I’ve been trying very hard to ignore the Repuglicans’ screeching, holding of breath and stamping of pudgy widdle feet, reasoning that, like Oscar Wilde — or perhaps a gasbag with a microphone who is better fed than taught — they have decided that the only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about.
But damn, am I sick of the racket.
I don’t agree with everything going on in the Obama camp, either, perhaps because I’m not smart enough to unravel the grand design. But after eight years of enduring that other guy, I’m willing to give Obama a little time to assess the situation and determine his response, free of snarky asides about how he’s already going gray or uses the teleprompter more than Honest Abe.
And seriously, if you voted for that other guy the last two outings, you really need to shut the fuck up for a while. Firefighters at work are not obliged to take criticism from arsonists.
Another advocate of reasonable behavior in the face of idiocy, Robert Sullivan, argues in The New York Times that cyclists have begun acting like cars instead of people. He never really defines himself as a cyclist (commuter? recreational rider?), though he does sneer weakly and tritely at Lance Armstrong wanna-bes and fixie kids. And his essay wanders around more than I’d like. But his basic point is one I support — treat others as you would be treated. It’s hypocritical to bitch about psycho motorists if you ride like a bonehead.
Mad Blog Media 
Agreed, agreed, with that last sentence. And there are so many that do. Now, I will admit, I will ride through a red light after stopping if there are no cars, and roll through a stop sign on a low-traffic street. But when there are pedestrians or automobiles around, can’t we just use a little common sense?
As far as the government goes… well, jeez. I don’t even know what to say. It’s nice to have a president whose voice, manner of speaking, and vocabulary don’t make me cringe, and it’s really nice to feel that the figurehead of the country is an intelligent person with at-least-decent intentions. But really, I wish he weren’t just a figurehead. And I wish that all the so-called capitalist corporate hogs whose companies are failing right now would face the music of their chosen economic philosophy and let their companies die a nice, capitalistic death, instead of taking a trillion dollars from the feds that, through future increased taxes for all and necessary inflation, will lay responsibility for their fuck-ups with us. Me? I have no debt. I’m not over-leveraged. I’m not living beyond my means. I’m content with what I have. So why in the hell am I, and millions of other like me, being asked to shoulder responsibility for the failings of the greedy at the top? Obama, Bush, McCain, Kennedy, ol’ Lincoln himself – doesn’t matter who advances this idea, it’s just screwed up.
Anyway. Sorry, ranting, I know it, but dammit, man, this shit is depressing. It is good that I manage to mostly measure life’s successes and failures in ways beyond the typical economic-and-material-goods, or I would be one angry dude ALL the time.
Joey,
You answered your own rant: “millions of other[s] like me.” There are more taxpayers like you (and me) than there are corporate CEOs, or politicians. Simple supply and demand.
Sadly this is not a capitalist problem. It is a person problem. You look out for yourself; I look out for myself; and Karen over there look out for herself. See the problem?
James
As a retired “revolutionary” — founding member, Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist), Class of 1977 — I have to agree with Joey that what we have here is a less obvious corporatist state, or as Billie Holliday put it, one of, by and for “them that’s got shall get.”
If The Man felt Barack Obama truly posed a threat, it’s unlikely he would have made it to 2009 while retaining a pulse, unless The Man has decided to reduce social tensions by letting a half-black Democrat with a funny name take a four-year beating so it can replace him with one of its more traditional tools next time around.
Regardless, the question remains, as Lenin once posed it, “What is to be done?” The Communist program never quite worked for me, or even for some of our leaders — Mike Klonsky, former chairman of the CP (M-L), is now more educator than agitator. And The Man’s big ol’ boots, the left being the Democrats and the right the Republicans, just keep stamping out any little grass-roots movements that show any serious signs of blossoming into a populist vineyard specializing in the grapes of wrath.
Dropping out is difficult. If you work for money, it’s likely you will pay taxes (or at least loan the government money through withholding), and those of us who surrender our hard-earned money to The Man support financially the very actions we oppose intellectually.
Once again: What is to be done? Deny Caesar his due and you go to the stripey hole. Become an expatriate and you face a variety of other challenges, financial, linguistic and cultural. Take up arms and, well … the grasshopper challenging the lawnmower comes to mind.
Like Joey, I’m just rambling here. Anyone else have something to contribute?
“Anyone else have something to contribute?” Patrick, that’s like waving a red flag in front of a bull. As you’ve pointed out, we’ve got a system for dealing with this. Its flawed, its prone to error, and its like My ’93 Saturn, in need of constant tinkering. But it’s all we’ve got and it’s better than the alternative. Remember the Churchill line, “Democracy is the worst form of governance, except for all the others.” Those great whopping corporations that are looking for the bailouts? Of course they are, its their job. Ask any MBA what the purpose of any business is. You’ll always get back the same answer, “To make money for the owner”. What we’re seeing is that management of GM is looking for anything to do that, and of course you can’t make money if you’re out of business. Now, because of the economy, in addition to making money through selling cars, they can make money by using the threat of the implosion of an entire industry to extort loans from us through our elected representatives. Do I like it? Hell no. As my Saturn crests 140k I am regretting more and more that I didn’t buy a Civic. Damn company’s been mismanaged at the very top for decades, and they’ve survived by buying the competition and closing it down. When at last they got some competition that they couldn’t buy, they couldn’t respond and here we are. So now you’re Joe Representative from Ohio, and GM says they need a loan to keep 20 percent of your constituents employed. What are you going to do?
Now you’re you and I. We see this going on and ask why we have to foot the bill. Do we? Remember the Chrysler bailout with Lee Iacocacola? We made good money on that deal. Remember Clinton’s bailout of Mexico? We cleaned up. GM? I don’t know, but I do know its not a gift, its a loan.
Of course that’s just GM. There are plenty of venal bastards that have gotten us into this mess. What do we do about it? Well, I’m probably the wrong person to ask, but down the road, we need to not let companies get big enough to cause these problems when they fail. Or if they get big enough, we need to monitor them within an inch of their lives. Think of your local power utility. They get a monopoly in exchange for having to get permission to wipe their ass. Let’s do that. Conservatives will tell you that regulation like that is bad and they’ve got plenty of examples, but think of the alternative. Shit like we’re in now.
Yow what a rant. Thanks for reading.
Hard to improve on what’s been said above, Patrick. Its a dismal mess, and not too many ways to parachute out.
My fear is that we are watching a slow-mo disintegration that will go beyond– far beyond– the R word and into the D word. Come back in five years and we will see where we are. Twilight Zone, anyone?
James, I wasn’t suggesting this whole business is a capitalist problem. In fact, I was suggesting that if the capitalists stuck to capitalism, I wouldn’t be counted among the millions who are footing the bill for postponing their failure – because they would be allowed to fail. Not saying there wouldn’t be problems with a purely capitalistic system, of course – there are problems with everything – but if we talked and walked the same line, regardless of the line in question, it would sure make things a lot more simple. It’s the hypocrisy that really pisses me off.
O’G, gotta say I concur with your analysis of the Obama presidency, or rather, the reasons he was able to succeed in the first place. As far as what to do – well, there is no easy way. The most idealistic and effective method I have found, something I want to try in the near-ish future, is to follow in the footsteps of Jim Merkel, a former military engineer and arms trader who for the past 20 years has lived below the taxable income level, thus contributing nothing to a system he personally knew and wanted nothing to do with. It is obvious that this path will not work for the vast majority of folks, but if you have the requisite idealism, a life situation (think relationships) that permits radical change, and a whole lotta gumption, it may just be possible. Talk about grassroots. If a large portion of the population actually did “drop out and tune in”, shit might actually happen.
Of course, I don’t believe this will happen. Ever. And I’m not naive enough to believe that me and mine alone doing this will make an iota of difference. And, of course, I haven’t actually DONE it yet, so I can’t really talk too much.
Sheesh.
All living things gladly accept the most amount of stuff for the least amount of effort. In a nation where there’s a hell of a lot of stuff, that’s not a good thing. Gluttony kills.
From the end of the Carter administration until the end of Bush Jr., we deregulated virtually everything. For those whose internal compass reads “more is better, and most is best,” this has truly been heaven on Earth.
We’re going to spend the next couple of decades reregulating and re-distributing the wealth–just as we did after the Great Depression.
To me, there’s no question we’re in an economic depression. Now what? Turn off television, save 10-20% of every pre-tax dime, diversify, keep your eyes open for the next job and keep the resume up-to-date. If you’ve never lived on a budget, now’s a really really good time to start. If you’ve got crap around the house you can sell–sell it. You don’t need the crap, but you could probably use the money. Do regular maintenance on the stuff you decide to keep–car, house, marriage, etc.
Both the market and the economy will get much worse before either gets better, but they will get better eventually. The market is a leading economic indicator. That means the market will begin to go back up before the economy begins to go back up. Look to the market for clues as to where the economy will be 9-12 months later. FYI, the market has been in a freefall since October of 2007. The major market indices have lost over 50% in that time.
Frugality is the new chic. Bling is dead (thank God). Good luck and be careful.
Jeff, good ideas. Dial it down. We’re down to one credit card, which is used for groceries, gasoline and other household expenses and gets paid off monthly. The major bills are one car payment (mine), one mortgage (ours) and the usual insurance extortion schemes.
We could let my car go, which would reduce the insurance vig’ and save us a $350 monthly payment, but I like having a roof on my shit, so we’d like to keep the house, tainted basement and all. Plus we dig the neighbors. Sell a bike a month and we’ve got the mortgage covered for a year.
But where do you save the pre-tax income with the banks turning into black holes? Credit union? Savings and loan? Mattress? That last probably isn’t such a hot idea — a friend who recently had his house burgled said the thieves even tossed the mattresses, looking for cash and guns. Didn’t find either, just $18K worth of salable electronics and other lifestyle goodies.
Kudos to Jeff and Jon, amen brothers!
Now for those willing to throw in the towel to the people in DC, I offer a challenge: since you seem to have an answer to everything, how much are you charging the homeless to sleep in your garage? Or is it free?
Just curious….
Patrick,
Dialing it way back is the key. We’ve had such easy credit for so long, most of us have no idea how to live without it. Did you know the average savings rate for American households briefly went negative last year? On average, every American household was spending a little more than it took in. As of now, the savings rate has gone positive again (at about 5%). I think that’s a good thing.
FYI, I am a financial advisor to public/government employees and non-profits. It’s a very emotionally satisfying gig. However, I grew up in the big wirehouses as an operations manager–Morgan Stanley, Prudential (Wachovia). Those guys were truly insane. “Doing the right thing for the client” was about 53rd on their top 20 list of priorities. I couldn’t sleep at night with some of the things that I saw and heard from management.
As for where to put the savings, I like my grandfather’s advice. He was a teenager/young adult during the Depression, so his idea of diversification was to use several different banks and institutions. That’s a great idea right now. Don’t put it all in the same place. This makes keeping up with the money a little challenging, but it’s not too hard to keep track. Just figure out what kind of coverage works for what kind of money (banks–FDIC; investments–SIPC; insurance–state insurance boards), and don’t give any one institution more than what is covered.
I think there is serious room for extra-curricular movements seeking recompense for afflictions endured because of the bushniks. They stole our pensions and shit, after all. The crimes affect a lot of people, diverse people. What is lacking is any coherent movement to channel these genuine grievances. The same is true for the health care crisis. Nobody is even trying to mobilize the majority of Americans who are afflicted by health issues for themselves, their children, or their parents. There is a lot of room for what sociologists call issue entrepreneurs to mobilize and wield substantial clout. It has happened here with movements for farmers and the elderly.