Revolution of Sanity in America: America: A Tale of Two Cities

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

America: A Tale of Two Cities

President Obama and the Progressives have stated that their number one goal for the remainder of Obama's term is to address the issue of wage disparity and income inequality. The presence of income inequality during the last three decades is indisputable and is not being challenged by anyone. Those on the far right, including Rand Paul and Eric Cantor, acknowledge that income inequality exists.

The real problem for our country is that those on the far right do not view this as a bad thing. However, they do view government measures designed to intercede, mediate, and reverse this, as a bad thing. When the government "spies" on people to thwart terrorism, protect intellectual property, or prosecute fraud and theft, it is evil. When Google does it, it is good business.

The far right ostensively is focused on deficit spending. However, they are not against deficit spending per say, when it benefits their constituency or serves their ends. They oppose deficit spending only when it is aimed at interceding, mediating and reversing income inequality. If it enriches the top 2%, which it has done for decades, it is a necessary evil. If it allows a minimum wage worker to feed his family, it is an unholy abomination.

Obama and the Progressives are pushing for a minimum wage hike. If accomplished, this will be a temporary fix. Initially it will provide a stimulus to the economy and provide benefits to the working poor and middle class. Inflation will follow. For a small minority of this sector, for the prudent, student loans and mortgages will be paid with "cheaper" dollars. For the majority of this segment of America it will be even harder then it is now. The cost of rents, food, and healthcare for the 99% will rise accordingly. And America will be one step closer to a Third World country.

As I have stated over and over again, the solution lies in a very progressive tax code and Keynesian economics. The presidencies of Teddy Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, and Dwight Eisenhower attest to this truth. God save the middle class. Certainly the Tea Party won't. As a man in the "winter" of his life, I am able to manager a wry smile.

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Coming of Age

As a teenager during the late sixties and early seventies, with the Counterculture and multitude of movements for social change and vocal opposition to the war in Viet Nam, I developed an affinity for politics. I grew up in Orange County, California; my grandparents were part of the silent majority. I fondly remember the Snickers bars with Barry Goldwater stickers pasted on them that were passed out by our neighbors during Halloween. The prevailing sentiment was that Democrats or Liberals, as they were often referred to, wanted to tax the hard working folks and spend it recklessly on social programs for the lazy, undeserving citizenry. Republicans wanted to keep the world safe for democracy and preserve justice and the American way. It was that simple.

My interest in politics took me to an eastern university. I discovered the logical flaws in the political philosophy of Karl Marx. Marx presupposed that human nature could be altered within the constructs of a political system; that man maturated in such a system and left to his own devices would act in the interests of the society, the greater good, and "ignore" his complex, self-centered, instinctual nature.

I found solace in Peter Drucker who affirmed that America is "The Last Best Hope." He explained that democracy is a compromise between groups of men within the society and that man exercises his self-interests through the groups he supports or associates with. No group dominates and no group has all of its interests sated within the constructs of the political system; a balance of power on all levels, in society as well as government. It was a little more complex.

But what happens if one group gets all the power and its interests are detrimental to all the other groups? The current Republican administration bears little resemblance to the one I knew as a boy. The Bush Administration is marked by huge tax cuts and obscene deficit spending for the benefit of the rich, no social programs here. Even Pat Robertson acknowledges that America went to war for oil and not democracy. Bush's arrogance in misleading the American people is especially appalling. The hard working folks of today and tomorrow are going to see huge tax increases coupled with further cuts in social programs. And the American way, a fixture of the Republican ethos, may be a thing of the past. It is frightening.

For democracy to work, the citizenry must be educated and informed. Briefly I worked as a substitute teacher at the high school level. Whether they agreed or disagreed, only two of my students had a cursory understanding of the elements in this letter.

And, that is outrageous.

FROM POOR RICHARD'S ALMANAC

1734

Would you live with ease,
Do what you ought, and not what you please.

Principiis obsta.
[Latin: Resist the first advances]

Better slip with foot than tongue.

You cannot pluck roses without fear of thorns,
Nor enjoy a fair wife without danger of horns.

Without justice, courage is weak.

Where carcasses are, eagles will gather,
And where good laws are, much people flock thither.

Blame-all and Praise-all are two blockheads.

No man e’er was glorious, who was not laborious.

What pains our Justice takes his faults to hide,
With half that pains sure he might cure ’em quite.

In success be moderate.

Take this remark from Richard poor and lame,
Whatever’s begun in anger ends in shame.

What one relishes, nourishes.

Fools multiply folly.

1735

Look before, or you’ll find yourself behind.

Bad Commentators spoil the best of books,
So God sends meat (they say) the devil Cooks.

Approve not of him who commends all you say.

By diligence and patience, the mouse bit in two the cable.

Full of courtesie, full of craft.

A little House well filled, a little Field well tilled, and a little Wife well willed, are great Riches.

Some are weatherwise, some are otherwise.

*** Dyrro lynn y ddoeth e fydd ddoethach. [Welsh: Who gives drink to the wise, he is wiser.

The poor man must walk to get meat for his stomach, the rich man to get a stomach to his meat.

Necessity never made a good bargain.

Weighty Questions ask for deliberate Answers.

Be slow in chusing a Friend, slower in changing.

Pain wastes the Body, Pleasures the Understanding.

The cunning man steals a horse, the wise man lets him alone.

Humility makes great men twice honourable.

A Ship under sail and a big-bellied Woman,
Are the handsomest two things that can be seen common.

Keep thy shop, & thy shop will keep thee.

The King’s cheese is half wasted in parings: But no matter, ’tis made of the peoples milk.

What’s given shines,
What’s received is rusty.

Sloth and Silence are a Fool’s Virtues.

Poverty wants some things, Luxury many things, Avarice all things.

A Lie stands on 1 leg, Truth on 2.

There’s small Revenge in Words, but Words may be greatly revenged.

A man is never so ridiculous by those Qualities that are his own as by those that he affects to have.

Deny Self for Self’s sake.

It is better to take many Injuries than to give one.

Opportunity is the great Bawd.

Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy wealthy and wise.

To be humble to Superiors is Duty, to Equals Courtesy, to Inferiors Nobleness.

An old young man, will be a young old man.

The Sun never repents of the good he does, nor does he ever demand a recompence.

Are you angry that others disappoint you? remember you cannot depend upon yourself.

One Mend-fault is worth two Findfaults, but one Findfault is better than two Makefaults.

1736

If you know how to spend less than you get, you have the Philosophers-Stone.

Diligence is the Mother of Good-Luck.

He that lives upon Hope, dies farting.

Do not do that which you would not have known.

Wealth is not his that has it, but his that enjoys it.

Tis easy to see, hard to foresee.

Admiration is the Daughter of Ignorance.

He that buys by the penny, maintains not only himself, but other people.

He that can have Patience, can have what he will.

The absent are never without fault, nor the present without excuse.