Posted on 08/25/2009 2:10:02 AM PDT by Yosemitest
Well, there are parts of the federal government specifically that manage to operate that way. That have high standards and operate on merit, not pull or partisan ideology as a passport for the mediocre. They tend to be agencies with unforgiving direct responsibilities, and often jobs out of the limelight where smart staffers thrive but grandstanding pols are not welcome. Think of the officer corps, the pentagon, the government science labs for example. Well, to me the Fed is such a place. It is staffed by very smart people who do a conscientious job. Fools do not survive there.
If you want a label for it, call me an elitist conservative, a conservative based on a belief in objective merit. I think a lot of the rich got that way on merit and deserve it, that they organize things around them well and benefit those they interact with. I respect successful businessmen, I respect accomplished professionals in every walk of life, I respect real intellect and objectivity. The banes of those things, to me, are mushy sentiments, unrealistic expectations, whining appeals to pity, and also strident ideologues who think they deserve power just for agreeing to some party program.
The moral underpining of the whole outlook, to me, is graditude. A conservative is not looking to find fault with the men who make the world run (radicals are, tempermentally); he sees what they accomplish, how much it benefits himself and those around him. To me, this is the greatest country in human history, a great beacon of freedom and moral conduct, and of energy, drive, ambition, all of it creating undreamt of wealth and opportunity. I don't go through life foreseeing doom and regard those who do as both hysterical and unjust. They miss their blessings, they ignore those helping to provide them.
To me the Fed is a great working American institution doing an important job pretty darn well. People attacking it at every turn strike me as about as ungrateful as leftists spitting on Marines strike you or me. Americans are very rich and very blessed, and finance is a very big part of what got us here, and the Fed is a big part of that financial system working. I don't want to tear down any of it, I like it.
I, wait for it, wait for it --- I want to *conserve* the Fed...
Karl Lowith has a book called Meaning in History, which explains how all the various 19th and 20th century ideologies looking for meaning in history are copying tropes from Christian theology. He has a wonderful line in that book that your remarks reminded me of. He says, "mankind cannot be saved because mankind does not exist".
He explains - mankind is an abstraction. Human individuals exist. To look for salvation in history is to look in the wrong place for what will never be found there. It is an individual, not a collective, matter.
FWIW...
An attitude of gratitude and putting the best construction on things are in line with Scripture. What if God is in control and what we think is control is an illusion of control? What if common sense is the opposite of faith?
Is there any way China could destroy our economy?
It appears that the personal assets of the citizens are being considered to be disposable assets of the federal government that can be used to balance the books. Is the state of California to be considered the same? How many levels of governemnt get to claim your assets as theirs for acconting purposes?
Scaremongering nonsense, it has a $500 billion line of credit from the US treasury. No depositor has lost and no depositor is going to lose one dime in any of it.
When I said "the FDIC is out of money" I meant "the FDIC is out of money", not "the US treasury is out of money". If they borrow the money from the treasury it still has to be paid back, supposedly by the banks, with interest, in the form of either higher premiums or more "one time surcharges" or whatever they're calling them.
I am having a hard time trying to get my hands around his optimistic, pro Israel, pure conservative world view. He knows his economics. I even suspect he is a Christian. You both are leery of conspiracies. You both do not have approval needs. You both can respond in reasoned paragraphs in a few minutes. (This post has taken me about 20 minutes or so to write already)
Star Traveler I do not think you or I have discussed economics. I am not an expert. I would appreciate reading a discussion of JasonC's position with your wisdom involved. Do not get bogged down in economic theory. I am more interested if JasonC's world view is in line with our standard, God's Word. To me the issue is where do we put our faith.
Over what time frame? Who is the money owed to?
"Who it's owed to" seems to be a whole 'nother can of worms.
What happens if 4 billion people die in the next 10 years?
And you never said what time frame.
What is someone stalks you and asks stupid questions?
My question comes from my world view that we are in the end times. If I do the math in revelation it comes to about 4 billion people.
One entry accounting is financial malpractice. Whenever anyone pretends that only one side of a whole class of transactions occurs, simply ignoring its other side, they deduce that money and wealth evaporate into the ether. Which transaction is picked makes no difference whatever, the effect stems purely from ignoring half the reality concerned. It is nonsense.
As the joke runs, the headlines would read, second coming at hand, world ends at noon tomorrow, stocks fall.
But it is a joke about MSM pessimism and its love of doom mongering.
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