I'm fo dat. Disenfrenchfry da Goobers.
Posted on 06/30/2010 11:47:38 AM PDT by ezfindit
This is why Walter Williams has proposed a system where everyone gets one vote, but then people who pay income taxes get additional votes for every so many thousands in taxes they pay.
This would actually limit the votes of some of the rich as well as the poor. It would give more power to the middle class, which indeed is what makes this country grow.
I found the article depressingly accurate. It still blows my mind every day that this is happening to our country. Also Europe and China will go on austerity measures and emerge much, much stronger than the U.S. in just a few short years.
Sorry, my last post to you:
portion = fortune
I remember feeling really bad in the 79-82 era.
Carter had really put the nation in a bad place, and “malaise” or worse was the predominant mode.
Energy, inflation, unemployment, weak foreign policy, it was really a tough stretch for the USA.
I remember thinking my daughter who was born in 80 would likely have a difficult future, maybe even under control of the Soviets. Now she’s 30 with 3 kids of her own and doing well, not easily but well.
I’m not sure who the next Reagan will be but I’m optimistic we will flush the Baraqqis and get things headed in the right direction. Pray for gridlock and God Bless America!
I'm fo dat. Disenfrenchfry da Goobers.
A lot of how we the people in this country react to truly hard times depends, I think, on how we perceive it. If some people feel they are suffering or more threatened than their neighbors, then you see the behavior like in those houses: revenge, resentment, lashing out. If, on the other hand, the people perceive the threat being common to all, then they react as in 9/11.
While I think a lot of civility and class in people at large have declined in the past several years, I also feel people still can rise to the noble in them if called to such by leaders or circumstances when the threat is to all and perceived as such.
Unfortunately, Obama and Co. are experts in divide and conquer. They split people into interest groups and encourage them to point fingers at each other instead of the real culprits (usually the politicians). This does not bode well in the coming struggle as we try to get out from under the problems they are creating. As long as they can, they will divide and conquer, until the people wake up and see their real enemy.
But they wouldn’t be disenfranchised! They would get one vote. Which, in principle, they’re lucky to get! What other enterprise allows people to vote as stockholders when they don’t own any stock in the company?
Ahhhh I see. They count as 3/5s of a person.
Yes it will, but how we get there might be ugly, as it was in the 1770s and the 1860s.
If you don’t have any money invested in Corporation X, are you less of a person because Corporation X does not let you vote on who is named CEO or to the Board of Directors?
I wish I could agree with you without reservation, but there are many ways in which our society, culture and values are simply not as suited to victory as they were in the 1770s and 1860s.
Those not suited to achieve victory shall have to wear something else.
I do understand what you are trying to do. There are any number of "magic bullets" out there and almost all are repugnant to the spirit of the Constitution. We want to control the government, not the people. Some very bright people are putting considerable effort into devising restraints on the power and scope of the Federal Government.
Some restraint will come naturally. The people will not acquiesce to more taxation. Government has peaked and it will slowly but surely be stuffed back into the Constitutional pervue. Revolt is coming but what form it will take is yet to be determined.
Other reforms are rather simple and easy to make. Barring a Constitutional Balanced Budget Amendment we can restore the power of the Speaker of the House. Pelosi is history and we will never see her likes again. Joe Cannon was the last speaker who had the power to stop spending.
Another possibility is restoring single source appropriation power. The Appropriations Committee has been the historical source of all spending bills. That power has been diluted and multiple committees can now initiate spending bills. There is no coordination at all. No one is responsible.
There are a lot of other ideas out there, each adding to a regimen of fiscal discipline. We are working on more.
Adding voting power depending on earnings and taxes would shift power to the high-earning Northeast.
No matter how it happens, the South is going to be devastated as the Federal Budget contracts. Taking voting power away is not an answer. We will fight them on other grounds.
“No matter how it happens, the South is going to be devastated as the Federal Budget contracts.”
An interesting observation. Can you explain your view in more detail? I’m seeing businesses announcing moves into South Carolina, bringing thousands of jobs. The industries involve aircraft, packaging and auto production, to name a few.
Per capita income is already around $15,000 lower than New Jersey. Stopping the flow of that much money into the state is going to hurt. Bad.
S.C. is an ageing state slightly above the national norm which is distinctly ageing. Population projections put in the lower range of growth.
The worst problem is education. Just 22% of the population (25+) has a Bachelors Degree or better. That is at the bottom of the pile.
There is still time to mitigate some of the damage but not much. We are about to see a massive change in the economic model and it will be fast and final. Only some very adroit maneuvering can prevent a rapid decline and I don't see it happening.
The South and to a lesser extent the Midwest are in a world of hurt.
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