I wasn't loosing my mind, but there it was ... every change of subject was a result of him avoiding a fact or dodging a question. But somehow ... in his mind ... I was the one 'going all over the place'.

And when I made the statement that you "Can't spend your way out of debt." ... to him the only alternative was to 'continue to give 99% of the wealth to 1% of the country who happen to be friends....'

1 - 99% of the wealth doesn't go to 1% of the country. The top 1% of income earners in the country account for about 20% or so of the total income collected during the year. (That may be a bit off as I'm pulling that from memory but I'm pretty sure that it is under 25%) Yet if I recall correctly the pay about 35% of the income taxes that are collected for the year.
2 - That income is not GIVEN to them ... it is earned. You might not consider it work ... but they are getting paid for their knowledge and/or experience and most of them worked very hard to reach that level.

'but they aren't worth what they are paid.'

WRONG ... in a free market they are worth whatever someone is willing to pay them. People complain about the huge salaries of pro athletes as well, but it's the same dynamic ... if Team A is paying Player Z 10 million a year, and he becomes a free agent not bound by a contract, if Team B wants to hire him they are going to have to offer enough to make it worth the hassle of Player Z changing teams ... and it's probably going to be more than 10 million as he can probably make that by staying another year with Team A.

If Player Z tells Team B that he wants 15 million a year ... then they have a choice ... do they want him enough that they feel that he is worth 15 a year. If they say 'yes' and hire him for that .. guess what ... he's worth 15 million a year. If no one takes him at 15 a year and he lowers his asking price to 12 and Team C picks him up ... then he (and/or his talents) are worth 12.

Likewise these CEOs and the like are worth whatever these corporations have agreed to pay them ... that's the way it works. Sorry if you don't like that, but it is not the government's job to regulate what companies pay their executives (that is what the Board and/or the Shareholders are supposed to handle.) ... nor is it the government's job to tell companies what they can or can't pay their employees.

Then again ... we're getting into an administration that feels that it IS the government's job to manage the private sector ... and there in lies many of my problems with things.

In the end he 'tired' of our little argument and said that we didn't have any ideas other than continuing with the same thing we had for the last 8 years and that we needed to let the 'new team' have their chance to fix things.

The republicans screwed things up by not sticking to the definition of Conservative I laid out above and instead chose to grow government, increase spending, and basically act like Liberals. Sadly too many people fail to realize that the last 2 years the Senate and the House were run by the Liberal Democrats and things weren't getting better, they were getting worse ... the result is that they put DC completely in the hands of the liberals ....

It's like this ... we are driving toward a cliff .... and we need to change direction. Our driver, however, has just stomped on the gas and isn't showing any signs of turning except to get a better line on the cliff ahead .... he says that there is going to be a bridge there ... the government is going to build it for us ...

... Is anyone else looking for a parachute right about now?