Do They Really Think We're That Stupid?

During the eight years that Dubya was in office the Republicans had free reign and he rubber-stamped everything they sent to him. They cut taxes on businesses and the highest paid tax payers. They cut regulations and controls on businesses.

And what happened? Businesses used the tax breaks to open new plants and offices overseas where they spend their money on workers who will not spend that money in America or pay taxes on the income. So now we don't have the jobs or the tax revenue we had before.

Wall Street and the banks used the lack of regulatory oversight to hand out loans to people who could not afford to pay them back, setting up the largest financial failure since the Great Depression.

The highest paid Americans took the tax breaks and invested it instead of starting new businesses or hiring new workers for the existing businesses, like the Republicans told us they would.

Since the Democrats took office the Republicans have fought EVERY attempt that has been made to improve things. They have "Just Said No" to everything, not even offering alternative ideas in most cases. How much better off might we be if they had entered into discussions instead of just turning their back son the American people?

And now, with an election looming just around the corner the Republicans are once again saying we should reduce regulations, cut taxes on the highest paid Americans. Do they really think we are that stupid? ARE WE?????

Please people, don't fall for this. They are trying to benefit from the problems we are having when they are the ones that created them and they have done nothing to help fix the problems they created.

Wake Up America

Contrary to what some TV evangelists preach, America is not the "chosen land". We are not blessed to have milk and honey flow from the tap whenever we want. We have become a nation of spoiled kids who think that everything we want is owed to us and we whine and cry if it is not given immediately.

My parents were, maybe, the last full generation to know that if you want a house, a car, a vacation, or even a new pair of shoes, you had to work and save and when you had the money you could make the purchase. When I graduated from high school the bank would not set up a checking account for me unless I had a job and a savings account with enough in it to cover bad checks. When my kids graduated from high school they could get a credit card with a $10,000 credit limit with no job and no collateral. Is it any wonder we are a nation with a huge deficit? We are a nation of debtors.

But those days are fast disappearing. And although it's going to be a bitter pill to swallow, I believe it's a good thing. Average salaries are going to get smaller. The housing market will not recover for a long time and more people are going to have to rent or share housing. Credit will be tighter and people will be forced to save for large purchases. Does this mean that our standard of living will go down? Sure. But who ever said we were entitled to a higher standard? A person's standard of living will be tied to their willingness to work to raise it. And they may have to accept work that is not as high paying and prestigious as they would like. So be it. As I said before, who ever said we are entitled to high pay?

Climbing down from my soapbox
David

All The World's a Stage

"All the world's a stage" is the phrase that begins a monologue from William Shakespeare's As You Like It, spoken by the melancholy Jaques. The speech compares the world to a stage and life to a play. But it speaks specifically to the seven stages of a man’s life and my thoughts encompass all men and women.

All of us are born into a play, not of our writing. We are surrounded by actors; mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, family, all playing the roles they have come to accept. We all start life as improvisational players in an ongoing play and spend our life building our character, slowly learning and accepting our role in the great play that is our lives.

We revise our roles as we grow older, as we interact with new players; friends, teachers, bosses, using improvisation to make our part fit the larger stage. But the important thing is that everyone knows their part. If everyone knows how the other players will play their roles then the play is comfortable, the play can go on with little effort. Everyone plays their part. Small changes to the script can cause disruption, but everyone can revise their parts to adapt. Some actors even play different roles for different scenes, keeping each part alive separately from the other.

The problems come when an actor deviates widely from the norm. When one or more actors change their role drastically; they become very sick, or they break laws, drop out of school, divorce their spouse, or even die, the other actors must drastically adjust their roles to adapt. And when the change is unannounced and it surprises the other actors it can lead to the death of the play.

It is up to the individual players to react to changes, to decide how they will change their part to adapt. They can blindly follow the lead of others, including some who consider themselves as directors, or they can play their part the way they themselves see fit. The choice is clear, continue the role you are comfortable with or take on a whole new role.