I was reading an article yesterday on how Hugo "Juice" Chavez is confiscating the private residences, yachts, and hotels in a resort area of Venezuela to "give to to the poor". These last 5 words are a depot's favorite, because it confers some sort of twisted moral legitimacy to any specific high crime and misdemeanor.
Try it at home kids...
"I didn't eat my brocolli. I gave it to the poor."
"I shoplifted the candy. I gave it to the poor."
I shot a man in Reno. So the poor could watch him die."
"I raped some nuns. For the poor. To highlight the venality of the Church."
It is easy, AND effective! Never do the right thing again! Give into your basest desires, because you have the perfect rationalization ready to throw down like trip aces... "For the poor!"
I have the good fortune to count amongst my friends those across the political spectrum. I have seen an increasing stridency in the progressive movement against those that have assets or businesses. The polemic is approaching hate speech in its ignorance, prejudice, and frenzy. Make no mistake, this is being orchestrated carefully, and resembles movements we have seen several times in the last Century that resulted in wholesale destruction of life, liberty and property. The same play book.
For the record... I have been broke twice and destitute once in my adult life, and, but for the charity of a couch from a friend, would have had to depend upon a disappointed family to provide comfort and roof. I never once identify myself as a victim of society or as poor. I focused on how to be successful, a net producer, not a net consumer, and learn from my mistakes.
THAT is the American Dream. it works, and I am proof.
I find it really weird that you choose this time to declare the American Dream to be alive and well. Maybe the term “weird” is not strong enough.
In case you have not noticed, unemployment is through the roof, people are losing their homes, new graduates cannot find jobs, American debt is at an all time high and tens of thousands of Americans are protesting in the street every day.
These conditions do not jive with my vision of the American Dream, but then I have a hard time with the concept that a corporation is a person.
Posted by: Royal Enfield | October 10, 2011 at 08:42 AM
This is a MUST VIEW
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QZlp3eGMNI
Posted by: John | October 10, 2011 at 03:46 PM
Sorry, Royal. The best times to build new businesses is in bad times. Ask Bill Gates. Life is a series of ups and downs. We have a government that will spend the equivalent of all corporate profits, all income for everyone making over 250k per year, and all assets of every billionaire and the next 600 and still not get it paid for, and you continue to harp on "corporations" as a whole, who, for the most part, still make their money by selling us stuff we choose to buy. So, no, I don't ever find it convenient to cry over the hypothetical job that isn't available to me today. I am sure the folks I see demonstrating have always dreamed of that bus dev job with Proctor and Gamble... big evil corporate America. Right!
Posted by: Open Choke | October 10, 2011 at 04:46 PM
OK choke, tell me what the American Dream means to you and why you feel compelled to declare that it is in full effect and you are the self proclaimed living proof. All this sound phony and full of fear to me but I will listen to your response.
Choke you are a smart guy but your sense of timing is about as bad as I have seen. Review your posts on the BP blowout or the TPH "the letter" memo which savages all that question shale gas. Now you come to pronounce the "American Dream" is in full effect which presupposes America is full off opportunity and if one does not find the "dream", it is somehow self failure.
Perhaps you fail to understand how much pain and anger there is in the American Street.
Posted by: Royal Enfield | October 10, 2011 at 09:59 PM
First, I want to say I am happy to see more frequent choke posts. Second - I don't know if it's my browser or an updated format, but I liked the old look with the links and search bar on the right side. Call me old school, or opposed to change...which is my comment to Scott. You are essentially in a chicken / egg debate with Choke over capitalism and the cause of America's economic plight.
I agree that people are angry, and those of us used to the norms must heed this unrest, and realize what it means. However, so should the supporters analyze the protests. I had a two hour discussion with my liberal wife last night about Occupy Wall Street, because I have a hard time understanding it. I said "honey, even the hippies in the 70's had an end goal in mind - they wanted the US out of Vietnam." I can relate to that - I want us out of Iraq and Afghanistan...but that isn't what they're protesting. I could support and end to the Fed and the unmonitored, pseudo governmental, yet privately controlled system it upholds...but that isn't what they're protesting. I would even support a rally against oversized, monopolistic banks (10 banks controlling ~80% of American capital is not a good idea)...but that's not what they're protesting. The fact the banks paid back their TARP money makes you wonder why the ire is aimed at these banks. Why not rally at the doors of GM? I would DEFINITELY support the protests if they marched their asses to Washington and protested the contributing factors to our financial woes. Banks paid back TARP, but what about Obama's $787 BB spending bill, the $410 BB omnibus spending bill, and now another $400 BB spending (er...jobs) bill? Government does not create jobs or value, and the last three years pretty well hammered that point home...but that's not what they're protesting.
They are protesting against capitalism and the free market, and I cannot support such a protest. I am just as angry that a century of covert politics resulted in the pseudo socialist system currently in place in America, but the answer is not totalitarian government, as these protesters are manipulated into thinking. Look at the signs - the protesters are being used by the unions demonstrating they can direct an angry mob. The unions want a stronger government...so long as they have a seat at the table. The problem is that such goals are all hogwash in the end.
Strong central government works only in a completely homogeneous society. Marx himself wrote the only way his system would work is if EVERYONE was so fed up with their current system they willingly gave their independence to the commune. If you accept that a diverse society will always have differing opinions (and should), then you must accept that strong centralized forms of governance, such as socialism and communism, will never work. The ridiculous irony is the misguided protesters are aiming for the wrong thing. They want individualism. They want to do what is cool. They want to celebrate the power of the people. The system that gives the most power to the people is free market capitalism. The free market is based on the collective opinions of the entire population when they each place a value on everything around them. Rather than ceding your individual power (and right) to decide what everything is worth to a "superior," capitalism gives those infinite choices to ALL OF US. Power to the people indeed - by simple definition there CANNOT be anything more democratic than the free market.
History shows us there are essentially two ways to organize - centralized power or distributed / individualized power. If Occupy Wall Street had clearly stated goals (that make sense - their website states a "living wage" as a clear demand...I don't have the time to decry the ignorance of paying people for breathing...what does a pay cut mean?), I would support every goal that limits central power and actually does give that power to the people. From what I can discern, these protesters are rallying for stronger central power, in the form of Soviet flags, "support socialism" signs, and union participation at all levels.
I agree with Scott that the American dream is cracking, but it is because we are confiscating We The People's power...and these protesters are willingly delivering their souls, their individual choice, to a very devious group of manipulators who are all too eager to claim this independence in the name of stronger central government. A central government controlled by the very few who are truly behind these protests and this anger.
Posted by: Rely on the Prize | October 11, 2011 at 09:54 AM
Wow. Perfectly stated and profound in its implication. "What 'Rely' said, Scott!"
Posted by: Open Choke | October 11, 2011 at 12:55 PM
Why would you give a poor person a yacht? That's not doing them any kind of favor. Yachts are huge money pits.
Posted by: elizabeth burns | October 13, 2011 at 06:39 AM