1. He's not a socialist hack, that word is thrown around, but no one knows what socialism is. This country was FAR MORE socialist then it is now. 2. He will increase taxes on 10% of Americans, decrease more then McCain on like 40%. He should raise on all imediately, but in the current political atmosphere would be unfeasible. Instead of directly being taxed and paying down our debts, the American people are being indirectly taxed through the devaluation of the dollar while our debts continually grow. 3. A healthy workforce improves the economy. What Obama should do is offer his universal health care to all WORKING americans. Instead, Obama has pushed an optional system where only children are required to subscribe while adults have the option of joining or not. Preventive medicine would cost the country LESS than what is being paid now while still investing in a healthier workforce. The current system supports emergency and curative health care and costs A LOT. Insurance companies in no way stimulate an economy when they are drawing revenues. You can improve the service an insurance companies gives, since they are not giving a net service. Markets are wonderful where products have competition and you constantly have to make a better product. Insurance companies do not make a product, or real service, they are just a drag on the health sector. His reversals on social issues are what are amazing. This guy used to be very moderate on many issues and has turned far right to get elected. My biggest fear is not Iraq, but actually pressing for anotehr war in Iran. I wouldn't expect him to get out of Iraq fast. It would be irresponsible to do so. You do not want to create another Afghanistan. In fact, he will actually surge in Afghanistan, which ffs we should have done a long time ago since we are actually fighting there the same people that orchestrated the beginning of the whole war on terror. Once again, lower taxes is not a good thing. Get off your laffer curve it is a laugher. Certain types of government spending do need to be cut/changed. WHAT THE FUCK IS HOMELAND SECURITY...really? He is only against torture when he isn't for it. Very true. Non-issue, no one from the federal government will ever take away your guns now the the Supreme Court has FINALLY ruled on the amendment (which was not written to intend how it has been read over the years). Gun laws are silly as seeing a criminal is not going to follow the law anyways. I do believe however, any person that has been convicted of a violent crime should have this right taken away. Government should not be involved in anyways in marriage. The government should recognize any two people in a civil union, but marriage is religious and therefore the government should not be involved in it. Abortion, all late term abortions should be banned. You have had your time to choose, at some point we choose for the child. The government should not be giving any money to these people, and I was under the impression that it hadn't for a while. The government should all recuperate the subsidies that was given to the oil companies back when oil prices were so low. The problem with big business is that it becomes as inefficient as government, and you know why? Americans. Small businesses are nimble because the owners are hands-on, the ones making the deals. In big businesses, most of the lower people don't give a fuck about the corporation. And the board gets paid too much money, drawing way too much out of the company. Global warming (man-made) is not a farce but the reaction to it may be. Talked about above. And agree. Until you attack someone with, then you lost that right Agreed. Government has a role in Markets. Can you tell I'm a Keynesian? Just look at the bush tax cuts, what significant increase in our economy has there been over the past 4 years? Nilch. And why? Generally a Keynesian would believe that running a deficit is what stimulates the economy in the short run, but so much of this money has been spent elsewhere and on failed stuff non-economy stimulating things. But generally, Socialism no. Ron Paul was only right about his foreign policy. Going back to a gold standard is just stupid. On a side note, it is amazing how the Democrats and Republicans both are able to break the law in Texas and put their guys on the ballot, seeing as both parties missed the deadline to do so. Barr should have won the state by default. And I will repeat, Democrats are painted as the big government party. But Republicans have always been the party that actually increase federal government spending MORE.
The amusing thing is that America has many elements of socialism, as do the two major parties, the only real difference in idealogy is who the recipients are.
Actually you can put the blame for the missinformation about Obama squarely on the shoulders of other democrats.
Whoever the next president will be is going to have major economic problems. And whoever it is will be blamed for the problems. Like the republicans blaming the democrats because they had been in majority for a year. Something HUGE is going to happen in this economy soon, and it won't be good, and I am usually an economic optimist. This one has been in the making for the last 3 years or so. A number of smaller Banks are failing (something I thought I would never see in this number in my lifetime) Lehman Borthers Merrill Fucking Lynch Fannie Mae Freddie Mac BEar Sterns
If Huey Long had not been assassinated, we'd be a socialist republic right now. The claim that Barack Obama or pretty much any current democrat is a socialist shows a blatant disregard or ignorance of history. During the turn of the 20th century and especially during the Great Depression, this country was way more socialist. Thats where we got most of our socialist programs, such as the minimum wage, social security, etc. Today, the only true socialist in Congress is Bernie Sanders.
I dunno if huey would have been voted in or not. He was popular, but I think FDR had more going for him. Popular with most everyone he was.
True, true. What really annoys me is the way 'socialist' has become a bad word. Most people basically understand 'Socialism = Communism = Evil'. I always heard the political/social/economic situation in American was pretty much 'The rich fuck the poor', but I thought Europe was like that. Living in Canada has been a real eye-opener. It good here while the money lasts, but I'm shit scared of being poor here, and Canada is considered much better than the US. Canadians are (rightly) proud of their medical care, but it sucks compared to even the UK's national health service (which I used to bitch about). I mean what if you work a minimum wage job, have little or no health insurance and suddenly find you need $500 of drugs a month? You're screwed. I could go on a real rant here, about how the laws favour the employers so everyone is terrified of losing their jobs... Basically, if I finish my training and get a decent job, my wife and I should be able to make a good life here...but if anything goes wrong, it could go really wrong. North American just feels so ruthlessly dog-eat-dog to me. I'm glad we still have the option of going back to the UK.
America sucks. End of story. 1/3'rd of kids are dropping out of high school nowadays. Seriously? I'm moving out of the bloody states. We've got more bloody idiots than all of Eurasia combined.
I hear ya! I think most of the economic pessimism lately is based on the fear of becoming poor. Most Americans/Canadians are doing moderate to good, but are one illness/disease/job loss/etc from bankruptcy. People value economic security over prosperity so when you undermine the social safety net (descended from the 1930's socialists) their views of the economy drop even if their making more money/currently doing fine.
i would like to make clear that i agree for 95% with the last 3 posts, the 5% being the "America sucks" and the fact that you say "compared to even the UK's national health" and that in my eyes, is one of the most successful healthcare systems in the world (money spent / health received wise...) while you make it sound like a bad one
Yeah I admit I'm harsh on the UK health system. I can't help but compare it to the one in France. Which is a little unfair.
The UK health system is great and poor in 2 respects - it's great that they'll always treat someone, and not give them the runaround for insurance and all that crap, but it's a bit poor in the quality of healthcare. Personally, i'd rather have the doc save my life and leave a scar, rather than die filling out paperwork.
I know, like when we implemented social security...<faceplam.jpg> I am not entirely against this! But I am against it AT A FEDERAL LEVEL. The federal level should handle defense, take care of our money(by keeping it a valuable currency, and not artificially stimulating/tampering with the market), and handle diplomacy. That, and everything else needed of them that is written of in the constitution. Everything else needs to be state level, be it social issues, or social health care, etc... And for everyone who does not know what socialism means(You probably might know what it means Opie ), let me type my text book definition Socialism: a political system based on state ownership or control of principle elements of the economy in order to reduce levels of social inequality. I'm against it because would rather people take responsibility of their own lives with their own money. I know some people are far worse off than others, but if we could have a naturally strong, thriving economy, we could do it. Low taxes, and a high dollar value, that is what I want. Not this "take away your money for certain programs" or artificially injecting money into the system in order for it to not crash(prolonging the a much worse situation). I want a natural Economy where people keep what they earn. I think instead of increasing the taxes really high for a short period of time, they could do away with a ton of federal programs, and use that money instead. I'm not worried about Iran. Iran is allied with Russian, and Russia said they would use nukes. Now how am I not worried about this you say? We are pussies. We won't attack anyone in fear of a nuclear war. My opinion has changed a lot since a few months ago. I really want us out of their, but I know we have an obligation to fix the situation because we were the ones to invade(and I use invade, because the war was not sanctioned by the UN, and congress never declared war) You can cut taxes if you remove unneeded federal departments, and remove federal social health care. Instead of taking away money from people...let them use it themselves. Agreed Agreed again I almost completely agree. There are 2 circumstances I am slightly for and one of them being complications which COULD possibly happen. Such as, the woman finds out she could die(however this is usually not an issue thanks to C-sections) And the other is deformity, be it physical or mental. I know this is a very sad topic, but someone who is to be born mentally handicapped or physically deformed is probably not going to have normal, fulfilling life. (we can debate what is considered 'normal' but you should be able to get the idea) I agree we have contributed to global warming, but there are a ton of factors to it. Global warming, and cooling have been a natural process for...billions of years because of Carbon dioxide from the earth, the sun's heating and cooling periods, cow farts, etc... I think there is a huge over reaction to what is happening. People are too worried about certain species dieing out, and such, but as I said before, it's a natural process of the earth. We should just take care of our won problems, and then let nature take its couse(as in, reduce our emissions, and toxic waste, and let the earth do what it does) Right on Right on again. The only role in the market I want to see the government doing is maintaining the worth of the dollar. Government intervention in the market is what gets us into the trouble in the first place. And if we're gonna gonna get on the subject market regulation(IE health standards), I would prefer that a state oriented thing. Less bureaucracy, and better care. He didn't want to go entirely back on the gold standard. He just wanted gold to be a legal currency(which it states it is in the constitution, and has not been changed...also silver) The value of gold for the most part is static. Investing in gold and silver would allow someone to maintain their wealth in a hurting economy... I don't find it amazing because it does not surprise me in any way, shape, or form. :p On average, yes. But most republicans have sucked recently. I'm holding out on Mccain, but I'm not holding my breath. I have to go on what they(the candidates) say they are going to do, and this being the first time I am voting, I need to think about it clearly. I prefer Mccain's plans to Obama, mostly because of economic reasons. On a side note: As you may have noticed, I'm much more in favor of state-wide programs. Why? Because each state is different, and local issues should be left...locally...(that, and the constitution blah blah...I know, I say it a lot lol) There is also less bureaucracy which means faster, and cheaper service. Not as many hoops to go around, and states deal with a lot less than the federal government dealing with everyone. What's funny is Opie, we actaully agree on most issues, but I'm someone who wants the states with the power, and not the fed. They need to get rid of the department of ed, and 'no child left behind' A lot of teacher suck as well. My mother and father were damned good teachers. When my mother worked as an English teacher, the testing scores of that grade level had increased. Then she was fired because she had injured herself in a car accident and was unable to perform certain very minor tasks(that were not even labeled in her contract) And then there is my father who deals with the kids who ARE left behind. He teaches them the skills to find the information themselve, IE, reading a textbook and using the glossary, etc. A lot of these kids are NOT STUPID. They are just pushed through the system because they are unwilling to learn. Also... that statistic on the drop out rate does not include people going back for their GED's, or people like me who dropped out of high-school, and completed their classes through a community college. You are being too general....dude. EDIT: I was going to reply to more, but I hit the 10k character limit
i get about as far as "obama is socialist" in those HSM epics, and switch off. wishful thinking, it'd be so much easier to just pigeon hole him if he was. Britian (and france?) have free healthcare and they're seriously right wing most of the time.
Anyone read Scott Adams' poll of economists? I thought it was rather well done. http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/dilbert_survey_of_economists/ The economists were asked to rank the most important economic issues and pick which candidate they thought would do the best job on those issues. Not sure what the standard deviation for this is, but interesting nevertheless is that economists are generally democrats. This is the party that is popularly seen as week economically yet (rightfully I think) referred to by experts as being strong on a broad range of economic fundamentals.
http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2008/09/dilberts-poll-o.html MR had some decent stuff on it.
I life in germany and im happy with the health care system we have. Ive read articles about how it is handled in america, that people have to life with thooth space or in dept for the rest of their life because of a necessary surgery. I mean i dont want to insult someone's country but that sounds more like third world than first world to me.
Its really not that bad. However, its been haphazardly implemented. We have Medicare and Medicaid, which is basically a socialized healthcare system for the poor and elderly. Many salaried workers also receive health insurance from their employers. The problem occurs for those hourly workers who are not quite poor but don't have insurance through their employer. The result is that the middle class gets the worst healthcare. Add to that a general trend towards unhealthiness in America, and you have a budget-busting crisis on hand.
